Quotes About Reform

This is what a crisis does: It makes you question the status quo. That doesn't mean that after a crisis we move into some kind of utopia. But it is an opportunity for political change.

That massiveness of bureaucracy at the VA is chronic and has been chronic.

When Congress puts party labels aside, like we did on VA reform, we can accomplish some great things for the American people. But those occasions were far too rare.

I am frustrated and outraged by the slow nature of change at the VA.

I don't believe that the problems in the VA are necessarily about money. When I look back over the problems of the VA over the past decade, this is fundamentally a system that hasn't kept up with modernization in the way that the rest of health care in the private sector has.

It was clear that VA was in need of reform, and when the president asked for help, I could not say no. First, I felt I could help, and my private sector experience was relevant. Second, that this was my chance to give back to those that had stepped up to serve our country.

The realization is dawning that government doesn't work. In Silicon Valley, they already get this. And they are bright enough to be asking what we can do to solve problems.

By assessing the capabilities and knowledge of students in the highest-performing and most rapidly improving education systems, the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment provides valuable options for reform and information on how to achieve it.

The United Nations is an indispensable but deeply flawed organization. It is valuable to the United States, and the United States is invaluable to it. We need to reform it.

Allende had good ideas, but he executed them poorly. Although he correctly recognized Chile's problems, he adopted wrong solutions to those problems.

In any case, frequent punishments are a sign of weakness or slackness in the government. There is no man so bad that he cannot be made good for something. No man should be put to death, even as an example, if he can be left to live without danger to society.

We may add that frequent punishments are always a sign of weakness or remissness on the part of the government. There is not a single ill-doer who could not be turned to some good. The State has no right to put to death, even for the sake of making an example, any one whom it can leave alive without danger.

Nations, like men, are teachable only in their youth; with age they become incorrigible. Once customs are established and prejudices rooted, reform is a dangerous and fruitless enterprise; a people cannot bear to see its evils touched, even if only to be eradicated.

There is not a single ill-doer who could not be turned to some good. The State has no right to put to death, even for the sake of making an example, any one whom it can leave alive without danger.

la fréquence des supplices est toujours un signe de faiblesse ou de paresse dans le gouvernement. Il n'y a point de méchant qu'on ne pût rendre bon à quelque chose.

Rebellion is obsolete - change things from the inside working out.

Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation.

I'm involved in the work around prison rights in general.

The law is bigger than money - but only if the law works hard enough.

Tomorrow is the day when idlers work, and fools reform and mortal men lay hold on heaven.

I say let Matteo Renzi work. He took over a country that was in disarray, not florid. And not the other way around.

It usually takes a hundred years to make a law, and then, after it has done its work; it usually takes a hundred years to get rid of it.

It would be naive to think that the problems plaguing mankind today can be solved with means and methods which were applied or seemed to work in the past.

The people's right to change what does not work is one of the greatest principles in our system of government