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'

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  5 Copy quote

• The fewer the words, the better the prayer.

  Martin Luther

  Softball, Christian, Prayer

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

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• [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”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  10 Copy quote

• 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

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• As long as the opposition believes the world will stand with Ukraine's democrat reformers, they will have the leverage and the courage to establish a legitimate republic under the leadership of Viktor Yushchenko.

  Bob Schaffer

  Courage, Believe, Ukraine

  "Go Orange!". National Review Interview, www.nationalreview.com. November 30, 2004.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The best reformers the world has ever seen are those who commence on themselves.

  George Bernard Shaw

  World

  "The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations". Book by Evan Esar, p. 178, 1949.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Unable to maintain their government-granted monopoly, the powerful railroad
  interests turned to government to do the regulating and price-fixing which they
  were unable to do themselves. In fact, the pressure that induced Congress to
  enact the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 did not come from reformers bemoaning
  abuses by the powerful railroad interests; it came from the railroad interests
  themselves, asking Congress to shield them against the harsh winds of
  competition.

  Dan Smoot

  Powerful, Government, Wind

  Dan Smoot (1973). “The BUSINESS END of Government”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Should [reformers] attempt more than the established habits of the people are ripe for, they may lose all and retard indefinitely the ultimate object of their aim.

  Thomas Jefferson

  People, May, Revolution

  4 Copy quote

• We love the old saints, missionaries, martyrs, and reformers. Our Luthers, Bunyans, Wesleys and Asburys, etc... We will write their biographies, reverence their memories, frame their epitaphs, and build their monuments. We will do anything except imitate them. We cherish the last drop of their blood, but watch carefully over the first drop of our own.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Memories, Writing, Blood

  9 Copy quote

• X, n. In our alphabet being a needless letter has an added invincibility to the attacks of the spelling reformers, and like them, will doubtless last as long as the language.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Long, Letters, Lasts

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Devil's Dictionary”, p.137, Courier Corporation

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is often said by reformers that government should be conducted upon business principles.

  John Buchanan Robinson

  Government, Principles, Should

  4 Copy quote

• Anyone who would attempt the task of felling a virgin forest with a penknife would probably feel the same paralysis of despair that the reformer feels when confronted with existing school systems.

  Ellen Key

  Education, School, Despair

  Ellen Key (2016). “The century of the child”, p.99, Ellen Key

  9 Copy quote

  Show source