“If a way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the Worst.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet
“Men might be better if we better deemed
Of them. The worst way to improve the world
Is to condemn it.”
Scene IV, A Mountain; Sunrise. Compare: "The surest plan to make a man / Is to think him so", J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers, II, ii. St. 9
Festus (1839)
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Do you have more details about the quote "Men might be better if we better deemed
Of them. The worst way to improve the world
Is to condemn it." by Philip James Bailey?
Philip James Bailey19
British writer and poet 1816–1902Related quotes
Neil Gaiman (1960) English fantasy writer
Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming (2013)
Context: Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you've never been. Once you've visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (November 1957)
Variant: We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way.
Context: But there is another way. And that is to organize mass non-violent resistance based on the principle of love. It seems to me that this is the only way as our eyes look to the future. As we look out across the years and across the generations, let us develop and move right here. We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way.
“Women have a much better time than men in this world; there are far more things forbidden to them.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer
Context: I do not think idolatry the worst of sins. Cruelty is the worst of sins. It is far better to worship a false God, than to injure your neighbor—far better to bow before a monstrosity of stone, than to enslave your fellow-men.
Michael Moore (1954) American filmmaker, author, social critic, and liberal activist
As quoted in Sicko is Socko, Richard, Corliss, Time, 19 May 2007 http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1623337,00.html, <br class="br">2007