It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be. This, in turn, means that our statesmen, our businessmen, our every man must take on a science fictional way of thinking.
—Isaac Asimov (1919–92) Russian-born American Children’s Books Writer, Short Story Writer, Academic, Novelist, Essayist
Change is healthy and useful. It has to be fought for most of the time. It’s not inevitable. It takes real leadership and real effort. But I think it’s really important not to take yourself too seriously. Dwight Eisenhower used to have a rule that you should always take your job seriously but not yourself.
—Newt Gingrich (b.1943) American Elected Rep, Politician
The path of least resistance is what makes rivers run crooked.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.
—John Ciardi (1916–86) American Poet, Teacher, Etymologist, Translator
We accept the verdict of the past until the need for change cries out loudly enough to force upon us a choice between the comforts of further inertia and the irksomeness of action.
—Learned Hand
As far as inner transformation is concerned, there is nothing you can do about it. You cannot transform yourself, and you certainly cannot transform your partner or anybody else. All you can do is create a space for transformation to happen, for grace and love to enter.
—Eckhart Tolle (b.1948) German Spiritual Writer, Public Speaker, Spiritual Teacher
To know what one can have and to do with it, being prepared for no more, is the basis of equilibrium.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
The joy of life consists in the exercise of one’s energies, continual growth, constant change, the enjoyment of every new experience. To stop means simply to die. The eternal mistake of mankind is to set up an attainable ideal.
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) English Occultist, Mystic, Magician
Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader, Philosopher, Civil Rights Activist
Give wind and tide a chance to change.
—Richard Evelyn Byrd (b.1888) American Aviator, Explorer, Military Leader
By nature man hates change; seldom will he quit his old home till it has actually fallen around his ears.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Writer, Essayist, Historian
Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear — kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor — with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant funds demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) American Military Leader
Everything changes but change.
—Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) British Humorist, Novelist, Writer
Wherever we are, it is but a stage on the way to somewhere else, and whatever we do, however well we do it, it is only a preparation to do something else that shall be different.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Short Story Writer, Author
Sometimes we spend more time than we should defending the old thing, instead of working to take advantage of the new thing.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur, Management Consultant, Public Speaker
Everything changes but change itself. Everything flows and nothing remains the same…You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters and yet others go flowing ever on.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State, Lawyer, Politician
Change almost never fails because it’s too early. It almost always fails because it’s too late.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur, Management Consultant, Public Speaker
We emphasize that we believe in change because we were born of it, we have lived by it, we prospered and grew great by it. So the status quo has never been our god, and we ask no one else to bow down before it.
—Carl Rowan (1925–2000) American Public Servant, Journalist, Author, Columnist
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) South African Political leader, Head of State
Now, having seen the differences between where you are and where you want to be, begin to change—consciously change—your thoughts, words, and actions to match your grandest vision.
—Neale Donald Walsch (b.1943) American Spiritual Writer
My opinion is a view I hold until … well, until I find something that changes it.
—Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) Italian Dramatist, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Author
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright, Critic, Political Activist, Educator
Change is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur, Management Consultant, Public Speaker
In this world of change naught which comes stays and naught which goes is lost.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Christian Mystic
What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress
—Anwar El Sadat (1918–81) Egyptian Head of State, Political leader
In all change, well looked into, the germinal good out-vails the apparent ill.
—Francis Thompson (1859–1907) English Poet, Ascetic
It is not well to make great changes in old age.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) British Baptist Preacher, Theologian, Hymn writer
You change your life by changing your heart.
—Max Lucado (b.1955) American Christian Author, Minister
Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes and I am left the same. The more things change the more I am the same. I am what I started with, and when it is all over I will be all that is left of me.
—Hugh Prather (1938–2010) American Christian Author, Minister, Counselor
The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
I realized that if what we call human nature can be changed, then absolutely anything is possible. And from that moment, my life changed.
—Shirley MacLaine (b.1934) American Actor, Dancer, Author, Activist
The closing of a door can bring blessed privacy and comfort — the opening, terror. Conversely, the closing of a door can be a sad and final thing — the opening a wonderfully joyous moment.
—Andy Rooney (1919–2011) American Writer, Humorist, TV Personality
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
—Alan Watts (1915–73) British Buddhist Philosopher, Writer, Speaker
Clinging to the past is the problem. Embracing change is the answer.
—Gloria Steinem (b.1934) American Feminist, Journalist, Social Activist, Political Activist
We are tomorrow’s past.
—Mary Webb (1881–1927) English Novelist, Poet, Writer
Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet, Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.
—Harrison Ford (b.1942) American Actor, Film Producer
Today is not yesterday. We ourselves change. How can our works and thoughts, if they are always to be the fittest, continue always the same? Change, indeed, is painful, yet ever needful; and if memory has its force and worth, so also has hope.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Writer, Essayist, Historian
The world is a scene of changes; to be constant in nature were inconstancy.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet
If in the last few years you haven’t discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead.
—Gelett Burgess
The search for static security — in the law and elsewhere — is misguided. The fact is security can only be achieved through constant change, adapting old ideas that have outlived their usefulness to current facts.
—William O. Douglas (1898–1980) American Judge
For me, the principal fact of life is the free mind. For good and evil, man is a free creative spirit. This produces the very queer world we live in, a world in continuous creation and therefore continuous change and insecurity. A perpetually new and lively world, but a dangerous one, full of tragedy and injustice. A world in everlasting conflict between the new idea and the old allegiances, new arts and new inventions against the old establishment.
—Joyce Cary (1888–1957) Irish Novelist, Artist
Life is its own journey, presupposes its own change and movement, and one tries to arrest them at one’s eternal peril.
—Laurens van der Post (1906–96) South African-born British Political leader, Author, Educator, Journalist, Humanitarian
No one can persuade another to change. Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside. We cannot open the gate of another, either by argument or emotional appeal.
—Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American Author, Editor, Orator
A woman’s mind is cleaner than a man s: She changes it more often.
—Oliver Herford (1863–1935) American Writer, Artist, Illustrator
All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945) American Novelist
There is nothing permanent except change.
—Heraclitus (535BCE–475BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
True consistency, that of the prudent and the wise, is to act in conformity with circumstances, and not to act always the same way under a change of circumstances.
—John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) American Head of State, Politician, Activist
I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring.
—Dodie Smith (1896–1990) British Novelist, Playwright, Writer
We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.
—R. D. Laing (1927–89) Scottish Psychiatrist
Man has a limited biological capacity for change. When this capacity is overwhelmed, the capacity is in future shock.
—Alvin Toffler
The world’s a scene of changes, and to be Constant, in Nature were inconstancy.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) African-American Poet, Author, Civil Rights Activist
Our only security is our ability to change.
—John Lyly (1554–1606) English Dramatist, Novelist, Writer
A little and a little, collected together, becomes a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop make the inundation.
—Sa’Di (Musharrif Od-Din Muslih Od-Din) (1184–1283) Persian Poet
There is change in all things. You yourself are subject to continual change and some decay, and this is common to the entire universe.
—Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (121–80)
I recognize thart even you, yourself, will change. Your ideals will change, your tastes will change, your desires will change. Your whole understandings of who you are had better change, because if it doesn’t change, you’ve become a very static personality over a great many years, and nothing would displease me more. And so I recognize that the process of evolution will produce changes in you.
—Neale Donald Walsch (b.1943) American Spiritual Writer
Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
You really can change the world if you care enough.
—Marian Wright Edelman (b.1939) American Civil Regrets Advocate, Humanitarian, Lawyer
Change is the process by which the future invades our lives, and it is important to look at it closely, not merely from the grand perspectives of history, but also from the vantage point of the living, breathing individuals who experience it.
—Alvin Toffler
Where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Indian Hindu Polymath, Novelist, Poet, Essayist, Philosopher
It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean. For those who do not think, it is best at least to rearrange their prejudices once in a while.
—Luther Burbank (1849–1926) American Botanist, Scientist
I was neurotic for years. I was anxious and depressed and selfish. Everyone kept telling me to change. I resented them and I agreed with them, and I wanted to change, but simply couldn’t, no matter how hard I tried. Then one day someone said to me, Don’t change. I love you just as you are. Those words were music to my ears: Don’t change, Don’t change. Don’t change … I love you as you are. I relaxed. I came alive. And suddenly I changed!
—Anthony de Mello (1931–87) Indian-born American Theologian
Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.
—Richard Hooker (1554–1600) English Anglican Priest, Theologian
Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.
—Shunryu Suzuki
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk.
—William Arthur Ward (1921–94) American Author
People go through four stages before any revolutionary development:|1. It’s nonsense, don’t waste my time.|2. It’s interesting, but not important.|3. I always said it was a good idea.|4. I thought of it first.
—Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British Author, Inventor, Futurist, Humanist
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader, Philosopher, Civil Rights Activist
The people who oppose your ideas the most are those who represent the establishment that your ideas will upset.
—Anthony J. D’Angelo
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) Hong-Kong-born American Sportsperson, Actor, Philosopher, Film Director, Screenwriter
To hold the same views at forty as we held at twenty is to have been stupefied for a score of years, and take rank, not as a prophet, but as an unteachable brat, well birched and none the wiser.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Short Story Writer, Author
It is done to you as you believe.
—Ernest Holmes (1887–1960) American New Thought Writer, Teacher
Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.
—Bernard Berenson (1865–1959) Russian-born American Art Historian
If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is a law, and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
A state of expectancy is a great assetl; a state of uncertainty–one moment thinking “perhaps” and the next moment thinking “I don’t know”–will never get desired results.
—Ernest Holmes (1887–1960) American New Thought Writer, Teacher
Risk always brings its own rewards: the exhilaration of breaking through, of getting to the other side; the relief of a conflict healed; the clarity when a paradox dissolves.
—Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American Author, Editor, Orator
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) South African Political leader, Head of State
The interval between the decay of the old and the formation and establishment of the new constitutes a period of transition which must always necessarily be one of uncertainty, confusion, error, and wild and fierce fanaticism.
—John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) American Head of State, Politician, Activist
As the great Confucius said, “The one who would be in constant happiness must frequently change”. Flow. But we keep looking back, don’t we? We cling to things in the past and cling to things in the present…Do you want to enjoy a symphony? Don’t hold on to a few bars of the music. Don’t hold on to a couple of notes. Let them pass, let them flow. The whole enjoyment of a symphony lies in your readiness to allow the notes to pass…
—Anthony de Mello (1931–87) Indian-born American Theologian
Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
—Barack Obama (b.1961) American Head of State, Academic, Politician, Author
The only difference between a rut and a groove is their dimensions.
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945) American Novelist
Change is the only evidence of life.
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) English Novelist, Humorist, Writer
Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) British Novelist
The issues are the same. We wanted peace on earth, love, and understanding between everyone around the world. We have learned that change comes slowly.
—Paul McCartney (b.1942) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.|Attitude, to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company …a church …a home.The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past …we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.|We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude …I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you …we are in charge of our attitudes.
—Chuck Swindoll (b.1934) American Christian Pastor, Author, Educator, Radio Personality
If you don’t like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.
—Marian Wright Edelman (b.1939) American Civil Regrets Advocate, Humanitarian, Lawyer
All meaningful and lasting change starts first in your imagination and then works its way out. Imagination is more important than knowledge.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Theoretical Physicist, Philosopher, Author, Activist
The world does not have to change … The only thing that has to change is our attitude.
—Gerald Jampolsky
The circumstances of the world are so variable, that an irrevocable purpose or opinion is almost synonymous with a foolish one.
—William H. Seward (1801–72) American Elected Representative, Lawyer, Politician, Activist
Little changes cost you. Big changes benefit you by changing the game, but only if you go first.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur, Management Consultant, Public Speaker