change/growth quotes

Abraham Lincoln: 

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

Alan Cohen: 

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.

Albert Einstein: 

Technological change is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.

Aldous Huxley: 

There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.

Alfred North Whitehead: 

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

Alice Walker: 

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

Alvin Toffler: 

In describing today's accelerating changes, the media fire blips of unrelated information at us. Experts bury us under mountains of narrowly specialized monographs. Popular forecasters present lists of unrelated trends, without any model to show us their interconnections or the forces likely to reverse them. As a result, change itself comes to be seen as anarchic, even lunatic.

American proverb: 

It doesn't work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps.

Anais Nin: 

We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.

Anais Nin: 

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.

Anais Nin: 

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.

Anais Nin: 

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Andy Warhol: 

They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

Anne Frank: 

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

Anne Frank: 

Then, without realizing it, you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day; of course, you achieve quite a lot in the course of time. Anyone can do this, it costs nothing and is certainly very helpful. Whoever doesn't know it must learn and find by experience that a quiet conscience makes one strong.

Arthur Schopenhauer: 

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.

Audre Lorde : 

The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never allow us to bring about genuine change.

Charles Darwin: 

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

Charles DuBois: 

The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.

Charles Kettering: 

If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman: 

... while we flatter ourselves that things remain the same, they are changing under our very eyes from year to year, from day to day.

Edwin H. Friedman: 

The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change. Communication does not depend on syntax, or eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard. People can only hear you when they are moving toward you, and they are not likely to when your words are pursuing them. Even the choices words lose their power when they are used to overpower. Attitudes are the real figures of speech.

Eleanor Roosevelt: 

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

Emily Dickinson: 

All but Death, can be Adjusted—
Dynasties repaired—
Systems—settled in their Sockets—
Citadels—dissolved—

Wastes of Lives—resown with Colors
By Succeeding Springs—
Death—unto itself—Exception—
Is exempt from Change—

Epictetus: 

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

Eric Hoffer: 

In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

Felix Adler: 

We cannot adopt the way of living that was satisfactory a hundred years ago. The world in which we live has changed, and we must change with it.

G. K. Chesterton: 

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

General Eric Shinseki: 

If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less. [Chief of Staff, U. S. Army]

Georg C. Lichtenberg: 

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.

George Bernard Shaw: 

Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?"
frequently attributed to Robert F. (Bobby) Kennedy, who used it in a speech which his brother, Edward F. (Teddy) Kennedy quoted at RFK's funeral.


George Will: 

The future has a way of arriving unannounced.

Gloria Steinem: 

The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.

Gloria Steinem: 

If the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?

Harriet Lerner: 

Although the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable from social and political change.

Helen Keller: 

The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next.

Henri Bergson: 

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

Henry David Thoreau: 

Things do not change, we change.

Henry Steele Commager: 

Change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires change. Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.

Heraclitus: 

You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing in. ca. 500 BCE

Heraclitus: 

All is flux; nothing stays still.

Heraklietos of Ephesos: 

Whosoever wishes to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details.
Knowledge is not intelligence.
In searching for the truth be ready for the unexpected.
Change alone is unchanging.
The same road goes both up and down.
The beginning of a circle is also its end.
Not I, but the world says it: all is one.
And yet everything comes in season.

Irene Peter: 

Just because everything is different doesn't mean that everything has changed.

Ivy Baker Priest: 

The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning.

James Baldwin: 

For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.

James Yorke: 

The most successful people are those who are good at plan B.

John Dewey: 

The aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education ... (and) the object and reward of learning is continued capacity for growth. Now this idea cannot be applied to all the members of a society except where intercourse of man with man is mutual, and except where there is adequate provision for the reconstruction of social habits and institutions by means of wide stimulation arising from equitably distributed interests. And this means a democratic society.

John F. Kennedy: 

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

Kalidasa: 

Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the 
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes 
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!

Katharine Butler Hathaway: 

A person needs at intervals to separate from family and companions and go to new places. One must go without familiars in order to be open to influences, to change.

Kenneth Kaunda: 

The inability of those in power to still the voices of their own consciences is the great force leading to change.

Leo Tolstoy: 

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

M. Scott Peck: 

The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in one solitary and even humble individual - for it is in the solitary mind and soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost.

M. Scott Peck: 

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

Mairead Maguire: 

\We frail humans are at one time capable of the greatest good and, at the same time, capable of the greatest evil. Change will only come about when each of us takes up the daily struggle ourselves to be more forgiving, compassionate, loving, and above all joyful in the knowledge that, by some miracle of grace, we can change as those around us can change too.

Marcus Aurelius: 

The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it.

Margaret Mead: 

Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Maria Mitchell: 

We have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us, and the more we gain, the more is our desire; the more we see, the more we are capable of seeing.

Marian Wright Edelman: 

You really can change the world if you care enough.

Marian Wright Edelman: 

If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it You just do it one step at a time.

Marilyn Ferguson: 

It's not so much that we're afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it's that place in between that we fear . . . . It's like being between trapezes. It's Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There's nothing to hold on to.

Mary Antin, 1912: 

We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.

Maxine Hong Kingston: 

To me success means effectiveness in the world, that I am able to carry my ideas and values into the world -- that I am able to change it in positive ways.

Mitsugi Saotome: 

If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth.

Nancy Astor: 

The main dangers in this life are the people who want to change everything or nothing.

Nelson Mandela: 

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Oliver Wendell Holmes: 

A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve.

Ovid: 

All things change; nothing perishes.

Pablo Picasso: 

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

Paulo Freire: 

Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.

Pearl S. Buck: 

A good marriage is one which allows for change and growth in the individuals and in the way they express their love.

Pearl S. Buck: 

You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea.

Pearl S. Buck: 

I am comforted by life's stability, by earth's unchangeableness. What has seemed new and frightening assumes its place in the unfolding of knowledge. It is good to know our universe. What is new is only new to us.

Pearl S. Buck: 

Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.

Peter F. Drucker: 

Society, community, family are all conserving institutions. They try to maintain stability, and to prevent, or at least to slow down, change. But the organization of the post-capitalist society of organizations is a destabilizer. Because its function is to put knowledge to work -- on tools, processes, and products; on work; on knowledge itself -- it must be organized for constant change.

Rachel Carson: 

Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: 

Life is a progress, and not a station.

Robert F. Kennedy: 

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

Robert Frost: 

Most of the change we think we see in life
Is due to truths being in and out of favor.

Robert Frost: 

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Stephen Sigmund: 

Learn wisdom from the ways of a seedling. A seedling which is never hardened off through stressful situations will never become a strong productive plant.

Steven Foster: 

You may wonder, 'How can I leave it all behind if I am just coming back to it? How can I make a new beginning if I simply return to the old?' The answer lies in the return. You will not come back to the 'same old thing.' What you return to has changed because you have changed. Your perceptions will be altered. You will not incorporate into the same body, status, or world you left behind. The river has been flowing while you were gone. Now it does not look like the same river. [The Book of the Vision Quest]

Thomas Jefferson: 

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

Thomas Jefferson: 

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

Thomas a Kempis: 

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.

Tom Robbins: 

The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love. 
Still Life With Woodpecker 


Tony Robbins: 

If we habitually focus on how to improve things that are already great, can you see how this spirit can transform ourselves, our organizations, families and communities?

Tryon Edwards: 

He that never changes his opinions, never corrects his mistakes, and will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.

Unknown: 

In his later years Pablo Picasso was not allowed to roam an art gallery unattended, for he had previously been discovered in the act of trying to improve on one of his old masterpieces.

Unknown: 

Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.

Victor Frankl: 

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.

W.E.B. Du Bois: 

The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become.

Washington Irving: 

There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in travelling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position, and be bruised in a new place.

William Shakespeare: 

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

Woodrow Wilson: 

If you want to make enemies, try to change something.