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Reformers Quotes

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Reformers Quotes

“Of all such reformers Mr. Sentiment is the most powerful. It is incredible the number of evil practices he has put down: it is to be feared he will soon lack subjects and that when he has made the working classes comfortable, and got bitter beer put into proper-sized pint bottles, there will be nothing further for him left to do. Mr. Sentiment is certainly a very powerful man, and perhaps not the less so that his good poor people are so very good; his hard rich people so very hard; and the genuinely honest so very honest. Namby-pamby in these days is not thrown away if it be introduced in the proper quarters. Divine peeresses are no longer interesting, though possessed of every virtue; but a pattern peasant or an immaculate manufacturing hero may talk as much twaddle as one of Mrs. Ratcliffe's heroines, and still be listened to. Perhaps, however, Mr. Sentiment's great attraction is in his second-rate characters. If his heroes and heroines walk upon stilts as heroes and heroines, I fear, ever must, their attendant satellites are as natural as though one met them in the street: they walk and talk like men and women, and live among our friends a rattling, lively life — yes, live, and will live till the names of their callings shall be forgotten in their own, and Buckett and Mrs. Gamp will be the only words left to us to signify detective police officer or a monthly nurse.”

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Book:The Warden
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“You know who you are - you are the heroes of Naskar - you are the knights of Naskar - you have no relation with segregation - you have no attachment to bigotry - you have no allegiance to any ideology - the only allegiance that you have is not to me, not to any scripture, not to any school of thought, but to the humankind and humankind alone. You are neither believers, nor nonbelievers, you are neither left, nor right, you are neither intellectual, nor ignorant, you are the whole human beings that the world so desperately needs - you are my order of new humans - humans beyond borders, humans beyond scriptures, humans beyond applause and mockery, beyond wealth and status, beyond anonymity and popularity.”

HumanismHumanitarianActivismService Of HumanityHumanistHumanitarianismServing PeopleReformerSocial ReformReformers
Book:Boldly Comes Justice: Sentient Not Silent
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“The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation, is ever more dangerous. Jesus had to work on the perilous confines of reason and religion; and a step to the right or left might place him within the grasp of the priests of the superstition, a bloodthirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore.”

MenWritingMeanHas BeensReasonMightJesusLeftNationsRaceStepsMankindDangerousSonOfficeIsraelConvincedLocalsPriestsSuperstitionsFoundingChurch And StateAbrahamSeparation Of Church And StateOur Founding FathersFounding Fathers ChristianJacobUs Founding FathersReformersFounding Fathers ReligionFounding Fathers ReligiousReligion GodIsaacFounding Fathers Anti ReligionChristianity From Founding FathersChristian FatherRemorseless
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“It’s unlikely to change – there’s nothing in King Salman’s past as governor of Riyadh for about forty years that suggests that he was particularly a reformer, not on the role of women, not on democratic development. There’s been a rumor in the last couple of days that he said to someone in an e-mail that he’s in favor of a constitutional monarchy, but I would be surprised if the level of repression started to go down … I think the kind of thing that we would view as significant reforms is unlikely.”

IfsThinkingYearsKindSaidWould BeLastsPastLevelsViewsRolesDevelopmentCoupleKingsDemocraticFavorsSignificantReformFortyMailGovernorsUnlikelyRumorMonarchyRepressionReformersConstitutional MonarchyRiyadh
Author:Elliott Abrams
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“Some reformers may urge that in the ages distant future, patriotism, like the habit of monogamous marriage, will become a needless and obsolete virtue; but just at present the man who loves other countries as much as he does his own is quite as noxious a member of society as the man who loves other women as much as he loves his wife. Love of country is an elemental virtue, like love of home.”

MenMayDoeCountryHomeAgeVirtueWifeHe ManHabitMembersPatriotismUrgesOther CountriesObsoleteLike LoveReformersElementalsWives Love
Book:American ideals and other essays, social and political
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“Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk and truth the root. CHARLES CALEB COLTON, Lacon; Or, Many Things in a Few Words Light, whether it be material or moral, is the best reformer; for it prevents those disorders which other remedies sometimes cure, but sometimes confirm.”

MaySometimesLightSoundMoralMaterialsRootsWitCuresMaturityDisorderRemedyTrunksFew WordsReformersAntithesisCaleb
Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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“This withdrawal of theology from the world of secular affairs is made more complete by the work of biblical scholars whose endlessly fascinating exercises have made it appear to the lay Christian that no one untrained in their methods can really understand anything the Bible says. We are in a situation analogous to one about which the great Reformers complained. The Bible has been taken out of the hands of the layperson; it has now become the professional property not of the priesthood but of the scholars.”

WorldHas BeensMadeHandsChristianSituationTakenExerciseMethodLaysPropertyAffairTheologyMade ItFascinatingScholarBiblicalSecularPriesthoodWithdrawalReformers
Author:Lesslie Newbigin
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“The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation is ever dangerous.”

ReligionNationsDangerousOfficeSuperstitionsFoundingChurch And StateSeparation Of Church And StateOur Founding FathersFounding Fathers ChristianUs Founding FathersReformersFounding Fathers ReligionSeparation Between Church And StateFounding Fathers ReligiousReligion GodFounding Fathers Anti ReligionChristianity From Founding FathersReligion ChristianChristian FatherChristian RightFaith Religion
Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin. Reports and opinions while Secretary of State
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“Thus those reformers, who look for a remedy by creating artificial carrying-costs for the money through the device of requiring legal-tender currency to be periodically stamped at a prescribed cost in order to retain its quality as money, or in analogous ways, have been on the right track; and the practical value of their proposals deserves consideration.”

WayLooksHas BeensValuesOrderQualityCostCreatingDeserveTrackPracticalsConsiderationDevicesArtificialRemedyCurrencyProposalReformersRight Track
Author:John Maynard Keynes
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“People try so hard to believe in leaders now, pitifully hard. But we no sooner get a popular reformer or politician or soldier or writer or philosopher -- a Roosevelt, a Tolstoi, a Wood, a Shaw, a Nietzsche, than the cross-currents of criticism wash him away. My Lord, no man can stand prominence these days. It's the surest path to obscurity. People get sick of hearing the same name over and over.”

PeopleMenTryingBelieveHardNamesLeadershipLeaderLordPathPoliticianCrossesCriticismSickSoldierPhilosopherCurrentsWoodsHearingThese DaysObscurityReformersHard To BelieveProminence
Book:The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works
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“So give me the political economist, the sanitary reformer, the engineer; and take your saints and virgins, relics and miracles. The spinning-jenny and the railroad, Cunard's liners and the electric telegraph, are to me, if not to you, signs that we are, on some points at least, in harmony with the universe; that there is a mighty spirit working among us, who cannot be your anarchic and destroying Devil, and therefore may be the Ordering and Creating God.”

IfsGivingMayPoliticalSpiritUniverseCreatingDevilMiracleGive MeHarmonySaintDestroyingEngineersElectricVirginsEconomistSpinningRailroadsReformersRelicsTelegraphJennySanitary
Book:The Works of Charles Kingsley: Yeast
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“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.”

MenDoeInterestJusticeLibertyConscienceRegardSakeLiberalismConsistentMaximumSomething BetterPeace And JusticeDissatisfiedReformers
Author:Ralph Barton Perry
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“In every community there are little knots of fantastic extremists who loudly proclaim that they are striving for righteousness, and who, in reality, do their feeble best for unrighteousness. Just as the upright politician should hold in peculiar scorn the man who makes the name of politician a reproach and a shame, so the genuine reformer should realize that the cause he champions is especially jeopardized by the mock reformer who does what he can to make reform a laughingstock among decent men.”

MenShouldLittlesDoeRealityNamesCausesRealizingCommunityHe ManPoliticianShameStriveGenuineReformFantasticChampionDecentRighteousnessPeculiarScornExtremismExtremistMockKnotsReproachReformersDecent ManUnrighteousness
Book:The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses
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“As a newborn baby breathes and cries, so the signs of life in a newborn Christian are faith and repentance, inhaling the love of God and exhaling an initial cry of distress. And at that point what God provides, exactly as for a newborn infant, is the comfort, protection, and nurturing promise of a mother. "If God is our father, the church is our mother." The words are those of the Swiss Reformer John Calvin ... it is as impossible, unnecessary, and undesirable to be a Christian all by yourself as it is to be a newborn baby all by yourself.”

IfsChristianMotherFatherChurchImpossibleCryBabyComfortPromiseProtectionBreatheGod LoveRepentanceUnnecessaryDistressInfantInitialsOur FatherNurturingNewbornReformersSwissUndesirableNewborn BabySigns Of LifeGod ProvidesExhaling
Author:N. T. Wright
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“The epoch of individuality is concluded, and it is the duty of reformers to initiate the epoch of association. Collective man is omnipotent upon the earth he treads.”

MenEarthDutyIndividualityCollectivesAssociationEpochInitiateReformersOmnipotent
Book:Life and Writings of Joseph Mazzini...: Autobiographical and political V.2,4,6, Critical and literary
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“The cure-alls of the present day are infinitely various and infinitely obliging. Applied psychology, autosuggestion, and royal roads to learning or to wealth are urged upon us by kindly, if not altogether disinterested, reformers. Simple and easy systems for the dissolution of discord and strife; simple and easy systems for the development of personality and power. Booklets of counsel on 'How to Get What We Want,' which is impossible; booklets on 'Visualization,' warranted to make us want what we get, which is ignoble.”

IfsThinkingWantEasyWealthSimplePsychologyImpossiblePersonalityDevelopmentVariousCuresStrifeRoyalVisualizationPresent DayWishful ThinkingDiscordReformersDissolutionDisinterestedIgnobleGullibility
Author:Agnes Repplier
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“For too long, many nations, including my own, tolerated, even excused, oppression in the Middle East in the name of stability. Oppression became common, but stability never arrived. We must take a different approach. We must help the reformers of the Middle East as they work for freedom, and strive to build a community of peaceful, democratic nations.”

LongDifferentHelpingNamesNationsCommunityMy OwnCommonMiddleApproachDemocraticStriveIncludingEastOppressionPeacefulStabilityMiddle EastReformersDifferent Approach
Author:George W. Bush
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“But the most annoying of all public reformers is the personal satirist. Though he may be considered by some few as a useful member of society, yet he is only ranked with the hangman, whom we tolerate because he executes the judgment we abhor to do ourselves, and avoid with a natural detestation of his office. The pen of the one and the cord of the other are inseparable in our minds.”

MindMayNaturalMembersOfficeJudgmentSatirePensAnnoyingTolerateInseparableCordsReformersSatiristHangman
Author:Jane Porter
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