“philosophy of reform”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Philosophical_View_of_Reform
Reform is one of those words that sounds good until you think about it. Mark Twain always helps:
I have never known, in the case of any petty thief, of a reform that covered the whole ground, after he had once gotten habituated to the feel of the coin in another man’s pocket.
- Letter to Seymour Eaton, 8 January 1906
Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.
- Pudd’nhead Wilson
The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little, by way of example.
- A Tramp Abroad
Reflection is the beginning of reform. There can be no reform without reflection. If you don’t reflect when you commit a crime then that crime is of no use. It might just as well have been committed by someone else.
- The Watermelon speech, 1907
That desire which is in us all to better other people’s condition by having them think as we think.
- What is Man
In my early manhood and in middle life I used to vex myself with reforms every now and then. And I never had occasion to regret these divergencies for, whether the resulting deprivations were long or short, the rewarding pleasure which I got out of the vice when I returned to it always paid me for all that it cost.
- Autobiography of Mark Twain
You can straighten a worm, but the crook is in him and only waiting.
- More Maxims of Mark, edited by Merle Johnson
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).
- Notebook, 1904
I am jaded as I get older. The quote, “Slaves dream more of being master, than freedom” (which is from a movie I believe) keeps echoing in my head..................
Hmmmm....well...I certainly won’t give place to anyone in the level of my disgust and zeal against the kinds of phony “reforms” peddled by our political class today.
But it seems to me that if there was ever anyone engaged in bringing about truly authentic and absolutely necessary reform, it was Douglass.
I also can’t believe that he had any desire to make slaves out of anyone, either.