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Every reform was once a private opinion.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Essays
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, Signs of the Times
Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, which will itself need reforming.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, Biographia Literaria
We must reform society before we can reform ourselves.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, preface to Misalliance
Most reformers, like a pair of trousers on a windy clothesline, go through a vast deal of vehement motion, but stay in the same place.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY, Keystones of Thought
Many of the great reforms of society do not come from the upper levels, but from the upheavals of the lower strata.
Whatever statesman or sage will effect reforms upon a gigantic or godlike scale must begin with the young.
We talk much of reform, meaning thereby a change of mud in our mud-bath.
ABRAHAM MILLER, Unmoral Maxims
Reform is a good, replete with paradox; it is a cathartic which our political quacks, like our medical, recommend to others, but will not take themselves; it is admired by all who cannot effect it, and abused by all who can; it is thought pregnant with danger, for all time that is present, but would have been extremely profitable for that which is past, and will be highly salutary for that which is to come; therefore it has been thought expedient for all administrations which have been, or that will be, but by any particular one which is, it is considered, like Scotch grapes, to be very seldom ripe, and by the time it is so, to be quite out of season.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON, Lacon
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