What the left says sounds very good but, in practice, it works out very badly.

Meaning of the quote

The quote suggests that ideas from the political left may seem appealing at first, but when they are actually put into practice, they often lead to negative outcomes. The writer is saying that even though the left's proposals may sound nice, they don't always work well in the real world.

About David Horowitz

David Horowitz is an American conservative writer and activist who went through an ideological transformation from the New Left to neoconservatism. He founded several organizations, including the David Horowitz Freedom Center and Students for Academic Freedom, and has written extensively on cultural criticism and prominent American families.

More about the author

More quotes from David Horowitz

For thirty years, beginning with the invention of a privacy right in the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, the Left has been waging a systematic assault on the constitutional foundation of the nation.

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Conservatives, please. Let’s not duplicate the manias of the Left as we figure out how to deal with Mr. Obama. He is not exactly the anti-Christ, although a disturbing number of people on the Right are convinced he is.

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The issue here isn’t whether every student is brainwashed, it’s whether it is appropriate.

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Israel is the canary in the mine. What happens to Israel will eventually happen to America itself.

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Instead of educating students, these professors are trying to indoctrinate them.

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Politics is about winning. If you don’t win, you don’t get to put your principles into practice. Therefore, find a way to win, or sit the battle out.

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I have also been attacked by my opponents as someone seeking to purge university faculties of leftist professors. This is false. The first provision of the Academic Bill of Rights is that no professor should be hired or fired because of his or her political views. I have never myself called for the firing of any professor for his or her political views, nor would I.

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As a result of America’s efforts to realize the ideals of equality and freedom, blacks in America are now the freest and richest black people anywhere on the face of the earth including all of the nations that are ruled by blacks.

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If we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday at a time of presidential inaugurals, this is thanks to Ronald Reagan who created the holiday, and not to the Democratic Congress of the Carter years, which rejected it.

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You could mention my name in any hallway in any academic institution and you would have people foaming at the mouth.

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There can be no peace with someone who wants to kill you.

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In practice, socialism didn’t work. But socialism could never have worked because it is based on false premises about human psychology and society, and gross ignorance of human economy.

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Neoconservative activist, writer

A university is not a political party, and an education is not an indoctrination.

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Neoconservative activist, writer

A key to the mentality of the left is that it judges itself by its best intentions, and judges its opponents – America chief among them – by their worst deeds.

David Horowitz

Neoconservative activist, writer

When schools produce students who learned to think on the left or on the right, they’re not thinking for themselves.

David Horowitz

Neoconservative activist, writer

We can trust our doctors to be professional, to minister equally to their patients without regard to their political or religious beliefs. But we can no longer trust our professors to do the same.

David Horowitz

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What the left says sounds very good but, in practice, it works out very badly.

David Horowitz

Neoconservative activist, writer