Quotes about Reform

It usually takes 100 years to make a law, and then, after it's done its work, it usually takes 100 years to be rid of it.

While we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells.

Reforms should begin at home and stay there.

Reformers have the idea that change can be achieved by brute sanity.

It is not the prisoners who need reformation, it is the prisons.

God Almighty has set before me two great objects: the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.

It is plain to me that our prelates in granting indulgences do commonly blaspheme the wisdom of God.

Malpractice tort reform can be something as commonsensical as the establishment of medical courts - similar to bankruptcy or admiralty courts - with special judges to make determinations in cases brought by parties claiming injury.

The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.

A simple man with Scripture has more authority than the Pope or a council.

To destroy abuses is not enough; Habits must also be changed. The windmill has gone, but the wind is still there. ~old man G--- to Monseigneur Bienvenu Myriel

The merciful precepts of Christ will at last suffuse the Code and it will glow with their radiance. Crime will be considered an illness with its own doctors to replace your judges and its hospitals to replace your prisons. Liberty shall be equated with health. Ointments and oil shall be applied to limbs that were once shackled and branded. Infirmities that once were scourged with anger shall now be bathed with love. The cross in place of the gallows: sublime and yet so simple.