Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Change
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“I handed in a script last year and the studio didn't change one word. The word they didn't change was on page 87.”
Steve Martin (born 1945) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introducing the best adapted screenplay at the 2003 Academy Awards
“My thought is a tender leaf that sways in every direction and finds pleasure in its swaying. Your thought is an ancient dogma that cannot change you nor can you change it. My thought is new, and it tests me and I test it morn and eve. You have your thought and I have mine.”
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you want to change the way people respond to you, change the way you respond to people.”
Timothy Leary (1920–1996) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Changing My Mind, Among Others (1982)
“You've got the Bush Administration using that event in such a disrespectful and immoral way — using the deaths of those people to try and shred our civil liberties, change our Constitution, round people up. That's not how you honor them, by using them to change our way of life as a free country.”
Michael Moore (born 1954) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the use of the September 11th attacks to expand governmental powers and diminish civil liberties, through "The Patriot Act". — CBS interview (June 2004)
“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order.”
Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People don’t really want change, any change at all — and xenophobia is very deep-rooted. But we progress, as we must — if we are to go out to the stars.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It wasn’t fair, for people to go and change on him, while his back was turned being dead. To change without giving notice, or even asking permission.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you could go back in time and change things… The only moment in time you could change things was the elusive now, which slipped through your fingers as fast as you could think about it.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The people of South Africa have spoken in these elections. They want change! And change is what they will get. Our plan is to create jobs, promote peace and reconciliation, and to guarantee freedom for all South Africans.”
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Customs and convictions change; respectable people are the last to know, or to admit, the change, and the ones most offended by fresh reflections of the facts in the mirror of art.”
John Updike (1932–2009) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The New Yorker (30 July 1990)
“There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.”
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Cracking the Code of Our Physical Universe : The Key to a Whole New World of Enlightenment and Enrichment (2006) by Matthew M Radmanesh, p. 91
“The change from atoms to bits is irrevocable and unstoppable. Why now? Because the change is also exponential — small differences of yesterday can have suddenly shocking consequences tomorrow.”
Nicholas Negroponte (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Time is the wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I shall sleep, and move with the moving ships, Change as the winds change, veer in the tide.”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in. It's change you can Xerox.”
Hillary Clinton (born 1947) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Charging Barack Obama with plagiarism at Texas presidential debate, February 21, 2008 ; see relevant quote above, two days earlier
“Step by step, let whatever happens happen. Real change will come when it is brought about, not by your ego, but by reality. Awareness releases reality to change you.”
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paul Mobbs, Cyber-activist: I think we’re all going in the same direction. Campaigning is all about managing change and different views of how we manage that change. People today are using the Internet, much like in the Civil War people used pamphlets. We’ve just moved on and it’s got a lot more technical.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perception...When these ratios change, men change.”
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It often makes me know that as a cousin of mine once said about money, money is always there but the pockets change; it is not in the same pockets after a change, and that is all there is to say about money.”
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Your life may change, but your dream doesn't have to. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Your spouse and children need not get in its way, because the dream is within you. No one can take your dream away.”
Tom Clancy (1947–2013) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Writers (1995) Published by A. Deutsch
“I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.”
Tony Blair (born 1953) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Michael White, "Blair wants 'to make UK young again'", The Guardian (4 October 1995).
“If the world is to change for the better it must start with a change in human consciousness, in the very humanness of modern man.”
Václav Havel (1936–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I watch the ripples change their size But never leave the stream Of warm impermanence. So the days float through my eyes But still the days seem the same. And these children that you spit on As they try to change their worlds Are immune to your consultations. They're quite aware of what they're going through.”
David Bowie (1947–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Simply having rules does not change the things that people want to do. You have to change incentives.”
Jimmy Wales (born 1966) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Reason magazine (June 2007)
“I don't think you change Washington from the inside. I think you change it from the outside.”
Mitt Romney (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality," says one of my favorite Byzantine mystics. I did this when a child; I do it now as well in the most creative moments of my life.”
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness in this, a certain audacity, to this announcement. I know that I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington, but I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change. People who love their country can change it.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Announcement of Candidacy for President of the United States. (10 February 2007)
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Senator Barack Obama’s speech to supporters after the Feb. 5 2008 nominating contests, as provided by Federal News Service and released in the New York Times (5 February 2008)
“You have shown what history teaches us — that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nomination Acceptance Speech (29 August 2008)
“We know that progress can always be reversed, and that positive change is achieved not through passion alone, but through patient and persistent effort. But we’ve seen things change for the better in this region and around the world because of the effort of ordinary people, together -- working together.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m still asking you to believe – not in my ability to bring about change, but in yours. I believe in change because I believe in you.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: President Obama on Twitter at January 20, 2017; archived from the original on August 28, 2020. As quoted by ABC Radio (2017) and presented in the 2017-01-20 article "Obamas Offer Goodbye Message as They Leave the White …
“There are things that we can change. There are others that we cannot change. Is it worthwhile to knock our heads against stone walls or should we use the prepared passage or the soft spots which will let us through.”
Mahathir Mohamad (born 1925) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just because we cannot see clearly the end of the road, that is no reason for not setting out on the essential journey. On the contrary, great change dominates the world, and unless we move with change we will become its victims.”
Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Farewell statement, Warsaw, Poland, reported in The New York Times (2 July 1964)
“And a third danger is timidity. Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.”
Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Trackers were on the move again, spreading out to search. It sounded like a trio on each side of the train, coming toward him. Gold-Eye pictured them in his head, trying to get his Change Vision to show him exactly where they were. But the Change Vision came and went when it chose, and couldn't be controlled.”
“People who talk incessantly about "change" are often dogmatically set in their ways. They want to change other people.”
Thomas Sowell (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The right finds it easy to explain what is and to justify what is, but not to account for change. The left finds it easy to justify change, but not to account for what is, and what is accepted.”
Enoch Powell (1912–1998) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the BBC Radio 4 series Politics in the Seventies (10 June 1973), quoted in The Times (11 June 1973), p. 3
“His motive—his motive is to change our policies, sir. Notwithstanding what the president or Mr. Kerry said during the campaign, he really doesn't give a darn about our democracy or our society. He is after a change in policies which he views as lethal to Muslims.”
Michael Scheuer (born 1952) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hardball with Chris Matthews, November 16 2004.
“All personal breakthroughs begin with a change in beliefs. So how do we change? The most effective way is to get your brain to associate massive pain to the old belief. You must feel deep in your gut that not only has this belief cost you pain in the past, but it's costing you in the present and, ultimately, can only bring you pain in the future.”
Anthony Robbins (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God grant me serenity to accept the code I cannot change, courage to change the code I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
Erik Naggum (1965–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are times, perhaps once every thirty years, when there is a sea-change in politics. It then does not matter what you say or what you do. There is a shift in what the public wants and what it approves of. I suspect there is now such a sea-change and it is for Mrs. Thatcher.”
James Callaghan (1912–2005) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the general election of 1979, quoted in Kenneth Morgan, Callaghan: A Life (1997), p. 697
“Change your thoughts and you can change the world.”
Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Back on Track : How to Straighten Out Your Life When It Throws You a Curve (1997) by Deborah Norville, p. 201
“Management is the gate through which social and economic and political change, indeed change in every direction, is diffused through society.”
Robert McNamara (1916–2009) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Robert McNamara (1967); quoted in: Bruce Rich (1994) Mortgaging the Earth: The World Bank, Environmental Impoverishment and the Crisis of Development, p. 83
“Fashions, being themselves begotten of the desire for change, are quick to change also.”
Marcel Proust (1871–1922) said by 1922 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Go so far as you can see and when you get there you will always be able to see farther. … as you head toward your goals, be prepared to make some slight adjustments to your course. You don't change your decision to go — you do change your direction to get there.”
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The change from one stable equilibrium to the other may take place as the result of the isolation of a small unrepresentative group of the population, a temporary change in the environment which alters the relative viability of different types, or in several other ways...”
J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“we live in a time when change comes rapidly-a time when much of that change is, at least for long periods, irrevocable. This is what makes our own task so urgent. It is not often that a generation is challenged, as we today are challenged. For what we fail to do-what we let go by default, can perhaps never be done.”
Rachel Carson (1907–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think that the mother killing the two children in South Carolina vividly reminds every American how sick the society is getting and how much we need to change things. The only way you get change is to vote Republican.”
Newt Gingrich (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I change as the times change. I'm a reflection of what's around me without trying at all.”
David Lee Roth (born 1954) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Michael Saunders (March 18, 1994) "The reemergence of David Lee Roth", The Boston Globe, Section: Arts & Film, p. 75.