What the word conservative means is not putting things back but conserving them. There are things that are threatened and you love them, so you want to keep them.

I've always taken the view that works of art are not just things that we enjoy. They can convey truths about the world more vividly and to greater effect than ordinary philosophical prose can because they don't just deal in ideas but show the emotional reality of them.

I've never been an optimist, but that's fine because pessimists have the possibility of being agreeably surprised.

Roger Scruton Quotes