As Reformer
Beside his medical activities, Gerard van Swieten was also active as a reformer. Especially the censorship was organized in a different way under his direction. He drove out the Jesuits that were in charge of the censorship before and carried out a centralization of the censorship that was only partly successful. He also tried to use scientific and rational aspects for the judgement of literature.
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Famous quotes containing the word reformer:
“Many a reformer perishes in his removal of rubbish,—and that makes the offensiveness of the class. They are partial; they are not equal to the work they pretend. They lose their way; in the assault on the kingdom of darkness, they expend all their energy on some accidental evil, and lose their sanity and power of benefit.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A reformer knows neither how to do nor to undo.”
—José Bergamín (1895–1983)