Quotes by Social Reformers - Page 3

The basic idea underlying religion is to create an atmosphere for the spiritual development of the individual.
B.R. Ambedkar
The teachings of Buddha are eternal, but even then Buddha did not proclaim them to be infallible. The religion of Buddha has the capacity to change according to times, a quality which no other religion can claim to have...Now what is the basis of Buddhism? If you study carefully, you will see that Buddhism is based on reason. There is an element of flexibility inherent in it, which is not found in any other religion.
B.R. Ambedkar
Finding that no religion is based on facts and cannot therefore be true, I began to reflect what must be the condition of mankind trained from infancy to believe in errors.
Robert Owen
Flowers may beckon towards us but they speak toward heaven and God.
Henry Ward Beecher
It was such a joy to see thee. I wish I could tell how much thee is to my life. I always turn to thee as a sort of rest.
Lady Henry Somerset
One best success comes after their greatest disappointments.
Henry Ward Beecher
Democracy is not merely a form of Government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards our fellow men.
B.R. Ambedkar
A door that seems to stand open must be a man's size or it is not the door that Providence means for him.
Henry Ward Beecher
I can forgive but I cannot forget is only another way of saying "I will not forgive." Forgiveness ought to be like a canceled note-torn in two and burned up so that it never can be shown against one.
Henry Ward Beecher
We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God's.
Henry Ward Beecher
Fear is the soul's signal for rallying.
Henry Ward Beecher
When nothing seems to help I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two and I know it was not that blow that did it but all that had gone before.
Jacob A. Riis
The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and as the magnet finds the iron so it will find in every hour some heavenly blessings!
Henry Ward Beecher
Death is the dropping of the flower, that the fruit may, swell.
Henry Ward Beecher
A tool is but the extension of a man's hand and a machine is but a complex tool. And he that invents a machine augments the power of a man and the well-being of mankind.
Henry Ward Beecher
Pardon me; I must seem to you so stupid! Why is the property of the woman who commits Murder, and the property of the woman who commits Matrimony, dealt with alike by your law?
Frances Power Cobbe
No matter what looms ahead if you can eat today enjoy the sunlight today mix good cheer with friends today enjoy it and bless God for it.
Henry Ward Beecher
Life should be great rather than long.
B.R. Ambedkar
[Men] are incomprehensible animals... They walk about boasting of their wisdom, strength, and sovereignty, while they have not sense so much as to swallow an apple with the aid of an Eve to put it down their throats.
Frances Wright
So long as you do not achieve social liberty, whatever freedom is provided by the law is of no avail to you.
B.R. Ambedkar
All men are tempted. There is no man that lives that can't be broken down provided it is the right temptation put in the right spot.
Henry Ward Beecher
The worst thing in this world next to anarchy is government.
Henry Ward Beecher
Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?
Henry Ward Beecher
Happiness is not the end of life character is.
Henry Ward Beecher
I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.
B.R. Ambedkar
religion is for man and not man for religion
B.R. Ambedkar
You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are but you must approach each man by the right door.
Henry Ward Beecher
It is defeat that turns bone to flint it is defeat that turns gristle to muscle it is defeat that makes men invincible. Do not then be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause.
Henry Ward Beecher
In the bitter waves of woe, Beaten and tossed about By the sullen winds that blow From the desolate shores of doubt,­­ When the anchors that faith had cast Are dragging in the gale, I am quietly holding fast To the things that cannot fail: In the darkest night of the year,  When the stars have all gone out,  That courage is better than fear,  That faith is truer than doubt; And fierce though the fiends may fight,  And long though the angels hide, I know that Truth and Right Have the universe on their side; And somewhere, beyond the stars, Is a Love that is better than fate; When the night unlocks her bars I shall see Him, and I will wait
Washington Gladden
The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will and the other from a strong won't.
Henry Ward Beecher
Men have a trick of coming up to what is expected of them good or bad.
Jacob A. Riis
But the truth is the highest consideration.
Dorothea Dix
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
Henry Ward Beecher
I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.
William Booth
Equality may be a fiction but nonetheless one must accept it as a governing principle.
B.R. Ambedkar
History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them.
B.R. Ambedkar
The Hindus criticise the Mahomedans for having spread their religion by the use of the sword. They also ridicule Christianity on the score of the Inquisition. But really speaking, who is better and more worthy of our respect—the Mahomedans and Christians who attempted to thrust down the throats of unwilling persons what they regarded as necessary for their salvation, or the Hindu who would not spread the light, who would endeavour to keep others in darkness, who would not consent to share his intellectual and social inheritance with those who are ready and willing to make it a part of their own make-up? I have no hesitation in saying that if the Mahomedan has been cruel, the Hindu has been mean; and meanness is worse than cruelty.
B.R. Ambedkar
Justice has always evoked ideas of equality, of proportion of compensation. Equity signifies equality. Rules and regulations, right and righteousness are concerned with equality in value.If all men are equal, then all men are of the same essence, and the common essence entitles them of the same fundamental rights and equal liberty... In short justice is another name of liberty, equality and fraternity.
B.R. Ambedkar
In every country the intellectual class is the most influential class. This is the class which can foresee advice and lead. In no country does the mass of the people live the life for intelligent thought and action. It is largely imitative and follows the intellectual class. There is no exaggeration in saying that the entire destination of the country depends upon its intellectual class. If the intellectual class is honest and independent, it can be trusted to take the initiative and give a proper lead when a crisis arises. It is true that the intellect by itself is no virtue. It is only a means and the use of a means depends upon the ends which an intellectual person pursues. An intellectual man can be a good man but he may easily be a rogue. Similarly an intellectual class may be a band of high-souled persons, ready to help, ready to emancipate erring humanity or it may easily be a gang of crooks or a body of advocates of narrow clique from which it draws its support.
B.R. Ambedkar
Well married, a man is winged—ill-matched, he is shackled.
Henry Ward Beecher
The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one often comes from a strong will and the other from a strong won't.
Henry Ward Beecher
If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all his thinking, damages his personality, makes him landlord to a ghost.
Henry Ward Beecher
Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven.
Henry Ward Beecher
All the world is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer.
Robert Owen
I send thee, love, this upland flower I foundWhile wandering lonely with o'erclouded heart,Hid in a grey recess of rocky groundAmong the misty mountains far apart;And then I heard the wild wind's luring soundWhich whoso trusts, is healed of earthborn care,And watched the lofty ridges loom around,Yet yearned in vain their secret faith to share.When lo! the sudden sunlight, sparkling keen,Poured full upon the vales this glorious day,And bared the abiding mountain-tops serene,And swept the shifting vapour-wreaths away:Then with the hills' true heart my heart beat true,Heavens opened, cloud-thoughts vanished, and I knew.
Henry Stephens Salt
Law and order are the medicine of the politic body and when the politic body gets sick, medicine must be administered.
B.R. Ambedkar
Clothes and manners do not make the man but when he is made they greatly improve his appearance.
Henry Ward Beecher
Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into.
Henry Ward Beecher
Just consider how terrible the day of your death will beOthers will go on speaking and you will not be able to argue back
Ram Mohan Roy
[His research into biblical criticism had lead him to the conclusion that most of what was contained in traditional religion simply wasn't true]Was I to lie in order to teach the truth? ...Was I to repeat these words? It was impossible. It was certain they would stick in my throat. On these grounds the separation was decided by me.
Felix Adler
There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet; but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, and then fly away.
Henry Ward Beecher
The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.
Henry Ward Beecher
God asks no man whether he will accept life. This is not the choice. You must take it. The only question is how.
Henry Ward Beecher
It would be curious to discover who it is to whom one writes in a diary. Possibly to some mysterious personification of one's own identity.
Beatrice Potter Webb