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Quotes about change

166 quotes from 131 people

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Change is the immediate responsibility of each of us, wherever and however we are standing, in whatever arena we choose.
Audre Lorde1934–1992Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), “Learning from the 60s”
- Responsibility
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
The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.
Harold Macmillan1894–1986Speech to the Parliament of South Africa, Cape Town (3 February 1960)
- Politics
Usually when people are sad, they don’t do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.
Malcolm X1925–1965Malcolm X Speaks (1965)
- Anger
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
Nelson Mandela1918–2013Long Walk to Freedom (1995)
Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.
Nelson Mandela1918–2013Inaugural celebration address (1994)
- Hope
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.
Karl Marx1818–1883“Theses on Feuerbach” (1845), Thesis 11, Marx Engels Selected Works,(MESW), Volume I, p. 15
- Philosophy
All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.
Karl Marx1818–1883The Communist Manifesto (1848)In context
We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965The Summing Up (1938), p. 306
- Love
Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965The Razor’s Edge (1943)
- Happiness
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
In my music, I’m trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it’s difficult is because I’m changing all the time.
Charles Mingus1922–1979Statement to Nat Hentoff , as quoted in California Rock, California Sound: The Music of Los Angeles and Southern California (1979) by Anthony Fawcett, p. 56
- Music
How many things served us yesterday for articles of faith, which today are fables for us?
Michel de Montaigne1533–1592Essays, Book I, Ch. 27, It is folly to measure the true and false by our own capacity
- Faith
In a higher world it is otherwise; but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.
John Henry Newman1801–1890An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), Chapter 1, Section 1, p. 39
All becoming and growing⁠—all that guarantees a future⁠—involves pain.
Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900Twilight of the Idols (1889)