(1269 quotes found)
“The idealist's program of political or economic reform may be impracticable, absurd, demonstrably ridiculous; but it can never be successfully opposed merely by pointing out that this is the case. A negative opposition cannot be wholly effectual: there must be a competing idealism; something must be offered that is not only less objectionable but more desirable.”
Charles Horton Cooley
“Reform is China's second revolution.”
Deng Xiaoping
“X 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. X is the sacred symbol of ten dollars, and in such words as Xmas, Xn, etc., stands for Christ, not, as is popular supposed, because it represents a cross, but because the corresponding letter in the Greek alphabet is the initial of his name --_Xristos_. If it represented a cross it would stand for St. Andrew, who "testified" upon one of that shape. In the algebra of psychology x stands for Woman's mind. Words beginning with X are Grecian and will not be defined in this standard English dictionary.”
Ambrose Bierce
“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.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Tax reform is taking the taxes off things that have been taxed in the past and putting taxes on things that haven't been taxed before.”
Art Buchwald
“The best reformers the world has ever seen are those who commence on themselves”
George Bernard Shaw
“Every time I reform in one direction I go overboard in another.”
Mark Twain
“A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.”
John Stuart Mill
“The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.”
Alexis de Tocqueville
“Land reforms alone were responsible for an estimated 12,5% average annual decline in GDP growth. Rainfall played a minimal role in the GDP contraction.”
Craig Richardson
