Reformers Quotes

• All reformers, however strict their social conscience, live in houses just as big as they can pay for.

  Logan Pearsall Smith

  Hypocrite, Hypocrisy, House

  'Afterthoughts' (1931) 'Other People'

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• 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?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Lying, Men, Justice

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• [Reformers] might be classified as a distinct species having eyes in the back of their heads.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Eye, Reform, Might

  Ellen Glasgow (1900). “The Descendant”

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• The fewer the words, the better the prayer.

  Martin Luther

  Softball, Christian, Prayer

  Martin Luther (1959). “What Luther says: an anthology”

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• As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of a woman comes from defect in the active power.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Sex, Powerful, Perfect

  St Thomas Aquinas (2013). “Summa Theologica, Volume 1”, p.466, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Scholars are those who have read in books, but thinkers, men of genius, world-enlighteners, and reformers of the human race are those who have read directly in the book of the world.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Book, Men, Race

  Arthur Schopenhauer, E. F. J. Payne (1974). “Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays”, p.492, Oxford University Press

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• PANDEMONIUM, n. Literally, the Place of All the Demons. Most of them have escaped into politics and finance, and the place is now used as a lecture hall by the Audible Reformer.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Politics, Lectures, Finance

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2476, Delphi Classics

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• I own I never really warmed
  To the reformer or reformed.
  And yet conversion has its place
  Not halfway down the scale of grace.

  Robert Frost

  Grace, Reform, Scales

  Robert Frost (1971). “The poetry of Robert Frost”

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• It is the reformer who is anxious for the reform, and not society, from which he should expect nothing better than opposition, abhorrence and even mortal persecution.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Fear, Atheism, Reform

  Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi, Homer A. Jack (2005). “The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi”, p.81, Courier Corporation

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• I have no question that Newt Gingrich has the heart of a conservative reformer, the ability to rally and captivate the conservative movement.

  Rick Perry

  Heart, Movement, Conservative

  "Perry drops out, endorses Gingrich" by Peter Hamby, www.cnn.com. January 19, 2012.

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• The Reformer is always right about what's wrong. However, he's often wrong about what is right.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

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• This history of culture will explain to us the motives, the conditions of life, and the thought of the writer or reformer.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Culture, Motive, Conditions

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• This is an inevitable and easily recognizable stage in every revolutionary movement: reformers must expect to be disowned by those who are only too happy to enjoy what has been won for them.

  Doris Lessing

  Movement, Revolutionary, Stage

  Doris Lessing (2012). “The Golden Notebook”, p.8, HarperCollins UK

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• We are reformers in the spring and summer, but in autumn we stand by the old. Reformers in the morning, and conservers at night.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Summer, Morning, Spring

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• As a reformer the liberal is dissatisfied with things as they are because they violate his exceptionally tender conscience.... Liberalism does not advocate change for its own sake, but for the sake of something better in the direction of what he regards as good, namely, the maximum of liberty consistent with a regard for all men and all interests -- the general happiness based on peace and justice.

  Ralph Barton Perry

  Men, Justice, Liberty

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• The reformers' preferred metaphor is "leveling the playing field." They should listen to the logic of their language: fields are leveled by bulldozers.

  George Will

  Fields, Logic, Language

  George F. Will (2003). “With a Happy Eye, But...: America and the World, 1997--2002”, p.282, Simon and Schuster

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• The true gardener then brushes over the ground with slow and gentle hand, to liberate a space for breath round some favorites; but he is not thinking about destruction except incidentally. It is only the amateur like myself who becomes obsessed and rejoices with a sadistic pleasure in weeds that are big and bad enough to pull, and at last, almost forgetting the flowers altogether, turns into a Reformer.

  Freya Stark

  Weed, Flower, Thinking

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• A reformer should be exempt from the suspicion of interest, and he must possess the confidence and esteem of those whom he proposes to reclaim.

  Edward Gibbon

  Should, Suspicion, Interest

  Edward Gibbon (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)”, p.2148, Delphi Classics

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• For the political leader the religious doctrines and institutions of his people must always remain inviolable; or else has no right to be in politics, but should become a reformer, if he has what it takes!

  Adolf Hitler

  Religious, People, Leader

  Adolf Hitler (1998). “Mein Kampf”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• To them belong, not only the truly great statesmen, but all other great reformers as well. Beside Frederick the Great stands Martin Luther as well as Richard Wagner.

  Adolf Hitler

  Religious, Mein Kampf, Luther

  Adolf Hitler (1998). “Mein Kampf”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• It is the first care of a reformer to prevent any future reformation.

  Edward Gibbon

  Firsts, Care, Reformation

  Edward Gibbon (1860). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.351

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• Hinduism threw away Buddhism after taking its sap. The attempt of all the Southern Acharyas was to effect a reconciliation between the two. Shankaracharya's teaching shows the influence of Buddhism. His disciples perverted his teaching and carried it to such an extreme point that some of the later reformers were right in calling the Acharya's followers "crypto-buddhists".

  Swami Vivekananda

  Buddhist, Teaching, Buddhism

  Swami Vivekananda (1951). “Complete Works”

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• Dr. Arnold . . . the admired reformer of public schools, came across some cranks who thought it a mistake to flog boys. Anyone reading his outburst of furious indignation against this opinion will be forced to the conclusion that he enjoyed inflicting floggings.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mistake, Reading, School

  Bertrand Russell (1996). “Unpopular Essays”, p.161, Psychology Press

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• Reformers who are obsessed with purity and cannot see that their obsession is impure.

  E. M. Forster

  Obsession, Purity, Obsessed

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• For A to sit down and think, What shall I do? is commonplace; but to think what B ought to do is interesting, romantic, moral, self-flattering, and public-spirited all at once. It satisfies a great number of human weaknesses at once. To go on and plan what a whole class of people ought to do is to feel one's self a power on earth, to win a public position, to clothe one's self in dignity. Hence we have an unlimited supply of reformers, philanthropists, humanitarians, and would-be managers-in-general of society.

  William Graham Sumner

  Thinking, Winning, Class

  William Graham Sumner (1903). “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, p.97, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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