“Human institutions are inventions. They are devices to aid in the promotion of human welfare. They should be judged by the same standards of utility as agricultural implements and everything else. Whenever they can be made over to advantage, they should be made over. And whenever they can be rendered useless by something better to take their place, they should be sent without sighs or lamentations to the junkpile. Nothing is too sacred to he improved.”

Source: Ethics and Education (1912), The Call of the Past, pp. 9–10

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Human institutions are inventions. They are devices to aid in the promotion of human welfare. They should be judged by …" by J. Howard Moore?
J. Howard Moore photo
J. Howard Moore 183
1862–1916

Related quotes

Michael Gove photo

“The point that I made in the article is that if any of us lapse sometimes from standards that we uphold, that is human. The thing to do is not necessarily then to say that the standards should be lowered. It should be to reflect on the lapse and to seek to do better in the future.”

Michael Gove (1967) British politician

Michael Gove admits he was lucky to avoid jail over cocaine use https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48572982, BBC News, 9 June 2019
2019

John Scott photo

“It is better that the law should be certain than that every judge should speculate upon improvements in it.”

John Scott (1751–1838) British barrister and politician, born 1751

Sheldon v. Goodrich, 8 Ves. 481, 497 (1803)

Haile Selassie photo

“No one should question the faith of others, for no human can judge the ways of God.”

Haile Selassie (1892–1975) Emperor of Ethiopia

Not reliably sourced, as this has thus far been found only in a Rastafarian publication http://www.himchurch.org/index.html on the internet which conflates several different statements by Haile Selassie made between 1948 and 1966 with some made by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan which were merely quoted by Selassie in 1965.
Disputed

Barack Obama photo

“He knew, better than the cynic, that if you look out over the arc of history, human beings should be filled not with fear but with hope.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Remarks by President Obama at Memorial Service for Former Israeli President Shimon Peres on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, Israel. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/30/remarks-president-obama-memorial-service-former-israeli-president-shimon (30 September 2016)
2016

Harun Yahya photo
Friedrich List photo

“Educational facilities will be extended and better standards of morality will be established. Political institutions, too, will be improved. In this way a backward nation can develop into a progressive state.”

Friedrich List (1789–1846) German economist with dual American citizenship

Source: The Natural System of Political Economy (1837), p. 44

Calvin Coolidge photo

Related topics