A Quote by John W. Gardner

It is one of the ironies of history that reformers so often misjudge the consequences of their reforms.

John W. Gardner

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Consequences History Often Reformers Reforms

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John W. Gardner
American - Educator
October 8, 1912 - February 16, 2002

One of the persistent ironies of reform is the impossibility of predicting the full consequences of change.

Diane Ravitch

For everything is history: What was said yesterday is history, what was said a minute ago is history. But, above all, one is led to misjudge the present, because only the study of historical development permits the weighing and evaluation of the interrelationships among the components of the present-day society.

Claude Levi-Strauss

There are two consequences in history; an immediate one, which is instantly recognized, and one in the distance, which is not at first perceived. These consequences often contradict each other; ... look to the end of an accomplished fact, and you will see that it has always produced the contrary of what was expected from it.

François-René de Chateaubriand

I try very hard to be fair, and I look for ironies. In a way, I live on ironies as a novelist.

Robert Stone

History has shown us all too often the consequences of dreaming poorly or not at all.

Jeff Vandermeer

If I take you back to the Nineties, our party came up with very bold reforms in the country, economic reforms. They were really revolutionary reforms.

Nawaz Sharif

Look at the history of the printing press, when this was invented what sort of consequences this had. Or industrialization, what sort of consequences that had. Very often, it led to enormous transformational processes within individual societies. And it took awhile until societies learned how to find the right kind of policies to contain this and manage and steer this.

Angela Merkel

We are reformers in the spring and summer, but in autumn we stand by the old. Reformers in the morning, and conservers at night.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is one of history's ironies that Communism, advertised as a classless society, tended to breed a privileged class of feudal proportions.

Henry A. Kissinger

It is one of history's greatest ironies that, over the centuries, the pursuit of pleasure has resulted in more pain than enjoyment.

Mardy Grothe

It is often said by reformers that government should be conducted upon business principles.

John Buchanan Robinson

The radical ideas of one generation have become the common sense of the next. We all stand on the shoulders of earlier generations of reformers, radicals, and idealists who challenged the status quo of their day. They helped change America by organizing movements, pushing for radical reforms, popularizing progressive ideas, and spurring others to action.

Peter Dreier

In my estimation, more misery has been created by reformers than by any other force in human history.

Frank Herbert

We were good reformers, but we weren't good enough. We elected a candidate and then, busy with our own affairs, we left him hanging in mid-air. Reformers are such part-time pillars of society!

Margaret Case Harriman

That so unlikely an outcome should accrue to a man possessed of such limited talent and so many flaws, and one lacking in a sense of ethics and decency was one of the bitter ironies of history.

William Thomas Green Morton

One of the outstanding ironies of history is the utter disregard of ranks and titles in the final judgments men pass on each other. The final estimate of men shows that history cares not an iota for the rank or title a man has borne, or the office he has held, but only the quality of his deeds and the character of his mind and heart.

Samuel Logan Brengle

A Quote by John W. Gardner

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