REFORM QUOTES

quotations about reform

Reform quote

Success of reform is directly related to regime legitimacy.

ALI FARAZMAND

Administrative Reform in Developing Nations


The majority rules in this country, and if the majority wants good government it can always secure it through the fearless exercise of suffrage. But all change is not reform, and all investigation is not correction.

EDWIN LAWRENCE GODKIN

The Triumph of Reform


To begin a reform, go not into the places of the great and rich; go rather to those whose cups of happiness are empty--to the poor and humble.

LEW WALLACE

Ben-Hur

Tags: Lew Wallace


Revolutionists make a reform, Conservatives only conserve the reform. They never reform the reform, which is often very much wanted.

G. K. CHESTERTON

What's Wrong with the World

Tags: G. K. Chesterton


Many of the great reforms of society do not come from the upper levels, but from the upheavals of the lower strata.

LEWIS F. KORNS

Thoughts

Tags: Lewis F. Korns


The besom of reform hath swept him out of office, and a worthier successor wears his dignity and pockets his emoluments.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

The Scarlet Letter

Tags: Nathaniel Hawthorne


It is time to effect a revolution in female manners -- time to restore to them their lost dignity -- and make them, as a part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world. It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners.

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY

A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Tags: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley


You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage.

TERRY PRATCHETT

Witches Abroad


How dangerous to defer those momentous reformations, which the conscience is solemnly preaching to the heart; if they are neglected, the difficulty and indisposition are increasing every month; the mind is receding, degree after degree, from the warm and hopeful zone, till at last it will enter the arctic circle, and become fixed in relentless and eternal ice.

J. FOSTER

attributed, Day's Collacon


Reforms will come as all great reforms have always come in ridding us of evils against both man and animal--not as we change our moral principles but as we discern and accept the implications of principles already held.

MATTHEW SCULLY

Dominion


Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, which will itself need reforming.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Biographia Literaria

Tags: Samuel Taylor Coleridge


When the mechanic has to mend a watch he lets the wheels run out; but the living watchworks of the state have to be repaired while they act, and a wheel has to be exchanged for another during its revolutions.

FRIEDRICH SCHILLER

On the Aesthetic Education of Man

Tags: Friedrich Schiller


In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."

G. K. CHESTERTON

The Thing: Why I am a Catholic

Tags: G. K. Chesterton


Mere reformation differs as much from regeneration, as whitewashing an old rotten house differs from taking it down and building a new one.

A. M. TOPLADY

attributed, Day's Collacon


Fanatical reformers do great harm to a cause; over-zeal is worse to a cause than downright opposition; the work of reform must advance without hot-bed aid.

HELENE MARIA WEBER

attributed, Day's Collacon


If public opinion is educated concerning a given reform--political, social, industrial, or moral--and if the popular conscience is sufficiently awake to enforce an enlightened public opinion, the reform is accomplished straightway. This then is the generic reform--the education of public opinion and of popular conscience.

JOSIAH STRONG

The Twentieth Century City


To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

THOMAS CARLYLE

Signs of the Times

Tags: Thomas Carlyle


Reform, to be useful and durable, must be gradual and cautious.

HORACE SMITH

attributed, Day's Collacon


All zeal for a reform, that gives offence
To peace and charity, is mere pretense.

WILLIAM COWPER

Charity

Tags: William Cowper


Reform lets in light through the dark curtain of ignorance and superstition.

H. S. JACOBS

attributed, Day's Collacon