“If it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.”

— Edmund Burke

The quote "If it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change." is famous quote attributed to Edmund Burke (1729–1797), Anglo-Irish statesman.

Attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, to William Gerard Hamilton, to George Bernard Shaw, to John F. Kennedy (who at any rate quoted it) and to Edmund Burke, it was actually said by Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland in a speech in the House of Commons on 1641-11-22
Misattributed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 6, 2024. History

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Edmund Burke 270

Anglo-Irish statesman 1729–1797

Related quotes

“If it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Attributed to Edmund Burke, to William Gerard Hamilton, to George Bernard Shaw, to John F. Kennedy (who quoted it) and to Benjamin Disraeli, it was actually said by Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland in a speech in the House of Commons on 1641-11-22.
Misattributed

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1970s and later

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“Change is not merely necessary to life - it is life.”

Alvin Toffler (1928–2016) American writer

“Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary.”

Viktor E. Frankl book Man's Search for Meaning

Source: Man's Search for Meaning

“When a change occurs in Nature, the quantity of action necessary for that change is as small as possible.”

Pierre Louis Maupertuis (1698–1759) French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters

Les Loix du Mouvement et du Repos, déduites d'un Principe Métaphysique (1746)

“Art is necessary in order that man should be able to recognize and change the world. But art is also necessary by virtue of the magic inherent in it.”

Ernst Fischer (1899–1972) Austrian literature historian, publicist and writer

The Necessity of Art: A Marxist Approach (1965), Penguin Books, translated by Anna Bostock.

“Regret is only necessary as the only way to change us into a better person.”

Titon Rahmawan

“In order to change a way of thinking, it is necessary to undergo profound internal changes and to witness profound external changes, especially in the performance of our duties and obligations to society.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

On Revolutionary Medicine (1960)

“Unless we change ourselves as individuals and our culture—the way we relate to the earth—we can’t expect to make the overall changes in society that our necessary.”

John Bellamy Foster (1953) Sociology professor and Marxist writer

Interview with Left Voice (2017)

Related topics

Change