4 Quotes & Sayings By James Burnham

James Burnham was born in Russia. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in economics. He was an expert witness for the U.S. Government during the war, was a corporate executive for IBM, and he wrote extensively about business strategy for Fortune magazine Read more

He published his first book The Managerial Revolution in 1961, which became an international bestseller. His bestseller Machts Macht Gewinnt (The Machiavellian Presidency) was published in 1976 and became one of the most influential works of political analysis since Machiavelli's The Prince. He died on January 11, 1992.

For more information on James Burnham, see his obituary in the New York Times (January 12, 1992).

1
Just as we seldom realize that we are growing old until we are already old, so do the contemporary actors in a major social change seldom realize that society is changing until the change has already come. James Burnham
2
There is no one force, no group, and no class that is the preserver of liberty. Liberty is preserved by those who are against the existing chief power. Oppositions which do not express genuine social forces are as trivial, in relation to entrenched power, as the old court jesters. James Burnham
3
Liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide. When once this initial and final sentence is understood, everything about liberalism - the beliefs, emotions and values associated with it, the nature of its enchantment, its practical record, its future - falls into place. James Burnham