Li Keqiang Quotes

My job, as I've said, is to break down sectionalism, vested interests and a fixed mindset of merely following precedents, so that I'm not subjected to the harmful effects of factions.

In politics experiments mean revolutions.

If revolution insists upon overturning established order, let other peoples make the tragic experiment. There is no place for it in America.

Government is on a collision course with the future

Inertia is as powerful a force in society and politics as it is on physics, and effecting change can be demanding and discouraging.

If people are telling you that they don't believe what you're doing, that means you're doing something out of their comfort zone. And generally, people don't want to be taken out of their comfort zone because it's outside of the status quo.

There's always a risk if you don't do things the way you've done things before.

You can have a revolution wherever you like, except in a government office; even were the world to come to an end, you'd have to destroy the universe first and then government offices.

The biggest danger to the European Union comes not from those who advocate change, but from those who denounce new thinking as heresy. In its long history Europe has experience of heretics who turned out to have a point.

I didn't run for mayor to be the caretaker of the status quo.

The conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who proposes it.

I have been ever of opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded.

Politics and government have been a terrible place to invest; education has been a terrible place to invest, but that is because the entrenched interests make it a terrible place to invest. The way you invest in those sectors is you go against the entrenched interests; you try and disrupt the entrenched interests, not to service them.

…the burden of proof rests always upon the advocates of change.

In government change is suspected.

Posterity will give a man a fair hearing; his own times will not do so if he is attacking vested interests.

The price of doing the same old thing is higher than the price of change.

The urgent question of our time is whether we can make change our friend and not our enemy.

Every single change is fought by those who would be affected by it.

Incremental change will not solve this nation’s problems.

There comes not seldom a crisis in the life of men, of nations, and of worlds, when the old forms seem ready to decay, and the old rules of action have lost their binding force. The evils of existing systems obscure the blessings that attend them; and, where reform is needed, the cry is raised for subversion

Be skeptical, question authority, be a rebel. Do not conform and don’t be ordinary. Remember, all human progress is the result of far-sighted people challenging orthodoxy, tradition and rich, powerful, vested interests.

Revolutions of state, many times, make way for new institutions and forms; and often determine in either setting up some tyranny at home, or bringing in some conquest from abroad.

The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action ... I will not stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are. If you misrepresent what’s in the plan, we will call you out. And I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time. Not now.

Most governments and people want reform. It’s the prospect of change that makes reform rare.