Robert Walpole Quotes

You are either part of the solution or part of the problem.

Let sleeping dogs lie — who wants to rouse 'em?

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

People are more easily induced to do, and do more easily, what they are already used to; but people also learn to do things new to them.

Tradition, by its very nature, includes continuous change.

If we want everything to remain as it is, it will be necessary for everything to change.

Mending the fence when one loses a sheep is still not too late.

Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.

Beginning reform is beginning revolution.

The world many of our capabilities and alliances were created to address, no longer exists.

Violence never has and never will bring constructive change, but my life experience tells me that most change is violent.

Sometimes we get comfortable with the status quo, even when the status quo isn’t any good.

We suffer more … when we fall from a better to a worse situation, than we ever enjoy when we rise from a worse to a better. Security, therefore, is the first and the principal object of prudence.

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.

The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.

Question the status quo at all times, especially when things are going well.

There are two sides to reconciliation; the law aspect and the moral values. Unless there is improvement for both, changes will not come by easily

I have always believed in discontent – not grumbling, which is usually selfish and individual – but a disinclination to sit down idly, knowing things are wrong.

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.

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

By our own improvements we seem to have weakened the case for further change.

It is essential to release humanity from the false fixations of yesterday, which seem now to bind it to a rationale of action leading only to extinction.

Women are not just victims of oppression or vectors of change. They are the artisans of social capital, that lattice of values that is the glue that holds societies together. It is they who repair the torn social fabric of communities in the difficult post-conflict situations. They are the custodians of values, who nurture these values in the next generation.

In politics, as in every other department of life, the clashing of thought is sometimes a proof of disease, but always a promise of reform.

The United Nations exists not merely to preserve the peace but also to make change - even radical change - possible without violent upheaval. The United Nations has no vested interest in the status quo…