Quotes about change
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“As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching.”

Carter G. Woodson book The Mis-Education of the Negro

Source: The Mis-Education of the Negro

“Drugs age you after mental excitement. Lethargy then. Why? Reaction. A lifetime in a night. Gradually changes your character.”

James Joyce Ulysses

Source: Ulysses

Age, Night

“We are not created equal in talent. But the place where we are least equal is the heart. You can work at a talent, take lessons, but love, love either works or it doesn't. You love someone or you don't. You can't change it. You can't undo it.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book A Lick of Frost

Source: A Lick of Frost

Love, Heart

“Sometimes something catastrophic can occur in a split second that changes a person's life forever; other times one minor incident can lead to another and then another and another, eventually setting off just as big a change in a body's life.”

Jeannette Walls book Half Broke Horses

Source: Half Broke Horses

Life, Time, Personality

“We don't go to the ocean for anything as simple as happiness, do we? We
go there to feel alive. Like life, the ocean holds chance and change, grief and terror and beauty. It promises mortality, not peace.”

Eileen Wilks Tempting Danger

Source: Tempting Danger

Life, Happiness, Peace, Beauty

“And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

Time, Personality

“An incentive is a bullet, a key: an often tiny object with astonishing power to change a situation”

Steven D. Levitt (1967) American economist

Source: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

“True happiness comes not when we get rid of all of our problems, but when we change our relationship to them, when we see our problems as a potential source of awakening, opportunities to practice, and to learn.”

Richard Carlson (1961–2006) Author, psychotherapist and motivational speaker

Source: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and it's all small stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life

Happiness, Problem, Learning

“Sometimes,' Jem said, 'our lives can change so fast that the change outpaces our minds and hearts. It's those times, I think, when our lives have altered but we still long for the time before everything was altered.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Thinking, Time, Heart

“People die… so love them every day.
Beauty fades… so look before it's gone.
Love changes… but not the love you give.
And if you love, you'll never be alone.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Witchlight

Love, People, Beauty

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

World, Thinking, Deep

“I've come to believe that in everyone's life, there's one undeniable moment of change, a set of circumstances that suddenly alters everything.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

Life

“The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.”

Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Men, World, Behavior, Nature

“I hate change more than almost anything.”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Hate

“We have been told over and over that "you can't change human nature", but the study of emic realities shows quite the contrary, that almost anything can become "human nature" if society defines it as such.”

Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) American author and polymath

Nature, Reality, Study

“If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Motivational, Happy, Attitude, Powerful

“Education doesn't change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Variant: Education doesn't change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard.

Life, Education

“But intolerant, narrow minds with no imagination are like parasites that transform the host, change form, and continue to thrive. They're a lost cause, and I don't want anyone like that coming in here.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Imagination

“My eyes are vague blue, like the sky, and change all the time; they are indiscriminate but fleeting, entirely specific and disloyal, so that no one trusts me. I am always looking away. Or again at something after it has given me up.”

Frank O'Hara book Meditations in an Emergency (book)

Source: Meditations in an Emergency

Time

“Now is a time for change, a time to become the greatest version of yourself. And a time to to make your grandest vision of the world.”

Ilchi Lee (1950) South Korean businessman

World, Time

“Kindness eases change
Love quiets fear”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Talents

Source: Parable of the Talents

Love, Fear

“You are an endless project… changing, evolving, surprising.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

“Here's what I think: the five most
unattractive traits in people are cheapness, clinginess, neediness, unwillingness to change and
jealousy. Jealousy is the worst, and by far the hardest to conceal.”

Douglas Coupland Hey Nostradamus!

Source: Hey Nostradamus!

People, Jealousy, Thinking

“Writers and artists build by hand little worlds that they hope might effect change in real minds, in the real world where stories are read. A story can make us cry and laugh, break our hearts, or make us angry enough to change the world.”

Grant Morrison (1960) writer

Source: Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human

World, Hope, Reading, Heart

“A kind of light spread out from her. And everything changed color. And the world opened out. And a day was good to awaken to. And there were no limits to anything. And the people of the world were good and handsome. And I was not afraid any more.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

People, World, Color, Light

“Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test… You will be tested by major changes, delayed promises, impossible problems, unanswered prayers, undeserved criticism, and even senseless tragedies.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

Life, Problem

“people don't change, they just have momentary steps outside of their true character”

Chad Kultgen (1976) American writer

Source: The Lie

People

“To keep our faces toward change, and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate, is strength undefeatable.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Fate, Powerful

“But every once in a while, from out of the blue, someone reaches the quiet place where you spend your private time and changes the way you see yourself”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Avenged

Way, Time

“There are moments in every girl’s life that are bigger than we know at the time. When you look back, you say, that was one of those life-changing,
fork-in-the-road moments and I didn’t even see it coming. I had no idea.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

Life, Girl, Idea, Time

“Things change all the time, mostly in little ways.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Way, Time

“What’s the good of being true to your religion on the outside, if you don’t change what’s on the inside, were it really counts?”

Randa Abdel-Fattah (1979) contemporary Australian writer of novels for young adults

Source: Does My Head Look Big In This?

Religion

“There is nothing so stable as change.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

“There was both love and despair in his voice.
He was truly handicapped when it came to emotions, and falling in love hadn't changed that…”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Unleashed

Love, Despair

“You've changed me, she thought. Not just showing me that boys aren't all pond scum. You've made me different, made me look at the broader picture. Given me vision.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Dark Visions

Boy

“We should not accept an evil we can change.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Variant: Do not accept an evil you can change.
Source: We Were Liars

Evil

“Change is good but dollars are better.
- Tara daniels”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: The Sweetest Thing

“We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up to the idea that a good building can change your life (and a bad one ruin it).”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Life, Idea

“The truth is that the first changes are so slow they pass almost unnoticed, and you go on seeing yourself as you always were, from the inside, but others observe you from the outside.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Truth

“Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Past, Future

“I can't believe that I changed so little. I expected to look old and hollow and gray, but I guess it's only me on the inside that has shriveled and deteriorated.”

Beatrice Sparks (1917–2012) American writer

Source: Go Ask Alice

“Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal. Only styles change.”

Martin Amis book Time's Arrow

Source: Time's Arrow

“It's not what you will get out of the books that is so enriching - it is what the books will get out of you that will ultimately change your life”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Source: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams Reaching Your Destiny

Life, Books

“If nothing ever changed, there would be no such things as butterflies.”

Wendy Mass (1967) American children's writer

Source: The Candymakers

“I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Catherine Earnshaw (Ch. IX).
Source: Wuthering Heights (1847)

Life, Dreams, Idea, Water

“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them”

Denis Waitley (1933) American writer

Life, Back To Work

“That's the funny thing about old hurts- they just wait for new heartache to come along and then show up, just as sharp and horrible as the first day you woke up with the world changed all around you.”

Lilith Saintcrow book Strange Angels

Source: Strange Angels

World, Waiting, Hurt, Heartbreaking

“If grace is so wonderful, why do we have such difficulty recognizing and accepting it? Maybe it's because grace is not gentle or made-to-order. It often comes disguised as loss, or failure, or unwelcome change.”

Kathleen Norris (1880–1966) American writer

Failure, Loss

“No summer ever came back, and no two summers ever were alike. Times change, and people change; and if our hearts do not change as readily, so much the worse for us.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Blithedale Romance

Source: The Blithedale Romance

People, Time, Heart, Summer

“Real love changes and grows with time and discovers new ways of expressing itself.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die

Love, Way, Time

“So many of us find ourselves saying, “but he was so great!” Yes, and the people who got on the Titanic thought they were going on vacation. Things changed and it’s important to remember that they did.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Source: It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken: The Smart Girl's Break-Up Buddy

People

“After telling the hard facts to anyone from lover to friend, I have changed in their eyes. Often it is awe or admiration, sometimes it is repulsion, once or twice it has been fury hurled directly at me for reasons I remain unsure of.”

Alice Sebold book Lucky

Source: Lucky

Lovers

“Is it a crime when you love someone so much that you can't stand the thought of them changing? Is it a crime when you love someone so much that you can't see clearly?”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

Love

“Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety.”

James Baldwin book Nobody Knows My Name

Source: "Faulkner and Desegregation" in Partisan Review (Fall 1956); republished in Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son (1961)
Context: Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety. And at such a moment, unable to see and not daring to imagine what the future will now bring forth, one clings to what one knew, or dreamed that one possessed. Yet, it is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self-pity, to surrender a dream he has long cherished or a privilege he has long possessed that he is set free — he has set himself free — for higher dreams, for greater privileges.

World, Loss

“Things are always different than what they might be… If you wait for them to change, you will never do anything.”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

Source: The Portrait of a Lady

Waiting

“I thought the morning would bring change. But I should have known that it doesn't take that long for change to happen - it takes a second. A moment. In a single breath, reality as you know it can simply fall away.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: United We Spy

Reality

“She had changed him. The ice was in his eyes and in his heart, like he had predicted with that song, but now they were deep embedded there, all the pain of the world. Not pain to make you feel for somebody else but pain to make you stop feeling.”

Francesca Lia Block (1962) American children's writer

Source: The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold

Pain, World, Feeling, Heart

“Can't say it often enough - change your hair, change your life.”

Thomas Pynchon book Inherent Vice

Source: Inherent Vice

Life

“If you want to change the world, you have to change the metaphor.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

World

“When you lose your parents, the sadness doesn't go away. It just changes. It hits you sideways sometimes instead of head-on. Like now.”

Jude Watson book In Too Deep

Source: In Too Deep

Sadness, Parent

“People are the most difficult thing in the world to change”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Oh My Goth

People, World

“Em, I am trying to have an important conversation!" shouted Seylin. "I will not change into a cat!”

Clare B. Dunkle (1964) American writer

Source: Close Kin

Cats

“The world is what YOU think of it, so think of it DIFFERENTLY and your life will change.”

Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer

Source: Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

Life, World, Thinking

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Truth

“That a man can change himself…and master his own destiny is the conclusion of every mind who is wide-awake to the power of right thought.”(Christian D. Larson)”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

“Agonies are one of my changes of garments.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

Source: Leaves of Grass: The First (1855) Edition

“Everything in the gospel teaches us that we can change if we need to, that we can be helped if we truly want it, that we can be made whole, whatever the problems of the past.”

Jeffrey R. Holland (1940) Mormon leader

Source: Created for Greater Things

Problem, Past, Help

“You write in order to change the world… if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

People, World, Way, Reality

“Something did happen to me somewhere that robbed me of confidence and courage and left me with a fear of discovery and change and a positive dread of everything unknown that may occur.”

Joseph Heller book Something Happened

Source: Something Happened

Fear, Confidence, Courage

“Change is painful. Few people have the courage to seek out change. Most people won’t change until the pain of where they are exceeds the pain of change.”

Dave Ramsey (1960) American financial advisor

Source: The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness

Pain, People, Courage

“To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.”

Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

“It’s never something huge that changes the everything, but instead the tiniest of details, irrevocably tweaking the balance of the universe while you’re busy focusing on the big picture.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

Business, Universe

“When he sat alone in the darkness and cried and was done, all done with it, nothing had changed. His leg still hurt, it was still dark, he was still alone and the self-pity had accomplished nothing.”

Gary Paulsen book Hatchet

Source: Hatchet

Hurt

“They're afraid of change, and we must change. They're afraid of the young, and we are the young. They're afraid of music, and music is our life. They're afraid of books, and knowledge, and ideas. They're most afraid of our magic.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Witch & Wizard

Life, Books, Music, Idea

“The past is the past. You cannot change it, but you can learn from it.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Learning, Past

“People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love (2006)
Context: People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.
A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then leave.
A soul mates purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master…

Life, People, Soul, Thinking

“Sometimes carrying the burden of an upsetting truth, and hiding it, is actually a gift you give to someone else. You bear that burden, so they don’t have to, in a situation where telling them will change nothing.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Truth

“Sometimes you met someone that changed the pattern, who wormed their way past the cracks in your heart, caulked them up, sealed themselves in, and stayed there. Sometimes they did it by insisting you meet them at every step, as Jamie had done to me.”

Diana Peterfreund (1979) American writer

Source: Tap & Gown

Way, Past, Heart

“I felt a wish never to leave that room - a wish that dawn might never come, that my present frame of mind might never change.”

Leo Tolstoy book Family Happiness

Source: Family Happiness

“Change is hardest at the beginning, messiest in the middle and best at the end.”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Source: The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life

“I love you only because it's you the one I love;
I hate you deeply, and hating you
Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Love, Hate

“I never change, I simply become more myself.”

Joyce Carol Oates (1938) American author

Source: Solstice

“I don’t expend my energy trying to fight the change of seasons. I focus on making sure the days I have, and the season I oversee, are as joyful, rich, and plentiful as possible.”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

Fight, Season

“So please don't think that I am renouncing anything, I am reasonably faithful in my unfaithfulness and though I have changed, I am the same, and what preys on my mind is simply this one question: what am I good for, could I not be of service or use in some way, how can I become more knowledgeable and study some subject or other in depth?”

Vincent Van Gogh book The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

1880s, 1880, Letter to Theo (Cuesmes, July 1880)
Source: The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
Context: So please don't think that I am renouncing anything, I am reasonably faithful in my unfaithfulness and though I have changed, I am the same, and what preys on my mind is simply this one question: what am I good for, could I not be of service or use in some way, how can I become more knowledgeable and study some subject or other in depth? That is what keeps preying on my mind, you see, and then one feels imprisoned by poverty, barred from taking part in this or that project and all sorts of necessities are out of one's reach. As a result one cannot rid oneself of melancholy, one feels emptiness where there might have been friendship and sublime and genuine affection, and one feels dreadful disappointment gnawing at one's spiritual energy, fate seems to stand in the way of affection or one feels a wave of disgust welling up inside. And then one says “How long, my God!”

Unfaithfulness, Faith, Way, Question