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. 1,159,190 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“I have said consistently in my 16-and-a-half years in the parliament, I have always supported the party room's decision and the party room is the ultimate authority on these matters. I don't expect that to change.”
Nick Minchin (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And then the difference seems to arise from the deficient harvest, from the growth of population, from the extortion of tradesmen, from anything rather than the change of a British sovereign fresh from the Mint. Value is the most invisible and impalpable of ghosts, and comes and goes unthought of while the visible and dense matter remains as it was.”
William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only salvation for us is to stop being an incoherent, loose mob and to change into a strongly organized, disciplined army.”
Roman Dmowski (1864–1939) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Walka o prawo i organizacja narodowa", Przegląd Wszechpolski, vol. 9 (June 1903).
“A second arresting feature of Jesus' language was its invitational style. Instead of telling people what to do or what to believe, he invited them to see things differently, confident that if they did so their behaviour would change accordingly. This called for working with peoples' imaginations more than with their reason or their will.”
Huston Smith (1919–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For even if the whole world believed in resurrection, little would change until we began to practice it. We can believe in CPR, but people will remain dead until someone breathes new life into them. And we can tell the world that there is life after death, but the world really seems to be wondering if there is life before death.”
Shane Claiborne (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am Jose Mourinho and I don't change. I arrive with all my qualities and my defects.”
José Mourinho (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When change threatens to rule, then the rules are changed.”
Michael Parenti (1933–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no revolution like the Communist revolution. You simply burn all the books, kill all of the thinking people and use the poor proletariat to create a very simple benchmark to gauge social change.”
“A land that rejects the truth, barricades itself against change and lacks the spirit of freedom is hopeless.”
“They just don’t trust people. They don’t trust individuals, they don’t trust any change that should serve and benefit people, and they try to stop it.”
“Nothing can silence me as long as I am alive. I don’t give any kind of excuse. If I cannot come out [of China] or I cannot go in [to China] this is not going to change my belief. But when I am there, I am in this condition: I see it, I see people who need help. Then you know, I just want to offer my possibility to help them.”
“I think art certainly is the vehicle for us to develop any new ideas, to be creative, to extend our imagination, to change the current conditions.”
“I don't like to second-guess, but I do believe we've lost something. I can't get my hand on it, but we're just not quite where we should be, as the greatest democracy in the world. And I don't know how you correct it, but I keep hoping that there will be a change in my lifetime.”
Bob Dole (1923–2021) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Susan Page, "At 98 and facing cancer, Bob Dole reckons with legacy of Trump and ponders future of GOP", USA Today (July 22, 2021).
“Young people will have the seeds you bury in their minds and when they grow up they will change the world.”
Jack Ma (born 1964) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 5 Life Lessons From Alibaba Founder Jack Ma", Time (Sept. 23, 2014)
“Goethe, whose letters I've been reading very intensively during the past few weeks, is always stressing Verträglichkeit - agreeing to live and let live - as the most important element of friendship: we shouldn't try to change people, but simply let them be as they are, making the best of even partial concord, instead of trying to force a fictitious perfect harmony.”
Ida Friederike Görres (1901–1971) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Broken Lights p. 82 Diaries 1951-1952
“Such people who choose to depress are not mentally ill; their brain chemistry is not abnormal. It is changed from what it is when they are happy, but that change is perfectly normal for the total behavior, depressing, they are choosing....The brain chemistry no more causes his depressing than sweating causes running. It is the choice to depress or to run that results in both.”
William Glasser (1925–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“…faith in God creates the possibility that even if our situations do not change, life can be good.”
John Townsend (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Memory works like a Wikipedia page: You can go in there and change it, but so can other people.”
Elizabeth Loftus (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All governments behave like any other instrument of war and terror. A gun doesn’t change it nature. When it is aimed at someone you fear or dislike, you will praise the importance of guns. When the gun is aimed at you, you will call for help against those who use guns.”
Robert LeFevre (1911–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The regeneration of a sinner is an evidence of power in the highest sphere — moral nature; with the highest prerogative — to change nature; and operating to the highest result — not to create originally, which is great; but to create anew, which is greater.”
William Arthur (minister) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“According to my principles, every master has his true and certain value. Praise and criticism cannot change any of that. Only the work itself praises and criticizes the master, and therefore I leave to everyone his own value.”
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788) first seen 1785 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response to a story in the European Magazine which had accused him of harshly criticizing Joseph Haydn (14 September 1785), as quoted in Haydn, A Documentary Study (1981) by Howard Chandler Robbins Landon, p. 88
“There is no "worst" in what is new. Everything that has existed is bad, or else no one would have improved upon it by revolution and change.”
Isidore Isou (1925–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can change the world With my own two hands Make a better place With my own two hands Make a kinder place.”
Ben Harper (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But the process of social change was not merely a matter of new inventions pressing on old institutions: it was a matter of new classes displacing old ones.”
Robert Heilbroner (1919–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The change began with John Stuart Mill and the Utopians. When Mill pointed out that economics had no ultimate solution to the problem of distribution, that society might do with the fruits of its toil as it saw fit, he introduced into the mechanical calculus of the market a conflicting calculus of moral judgment.”
Robert Heilbroner (1919–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A leopard doesn't change his spots just because you bring him in from the jungle and try to housebreak him and turn him into a pet. He may learn to sheathe his claws in order to beg a few scraps off the dinner table, and you may teach him to be a beast of burden, but it doesn't pay to forget that he'll always be what he was born: a wild animal.”
George Lincoln Rockwell (1918–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It can be said that deeply traumatized children grow into adults who live in the minefield of their own extreme emotions. Plus ca change.”
Antonella Gambotto-Burke (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Look back to the cross, and the disciples gazing on it in terror from afar, and then look around on the nations that are influenced by the faith that there centres — and note the change! Then take these elements, established in history, and calculate the orbit Christianity is to fill.”
Richard Salter Storrs (1821–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life happens. Adapt. Embrace change, and make the most of everything that comes your way”
Nick Jonas (born 1992) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we don't change, our species will not survive... Frankly, we may get to the point where the only way of saving the world will be for industrial civilization to collapse.”
Maurice Strong (1929–2015) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Maurice Strong, September 1, 1997 edition of National Review magazine
“JUSTICE GINSBURG: I always thought that there was nothing an antifeminist would want more than to have women only in women’s organizations, in their own little corner empathizing with each other and not touching a man’s world. If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any change in routine was terrifying, even if it involved less violence rather than more.”
Laura Anne Gilman (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can see you in the distance And you're heading for a fall Sinking deeper by the minute You're about to lose it all... You better change Before the sun goes down You better leave Before you are the last in town You better raise Your fortresses or tear them down... Tear them down!”
Dan Fogelberg (1951–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the media that controls the boundaries of what is politically permissible, so better to change the media. Profit motives work against it, but if we can have the audience understand that most other forms of journalism are not credible, then it may be a forced move.”
Julian Assange (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Y]ou can affect a lot of people with a small amount of information. Therefore, you can change the behavior of many people with a small amount of information. The question then arises as to what kinds of information will produce behavior which is just and disincentivize behavior which is unjust. (p. 67)”
Julian Assange (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The issue of preserving politically salient intellectual content while it is under attack is central to what Wikileaks does, because that's what we're after. We're after those bits that people are trying to suppress because we suspect, usually rightly, that they're expending economic work on suppressing those bits because they perceive that those bits are going to induce some change. (p. 83)”
Julian Assange (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What we celebrate today is not a victory of party or of individuals. What we celebrate is a beginning as well as an end; a change as well as a restoration. A beginning to end poverty, and misery; a beginning to end ignorance and hopelessness; and a beginning to restore all that is good, beautiful and sublime in our lives as one people under God.”
Bukola Saraki (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Chance and change are busy ever; Man decays, and ages move; But His mercy waneth never; God is wisdom, God is love.”
John Bowring (1792–1872) said by 1872 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 272.
“The Venezuelans ought to become inspired by the Honduran model, and strive for a change of government as soon as possible, through pacific, democratic, and constitutional means--and not just electoral--to avoid a national tragedy.”
Alejandro Peña Esclusa (born 1954) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (March 11, 2010, referring to how Honduras's president had been deposed by the other branches of government), Venezolanos deben imitar a los hondureños
“The resurrection state is the culmination of glorified humanity; is the change of the earthly for the heavenly; is the putting off of flesh and blood, and the putting on of the spiritual body. The body of the resurrection is the body with which the spirit is clothed for its celestial life.”
Randolph Sinks Foster (1820–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The introduction of the Christian religion into the world has produced an incalculable change in history. There had previously been only a history of nations — there is now a history of mankind; and the idea of an education of human nature as a whole, — an education the work of Jesus Christ Himself — is become like a compass for the historian, the key of history, and the hope of nations.”
Jean-Henri Merle d'Aubigné (1794–1872) said by 1872 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 141.
“The most general lesson to be learned from the more successful cases is that the change process goes through a series of phases that, in total, usually require a considerable length of time. Skipping steps creates only the illusion of speed and never produces satisfactory results.”
John Kotter (born 1947) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: John P. Kotter, "Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail." in: Harvard Business Review. March-April 1995. p. 59
“Nothing undermines change more than behavior by important individuals that is inconsistent with the verbal communication.”
John Kotter (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whenever smart and well-intentioned people avoid confronting obstacles, they disempower employees and undermine change.”
John Kotter (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The heart of change is in the emotions.”
John Kotter (born 1947) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction to the 2002 edition, p. 2
“Without conviction that you can make change happen, you will not act, even if you see the vision. Your feelings will hold you back.”
John Kotter (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rate of change in the business world is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up over the next few decades. Enterprises everywhere will be presented with even more terrible hazards and wonderful opportunities, driven by the globalization of the economy along with related technological and social trends”
John Kotter (born 1947) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 130 (in 2013 edition)
“We keep a change in place by helping to create a new, supportive, and sufficiently strong organizational culture.”
John Kotter (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In a change effort, culture comes last, not first.”
John Kotter (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We see, we feel, we change.”
John Kotter (born 1947) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conclusion to the 2002 edition, p. 179