"The whole tribe of professional agitators and miscalled reformers are men of one idea.
That these men do good, sometimes directly and frequently indirectly, I do not deny;
and it is equally evident that they do a great deal of harm, the worst of which, perhaps, falls upon themselves.
Like the charge of a cannon, they do damage to an enemy's fortifications, but they burn up the powder there is in them, and lose the ball. Like blind old Samson, they may prostrate the pillars of a great wrong, but they crush themselves and the Philistines together.
The greatest and truest reformer that ever lived was Jesus Christ; but ah! The difference between his broad aims, universal sympathies and overflowing love, and the malignant spirit that moves those who angrily beat themselves to death against an instituted wrong!"
-from a chapter called "Men of one idea" in the book "Lessons in Life" by Timothy Titcomb, 1863
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