Change is the only constant in life — a phrase we’ve heard time and again, and for good reason. It captures the essence of human existence, where every moment is transient, every situation impermanent.
Change can be exhilarating, intimidating, challenging, or liberating, depending on our perspective and readiness to embrace it.
From personal growth to societal progress, change is the driving force that propels us forward. Sometimes we fight for change — and other times we just focus on accepting change.
Throughout history, countless thinkers, activists, and leaders have pondered the nature and impact of change. Their insights shed light on the many different facets of change — from its inevitability to its potential to reshape our lives and the world around us.
Today, we’ve compiled a selection of the most thought-provoking quotes about change.
These words of wisdom will inspire you to embrace change, view challenges as opportunities, and never stop evolving.
Whether you’re in the midst of a transition, seeking a new direction, or simply looking for a fresh perspective, these quotes will provide you with ample food for thought.
Read on to be inspired by the transformative power of change:
The Best Change Quotes
Famous Quotes
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
— Barack Obama
“It doesn’t matter how strong your opinions are. If you don’t use your power for positive change, you are indeed part of the problem.”
— Coretta Scott King
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
— James Baldwin
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
— George Bernard Shaw
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
— Angela Davis
“We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.”
— Carl Jung
“One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world.”
— Malala Yousafzai
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
— Mother Teresa
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
— Nelson Mandela
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
— Albert Einstein
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”
— Maya Angelou
“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.”
— Abraham Lincoln
Short Quotes
“There is nothing permanent except change.”
— Heracl*tus
“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”
— Stephen Hawking
“Consciousness is only possible through change; change is only possible through movement.”
— Aldous Huxley, The Art of Seeing
“All things change; nothing perishes.”
— Ovid
“Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.”
— Hermann Hesse
“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.”
— Dolly Parton
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
— George Bernard Shaw
“Words are where most change begins.”
— Brandon Sanderson
“Every moment wasted looking back, keeps us from moving forward.”
— Hillary Clinton
“I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.”
— Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point
“I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.”
— Niccolo Machiavelli
“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”
— Tim Ferriss
“Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you’d like to act.”
— Bob Dylan
→ Read more short quotes
On Changing Yourself
“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.”
— Anatole France
“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.”
— Oprah Winfrey
“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.”
— Nathaniel Branden
“Every twist and turn in life is an opportunity to learn something new about yourself, your interests, your talents, and how to set and then achieve goals.”
— Jameela Jamil
“The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
— Marcus Aurelius
“It’s not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.”
— Miles Davis
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
— Rumi
“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.
Or you don’t.”
— Stephen King, The Stand
“If I am an advocate for anything, it is to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river.”
— Anthony Bourdain
“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.”
— Simone de Beauvoir
For Work
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
— Socrates
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
— Buckminster Fuller
“Every successful organization has to make the transition from a world defined primarily by repetition to one primarily defined by change. This is the biggest transformation in the structure of how humans work together since the Agricultural Revolution.”
— Bill Drayton
“Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.”
— Victor Hugo
“Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed; the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day.”
— Frances Hesselbein
On Change and Growth
“In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.”
— Abraham Maslow
“We should strive to welcome change and challenges, because they are what help us grow. With out them we grow weak like the Eloi in comfort and security. We need to constantly be challenging ourselves in order to strengthen our character and increase our intelligence.”
— H.G. Wells, The Time Machine
“No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you’ve come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself.”
— Madonna
More Quotes
“Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.”
— Keri Russell
“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.”
— Isaac Asimov
“And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees and changing leaves.”
— Virginia Woolf
“Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.”
— Sydney J. Harris
“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.”
— Victor Frankl
“You’re always you, and that don’t change, and you’re always changing, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
— Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.”
— Sheryl Sandberg
“Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet.”
— John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America
“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.”
— Cesar Chavez
“So many people live within unhappy circ*mstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”
— Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild
“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
“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 C. Lichtenberg
