Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist
Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist
Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography
“Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer
John Cassian (360–435) Christian monk and theologian
The Conferences V.2 ( online http://books.google.com/books?id=k3CrvJJZkqEC&pg=PA44)
Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter
Last Call
Lyrics, The College Dropout (2004)
Jeff Tweedy (1967) musician
Interviewed in 2004 http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,65688,00.html
Lionel Messi (1987) Argentine association football player
Interview with CONMEBOL, 2015 http://www.conmebol.com/en/04132015-2140/messi-being-father-has-helped-me-grow-and-think-life-there-are-other-things-besides
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
Written by copywriter Aimee Lehto for a series of Adidas ads in which this was superimposed over stills of various figures, including Muhammad Ali. Documented by Quote Investigator https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/28/impossible-is/. <br class="br">Misattributed
Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…
This quotation's origin is actually unknown, however it is not found in the Dao De Jing.
生命是一连串的自发的自然变化。逆流而动只会徒增伤悲。接受现实,万物自然循着规律发展。
Misattributed
Variant: Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them — that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) American artist
In 'Possibilities', Vol. 1, no 1, winter 1947-48, p. 79; as quoted in Jackson Pollock (1983) by Elizabeth Frank, p. 68
1940's
Ben Shapiro (1984) American journalist and attorney
As quoted in Ben Shapiro, a Provocative ‘Gladiator,’ Battles to Win Young Conservatives https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/us/ben-shapiro-conservative.html (November 23, 2017) by Sabrina Tavernise, '.
“When change threatens to rule, then the rules are changed.”
Michael Parenti (1933) American academic
5 MISCELLANY AND MEMORABILIA, Struggles in Academe: A Personal Account, p. 248
Dirty truths (1996), first edition
Henri Bergson book An Introduction to Metaphysics
An Introduction to Metaphysics (1903), translated by T. E. Hulme. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1912, p. 44
Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) American chess prodigy, chess player, and chess writer
Radio Interview, June 27 1999 http://www.geocities.jp/bobbby_b/mp3/F_08_3.MP3 <br class="br">1990s
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Dissenting, Shelby County v. Holder (2013)
“If it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.”
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
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920–1975) Bengali revolutionary, founder ("father") of Bangladesh
Speaking to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in Karachi in 1955 during a debate on whether to adopt the One Unit scheme in Pakistan and divide the country into two provinces- East and West Pakistan. http://www.albd.org/autoalbd/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=111&Itemid=44 <br class="br">Quote, Other
Jack Welch (1935) American executive: General Electric CEO
Source: Jack: Straight from the Gut (2001), Ch. 24.
“Success doesn't change you; fame does.”
Whitney Houston (1963–2012) American singer, actress, model, and record producer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPItgCnamNg
John Galsworthy (1867–1933) English novelist and playwright
Vague Thoughts On Art (1911)
Context: Only out of stir and change is born new salvation. To deny that is to deny belief in man, to turn our backs on courage! It is well, indeed, that some should live in closed studies with the paintings and the books of yesterday — such devoted students serve Art in their own way. But the fresh-air world will ever want new forms. We shall not get them without faith enough to risk the old! The good will live, the bad will die; and tomorrow only can tell us which is which!
“Freedom is the right to question and change the established way of doing things.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
Moscow State University http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1988/053188b.htm (31 May 1988) <br class="br">1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989) <br class="br">Context: Freedom is the right to question and change the established way of doing things. It is the continuous revolution of the marketplace. It is the understanding that allows to recognize shortcomings and seek solutions.
Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty
Translation by Lionel Giles
Source: The Art of War, Chapter XII · Attacking with Fire
“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed”
William H. McRaven (1955) United States admiral
University of Texas at Austin 2014 Commencement Address https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70 <br class="br">Context: If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed... If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. And by the end of the day, that one task completed, will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can't do the little things right, you'll never be able to do the big things right. And if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made, that you made. And a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.
“If you can change people's minds — you can change the world.”
Marina Abramović (1946) Yugoslav-American artist
John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor
Book Sometimes you win Sometimes you Learn
Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer
Designing the Future (2007)
1983
George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist
Source: Review of Hunger and Love by Lionel Britton, in The Adelphi (April 1931)
“we can't change the game but rules can be adjusted”
Josephs Quartzy (1999) Tanzanian actor
Source: Sweetest song I know
T. Harv Eker (1954) American writer
Source: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth
Vladimir Lenin book The State and Revolution
§ 3.4, Essential Works of Lenin (1966), pp. 307-308
Source: The State and Revolution (1917)
“Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.”
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
“People did change, and a change could be a bloom as well as a withering…”
Richard Yates book Revolutionary Road
Source: Revolutionary Road
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist
Source: Kabir, Hajara Muhammad (2010). Northern women development. [Nigeria]. ISBN 978-978-906-469-4. OCLC 890820657 note: 1940s, Male and Female (1949)
Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon
Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence
“People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.”
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), p. 400
“Our ability to adapt is amazing. Our ability to change isn't quite as spectacular.”
Lisa Lutz (1970) US author
Source: The Spellmans Strike Again
“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.”
Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-born American writer
As quoted in The #1 New York Times Bestseller (1992) by John Bear, p. 93
General sources
“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”
John Henry Newman (1801–1890) English cleric and cardinal
Variant: In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.
Source: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), Chapter 1, Section 1, Part 7.
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist
Source: The World Ahead: An Anthropologist Anticipates the Future
“Didn't they realize that the only way to change things was to act?”
Tamora Pierce The Woman Who Rides Like a Man
Source: The Woman Who Rides Like a Man
“[Change is] the only evidence of life.”
Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) British writer
Source: Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder
Carl R. Rogers (1902–1987) American psychologist
Source: On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy
“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”
Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer
Hubert Selby Jr. Requiem for a Dream
Source: Requiem for a Dream
“Sometimes, being true to yourself means changing your mind. Self changes, and you follow.”
Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer
Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration
“Omnia mutantur, nihil interit (everything changes, nothing perishes).”
Variant: All things change; nothing perishes.
Source: Metamorphoses
“Any change, even a change for the better is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.”
Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) English novelist
“My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I'm right.”
Ashleigh Brilliant (1933) American author and cartoonist
“You can suffer the pain of change or suffer remaining the way you are.”
Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker
“I am a fashion person, and fashion is not only about clothes -- it's about all kinds of change”
Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer
“I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest
Source: Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self
“What matters is not to know the world but to change it.”
Frantz Fanon book Black Skin, White Masks
Source: Black Skin, White Masks
“You can’t really change the heart without telling a story.”
Martha C. Nussbaum (1947) American philosopher
Stephen Hawking book Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays
Source: Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays (1993), pp. 133–135.
Context: The ultimate objective test of free will would seem to be: Can one predict the behavior of the organism? If one can, then it clearly doesn't have free will but is predetermined. On the other hand, if one cannot predict the behavior, one could take that as an operational definition that the organism has free will … The real reason why we cannot predict human behavior is that it is just too difficult. We already know the basic physical laws that govern the activity of the brain, and they are comparatively simple. But it is just too hard to solve the equations when there are more than a few particles involved … So although we know the fundamental equations that govern the brain, we are quite unable to use them to predict human behavior. This situation arises in science whenever we deal with the macroscopic system, because the number of particles is always too large for there to be any chance of solving the fundamental equations. What we do instead is use effective theories. These are approximations in which the very large number of particles are replaced by a few quantities. An example is fluid mechanics … I want to suggest that the concept of free will and moral responsibility for our actions are really an effective theory in the sense of fluid mechanics. It may be that everything we do is determined by some grand unified theory. If that theory has determined that we shall die by hanging, then we shall not drown. But you would have to be awfully sure that you were destined for the gallows to put to sea in a small boat during a storm. I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road. … One cannot base one's conduct on the idea that everything is determined, because one does not know what has been determined. Instead, one has to adopt the effective theory that one has free will and that one is responsible for one's actions. This theory is not very good at predicting human behavior, but we adopt it because there is no chance of solving the equations arising from the fundamental laws. There is also a Darwinian reason that we believe in free will: A society in which the individual feels responsible for his or her actions is more likely to work together and survive to spread its values.
“People are crazy and times are strange… I used to care but things have changed”
Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist
Song lyrics, The Essential Bob Dylan (2000), Things Have Changed (recorded 1999)
Variant: I used to care, but things have changed.
Context: People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range,
I used to care, but things have changed.
“You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
“Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world.”
Roald Dahl (1916–1990) British novelist, short story writer, poet, fighter pilot and screenwriter
“Change is the essence of life; be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.”
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) American protestant theologian
“You cannot change what you are, only what you do.”
Philip Pullman book Northern Lights
Source: His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995), Ch. 18 : Fog and Ice
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution
Source: Revolution at the Gates: Selected Writings of Lenin from 1917
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
Source: The Integration of the Personality (1939), p. 285
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
“Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.”
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
Kristin Cast book Marked
Source: Marked