My father was a man of principle who found his principles confirmed in the unremitting failure which they brought on him. Roger Scruton Read Quote
But the European Union does not have a concept of national identity. It was set up to abolish that idea, not to abolish German national identity because that was trying to save itself. Roger Scruton Read Quote
The language of politics is spoken in the first-person plural, and for Conservatives, the duty of the politician is to maintain that first-person plural in being. Roger Scruton Read Quote
I’ve always taken the view that works of art are not just things that we enjoy. They can convey truths about the world more vividly and to greater effect than ordinary philosophical prose can because they don’t just deal in ideas but show the emotional reality of them. Roger Scruton Read Quote
I do ask myself why I make people so enraged, because I only ever say what I think. And while I know it might not be everyone’s point of view, that doesn’t seem particularly intolerable to me. Roger Scruton Read Quote
Conservatives reveal themselves through their care for ordinary human things, and their recognition of the fragility of decency and the need to protect it. Roger Scruton Read Quote
If you’re going to have a free economy, one in which the ordinary citizen can dispose of his own income, you’re going to have people who dispose of it in an anti-social way. Roger Scruton Read Quote
Faking is a social activity in which people act together to draw a veil over unwanted realities and encourage each other in the exercise of their illusory powers. Roger Scruton Read Quote
Whether it is a garden gnome, the sound of Bing Crosby launching into ‘White Christmas’, the blinking innocent eyes of Bambi or the words of Patience Strong, the kitsch phenomenon is there as strong and recognisable as your mother’s face. You seldom if ever have the question, whether this is kitsch or not. If you think it might be, then it is. Roger Scruton Read Quote
