Variant: A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
“He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.”
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
Everybody's Political What's What? (ebook, must be borrowed) https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24979564M/Everybody's_political_what's_what (1944), Chapter XXXVII: Creed and Conduct, p. 330
1940s and later
Variant: Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
Context: Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. Creeds, articles, and institutes of religious faith ossify our brains and make change impossible. As such they are nuisances, and in practice have to be mostly ignored.
“Things won't change unless you change you.”
Source: How to Fall in Love
“Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs.”
Attributed to Ben-Gurion in A Call to Action : The Handbook to Unite and Ignite America's Betrayed and Imperiled Public (2004) by A. T. Theodore, p. 6, but earlier published as a saying of unknown authorship in Uncommon Sense : The World's Fullest Compendium of Wisdom (1987) by Joseph Telushkin, p. 204
Disputed
“There's nothing Trump can do that won't be forgiven, except change his immigration policies.”
2016, In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome! (2016)
As quoted in "‘Tigertail’s Tzi Ma Transcends Role As Hollywood’s Go-To Asian Father To Become Trailblazing Icon" in Deadline (8 April 2020) https://deadline.com/2020/04/tzi-ma-tigertail-asian-american-hollywood-diversity-inclusion-representation-1202900973/
“AALST (n.) One who changes his name to be further to the front.”
Appears as the first entry of the book.
The Meaning of Liff (1983)
Compare Galileo, "...for my part I consider the earth very noble and admirable precisely because of the diverse alterations, changes, generations, etc. that occur in it incessantly. If, not being subject to any changes... I should deem it a useless lump in the universe, devoid of activity and, in a word, superfluous and essentially non-existent." Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632)
Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.12
