Reformism Quotes

Liberal democracy - as you know, in the old days, we were saying we want socialism with a human face. Today's left effectively offers global capitalism with a human face, more tolerance, more rights and so on. So the question is, is this enough or not? Here I remain a Marxist: I think not.

Wilsonialism was essentially an expression of Christian reformism.

The reformists do not believe in inflicting their point of view on anyone, not even on the orthodox Bohras. They accept the right of the orthodox also to believe and practise what they want. Similarly, they do not want others to inflict their viewpoint on them or coerce them to accept their authority on pain of social boycott.

My personal credo as a libertarian conservative: I think all attempts to reform your fellow-citizens or tell them how to live their lives are arrogant and tyrannical. THAT'S why I oppose Leftism. I want people to be free to manage their own lives. Reform is just authoritarianism. People are not playthings for anybody's theories or obsessions.

There have been as many varieties of socialists as there are wild birds that fly in the woods and sometimes go up and on through the clouds.

I still believe in what I believed in for 20 years as a Socialist in Parliament, and being a Socialist is not the same as being a utopian.

All world-improvers are Socialists. And consequently there are no Classical world-improvers.

A conservative government survives essentially by dampening expectations and subduing hopes. Conservatism is basically pessimistic, reformism is basically optimistic.