Literary notes about Reform (AI summary)
In literature, "reform" serves as a versatile term that can denote both personal transformation and large-scale societal change. It is employed to express the pursuit of moral or individual betterment, as seen in promises to change one's ways or even self-directed improvements [1][2][3]. At the same time, reform carries significant political weight, often symbolizing efforts to reshape government, laws, or social institutions, whether through gradual legislative change or radical revolution [4][5][6]. Authors also use the term to capture the complex interplay between tradition and progress, suggesting that any true reform—be it in arts, manners, or politics—entails both idealism and inherent challenges [7][8][9].
- She wrung out of me a mighty promise to reform.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - He must make a personal reform in all things, even to tooth-washing and neck-gear, though a starched collar affected him as a renunciation of freedom.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London - * * * * * * * * “At last God deigned to reveal to me the one true [pg 275] remedy: I must reform myself and repair as much as possible what—— *
— from Pan Tadeusz; or, The last foray in Lithuania by Adam Mickiewicz - And this is the real reason why strife, war, and revolution have marked the onward march of humanity instead of reason and sound reform.
— from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. Du Bois - Hence the origin of Mr Pitt’s famous and long-misconceived plans of parliamentary reform.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Earl of Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli - Election Of Pertinax—His Attempts To Reform The State—His Assassination By The Prætorian Guards.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Things can't last as they are: there must be all sorts of reform soon, and then young fellows may be glad to come and study here."
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - The most troublesome task of a reform President was that of bringing the Senate back to decency.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams - Reform tends under modern conditions to become a vocation and a profession like that of the politician.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
