“I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant, that stupid persons are generally Conservative. I believe that to be so obvious and undeniable a fact that I hardly think any hon. Gentleman will question it.”

The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.

Over one’s mind and over one’s body the individual is sovereign.

To refuse a hearing to an opinion, because they are sure that it is false, is to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty. All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.

Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.

As often as a study is cultivated by narrow minds, they will draw from it narrow conclusions.

In the long-run, the best proof of a good character is good actions.

With equality of experience and of general faculties, a woman usually sees much more than a man of what is immediately before her.

The fatal tendency of mankind to leave off thinking about a thing when it is no longer doubtful is the cause of half their errors.

The moral influence of woman over man is almost always salutary.

To understand one woman is not necessarily to understand any other woman.

Liberty consists in doing what one desires.

To bring a child into existence without a fair prospect of being able, not only to provide food for its body, but instruction and training for its mind is a moral crime, both against the unfortunate offspring and against society.

Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom.

Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain.

Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.

The love of power and the love of liberty are in eternal antagonism.

I want to see popular free-market Conservatism where barriers are broken down, people have got more opportunities but keep more of their own money.

I do not know which makes a man more conservative – to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past.

Conservatism has always been about reforming government and solving problems, and that’s why the conservative movement should lead on immigration reform.

Conservatism is not about leaving people behind. Conservatism is about empowering people to catch up, to give them the tools at their disposable that make it possible for them to access all the hope, all the promise, all the opportunity that America offers. And our programs to help them should reflect that.

I live a pretty conservative life, so I probably really haven’t done anything crazy.

In its worse forms, conservatism is a matter of ‘I hate strangers and anything that’s different.’

We have a Conservative leader that believes in green taxes, that won’t bring back grammar schools, that believes in continuing with total open-door migration from eastern Europe and refuses to give us a referendum on the EU.

Under my leadership the Conservative Party will come back together in the interests of the whole country.