Quotes by George F. Will

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

It is hard to remain iconoclastic when standing waist-deep in the shards of smashed icons.

George F. Will

Get evangelical Christian made them receptive to the possibility of redemption in the here and now.

George F. Will

Civilization depends on, and civility often requires, the willingness to say, "What you are doing is none of my business" and "What I am doing is none of your business.

George F. Will

Matthew Arnold was a fastidious social critic and hence an accomplished complainer. When he died, an acquaintance said: "Poor Matt, he's going to Heaven, no doubt – but he won't like God.

George F. Will

Institutions are lengthening shadows of strong individuals.

George F. Will

Gifted teachers master the patience required for the unending business of transmitting civilization down the generations, transforming biological facts – children – into social artifacts called citizens. It is wearying work and it is a wonder tea...

George F. Will

Author complains about "the further submergence of irrecoverable history into a perpetually churned present.

George F. Will

Nothing is so irretrievably lost to a society as the sense of fear it felt about a grave danger that was subsequently coped with.

George F. Will

Government could avoid having opinions about so many things if it would quit subsidizing so many things.

George F. Will

The columnist gives these words to the longings of an 11-year-old he meets with Tourette's syndrome: "Wisdom is encoded in our common language. We all have, to some extent, a complex, sometimes adversarial, relationship with our physical selves. And ...

George F. Will

National Review's premise was that conformity was especially egregious among the intellectuals, that herd of independent minds.

George F. Will

Because of demagogues, rhetoric has a tainted reputation in our time. However, rhetoric is central to democratic governance. It can fuse passion and persuasion, moving free people to freely choose what is noble.

George F. Will

Good actors, including political actors, do not deal in unrealities. Rather, they create realities that matter – perceptions, aspirations, allegiances.

George F. Will

In this snug, over-safe corner of the world… we may realize that our comfortable routine is no eternal necessity of things, but merely a little space of calm in the midst of the tempestuous, untamed and streaming world.

George F. Will

The most capricious modern entitlement is not just Social Security but to self-esteem.

George F. Will

if we could tax Americans' cognitive dissonance we could balance the budget. The American people want all kinds of incompatible things, they're human beings, and they want high services, low taxes, and an omnipresent, omniprominent welfare state.

George F. Will

Football combines two of the worst things in American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings.

George F. Will