Dennis Hastert Quotes

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

Latin Americans glorify their past so ceaselessly that they make it almost impossible to advocate change.

People want change but not too much change. Finding that balance is tricky for every politician.

A change imposed is a change opposed.

At times unpopular measures are needed in order to change behaviour.

Our generation has an incredible amount of realism, yet at the same time it loves to complain and not really change. Because, if it does change, then it won't have anything to complain about.

Human society has dense borders - economic, religious and cultural - inculcated from an early age. We hate change.

Self-deception ultimately explains Japan's plight. The Japanese have never accepted that change is in their interest - and not merely a response to U.S. criticism.

The Japanese people are usually very prudent, even when they are convinced change is necessary.

Obama sees himself as such a huge change that he can be cautious about other societal changes. But what he doesn't realize is that legalizing gay marriage is like electing a black president. Before you do it, it seems inconceivable. Once it's done, you can't remember what all the fuss was about.

Change creates fear, and technology creates change. Sadly, most people don't behave very well when they are afraid.

The ideal American type is perfectly expressed by the Protestant, individualist, anti-conformist, and this is the type that is in the process of disappearing. In reality there are few left.

We have traditions, attitudes, an attachment to social welfare and even if change is desirable, we won’t accept change overnight.

Professional opinion is almost inevitably against changes.

Readiness to change from old law to new law enfeebles the power of the law.

The most conservative man in the world is the British Trade Unionist when you want to change him.

Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also and keep pace with the times

There is a snail-paced gait for the advance of new ideas on the general mind under which we must acquiesce. A forty years' experience of popular assemblies has taught me that you must give them time for every step you take. If too hard pushed, they balk, and the machine retrogrades.

It is an enormous simplification to speak of the American mind. Every American has his own mind. It is absurd to ascribe any achievements and virtues or any misdeeds and vices of individual Americans to America as such.... What makes the American people different from any other people is the joint effect produced by the thoughts and actions of innumerable uncommon Americans.

Progress is never accepted by everybody.

To some extent, it is [that] everybody is resistant to change. Today, you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody that was opposed to the smoking ban … All of Western Europe followed New York City. Many of the states around here did. Every major city, including in the tobacco-growing states in the United States, did. Brazil is smoke-free. Mexico City is smoke-free. All of France, Italy, Spain, England—they’re all smoke-free. It takes a while. Leadership is about doing what you think is right and then building a constituency behind it. It is not doing a poll and following from the back. If you want to criticize the political process—and it’s probably true throughout history, and certainly not just in the United States—I think it’s fair to say, in business or in government, an awful lot of leaders follow the polls.

The great work which is to be done is to change public opinion.

There’s a carrying capacity in any society for how much change it can incorporate at any one time.

Why do today's non-stop shocks -- why don't they spur us into action? Why don't they produce leaps? Especially when it comes to climate change.

You can't push and force people to do what they don't want to do. If things need to change, it has to be gradual.