Change Quotes

When you talk or write about change, quotes add credibility. Here are a selection of change management references that I have found useful.

These are quotations that I've carefully selected from the thousands available on the internet, and from my own reading. Use these citations about change to inspire yourself and others.

Change quotes

• Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. 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 vilify 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.
  ~ Apple "Crazy Ones" advert; 'Think Different' campaign (1997). Listen to Steve Jobs narrating the first Think Different commercial that never aired.
  
  
• In a progressive country change is constant; ...change... is inevitable ~ Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
  
  
• We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
  
  

Choose change quotes carefully, making sure they are relevant to your situation. It's a good idea to use quotes about change sparingly. When we're facing change quotes can be powerful, but they become meaningless if there are too many of them.

• It is not much for its beauty that makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit ~ Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
  
  
• Lasting change is a series of compromises. And compromise is all right, as long your values don't change ~ Jane Goodall
  
  
• Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right.
  ~ Jane Goodall
  
  
• One's life is not as fixed as one believes. Surprises may lie in store for you, the unexpected often tends to happen, sometimes bringing in its train the most delightful change in one's life or circumstances.
  ~ Elizabeth Aston, The Darcy Connection, 2008
  
  
• Seasons change, so do cities. People come into your life and people go, but it's comforting to know: the ones you love are always in your heart and if you're very lucky, a plane ride away.
  ~ Michael Patrick King, Sex and the City, I Heart NY, 2002
  
  
• I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.
  ~ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799)
  
  
• Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes and I am left the same. The more things change the more I am the same. I am what I started with, and when it is all over I will be all that is left of me ~ Hugh Prather
  
  

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I've discovered that change quotes are excellent for personal motivation and inspiration. If you want to transform your life or are searching for new possibilities select an appropriate change management quote from this page or discover more quotes about change.

Make a few copies of the quote and place it so you read it often. Some of my favourite places are in my car and on on my computer screen. Read it often and it will slowly become part of your new reality. Change quotes are like your personal coach, inspiring you every time.

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• In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
  ~ Carl Sagan (1934-1996), 1987 CSICOP Keynote Address
  
  
• Nothing endures but change.
   ~ Heraclitus (540 BC - 480 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
  
  
• The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
  ~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD - 180 AD), Meditations
  
  

• You must be the change you want to see in the world.
  ~ Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
  
  
• God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other ~ Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), in a sermon in 1943
  
  
• We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses ~ Carl Jung (1875-1961)
  
  
• They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom ~ Confucius (551 BC-479 BC), Analects
  
  
• We immediately become more effective when we decide to change ourselves rather than asking things to change for us.
   ~ Stephen Covey
  
  
• Everything passes. Everything changes. Just do what you think you should do ~ Bob Dylan (1941 - ), "To Ramona"
  
  

Best Change Quotes

• We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn ~ Peter Drucker (1909-2005)
  
  
• 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), The line he used to lure John Sculley as Apple's CEO
  
  
• Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
  ~ John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)
  
  
• Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better ~ Harry S Truman (1884-1972)
  
  

• The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created--created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination.
  ~ John Schaar, futurist
  
  
• I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.
  ~ Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
  
  
• If anything is certain, it is that change is certain. The world we are planning for today will not exist in this form tomorrow.
  ~ Philip Crosby, Reflections on Quality
  
  
• Change should be a friend. It should happen by plan, not by accident ~ Philip Crosby, Reflections on Quality
  
  
• What you keep by you, you may change and mend but words, once spoken, can never be recalled ~ Earl of Roscommon
  
  

• In prosperity prepare for a change; in adversity hope for one.
  ~ James Burgh
  
  
• Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.
  ~ Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD - 180 AD)
  
  
• Man has a limited biological capacity for change. When this capacity is overwhelmed, the capacity is in future shock.
   ~ Alvin Toffler
  
  

I hope you enjoyed these change quotes.

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Hi! I'm Mark Connelly. As a psychologist and coach with 20+ years of experience, I help people create and manage change.

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