John Maynard Keynes Quotes

Conservatism cherishes tradition; innovation fetishizes novelty. They tug in different directions, the one toward the past, the other toward the future.

I'm not a reactionary.

Those who try to obliterate the past are injuring the present.

There are certain moments when we might wish the future were built by men of the past.

Conservatism is rooted in preservation; progressivism advances alteration. These are different love languages. These languages turn on your view of change itself: When you think of America, do you see a country struggling to be maintained or one striving to be made better?

At the beginning of the nineteenth century we abandoned tradition, it's at that point that I intend to renew it because the present is built on the past just as the past was built on the times that went before it.

One who uses an ancient rule to govern the present does not necessarily see the changes that have taken place.

Inertia is as powerful a force in society and politics as it is on physics, and effecting change can be demanding and discouraging.

Falsehoods which we spurn to-day Were the truths of long ago.

By definition, conservatives struggle with change.

A reactionary is fixed on the past and wanting to return to it; a conservative wishes to adapt what is best in the past to the changing circumstances of the present.

Conservatism is only as good as what it conserves.

Conservatism is the maintenance of conventions already in force.

Customs and convictions change; respectable people are the last to know, or to admit, the change, and the ones most offended by fresh reflections of the facts in the mirror of art.

Personally, I am stuck with one foot in the past and one foot in the present.

An author who sets about to depict events of the past that have run their course is suspected of wishing to avoid the problems of the present day, of being, in other words, a reactionary.

The past is an old armchair in the attic, the present an ominous ticking sound, and the future is anybody's guess.

If we learn the art of yielding what must be yielded to the changing present, we can save the best of the past.

An expert is someone who knows a lot about the past.

The past can be used to renew the present, not just to bury it.

One of the things that goes with getting older is that one becomes more conservative - and I emphasise that when I use the word conservative I do not mean politically.

The conservative revival cannot be dismissed.

True conservatives fear anything that is at odds with the status quo, even to the extent of being unable to recognise when the status quo represents injustice. And reactionary conservatives actually want to tear down the gains of the past.

We must delve deep into history the better to engage a true dialogue of civilisations. Fear of the present can impose upon the past its own biased vision.

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.