Joseph Sobran
21 quotes
Biography
Michael Joseph Sobran Jr., also known as M. J.
"Sociology is among other things the study of distinctive forms of group behavior. It can say in Latin things we’re forbidden by the taboos to say in plain English. A 'bigot' is a guy who gets caught practicing sociology without a license."
"Now and then I'm asked whether the Clintons ever make me miss George Bush. Miss George Bush? Sometimes I miss George III. Our democracy, we are told, is the fruit of struggles in which the progressive side always (fortunately) conquered the forces of reaction, from the American Revolution to the feminist movement. But what if our history has gone awry? What if the progressive story line falsifies everything? We may need to retrace our steps and deal frankly with sensitive topics. You might not think there would be sensitive topics in an age when seven-year-olds talk about condoms. Oh, brother!"
"I much preferred a literary, contemplative conservatism to the activist sort that was preoccupied with immediate political issues. During the Reagan years, which I expected to find exciting, I found myself bored to death by supply-side economics, enterprise zones, "privatizing" welfare programs, and similar principle-dodging gimmickry."
"The purpose of a college education is to give you the correct view of minorities, and the means to live as far away from them as possible."
"Politicians never accuse you of 'greed' for wanting other people's money—only for wanting to keep your own money."
"In one century we went from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to offering remedial English in college."
"I find myself surrounded by teenagers with body-piercing and exposed navels, gabbing on cell phones and listening to hip-hop. Maybe I'm missing something here. But I just don't feel the least bit threatened by immigrants.""
"If the welfare state is here to welcome them, the solution is to get rid of it, as should have been done long ago. Overpopulation is a problem for socialist systems, not for free societies. In fact, the welfare system may be more destructive [to] the immigrants' families than to the natives.""
"After tens of millions of [abortion] 'procedures,' has America lost anything? Another Edison, perhaps? A Gershwin? A Babe Ruth? A Duke Ellington?...As it is, we will never know what abortion has cost us all."
"Freedom is coming to mean little more than the right to ask permission."
"Most Americans aren't the sort of citizens the Founding Fathers expected; they are contented serfs. Far from being active critics of government, they assume that its might makes it right."
"The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire."
"War nearly always serves as an occasion for serious expansions of state power and the destruction of legal protections."
"War is just one more big government program."
"By today’s standards King George III was a very mild tyrant indeed. He taxed his American colonists at a rate of only pennies per annum. His actual impact on their personal lives was trivial. He had arbitrary power over them in law and in principle but in fact it was seldom exercised. If you compare his rule with that of today’s U.S. Government you have to wonder why we celebrate our independence.."
"If you want government to intervene domestically, you’re a liberal. If you want government to intervene overseas, you’re a conservative. If you want government to intervene everywhere, you’re a moderate. If you don’t want government to intervene anywhere, you’re an extremist."
"At the end of a century that has seenthe evils of communism, Nazism and other modern tyrannies,the impulse to centralize power remains amazingly persistent."
"When your child is a little older, you can teach him about our tax system in a way that is easy to grasp. Offer him, say, $10 to mow the lawn. When he has mowed it and asks to be paid, withhold $5 and explain that this is income tax. Give $1 to his younger brother, and tell him that this is "fair". Also, explain that you need the other $4 yourself to cover the administrative costs of dividing the money. When he cries, tell him he is being "selfish" and "greedy". Later in life he will thank you."
"Need' now means wanting someone else's money. 'Greed' means wanting to keep your own. 'Compassion' is when a politician arranges the transfer."
"The measure of the state's success is that the word anarchy frightens people, while the word state does not."
"The real triumph of the state occurs when its subjects refer to it as “we,” like football fans talking about the home team."