William Anthony Donohue Quotes

The American people are not inclined to change their society in order to free the Negro. They are ready to undertake some, and perhaps major reforms, but not to make a revolution.

In America nothing dies easier than tradition.

Societies either roll on blindly to disaster or they find the inner strength to stop themselves long enough to find ways for reform from within.

I have the greatest sympathy with the growth of the socialist party. I think they understand the evils that surround us and hammer them into people's minds better than we Liberals. I want to see the Liberal party throw its heart and soul fearlessly into reform so as to prevent a reaction from the present state of things and the violent revolution that would inevitably follow it.

There are reformers in every country.

I am in every fiber of my body a radical.

Every reform was once a private opinion, and when it shall be a private opinion again it will solve the problem of the age.

The common people, the toilers, the men of uncommon sense—these have been responsible for nearly all social-reform measures which the world accepts today.

Reform is born of need, not pity. No vital movement of the people has worked down, for good or evil; fermented, instead, it carried up the heaving, cloggy mass.

… societies are kept stable and healthy by reform, not by thought police

Governments never lead; they follow progress

The goal in the end is not to win elections. The goal is to change society.

Change America—Change the World

Perhaps a revolution can overthrow autocratic despotism and profiteering or power-grabbing oppression, but it can never truly reform a manner of thinking; instead, new prejudices, just like the old ones they replace, will serve as a leash for the great unthinking mass.

Everybody has the right to speak up in a democracy. We would be in trouble as a society if there wasn't a constant pressure to make reforms and to be just. Sometimes as prime minister, when i was caught up in a really loud demonstration, I used to say to myself that I deserved it because of all the demonstrations I myself had organized as a student against Duplessis.

Every reform means awakening. Once truly awakened, the nation will not be satisfied with reform only in one department of life.

The lyrics stand today (1980). They're still my feeling about politics. I want to see the plan. I want to know what you're going to do after you've knocked it all down. I mean, can't we use some of it? What's the point of bombing Wall Street? If you want to change the system, change the system. It's no good shooting people.

All political action aims at either preservation or change. When desiring to preserve, we wish to prevent a change for the worse; when desiring to change, we wish to bring about something better. All political action is then guided by some thought of better or worse.

The elections are the greatest symbol of participation and political reform.

It is one thing to say with the prophet Amos, "Let justice roll down like mighty waters," and quite another to work out the irrigation system.

RADICALISM, n. The conservatism of to-morrow injected into the affairs of to-day.

Nature is entirely indifferent to any reform. She perpetuates a fault as persistently as a virtue.

After Iguala, Mexico has to change.

Each nation has its own peculiar method of work. Some work through politics, some through social reforms, some through other lines. With us, religion is the only ground along which we can move.

We must see the great distinction between a reform movement and a revolutionary movement. We are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society . . . . What America must be told today is that she must be born again. The whole structure of American life must be changed.