Foreign Policy Quotes

The first resistance to social change is to say it's not necessary.

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

It is indeed a law of politics as well as of physics, that a body in action must overcome a body at rest.

Progress is never accepted by everybody.

Change is strong, but habit is strong too; and you cannot change the old for new, like a garment.

Conservatives want to keep things as they are, while revolutionists turn things upside down.

We accept the verdict of the past until the need for change cries out loudly enough to force upon us a choice between the comforts of inertia and the irksomeness of action.

It will always be a battle a day between those who want maximum change and those who want to maintain the status quo.

Inertia is a powerful force in human and political affairs.

We have to struggle against the conservatives from all sides, not only the right-wingers, but also the left-wing conservatives who don't want to change anything.

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

When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.

Some people like to reform everything they can get their hands on. Others want to fold away and worship whatever is presented to them by the caprice of history.

Political evils must be sorely felt before they can be removed.

The status quo is a powerful force.

The adherents of the old order have a powerful ally in the natural law of inertia inherent in humanity which is … a natural defense against change.

When push comes to shove, the status quo is a very powerful force.

Inertia is the most powerful force in politics.

All political action aims at either preservation or change.

Custom is petrification; nothing but dynamite can dislodge it for a century.

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

Certainly none of the advances made in civilization has been due to counterrevolutionaries and advocates of the status quo.

As if governed by Newton's First Law of Motion, an institution will resist any change in its current direction.

The perils of change are so great the promise of the most hopeful theories is so often deceptive, that it is frequently the wiser part to uphold the existing state of things, if it can be done, even though, in point of argument, it should be utterly indefensible.

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone, you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone, you leave it to a torrent of change.