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
“Changing things is central to leadership. Changing them before anyone else is creative leadership”
Ordway Tead (disputed) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to in older sources, see: Public Administration Review (1977). Vol. 15. p. 20.
“It's the new management's job to look at the world as it changes, and how do we look at change and take advantage of change, rather than put our head in the ground.”
Sanford I. Weill (born 1933) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People say, I am afraid of changes. But who is asking you to change? Knowledge is not a change. When you see yourself in the mirror, the first thing you will realize is that beauty that you have always looked for is right there. That's the first thing you will realize. That, to me, is the magic of this Knowledge.”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Escobar, Argentina, January 23, 1991
“The problem with conformists will always be that when you try to change the system from within, it's not you who changes the system. It's the system that will eventually change you”
Immortal Technique (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All things, all circumstances that occur outside ourselves, on the stage of this world, are exclusively the reflection of what we carry within. With good reason then, we can solemnly declare that the 'exterior is the reflection of the interior.' When someone changes internally and if that change is radical, then circumstances, life and the external also change.”
Samael Aun Weor (1917–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On the other hand as I have told you, your past continually changes. It does not appear to change for you, for you change with it.”
Jane Roberts (1929–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A change of world view not only brings about profound cultural changes, but also is responsible for what historians call a "change of age." An age is a period of time in which the prevailing world view has remained relatively unchanged.”
Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I were an evil alien wishing to alter the nature of life on earth, I would change the temperature of the ocean, I would change the chemistry. That is exactly what we are doing: excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere becomes excess carbon dioxide in the ocean that becomes carbonic acid. The ocean is becoming more acidic. That changes everything.”
Sylvia Earle (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe, but now I think that poetry changes only the poet.”
Mahmoud Darwish (1941–2008) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a 2002 interview with Nathalie Handal
“No country can develop unless its citizens are educated. Education does not change the world. Education changes people, people change the world”
Olugbemiro Jegede wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Climate change" affects more than just a change in the weather; it refers to seasonal changes over a long period of time”
Sherry Ayittey (1948–2023) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Creating Sherry Ayittey explains climate change GNA(10th Nov 2010)
“As a human being, your priorities change, naturally, when you have kids, if you are consciously parenting. Things change. By definition, your identity changes as well, particularly if you’re a mother.”
Zolani Mahola (born 1981) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Zolani Mahola on music, motherhood and meaning Mail & Guardian (20 February 2025)
“The city is not just a collection of ramparts with houses, but also a spiritual power. ... It is capable of directing and changing a man's spiritual life. It brings its power to bear in him and changes his life.”
Jacques Ellul (1912–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We live in a quickly changing world, therefore we must foretell developments, and reforms should respond to these changes.”
Tigran Sargsyan (born 1960) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan’s Remarks at the Annual Meeting of RA National Academy of Sciences (22 April 2009)
“Look around you. Everything changes. Everything on this earth is in a continuous state of evolving, refining, improving, adapting, enhancing … changing. You were not put on this earth to remain stagnant.”
Steve Maraboli (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One does not live half a life in Asia without return. When it would be I did not know, nor even where it would be, or to what cause. In our changing world nothing changes more than geography. The friendly country of China, the home of my childhood and youth, is for the time being forbidden country. I refuse to call it enemy country. The people in my memory are too kind and the land too beautiful.”
Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Bridge for Passing (1962)
“We say, “If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.” We must precisely state that what we repeat is not history but our errors under ever-changing material conditions. History does not repeat itself; it cannot. Nothing can. The first law of the universe is everything changes, all the time. Only those who see history as events and not as a process can make this error.”
Stokely Carmichael (1941–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The world is changing much too fast for us to have a moribund system which is not flexible, which cannot evolve and develop with changes in our society, in our country, as they come about in the world.”
Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In 1988, p. 24
“The world is changing dramatically and architecture, and especially cities, need to move with these changes. What can we do to help as architects? Architecture as a way of thinking — as the title of our first exhibition in 1989 suggested — is more relevant than ever.”
Jacques Herzog (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For this new (COVID-19) coronavirus, we (National Health Commission) have not identified the source of the infection and we are not clear about the risk of its mutation and how it spreads. Since this is a new coronavirus there might be some changes in the coming days and weeks, and the danger it poses to people of different ages is also changing.”
Ma Xiaowei (born 1959) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ma Xiaowei (2020) cited in "Coronavirus's ability to spread getting stronger, China suggests" on The Guardian, 26 January 2020.
“Participation in international humor events has brought me many other influences. My work style includes a large dose of “esthetic vampirism,” in that I’ve absorbed a lot from a lot of different people. But I have a central axis, my major cartoon characters, who have been changing in their own right along with the changes in the type of humor that I happen to be doing.”
ARES (artist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Changing my stride pattern is one of the biggest changes I will make in my career. I like the challenge. I knew it would be tough but I really like the feel of the 14 strides compared to 15 so I think we made a really good decision.”
Femke Bol (born 2000) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Euan Crumley, Big changes help brilliant Femke Bol demolish European record, Athletics Weekly, July 23, 2023.
“Things are changing. Similar to the changes in the government, in parliament, in the judicial system and other areas of public life, the Commission will also have a fair representation of women soon.”
Alice Banze first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: https://africa.unwomen.org/en/news-and-events/stories/2021/03/ten-african-women-leaders-we-admire Africa un women ( March 19, 2021).
“These awards reflect the times, and nowadays hopefully recognise how important science has been, and continues to be, not only in understanding what’s changing but also how we can respond to those changes,”
Jessica Melbourne-Thomas (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Writing is a form of activism. Again, let’s not separate into small boxes, ‘activism’ versus writing. Native people, I think, prefer to think in more holistic terms. A story is active and a story changes the world. A story is changing the world as I write this.”
LeAnne Howe (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Coaching is enjoyable and life changing. I think when you have more female coaches, the sport also changes positively. And we don’t all have to be [technical] coaches, there are so many spheres of coaching like mental, safeguarding”
Janet Jepkosgei (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Throughout history, the really fundamental changes in societies have come about not from the dictates of governments and the results of battles, but through vast numbers of people changing their minds — sometimes only a little bit.”
Willis Harman (1918–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not only about “changing city and shifting spaces it is also about negotiating these changes and shifts.”
Jude Anogwih wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everything is changing around them and eventually they are going to have to realise that if they don't make the necessary changes the Olympics is going to cave in on them.”
John Carlos (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The educational component, from hospitals to museums, to concentration camps. In China when they were going from communism to capitalism, seeing some of the manufacturing and some of the changes. Just life changing experiences.”
Bruce Pearl (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The more I ponder God's way, the more I believe He changes a person, or molds a person through enlightenment. He changes a person's mind.”
Don Miller (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“…the organization chart will initially reflect the first system design, which is almost surely not the right one […] as one learns, he changes the design […]. Management structures also need to be changed as the system changes…”
Fred Brooks (1931–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That’s another thing about emperors—and regents,” Gareth said. “They aren’t very fond of changes, even if the changes are for the better.”
Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No legislation turned the free owner into the feudal tenant: whatever changes in that direction took place were the result of individual acts, or of very gradual changes of custom arising indirectly from the fact that other relations were assuming a territorial character.”
William Stubbs (1825–1901) said by 1901 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Generally speaking, changes in the prices of finished goods are "cost determined" while changes in the prices of raw materials inclusive of primary foodstuffs are "demand determined".”
Michał Kalecki (1899–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Radioactivity is shown to be accompanied by chemical changes in which new types of matter are being continually produced. … The conclusion is drawn that these chemical changes must be sub-atomic in character.”
Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Cause and Nature of Radioactivity" in Philosophical Magazine (September 1902)
“When civilization comes to a certain point, the changes in the higher classes are little more than those of fancies and of fashions ; but those operating on the classes below are changes of character.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The world changes fast, and the rate at which it changes is itself speeding up. In such a world it's not a good idea to have fixed plans.”
Paul Graham (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Little changes are the enemies of great changes.”
Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quotation" [Zitat] (1930s), trans. Michael Morley in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 277
“l'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used all the time at the time, and I kept thinking there's bound to be something else. I could hear it sometimes but I couldn't play it. ... I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.”
Charlie Parker (1920–1955) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his personal stylistic breakthrough, quoted in Hear Me Talkin' to Ya (1955) edited by Nat Hentoff and Nat Shapiro, . p 354
“So far from proceeding in this way, the really curious feature of every organization in which it has been my misfortune to be involved is that while people argue vociferously and almost completely without data about all projected changes they show a little or no interest in the effects of changes after they have been introduced.”
Fred Hoyle (1915–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The bees came booming as if they had never gone, As if hyacinths had never gone. We say This changes and that changes. Thus the constant Violets, doves, girls, bees and hyacinths Are inconstant objects of inconstant cause In a universe of inconstancy. This meansNight-blue is an inconstant thing. The seraph Is satyr in Saturn, according to his thoughts.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A thug changes, and love changes and best friends become strangers, word up”
“DS not only changes Nintendo, it changes our industry.”
Reggie Fils-Aimé (born 1961) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Source: E3 2004
“Businesses have changed when the public came to expect and require different behavior, to reward businesses for behavior that the public wanted, and to make things difficult for businesses practising behaviors that the public didn't want. I predict that in the future, just as in the past, changes in public attitudes will be essential for changes in businesses' environmental practices.”
Jared Diamond (born 1937) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter "Big businesses and the environment: different conditions, different outcomes", section "Businesses and the public" (Penguin Books, 2011, page 485, .
“This is King James Version, which I use and I recommend everybody use if you speak English. I collect other versions of the Bible. I'm not afraid of them; but folks, there's been some very serious changes made in some of these other versions. Many have left out the blood in dozens of places; many have taken away the deity of Christ. Some serious changes. Many have taken out over 200 verses!”
Kent Hovind (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poetry changes with every generation, but it does not improve or progress. It just changes its styles, trappings and some of its obsessions, but we can still enjoy Sappho and Homer; they are today's news as much as when they were written or recited.”
Marge Piercy (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As a matter of fact, the adaptability of a program to changes in its objectives (often called maintainability) and to changes in its environment (nowadays called portability) can be measured primarily in terms of the degree to which it is neatly structured.”
Niklaus Wirth (1934–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, Nothing remains quite the same. Through all of the islands and all of the highlands, If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.”
Jimmy Buffett (1946–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paradoxically, the freedom of Paris is associated with a persistent belief that nothing ever changes. Paris, they say, is the city that changes least. After an absence of twenty or thirty years, one still recognizes it.”
Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tourists in Paris, from Outside: Selected Writings (1984).