Evelyn Baring Quotes

The most perilous moment for a bad government is when it seeks to mend its ways. Only consummate statecraft can enable a king to save his throne when, after a long spell of oppression, he sets out to improve the lot of his subjects.

There is no more democratic government than a revolutionary government.

Change: In politics, the substitution of one disappointment for another.

In all our history, there is no change of government peacefully.

Change very often comes to Washington, not from Washington.

Revolution is indeed a violent process. But if it is to result only in a change of dictatorship, in a shifting of names and political personalities, then it is hardly worth while.

It is easier to run a revolution than a government.

Uncertainty is normal in the first few days of a new government.

Revolution, n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.

Revolt is not reform, and one revolutionary administration is not good government.

Usually, in any revolution people are focused on who wants to have the most power. But the most important thing is the laws that are written during that time.

We have been waiting for you so that we could turn over the government.

In government change is suspected.

Those who govern us know it well, for they would sooner deny us bread than dare alter the observance of tradition.

Nothing is so common as to see a political upheaval pass practically unnoticed merely because the names of the leaders and their parties remain the same.

The Arab world’s wave of change was a century in the making, Why expect its effects to become clear in the space of months

A revolution is generally only evolution--an explosive sequence of events crowded into a short space of time, but leaving more of the ancient regime untouched than usually is at first apparent.

Rebellions which overthrow the governments of Mexico cannot be called revolutions. A revolution is a radical change, and if there is anything that has never been changed in Mexico it is the method of putting new public functionaries into office by rebellion.

We absolutely have to change the status quo in Washington.

The regime which is destroyed by a revolution is almost always an improvement on its immediate predecessor, and experience teaches that the most critical moment for bad governments is the one which witnesses their first steps toward reform.

We know the only way to reimagine our government is to reimagine who is leading it.

Every revolution begins with the power of an idea and ends when clinging to power is the only idea left.

Let us drive away those cruel, greedy oppressors, governments, and the new ones, having just laid aside grenades and rifles, will be just and understanding. Far from it.

REVOLUTION, n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment. . . . the substitution of the rule of an Administration for that of a Ministry, whereby the welfare and happiness of the people were advanced a full half-inch.

The best form of government is one that is dying, because that means it’s giving way to something else.