RADICAL—one who goes too far.
CONSERVATIVE—one who does not go far enough.
REACTIONARY—one who does not go at all.
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Speech to Kansas Society of New York (23 January 1911) — Wilson's definition of different groups, PWW 22:389.(Thomas) Woodrow Wilson
» (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson - all quotes »
Things are set up as contraries that are not even in the same category. Listen to me: the opposite of radical is superficial, the opposite of liberal is stingy; the opposite of conservative is destructive. Thus I will describe myself as a radical conservative liberal; but certain of the tainted red fish will swear that there can be no such fish as that. Beware of those who use words to mean their opposites. At the same time have pity on them, for usually this trick is their only stock in trade.
R. A. Lafferty
What a Chamberlain government would have done had there been no war in 1939 will never be known, but an election was due in 1940, and the manifesto proposals outlined by the Conservative Research Department embraced family allowances and the inclusion of insured persons' dependants in health cover—about half the advances usually attributed to Beveridge. As Lady Cecily Debenham wrote to Chamberlain's widow, Anne, after his death: "Neville was a Radical to the end of his days. It makes my blood boil when I see his ‘Tory’ and ‘Reactionary’ outlook taken as a matter of course because the Whirligig of Politics made him leader of the Tory party."
Neville Chamberlain
The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.
Hannah Arendt
The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.
Samuel Langhorne (Mark Twain) Clemens
The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.
Mark Twain
Wilson, (Thomas) Woodrow
Wilson, A. N.
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