Character is not the enemy of self-expression and personal freedom, it is their necessary precondition.
James Q. WilsonFour innate sentiments dispose people to a universal moral sense. These are sympathy, fairness, self-control and duty.
James Q. WilsonIt's no surprise that academics in this country have been generally suspicious of business or that in a time like this, when general public confidence in the corporation has fallen, the expressions of hostility grow sharper.
James Q. WilsonBoys are more likely to develop a masculine personality and acquire strong moral standards when they have a loving and nurturant rather than a threatening or fear-inspiring father.
James Q. WilsonThe view that we know less than we thought we knew about how to change the human condition came, in time, to be called neoconservatism. Many ... , myself included, disliked the term because we did not think we were conservative, neo or paleo. (I voted for John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey and worked in the latter's presidential campaign.) It would have been better if we had been called policy skeptics; that is, people who thought it was hard, though not impossible, to make useful and important changes in public policy.
James Q. Wilson