Every reform was once a private opinion, and when it shall be a private opinion again, it will solve the problem of the age.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Some who will not speak against another, in the end does them harm.
—Common Proverb
The majority of people have not the courage to correct others because they don’t have the courage to bear correction themselves.
—Unknown
If there are people who feel that God wants them to change the structures of society, that is something between them and their God. We must serve him in whatever way we are called. I am called to help the individual; to love each poor person. Not to deal with institutions. I am in no position to judge.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
By continually scolding someone, they in time become accustomed to it and despise your reproof.
—French Proverb
Find fault when you must find fault in private, and if possible sometime after the offense, rather than at the time.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
When a child can be brought to tears, and not from fear of punishment, but from repentance he needs no chastisement. When the tears begin to flow from the grief of their conduct you can be sure there is an angel nestling in their heart.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
I’m not entitled to have an opinion unless I can state the arguments against my position better than the people who are in opposition. I think that I am qualified to speak only when I’ve reached that state.
—Charlie Munger (1924–2023) American Investor, Philanthropist
Every abuse ought to be reformed, unless the reform is more dangerous than the abuse itself.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
He who reforms himself, has done more toward reforming the public, that a crowd of noisy, impotent patriots.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Charles Fox said that restorations were the most bloody of all revolutions; and he might have added that reformations are the best mode of preventing the necessity of either.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Necessity reforms the poor, and satiety the rich.
—Tacitus (56–117) Roman Orator, Historian
With children use force with men reason; such is the natural order of things. The wise man requires no law.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
If you would civilize a man, begin with his grandmother.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Rebuke should have a grain more of salt than of sugar.
—Common Proverb
To free a person from error is to give, and not to take away.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
People who love soft methods and hate iniquity forget this,—that reform consists in taking a bone from a dog. Philosophy will not do it.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Literary Critic, Essayist
You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else, you have to fill all the papers more than anybody else, in fact you have to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under, if you are really going to get your reform realized.
—Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) British Suffragette Leader
We are reformers in spring and summer, in autumn and winter we stand by the old; reformers in the morning, conservatives at night. Reform is affirmative, conservatism negative; conservatism goes for comfort, reform for truth.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Private reproof is the best grave for private faults.
—Common Proverb
Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Until politics are a branch of science we shall do well to regard political and social reforms as experiments rather than short-cuts to the millennium.
—J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964) British Scientist, Geneticist
A reformer is one who sets forth cheerfully toward sure defeat.
—Lydia Maria Child (1802–80) American Abolitionist, Writer
The social order destroyed by a revolution is almost always better than that which immediately preceded it, and experience shows that the most dangerous moment for a bad government is generally that in which it sets about reform.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
They say best men are moulded out of faults, and, for the most, become much more the better for being a little bad!
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, which will itself need reforming.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve!
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–59) English Historian, Essayist, Philanthropist
In England we have come to rely upon a comfortable time-lag of fifty years or a century intervening between the perception that something ought to be done and a serious attempt to do it.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
There is a transcendent power in example. We reform others unconsciously, when we walk uprightly.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
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