Reform Quotes - Page 29

• The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nation's development. A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Attitude, Views, Order

  "Freedom from Fear". Book by Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991.

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• I cannot... perceive any ground for hoping that any practical good would, while the funding system exists in its present extent, result from the adoption of any of those projects, which have professed to have in view what is called Parliamentary Reform... when the funding system, from whatever cause, shall cease to operate upon civil and political liberty, there will be no need of projects for parliamentary reform. The parliament will, as far as shall be necessary, then reform itself.

  William Cobbett

  Views, Adoption, Political

  Political Register, March 15, 1806.

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• There iz no alternativ. Every possible reezon that could ever be offered for altering the spelling of wurds, stil exists in full force; and if a gradual reform should not be made in our language, it wil proov that we are less under the influence of reezon than our ancestors.

  Noah Webster

  Language, Influence, Made

  Noah Webster (1977). “A collection of essays and fugitiv writings 1790”, Scholars Facsimilies & Reprint

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• I start from the supposition that the world is topsyturvy, that things are all wrong, that the wrong people are in jail and the wrong people are out of jail, that the wrong people are in power and the wrong people are out of power, that the wealth is distributed in this country and the world in such a way as not simply to require small reform but to require a drastic reallocation of wealth. I start from the supposition that we don't have to say too much about this because all we have to do is think about the state of the world today and realize that things are all upside down.

  Howard Zinn

  Country, Thinking, Jail

  Howard Zinn (1997). “The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy”, p.404, Seven Stories Press

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• Reformed rabbis are generally political in nature. It's almost like Islam, radicalized Islam in a way, to where it is just - radicalized Islam is less about religion than it is about politics. When you look at the Reform Judaism, it is more about politics.

  Glenn Beck

  Political, Islam, Looks

  "Glenn Beck Smears 35 Percent Of American Jews" by Jeremy Schulman, www.mediamatters.org. February 22, 2011.

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• Everybody has the right to speak up in a democracy. We would be in trouble as a society if there wasn't a constant pressure to make reforms and to be just. Sometimes as prime minister, when i was caught up in a really loud demonstration, I used to say to myself that I deserved it because of all the demonstrations I myself had organized as a student against Duplessis.

  Jean Chretien

  Democracy, Would Be, Pressure

  "My Years As Prime Minister". Book by Jean Chrétien, 2007.

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• Serious research and development efforts are required to produce technologies, strategies, organizations, and trained personnel who can go into failed states, work with our allies and friends, and promote the political and economic reforms that will meet popular needs and reduce the sources of terrorism and conflict.

  Wesley Clark

  Technology, Research And Development, Organization

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• [The right] may never bring prayer back to schools, but it has rescued all manner of rightwing economic nostrums from history's dustbins. Having rolled back the landmark economic reforms of the sixties (the war on poverty) and those of the thirties (labor law, agricultural price supports, banking regulation), its leaders now turn their guns on the accomplishments of the earliest years of progressivism (Woodrow Wilson's estate tax; Theodore Roosevelt's anti-trust measures). With a little more effort, the backlash may well repeal the entire twentieth century.

  Thomas Frank

  Prayer, War, School

  "What's the Matter with Kansas?". Book by Thomas Frank, 2004.

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• They, the conservatives, are the real outsides, they tell us, gazing with disgust upon the ludicrous manners of the high and mighty. Or, they tell us, they are rough-and-ready proles, laughing along with us at the efforts of our social "betters" to reform and improve us. That they are often, in fact, people of privilege doing their utmost to boost the fortunes of a political party that is the traditional tool of the privileged is a contradiction that does not trouble them.

  Thomas Frank

  Real, Party, Laughing

  "What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America". Book by Thomas Frank, June1, 2004.

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• In every community there are little knots of fantastic extremists who loudly proclaim that they are striving for righteousness, and who, in reality, do their feeble best for unrighteousness. Just as the upright politician should hold in peculiar scorn the man who makes the name of politician a reproach and a shame, so the genuine reformer should realize that the cause he champions is especially jeopardized by the mock reformer who does what he can to make reform a laughingstock among decent men.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Reality, Men, Names

  Theodore Roosevelt (2012). “The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses”, p.22, Courier Corporation

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• Among the wise and high-minded people who in self-respecting and genuine fashion strive earnestly for peace, there are the foolish fanatics always to be found in such a movement and always discrediting it the men who form the lunatic fringe in all reform movements.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Wise, Fashion, Men

  Theodore Roosevelt (1899). “The Rough Riders: An Autobiography”, p.461, Library of America

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• I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in, or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president.

  John McCain

  Running, Ambition, Political

  John McCain, Mark Salter (2002). “Worth the Fighting For: A Memoir”, p.353, Random House

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• As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it - along the lines that President Bush proposed.

  John McCain

  Believe, President, Lines

  "John McCain Thinks Social Security Is A 'Disgrace'" by Nick Baumann, www.motherjones.com. July 8, 2008.

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• The strength of the claims of formal justice, of obedience to system, clearly depend upon the substantive justice of institutions and the possibilities of their reform.

  John Rawls

  Justice, Obedience, Possibility

  John RAWLS (2009). “A Theory of Justice”, p.59, Harvard University Press

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• The function of criticism should not be confused with the function of reform.

  Roger Zelazny

  Confused, Criticism, Should

  Roger Zelazny (1983). “Unicorn Variations”, Pocket Books

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• Perhaps one reason that many working parents do not agitate for collective reform, such as more governmental or corporate child care, is that the parents fear, deep down, that to share responsibility for child rearing is to abdicate it.

  Faye J Crosby

  Children, Responsibility, Working Parents

  Faye J. Crosby (1993). “Juggling: the unexpected advantages of balancing career and home for women and their families”, Touchstone

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• What were once felt to be defects-isolation, institutional simplicity, primitiveness of manners, multiplicity of religions, weaknesses in the authority of the state-could now be seen as virtues, not only by Americans themselves but by enlightened spokesmen of reform, renewal and hope wherever they may be-in London coffeehouses, in Parisian salons, in the courts of German princes.

  Bernard Bailyn

  Simplicity, Weakness, May

  Bernard Bailyn (1992). “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution”, p.160, Harvard University Press

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• The education that you give to the upper classes will not uproot idolatry and prejudice, for it is amongst the masses that the error and prejudice will always maintain their power, and while you do not uproot those prejudices from the hearts of the masses, a handful of educated Hindus will never be able successfully to reform the country.

  Keshub Chandra Sen

  Country, Heart, Errors

  Speech delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington Butts, London, May 24, 1870.

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• The thing to understand is that if you are going to reform society you don't start with cops. And if you are going to reform intellect you don't start with psychiatrists. If you don't like our present social system or intellectual system the best thing you can do with either cops or psychiatrists is stay out of their way. You leave them 'till last.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Intellectual, Growth, Way

  Robert M. Pirsig (1991). “LILA An Inquriry into Morals”

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• If there were two candidates, a Democrat and a Republican, who each committed to the same kind of fundamental reform, then the election would be an election between the vice presidential candidates. It'd be just like the regular election, except it would be one step down.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Two, Presidential, Vices

  "Lawrence Lessig Has a 'Moonshot' Plan to Halt Our Slide Toward Plutocracy". Interview with Joshua Holland, billmoyers.com. April 25, 2014.

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• Where countries have been able to carry through on their reform commitments - as in Korea, Thailand and the Philippines - results are starting to come in the form of lower interest rates, new investment and increased growth.

  Lawrence Summers

  Country, Commitment, Korea

  "Clinton's Capitulation on China". The Washington Post, April 12, 1999.

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• We won't win until the average parent believes drug reform protects kids better than the war on drugs.

  Ethan Nadelmann

  War, Believe, Kids

  "Reformer Profile: Ethan Nadelmann" by Steve Beitler, stopthedrugwar.org. August 10, 2001.

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• Village reform is not merely cleaning the roads, constructing schools and worshipping monasteries. It is not mere celebration of festivals.

  Periyar E. V. Ramasamy

  School, Village, Festivals

  Collected works of Periyar E.V.R., p. 513, 2005.

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• I deem we have still much to do and will of course strive for stabilizing the situation in the country and continuing reforms. I am confident in success. All we need at this point is public order.

  Serzh Sargsyan

  Country, Order, Needs

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• While he was in Utah, Obama discussed immigration reform with leaders of the Mormon Church. Obama introduced the first lady. Then the church's president introduced HIS first lady. And his second lady. And his third, fourth, and fifth ladies.

  Jimmy Fallon

  Utah, Leader, Church

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