Quotes
Quotes about Reform
Every reform was once a private opinion, and when it shall be a private opinion again, it will solve the problem of the age.
Every reformation must have its victims. You can't expect the fatted calf to share the enthusiasm of the angels over the prodigal's return.
Every abuse ought to be reformed, unless the reform is more dangerous than the abuse itself.
Reform must come from within, not from without. You cannot legislate for virtue.
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.
A reformer is a man who rides through a sewer in a glass-bottomed boat.
The race could save one-half its wasted labor Would each reform himself and spare his neighbor.
The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself.
To reform a man, you must begin with his grandmother.
What is a man born for but to be a reformer, a remaker of what has been made, a denouncer of lies, a restorer of truth and good?
REPENTANCE, n. The faithful attendant and follower of Punishment. It is usually manifest in a degree of reformation that is not inconsistent with continuity of sin.
Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found.
Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found.
The outward freedom that we shall attain will only be in exact proportion to the inward freedom to which we may have grown at a given moment. And if this is a correct view of freedom, our chief energy must be concentrated on achieving reform from within. -Gandhi.
A man that would expect to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic; but a man that thinks men can be turned into angels by an election is a reformer and remains at large.
I think I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.
We must think of human progress, not as of something going on in the race in general, but as something going on in a small minority, perpetually beleaguered in a few walled towns. Now and then the horde of barbarians outside breaks through, and we have an armed effort to halt the process. That is, we have a Reformation, a French Revolution, a war for democracy, a Great Awakening. The minority is decimated and driven to cover. But a few survive- and a few are enough to carry on.
It is easier to show the disorder that must accompany reform than the order that should follow it.
Every reformation must have its victims. You can't expect the fatted calf to share the enthusiasm of the angels over the prodigal's return.
The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.
This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of Washington. We are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the mightiest name on earth--long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty; still mightiest in moral reformation. On that name an eulogy is expected. It can not be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the name and in its naked, deathless splendor leave it shining on.
You do not reform a world by ignoring it.
