A second marked characteristic of the Liberal in debate with the conservative is the tacit premise that debates ridiculous.... Many people shrink from arguments over facts because facts are tedious, because they require a formal familiarity with the subject under discussion, and because they can be ideologically dislocation. Many Liberals accept their opinions, ideas, and evaluations as others accept revealed truths.

— William F. Buckley Jr.

[D]democracy can itself be as tyrannical as a dictatorship, since it is the extent, not the source, of government power that impinges on freedom."-William F. Buckley

— William F. Buckley Jr.

Decent people should ignore politics, if only they could be confident that politics would ignore them

— William F. Buckley Jr.

For people who like that sort of thing, that's the sort of thing they like.

— William F. Buckley Jr.

Human progress is achieved by taking exact measurements.

— William F. Buckley Jr.

I believe that the duel between Christianity and atheism is the most important in the world. I further believe that the struggle between individualism and collectivism is the same struggle reproduced on another level.

— William F. Buckley Jr.

I do not, in short, myself believe it is in the least bit undignified to confess to having been critically influenced in one's thinking by a teacher, or a faculty, or a book; but the accent these days is so strong on atomistic intellectual independence that to suggest such a thing is, as I have noted, highly inflammatory.

— William F. Buckley Jr.

I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.

— William F. Buckley Jr.

I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Manhattan phone book than the entire faculty of Harvard.

— William F. Buckley Jr.

Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.

— William F. Buckley Jr.