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Quotes about change

166 quotes from 131 people

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Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.
Charles Dickens1812–1870Great Expectations (1861), Chapter IXIn context
- Life & Death
Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but⁠—I hope⁠—into a better shape.
Charles Dickens1812–1870Great Expectations (1861), Chapter LIXIn context
- Experience
Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.
Mark Twain1835–1910The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Chapter VIn context
To-day we love what to-morrow we hate; to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what to-morrow we fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of.
Daniel Defoe1660–1731Robinson Crusoe (1719), Chapter XIIn context
- Emotion
There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change.
H. G. Wells1866–1946The Time Machine (1895), Chapter XIIIIn context
- Intelligence
Man grows used to everything, the scoundrel!
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881Crime and Punishment (1867), Part I, Chapter IIIn context
- Character
But that is the beginning of a new story⁠—the story of the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from one world into another, of his initiation into a new unknown life. That might be the subject of a new story, but our present story is ended.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881Crime and Punishment (1867), Epilogue, Chapter IIIn context
Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap.
Hermann Hesse1877–1962Steppenwolf (1927), PrefaceIn context
- History
I tell you: one must still have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–1885), First Part, Zarathustra’s PrologueIn context
- Inspiration
Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.
William Shakespeare1564–1616King Lear (c. 1606), Act I, Scene IV, spoken by AlbanyIn context
Full fathom five thy father lies.
Of his bones are coral made.
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
William Shakespeare1564–1616The Tempest (c. 1611), Act I, Scene II, spoken by ArielIn context
- Life & Death
A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Much Ado About Nothing (c. 1598), Act II, Scene III, spoken by BenedickIn context
- Age
Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.
John Milton1608–1674Paradise Lost (1667), Book XIIIn context
- Hope
Remember, that to change thy mind upon occasion, and to follow him that is able to rectify thee, is equally ingenuous, as to find out at the first, what is right and just, without help.
Marcus Aurelius121–180Meditations (c. 170–180), The Eighth BookIn context
- Wisdom
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things, because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.
Niccolò Machiavelli1469–1527The Prince (1532), Chapter VIIn context
- Leadership