Abraham Flexner Quotes

They act as if they supposed that to be very sanguine about the general improvement of mankind is a virtue that relieves them from taking trouble about any improvement in particular.

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

I have the right to express myself. Once we get through expressing, do we really move forward in society.

I've seen anti-Semitism essentially disappear in my adult life as a social and economic factor. There may be some nuts out there, but generally things are fine. I think the same thing will happen with gayness. We'll get to a point soon enough where it's not even an issue anymore. But progress can be slow

That's why I want to change Mississippi. You don't run away from problems - you just face them.

Politics, in general, when you're trying to change the world for the better in any kind of way, no matter how small or how big, it's inches.

I feel like a serious revolution needs to take place in order for human beings to evolve in a way where we can truly exist as a society.

Throughout history, we have only moved forward when society has distinguished between traditional values and valueless traditions.

If we're still talking about the same thing 40 or 50 years later, then that means we're not doing anything about it.

Anyone who thinks they're a progressive should be interested in making progress.

I am not shy. I am for an open society. I am for a progressive world. I do not propose to reform France; I propose to transform it at its deepest level.

We cannot effect meaningful change if we become complacent, if we become comfortable with our own positions in the status quo.

Creating deep and meaningful change in this country takes time - years and sometimes decades.

We have to remind ourselves that what we take for granted now is hard-won.

I always had a desire to see change and be part of it.

My long-term ambition is to be an agent of change.

You can't fight progress. The best you can do is ignore it, until it finally takes your livelihood and self-respect away.

We should have a society that measures progress not just by economic metrics like GDP, but by how many of us have a role we find the meaningful. We should explore ideas like universal basic income to make sure everyone has a cushion to try new ideas.

If individuality has no play, society does not advance; if individuality breaks out of all bounds, society perishes.

Because many advances have happened, we've lost the urgency (and that's just human nature) that we had before, when we couldn't vote, couldn't use mass transportation, or drink from the fountains.

It's weird because there is progress somehow. But there's so much that just feels the same. How important is that rank? How important is it that I am allowed to make these decisions? What does that really mean? What is progress? Is it progress that a black guy gets to push a button for the nuclear bomb? Is that progress? Maybe, I don't know.

It would be foolish to despise tradition. But with our growing self-consciousness and increasing intelligence we must begin to control tradition and assume a critical attitude toward it, if human relations are ever to change for the better.

Every gain made by individuals or societies is almost instantly taken for granted. The luminous ceiling toward which we raise our longing eyes becomes, when we have climbed to the next floor, a stretch of disregarded linoleum beneath our feet.

I believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform.

Changes are inseparable from democracy. To defend democracy is to defend the possibility of change; in turn, changes alone can strengthen democracy.