I have long been a fan of Ben Shapiro’s work. He’s an excellent debater, a terrific columnist, and great on the radio. It has been fantastic seeing his career take off in the last few years. As a little show of gratitude for all the excellent work he’s done, here are the 20 best Ben Shapiro quotes.
20. “There are times when people are not so cordial and not so nice. My obligation, in debate, is to destroy them in front of as many people as possible.”
19. “Life isn’t about feeling comfortable. Life is about bettering yourself.”
18. “Freedom of speech and thought matters, especially when it is speech and thought with which we disagree. The moment the majority decides to destroy people for engaging in thought it dislikes, thought crime becomes a reality.”
17. “This is what makes leftists leftists: an unearned sense of moral superiority over you. And if they can instill that sense of moral superiority in others by making you the bad guy, they will. People on the left are taught from childhood that they are better than conservatives – it makes them feel good to hate conservatives. And that hatred is justified because, after all, conservatives are bigots.”
16. “The substitution of authenticity for solid thinking is not even an argument — it’s an emotional appeal.”
15. “Conservatives have allowed liberals to win the culture war because we’re generally civil people. When the left says we’re uncivil, we tend to shy away from the fight rather than, as Andrew [Breitbart] put it, walking toward the fire.”
14. “Turning a blind eye to evil, however, doesn’t make it disappear. It allows it to grow. And those who allow evil to grow in order to protect their own convenience will be held accountable for the end results of the evil they facilitate.”
13. “The left is expert at imagistics. The right is not, because the right falsely believes that shallow imagistics can be beaten with substance. Which has worked out fabulously for every great actress who is 300 lbs. in Hollywood – all two of them who are working.”
12. “The left is expert at framing debates. They have buzzwords they use to direct the debate toward unwinnable positions for you. They are tolerant, diverse, fighters for social justice; if you oppose them, by contrast, you are intolerant, xenophobic, and in favor of injustice. Now, all these terms are – to be polite – a crock, if considered as absolute moral values. The left is wildly intolerant of religious people and conservatives; that’s why they’re interested in forcing Christian bakers to cater to same-sex weddings. They are anti-intellectual diversity, particularly in areas of American life in which they predominate; that’s why they stifle conservatism on campus and in the media.”
11. “When facts become secondary to emotion, truth dies. And a society that doesn’t value truth cannot survive.”
10. “Too many Americans believe that freedom is actually a burden.”
9. “Leisure time is only leisure time when it is earned; otherwise, leisure time devolves into soul-killing lassitude. There’s a reason so many new retirees, freed from the treadmill of work, promptly keel over on the golf course: Work fulfills us. It keeps us going.”
8. “If you sacrifice your principles for victory, you don’t end up with victory and you don’t end up with principles.”
7. “People say capitalism is selfishness. No, socialism is selfishness. The idea that I have to pay for you to paint water colors in your basement is a selfish philosophy.”
6. “Distrust of government isn’t baseless cynicism. It’s realism.”
5. “Limited government cannot exist in a country free of virtue.”
4. “You can’t hold political conversations with people that are calling you evil.”
3. “Tragedy does not confer expertise.”
2. “Capitalism is consensual sex, socialism is rape.”
1. “Facts don’t care about your feelings.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member