Ray Stannard Baker Quotes

We muckraked, not because we hated our world, but because we loved it. We were not hopeless, we were not cynical, we were not bitter.

Muck-raker

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the progressive mind was characteristically a journalistic mind and that its characteristic contribution was that of the socially responsible reporter-reformer.

The progress of society depends on nothing more than the exposure of time-honored abuses.

if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.

We're not preachers, but we say, 'Let's try and change things.'

the whole point of muck-raking, apart from all the jokes, is to try to do something about what you've been writing about. You may not be able to change the world but at least you can embarrass the guilty.

Recognizing that something is wrong is the first step toward changing the world.

I was put in this world to change it.

What matters is not to know the world but to change it.

Leftism should be about the people. That's how it began.

If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.

But we are not in the world to be good but to change it.

Do you know what social justice is? Do you know what social reform is? I didn't either, but reform and social justice are what I intend to do.

Most of us entered journalism and joined 'news organizations' because we care about the greater good. We strive to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

The Jews' greatest contribution to history is dissatisfaction! We're a nation born to be discontented. Whatever exists we believe can be changed for the better.

There are many things we do not want about the world. Let us not just mourn them. Let us change them.

Security isn't what I hunger for. I hunger for change. I hunger for connection.

All I want to do is change the world.

Reform is born of need, not pity.

I'm trying to change the world.

Social change comes through people.

Progressive change in this country has never come from above.

There is always a moment in any kind of struggle when one feels in full bloom. Vivid. Alive…. During my years of being close to people engaged in changing the world, I have seen fear turn into courage. Sorrow into joy. Funerals into celebrations. Because whatever the consequences, people, standing side by side, have expressed who they really are, and that ultimately they believe in the love of the world and each other enough to be that-which is the foundation of activism.

Journalists have to be optimists. When you interview somebody on Social Security reform, you have got to believe that Social Security can be reformed.