It is in changing that things find purpose.
—Heraclitus (535BCE–475BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels.
The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them.
Disagree with them. Glorify, or villify them.
But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things. They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world, are the ones who do.
—Unknown
The world is quite right. It does not have to be consistent.
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American Feminist, Writer
The lapse of ages changes all things—time, language, the earth, the bounds of the sea, the stars of the sky, and every thing “about, around, and underneath” man, except man himself.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the The Past education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.
—Chuck Swindoll (b.1934) American Evangelical Christian Pastor, Author
With me a change of trouble is as good as a vacation.
—David Lloyd George (1863–1945) British Liberal Statesman
It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean. For those who do not think, it is best at least to rearrange their prejudices once in a while.
—Luther Burbank (1849–1926) American Botanist, Scientist
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
Long absence changes friends.
—French Proverb
The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Aristotle said, ‘Time does not exist except for change.’ The origin of the word change is the Old English cambium, which means “to become”. In other words, time does not exist except for becoming something new. What, exactly, are you choosing to become?
—Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat
The Work reveals that what you think shouldn’t have happened should have happened. It should happened because it did, and no thinking in the world can change it. This doesn’t mean that you condone it or approve of it. It just means that you can see things without resistance and without the confusion of your inner struggle. No one wants their children to get sick, no one wants to be in a car accident; but when these things happen, how can it be helpful to mentally argue with them? We know better than to do that, yet we do it, because we don’t know how to stop.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Change is the end result of all true learning. Change involves three things: First, a dissatisfaction with self—a felt void or need; second, a decision to change to fill the void or need; and third, a conscious dedication to the process of growth and change—the willful act of making the change, doing something.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
All personal breakthroughs being with a change in beliefs. So how do we change? The most effective way is to get your brain to associate massive pain to the old belief. You must feel deep in your gut that not only has this belief cost you pain in the past, but it’s costing you in the present and, ultimately, can only bring you pain in the future. Then you must associate tremendous pleasure to the idea of adopting a new, empowering belief.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Albert Einstein when asked what he considered to be the most powerful force in the universe answered: Compound interest! What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
That’s the risk you take if you change: that people you’ve been involved with won’t like the new you. But other people who do will come along.
—Lisa Alther (b.1944) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Let no one be ashamed to say yes today if yesterday he said no. Or to say no today if yesterday he said yes. For that is life. Never to have changed-what a pitiable thing of which to boast.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The slightest living thing answers a deeper need than all the works of man because it is transitory. It has an evanescence of life, or growth, or change: it passes, as we do, from one stage to another, from darkness to darkness, into a distance where we, too, vanish out of sight. A work of art is static; and its value and its weakness lie in being so: but the tuft of grass and the clouds above it belong to our own traveling brotherhood.
—Freya Stark (1893–1993) British Explorer, Writer
The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.
—Nathaniel Branden (1930–2014) American Psychotherapist
Where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali Poet, Polymath
At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope that it can be done, then they see that it can be done—then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.
—Frances Hodgson Burnett (1879–1958) British Novelist, Playwright
The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.
—James Baldwin (1924–87) American Novelist, Social Critic
Early in life, I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance, and have seen no occasion to change.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be, by remaining what we are.
—Max De Pree (1924–2017) American Businessman
Our being is continually undergoing and entering upon changes … We must, strictly speaking, at every moment give each other up and let each other go and not hold each other back.
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian Poet
It is important to do what you don’t know how to do. It is important to see your skills as keeping you from learning what is deepest and most mysterious. If you know how to focus, unfocus. If your tendency is to make sense out of chaos, start chaos.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today… Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
When people shake their heads because we are living in a restless age, ask them how they would like to life in a stationary one, and do without change.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
We are chameleons, and our partialities and prejudices change place with an easy and blessed facility, and we are soon wonted to the change and happy in it.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) American Martial Artist, Actor, Philosopher
Life may change, but it may fly not; Hope may vanish, but can die not; Truth be veiled, but still it burneth; Love repulsed,—but it returneth.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
Everything is changing. People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
The spectacle has changed, but our eyes remain the same.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
—Warren Buffett (b.1930) American Investor
True life is lived when tiny changes occur.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
He that has energy enough in his constitution to root out a vice should go a little farther, and try to plant a virtue in its place, otherwise he will have his labor to renew; a strong soil that has produced weeds, may be made to produce wheat with far less difficulty than it would cost to make it produce nothing.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Some people change their ways when they see the light; others when they feel the heat.
—Caroline Schoeder American Aphorist
Engendering behavior change can be far more difficult than we might imagine. In some cases, the person [trying to change] simply doesn’t have the self-discipline to habituate it.
—Marty Nemko (b.1950) American Career Coach
If you want to make enemies, try to change something.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.
—John Dewey (1859–1952) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Educator
The world will change for the better when people decide they are sick and tired of being sick and tired of the way the world is, and decide to change themselves.
—Sidney Madwed (1926–2013) American Poet, Author
He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
In describing today
—Alvin Toffler (1928–2016) American Writer, Futurist
As the great Confucius said, “The one who would be in constant happiness must frequently change”. Flow. But we keep looking back, don’t we? We cling to things in the past and cling to things in the present…Do you want to enjoy a symphony? Don’t hold on to a few bars of the music. Don’t hold on to a couple of notes. Let them pass, let them flow. The whole enjoyment of a symphony lies in your readiness to allow the notes to pass…
—Anthony de Mello (1931–87) Indian-born American Theologian
There is nothing in this world constant but inconstancy.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
Such is the state of life that none are happy but by the anticipation of change. The change itself is nothing. When we have made it, the next wish is to change again.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist