Reform Quotes - Page 22

• He had fallen into the error of all liberals: the belief that men are prepared to reform themselves, that good will attracts good will, that truth has leavening virtue of its own.

  Morris West

  Men, Errors, Belief

  Morris West (1977). “The devil's advocate ; The second victory ; Daughter of silence ; The salamander ; The shoes of the fisherman”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• ...it happens that society is saved as often as the circle of its ruling class is narrowed, as often as a more exclusive interest asserts itself over the general. Every demand for the most simple bourgeois financial reform, for the most ordinary liberalism, for the most commonplace republicanism, for the flattest democracy is forthwith punished as an assault upon society and is branded as Socialism.

  Karl Marx

  Simple, Class, Circles

  Karl Marx (2008). “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte”, p.9, Cosimo, Inc.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• As soon as the people fix one Shame of the World, another turns up.

  E. W. Howe

  People, World, Shame

  6 Copy quote

• If anything ail a man, so that he does not perform his functions, if he have a pain in his bowels even,- for that is the seat of sympathy,-he forthwith sets about reforming the world.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Pain, Men, Doe

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.55, Xist Publishing

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is one of the ironies of history that reformers so often misjudge the consequences of their reforms.

  John W. Gardner

  Irony, Reformers, Consequence

  Dr. John W. Gardner (2015). “Excellence: Can We Be Equal And Excellent Too?”, p.13, Pickle Partners Publishing

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Those who are fond of setting things to rights, have no great objection to seeing them wrong.

  William Hazlitt

  Rights, Settings, Objections

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.148

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• You've tried to reform what will not learn. Shut doors on traits that you wish were dead; They will open a window and return.

  Jean de La Fontaine

  Doors, Wish, Return

  Jean de La Fontaine (1964). “The fables of La Fontaine”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• All the evil in the world is the fault of the self-styled pure in heart, a result of their eagerness to unearth secrets and expose them to the light of the sun.

  Jean Giraudoux

  Heart, Light, Self

  Jean Giraudoux (1964). “Collected Plays of Jean Giradoux”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Democratic Party is not the party of reform.

  Richard Lamm

  Party, Democratic, Democratic Party

  4 Copy quote

• I am a correctionist. If something is wrong in society, it must be fixed. At least one should try to fix it.

  Gore Vidal

  Trying, Should, Fixed

  4 Copy quote

• I am explicitly not opening the giant can of worms that is the ongoing current discussion of patent, copyright, and trademark reform.

  James Fallows

  Patents, Giants, Ongoing

  16 Copy quote

• Each reform, therefore, improving the economical and political situation of the workers proves to be an arm that increases the energy with which the proletarian struggle of classes is fought.

  Clara Zetkin

  Struggle, Class, Political

  10 Copy quote

• Religion can reform a person’s life, but it can never transform him. Only the Holy Spirit can transform!

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Spirit, Holy, Persons

  54 Copy quote

• Lord, reform Thy world, beginning with me.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  World, Lord

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1941). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1941, Volume 10”, p.561, Best Books on

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• To err and not reform, this may indeed be called error.

  Confucius

  Errors, May

  9 Copy quote

• Many-have too rashly charged the troops of error, and remain as trophies unto the enemies of truth.

  Thomas Browne

  Errors, Enemy, Troops

  'Religio Medici' (1643) pt. 1, sect. 6

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Self-reform is the only kind that works.

  Mason Cooley

  Self, Literature, Kind

  4 Copy quote

• The idealist's program of political or economic reform may be impracticable, absurd, demonstrably ridiculous; but it can never be successfully opposed merely by pointing out that this is the case. A negative opposition cannot be wholly effectual: there must be a competing idealism; something must be offered that is not only less objectionable but more desirable.

  Charles Horton Cooley

  Political, Negative, May

  Charles Horton Cooley (1909). “Two Major Works: Social Organization. Human Nature and the Social Order”, Glencoe, Ill., Free P

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The reformer is careless of numbers, disregards popularity, and deals only with ideas, conscience, and common sense. He feels, with Copernicus, that as God waited long for an interpreter, so he can wait for his followers.

  Wendell Phillips

  Ideas, Numbers, Long

  4 Copy quote

• I'm largely in favor of financial reform.

  Fareed Zakaria

  Favors, Financial

  "Case against Goldman is 'very weak'". CNN Interview, www.cnn.com. April 22, 2010.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Health reform is an essential part of restoring America's economy and maintaining our competitiveness.

  Max Baucus

  America, Essentials, Maintaining

  4 Copy quote

• Tax reform is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

  Max Baucus

  Opportunity, Generations, Taxes

  4 Copy quote

• I agree with just about everyone in the reform debate when they say "If you like what you have, you should be able to keep it." But the truth is that none of the health reform bills making their way through Congress actually delivers on that promise.

  Ron Wyden

  Promise, Bills, Able

  "The Choice Should Be Yours" by Sen. Ron Wyden, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 16, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Not a single reform effort in Russia has ever been completed.

  Boris Yeltsin

  Russia, Effort

  Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, Catherine A. Fitzpatrick (1994). “Записки президента”, Crown

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Go to the ant, thou sluggard, learn to live, and by her busy ways, reform thy own.

  Elizabeth Smart

  Laziness, Way, Ants

  4 Copy quote