Quotes About Reform

The argument in this book is that religious doctrines matter and are in need of reform.

Furthermore, she told me, I was not permitted for one second to imagine that perhaps the Quran's words could be adapted to a modern era.

Until Islam can do what Judaism and Christianity have done—question, critique, interpret, and ultimately modernize its holy scripture—it cannot free Muslims from a host of anachronistic and at times deadly beliefs and practices.

Despite the fact that in America we incarcerate more juveniles for life terms than in any other country in the world, the truth is that the vast majority of youth offenders will one day be released. The question is simple and stark. Do we want to help them change or do we want to help them become even more violent and dangerous?

As a prominent conservative told me that year, "We need to go out into the wilderness for a long time, and figure out how we can one day return.

Reform therefore, without bravery, or scandal of former times and persons; but yet set it down to thyself, as well to create good precedents, as to follow them.

France expects, I fear, too little from her Parliaments ever to get what she ought.

In a liberal democracy rapid, radical and fundamental economic change must benefit the many not the few, if it is to gain popular, long-term political support.

China itself is now in the process of sloughing off not only the communist system, but also those outdated parts of Confucianism that prevent the rapid acquisition of knowledge needed to adjust to new ways of life and work.

We need to work for a day when police shootings are rare and not the stuff of our daily news.

We rarely have good alternatives to offer to prison - that's our default.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Many of those people deserve to be in prison; however, some of them do not.

As a beneficiary of the carried interest loophole, I've seen firsthand the lack of any difference between the work involved in generating a carried interest and the work done by millions of other professionals who are taxed at the full 35 percent rate.

If we went back to the imprisonment rate we had in the early '70s, something like four out of five people employed in the prison industry would lose their jobs. That's what you're up against.

I do not believe that the top rate should be lowered for individuals who are making more than $1 million a year. I don't think there's any need to eliminate the estate tax.

The greatest myth about mass incarceration is that it has been driven by crime and crime rates. It's just not true.

Under Obamacare, rates are skyrocketing, and insurers are leaving the marketplace.

Lord knows I'm all for lowering rates and simplifying the tax code.

Putting an end to usurious rates is not going to be as simple as asking banks to lay down internal guidelines, policies and procedures.

I think political parties can be funded in a perfectly rational way without being corrupt.

One out of 100 citizens of the U.S. is going to prison, and it's not that the system is making criminals, it's that it's making criminals better criminals. We're breeding them like rats and it has to change.

I've never been antiregulation. I've always believed that raw, unregulated capitalism doesn't work.

I'm not part of the friends-and-family club; I'm not part of the pay-to-play club; I'm not looking to get re-elected. I'm not looking to go to another office and fill my campaign coffers. I don't need any friends in Albany except the people of the state.

I have been outspoken on my opposition to 'Obamacare,' and I don't buy the line that our Medicaid program, or any function of government, has reached maximum efficiency.