Every abuse ought to be reformed, unless the reform is more dangerous than the abuse itself.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
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
Men must be capable of imagining and executing and insisting on social change if they are to reform or even maintain civilization, and capable too of furnishing the rebellion which is sometimes necessary if society is not to perish of immobility.
—Rebecca West (1892–1983) English Author, Journalist, Literary Critic
Long is the way and hard, that out of hell leads up to light.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Of all follies there is none greater than wanting to make the world a better place.
—Moliere (1622–73) French Playwright
It is easier to enrich ourselves with a thousand virtues, than to correct ourselves of a single fault.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
The amelioration of the world cannot be achieved by sacrifices in moments of crisis; it depends on the efforts made and constantly repeated during the humdrum, uninspiring periods, which separate one crisis from another, and of which normal lives mainly consist.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
There is a boldness, a spirit of daring, in religious reformers, not to be measured by the general rules which control men’s purposes and actions.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
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 enter the arctic circle, and become fixed in relentless and eternal ice.
—John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) American Republican Public Official, Lawyer
The majority of people have not the courage to correct others because they don’t have the courage to bear correction themselves.
—Unknown
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
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
Necessity reforms the poor, and satiety the rich.
—Tacitus (56–117) Roman Orator, Historian
Some who will not speak against another, in the end does them harm.
—Common Proverb
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
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
Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
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
Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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
He that has energy enough in his constitution to root out a vice should go a little farther, and try to plant a virtue in its place, otherwise he will have his labor to renew; a strong soil that has produced weeds, may be made to produce wheat with far less difficulty than it would cost to make it produce nothing.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
No one is to blame. It is neither their fault nor ours. It is the misfortune of being born when a whole world is dying.
—Alexander Herzen (1812–70) Russian Revolutionary, Writer
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
I believe that what so saddens the reformer is not his sympathy with his fellows in distress, but, though he be the holiest son of God, is his private ail. Let this be righted, let the spring come to him, the morning rise over his couch, and he will forsake his generous companions without apology.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
If you would civilize a man, begin with his grandmother.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
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 Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
A reformer is one who sets forth cheerfully toward sure defeat.
—Lydia Maria Child (1802–80) American Abolitionist, Writer
Rebuke should have a grain more of salt than of sugar.
—Common Proverb
Each year one vicious habit rooted out, in time might make the worst man good throughout.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Rebuke with soft words and hard arguments.
—Common Proverb
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 Biologist, Geneticist
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 (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American Civil Rights Leader
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
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
To free a person from error is to give, and not to take away.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
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
The true reformer will not only hate evil, but will earnestly endeavor to fill its place with good.
—Charles Simmons (1924–2017) American Editor, Novelist
You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side.
—William Ewart Gladstone (1809–98) English Liberal Statesman, Prime Minister
Many hope the tree may be felled that they may gather chips by the fall.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
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
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
By continually scolding someone, they in time become accustomed to it and despise your reproof.
—French Proverb
When error is confuted, vice reproved, and hypocrisy exposed, some are sure to complain of uncourteousness, uncharitableness, and an unchristian spirit. Such men would have been loud in their complaints, and bitter in their censure, of the prophets and apostles, and would have doubted the personal piety, and ultimate salvation, of Luther, and Knox, and Whitefield.
—Anonymous
How important, often, is the pain of guilt, as a stimulant to amendment and reformation.
—John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) American Republican Public Official, Lawyer
The heart of every man lies open to the shafts of correction if the archer can take proper aim.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
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
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
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 (b.1924) American Investor, Philanthropist