Quotes about change
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“A real change towards a better environment can only begin with better design available for everyone, everywhere. Until the government realises this and provides adequate legislation and funding, we need to do this pro bono – free for the public good.”

Jiri Lev (1979)

Source: The Australian Architects Offering Pro-Bono Design Services to Bushfire Survivors https://hivelife.com/architects-assist/.

“I lift my heart as spring lifts up
A yellow daisy to the rain;
My heart will be a lovely cup
Altho' it holds but pain.

For I shall learn from flower and leaf
That color every drop they hold,
To change the lifeless wine of grief
To living gold.”

Sara Teasdale Rivers to the Sea

"Alchemy"
Rivers to the Sea (1915)

Love, Pain, Making love, Color

“War is the greatest of all agents of change. It speeds up all processes, wipes out minor distinctions, brings realities to the surface.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Part III : The English Revolution, § II
The Lion and the Unicorn (1941)

War, Reality, Speed

“Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Source: Speech at a Republican Banquet, Chicago, Illinois, December 10, 1856 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln2/1:413?rgn=div1;view=fulltext; see Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953), p. 532

“You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future.”

Karen Blixen (1885–1962) Danish writer

Past, Future

“I can't change the way I am… but if I offended you, good, 'cause I still don't give a fuck!”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Still Don't Give A Fuck"
1990s, The Slim Shady LP (1999)

Way

“The women who changed the world never needed to show anything other than their own intelligence.”

Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012) Italian neurologist

Source: Cited in Addio a Rita Levi Montalcini, scienziata e donna straordinaria http://www.panorama.it/scienza/rita-levi-montalcini-morta/, Panorama.it, 30 dicembre 2012.

Women, World, Intelligence

“It is not enough to just think about the changes one would wish to see around oneself, when putting a positive and compassionate thought into action could make all the difference in the world.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

World, Thinking

“Unlike a precious diamond whose form, luster and beauty never change over decades, relationships are altered by the evolution of traversing life. These alterations within us include both the ascension and diminution of physical and mental capabilities.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1991

Life, Beauty

“Gettin' to the cake now
All the hate don't phase me
All the money that I make now
I'll never let it change me”

Lil Peep (1996–2017) American rapper

Source: Song Benz Truck

Money, Hate

“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.”

Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American motivational speaker

Life, Chance

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”

Johnny Carson (1925–2005) American talk show host and magician

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

A comment he made in persuading John Sculley to become Apple's CEO, as quoted in Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple: A Journey of Adventure, Ideas, and the Future (1987) by John Sculley and John A. Byrne
1980s

Life, World, Water, Chance

“At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

“Things can change in a day.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

“And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. I would not change it.”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Source: As You Like It

Life, Books, Tree

“Make ethical choices in what we buy, do, and watch. In a consumer-driven society our individual choices, used collectively for the good of animals and nature, can change the world faster than laws.”

Marc Bekoff (1945) American biologist

Source: Animals Matter: A Biologist Explains Why We Should Treat Animals with Compassion and Respect

World, Law, Nature, Animals

“A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape of the universe, helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him.”

Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) Welsh poet and writer

World, Knowledge, Reality, Universe

“A person doesn't have to change who he is to become better.”

Sidney Poitier book The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

Source: The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

Personality

“I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Friendship, For Friend

“Change your conception of yourself and you will automatically change the world in which you live. Do not try to change people; they are only messengers telling you who you are. Revalue yourself and they will confirm the change.”

Neville Goddard (1905–1972) American author and lecturer

Source: Your Faith is Your Fortune

People, World

“Literature is indispensable to the world. The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way a person looks at reality, then you can change it.”

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

People, World, Way, Literature

“Ducking for apples -- change one letter and it's the story of my life.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Life

“Forgive but do not forget, or you will be hurt again. Forgiving changes the perspectives. Forgetting loses the lesson.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Forgiveness, Hurt, Forgetting

“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

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

"As Much Truth As One Can Bear" in The New York Times Book Review (14 January 1962); republished in The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings (2011), edited by Randall Kenan
Context: Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. … Most of us are about as eager to change as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.

Powerful

“If you realize that you're the problem, then you can change yourself, learn something and grow wiser. Don't blame other people for your problems.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki book Rich Dad Poor Dad

Source: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

People, Problem, Learning

“That book taught me that by reading, I could live more intensely. It could give me back the sight I had lost. For that reason alone, a book that didn't matter to anyone changed my life.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

Life, Books, Reading

“Living systems are never in equilibrium. They are inherently unstable. They may seem stable, but they’re not. Everything is moving and changing. In a sense, everything is on the edge of collapse.”

Michael Crichton book Jurassic Park

Source: Jurassic Park

Sense

“Change your attitude, but remain natural.”

Pema Chödron (1936) American philosopher

Always Maintain a Joyful Mind: And Other <i>Lojong</i> Teachings on Awakening Compassion and Fearlessness

Nature

“I see again my schoolroom in Vyra, the blue roses of the wallpaper, the open window.… Everything is as it should be, nothing will ever change, nobody will ever die.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Speak, Memory

Source: Speak, Memory

“The biggest changes in a women's nature are brought by love; in man, by ambition”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath

Love, Women, Nature

“You think that would have changed things? The answer is of course, and for a while, and never.”

Alice Munro book Too Much Happiness

Source: Too Much Happiness

Thinking

“We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Time

“There can be no life without change, and to be afraid of what is different or unfamiliar is to be afraid of life.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

Life

“You're hurt because everything is changed. Jimmy is hurt because everything is the same. And neither of you can face it. Something's gone wrong somewhere, hasn't it?”

John Osborne Look Back in Anger

Source: Look Back in Anger

Hurt

“There are two kinds of pain: the pain of change and the pain of never changing and remaining the same.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Beauty for Ashes: Receiving Emotional Healing

Pain

“Passion is the love of turning being into action. It fuels the engine of creation. It changes concepts to experience…. Never deny passion, for that is to deny Who You Are, and Who You Truly Want To Be.”

Neale Donald Walsch (1943) American writer

Love, Passion

“Books can truly change our lives: the lives of those who read them, the lives of those who write them. Readers and writers alike discover things they never knew about the world and about themselves.”

Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) American children's writer

Source: Time Cat

Books, World, Reading

“If you wish to be happy, Eragon, Think not of what is to come nor of that which you have no control over but rather of the now and that which you are able to change”

Christopher Paolini book Brisingr

Source: Brisingr

Happiness, Thinking

“We all leave one another. We die, we change - it's mostly change - we outgrow our best friends; but even if I do leave you, I will have passed on to you something of myself; you will be a different person because of knowing me; it's inescapable…”

Edna O'Brien (1930) Novelist, memoirist, biographer, playwright, poet and short story writer

Source: Girl with Green Eyes

Personality

“God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book Zorba the Greek

Source: Zorba the Greek

God, Appearance

“Why did I hope we would be happy abroad? A change of environment is that traditional fallacy upon which doomed loves, and lungs, rely.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita

Variant: A change of environment is the traditional fallacy upon which doomed loves, and lungs, rely.
Source: Lolita

Love, Happiness, Hope

“The significant relationships of early adulthood are thus construed as the means to an end of individual achievement, and these "transitional figures" must be cast off or reconstructed following the realization of success. If in the process, however, they become, like Dido, an impediment to the fulfillment of the Dream, then the relationship must be renounced, "to allow the developmental process" to continue. This process is defined by Levinson explicitly as one of individuation: "throughout the life cycle, but especially in the key transition periods… the developmental process of individuation is going on." The process refers "to the changes in a person's relationships to himself and to the external world," the relationships that constitute his "Life Structure" (p. 195).

If in the course of "Becoming One's Own Man," this structure is discovered to be flawed and threatens the great expectations of the Dream, then in order to avert "serious Failure or Decline," the man must "break out" to salvage his Dream. This act of breaking out is consummated by a "marker event" of separation, such as "leaving his wife, quitting his job, or moving to another region" (p. 206). Thus the road to mid-life salvation runs through either achievement or separation.”

Carol Gilligan (1936) American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist

Source: In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development

Life, World, Dreams, Failure

“All things are defined by names. Change the name, and you change the thing.”

Terry Pratchett book Pyramids

Source: Pyramids

“You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. But it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

“Change is neither good nor bad, but knowledge is always useful.”

Christopher Paolini book Inheritance

Source: Inheritance (2011)

Knowledge

“Most of the dandelions had changed from suns into moons.”

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor

Sun

“We don't ask you to believe in our ability to bring change, rather, we ask you to believe in yours.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

“Our thoughts are clay, they are moulded with the changes of the days;--when we are resting they are good; under fire, they are dead. Fields of craters within and without.”

Erich Maria Remarque book All Quiet on the Western Front

Source: All Quiet on the Western Front

Dead

“What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.”

Maya Angelou book Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

Source: Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

Way, Thinking

“Although random mutations influenced the course of evolution, their influence was mainly by loss, alteration, and refinement… Never, however, did that one mutation make a wing, a fruit, a woody stem, or a claw appear. Mutations, in summary, tend to induce sickness, death, or deficiencies. No evidence in the vast literature of heredity changes shows unambiguous evidence that random mutation itself, even with geographical isolation of populations, leads to speciation.”

Lynn Margulis (1938–2011) American evolutionary biologist

Source: Acquiring Genomes: A Theory Of The Origin Of Species

Death, Literature, Appearance, Loss

“Things do not grow better; they remain as they are. It is we who grow better, by the changes we make in ourselves.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

“And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees
and changing leaves.”

Virginia Woolf book To the Lighthouse

Source: To the Lighthouse

Tree, Beauty

“Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón (1964) Spanish writer

Books, Time

“… the three things I cannot change are the past, the truth, and you.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers

Truth, Past

“If all the evidence in the universe turned in favour of creationism, I would be the first to admit it, and I would immediately change my mind. As things stand, however, all available evidence (and there is a vast amount of it) favours evolution.”

Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion

Source: The God Delusion

Universe

“Having totality means being capable of following "what is," because "what is" is constantly moving and constantly changing. If one is anchored to a particular view, one will not be able to follow the swift movement of "what is.”

Bruce Lee book Tao of Jeet Kune Do

Source: Tao of Jeet Kune Do

“It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.”

Miles Davis (1926–1991) American jazz musician

“For the world was changing, and sweetness was gone, and virtue too. Worry had crept on a corroding world, and what was lost- good manners, ease and beauty? Ladies were not ladies anymore, and you couldn't trust a gentleman's word.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

World, Beauty

“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

The universe is flux, life is opinion.
The universe is transformation: life is opinion. (Long translation)
ὁ κόσμος ἀλλοίωσις, ὁ βίος ὑπόληψις.
IV, 3
Variant: Our life is what our thoughts make it.
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV

Life, Universe, Cute

“It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

“Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), X Studies and Sketches for Pictures and Decorations

Star

“New lesson, class. Most monsters will vaporize when sliced with a celestial bronze sword. This change is perfectly normal, and will happen to you right now if you don't BACK OFF!" - Percy”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

“Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different.”

Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand author

Quoted in A. R. Orage, "Talks with Katherine Mansfield at Fontainebleau," http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:XAR4yD3zcOIJ:www.gurdjieff-bibliography.com/Current/KM_07_2006_02_ORAGE_Talks_with_KM.doc The Century Magazine (November 1924) <br class="br">Context: Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had undergone a change of attitude.

Life

“Reality is harsh. It can be cruel and ugly. Yet no matter how much we grieve over our environment and circumstances nothing will change. What is important is not to be defeated, to forge ahead bravely. If we do this, a path will open before us.”

Daisaku Ikeda (1928) Japanese writer

Reality

“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order.”

Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English mathematician and philosopher

1920s, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (1929)

Art

“Don't ask the world to change — you change first.”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

"The Death of Me", p. 151
Awareness (1992)
Source: Awareness: Conversations with the Masters
Context: Don't ask the world to change — you change first. Then you'll get a good enough look at the world so that you'll be able to change whatever you think ought to be changed. Take the obstruction out of your own eye. If you don't you have lost the right to change anyone or anything. Till you are aware of yourself, you have no right to interfere with anyone else or with the world.

World

“I will not be "famous," "great." I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped. The thing is to free one's self: to let it find its dimensions, not be impeded.”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

Source: A Writer's Diary

“But it's also true that the person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing. All we know about the future is that it will be different. But perhaps what we fear is that it will be the same. So we must celebrate the changes.”

Deborah Moggach (1948) English writer

Fear, Future, Personality

“People don't like change. But make the change fast enough and you go from one type of normal to another.”

Terry Pratchett book Making Money

Source: Making Money

People

“What you tolerate you can not change”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

“I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Variant: I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Thinking, Time