Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“Claghorn had long insisted that no human condition endured forever, with the corollary that the more complicated such a condition, the greater its susceptibility to change.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our ancient creed is correct. Rather than submitting to change we must divert the influences which conduce in such a direction.” Ramus Imph listened with patient good humor. “The remarks of the sagacious Servant are persuasive, even though they fail to correspond with reality.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For many years my nerves were like electric wires. Then I discovered the first axiom of human accord: I accept each person on his own terms. I keep a close tongue in my head; I offer opinions only when so solicited. What a remarkable change! Dissension vanishes, novel facts emerge, digestion flows like a wide river.”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Seasons change with the scenery; Weaving time in a tapestry. Won't you stop and remember me At any convenient time?”
Paul Simon (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Vainly you talk about voting it down. When you have cast your millions of ballots, you have not reached the evil. It has fastened its root deep into the heart of the nation, and nothing but God’s truth and love can cleanse the land. We must change the moral sentiment.”
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) first seen 1847 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Love of God, Love of Man, Love of Country (October 22, 1847), Delivered at Market Hall, New York City, New York.
“On the whole, the change had done Huxley a share of good. Death made him a handsomer man to deal with. You could talk to him now and he’d have to listen.”
Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl (1948)
“Oh, God, children are children, old women are old women, and nothing in between. They can’t imagine a change they can’t see.”
Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.”
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927–2003) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Memorandum dated March 2003' in Steven Weisman ed., "Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Portrait in Letters of an American Visionary
“To talk about the end of science is just as foolish as to talk about the end of religion. Science and religion are both still close to their beginnings, with no ends in sight. Science and religion are both destined to grow and change in the millennia that lie ahead of us, perhaps solving some old mysteries, certainly discovering new mysteries of which we yet have no inkling.”
Freeman Dyson (1923–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'd like to choose my own kind of death, for a change. I'm tired of being tormented to hell. Tired of it.”
Jim Jones (1931–1978) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Death Tape" FBI No. Q042 (November 18, 1978)
“You develop courage, the most important of all the virtues, because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently. If you've seen another truth and had enough courage to change your way of thinking, to say "Hey everybody, you know what I said last week? I don't believe that anymore. A little child just straightened me out.”
Maya Angelou (1928–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) said by 1860 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Unverified attribution noted in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1993), ed. Suzy Platt, Library of Congress, p. 39; compare Heraclitus: Nothing endures but change.
“Suicide may also be regarded as an experiment — a question which man puts to Nature, trying to force her to answer. The question is this: What change will death produce in a man’s existence and in his insight into the nature of things? It is a clumsy experiment to make; for it involves the destruction of the very consciousness which puts the question and awaits the answer.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) said by 1860 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A comment he made in persuading John Sculley to become Apple's CEO, as quoted in Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple: A Journey of Adventure, Ideas, and the Future (1987) by John Sculley and John A. Byrne
“<!-- Rolling Stone: Nevertheless, you've often talked about how technology can empower people, how it can change their lives. Do you still have as much faith in technology today as you did when you started out 20 years ago?”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Creative things have to sell to get acknowledged as such. Steve Jobs didn't really set the direction of my Apple I and Apple II designs but he did the more important part of turning them into a product that would change the world. I don't deny that.”
Steve Wozniak (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The earth on which you live, you, yourself, and every other material thing are the result of evolutionary change, through which microscopic bits of matter have been organized and arranged in an orderly fashion. p. 63”
Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Leibniz's doctrine is an evolutionary doctrine. It is not the same thing with Spinoza. Spinoza has no sense of change and evolution. He has no sense of history.”
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) said by 1677 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Isaiah Berlin and Ramin Jahanbegloo, Conversations with Isaiah Berlin. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1991)
“Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change. So suffering must become Love. This is the mystery. This is what I must do.”
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Journal entry (19 December 1920), published in The Journal of Katherine Mansfield (1927) edited by J. Middleton Murry
“All I want to do is change the world!”
W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Open Question Selling: Unlock Your Customer's Needs to Close the Sale (2007) by Val Gee and Jeff Gee, p. 66
“A lot of political people, especially people on the left, have forgotten the importance of humor as an incredible weapon, and a vehicle through which to affect change.”
Michael Moore (born 1954) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Corporation (2004)
“Nothing would make me happier than to have you share it with everyone you know. All surveys have shown that, the more people who see it — especially those still sitting on the fence — the more likely we will have regime change.”
Michael Moore (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Cause we are sick and tired of hearing your song, Telling us how you are gonna change right from wrong, 'Cause if you really want to hear our views, You haven't done nothin'.”
Stevie Wonder (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In war there are none but particular cases; everything has there an individual nature; nothing ever repeats itself. In the first place, the data of a military problem are but seldom certain; they are never final. Everything is in a constant state of change and reshaping.”
Ferdinand Foch (1851–1929) said by 1929 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Marriage, to women as to men, must be a luxury, not a necessity; an incident of life, not all of it. And the only possible way to accomplish this great change is to accord to women equal power in the making, shaping and controlling of the circumstances of life.”
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) first seen 1875 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech on Social Purity (Spring 1875)
“On the eve of the industrial revolution there were on every side signs of political change. But the French Revolution frightened statesmen, and political reform in England was delayed for nearly half a century.”
Arnold Toynbee (1852–1883) said by 1883 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our ancestors in the ages that are gone really believed that by force you could convince a man. You cannot change the conclusion of the brain by force, but I will tell you what you can do by force, and what you have done by force. You can make hypocrites by the million.”
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) said by 1899 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rights of all are equal: justice, poised and balanced in eternal calm, will shake from the golden scales in which are weighed the acts of men, the very dust of prejudice and caste: No race, no color, no previous condition, can change the rights of men.”
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) said by 1899 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've been married too many times. How terrible to change children's affiliations, their affections — to give them the insecurity of placing their trust in someone when maybe that someone won't be there next year.”
Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Elizabeth Taylor : An informal memoir (1965)
“Terrible is the day when each sees his soul naked, stripped of all veil; that dear soul which he cannot change or discard, and which is so irreparably his.”
George Moore (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the past human life was lived in a bullock cart; in the future it will be lived in an aeroplane; and the change of speed amounts to a difference in quality.”
Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where the king's change doth breed the subject's terror, Pure innovation is more gross than error.”
George Chapman (1559–1634) said by 1634 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When a young woman tells me that she wants to become and actor, I say, 'No, be a writer. Or go to business school and learn how to run a studio.' The only real change will come from behind the scenes.”
Halle Berry (born 1966) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On gender issues in the entertainment industry — reported in Geoff Pevere (April 13, 2007) "Berry almost chose bylines over marquees", The Toronto Star, p. D06.
“And the other thing… that I will say is, when I spoke earlier about the world being broke, I was somewhat being facetious, because every generation has their challenge. And things change rapidly, and life gets better in an instant.”
Jon Stewart (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Tis Providence alone secures In every change both mine and yours.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1780 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Fable", Moral (1780)
“Time travel may be achieved one day, or it may not. But if it is, it should not require any fundamental change in world-view, at least for those who broadly share the world view I am presenting in this book.”
David Deutsch (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think that science fiction, even the corniest of it, even the most outlandish of it, no matter how badly it's written, has a distinct therapeutic value because all of it has as its primary postulate that the world does change. I cannot overemphasize the importance of that idea.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Discovery of the Future," Guest of Honor Speech, 3rd World Science Fiction Convention, Denver, Colorado (4 July 1941)
“To that extent, I think that science fiction, even the corniest of it, even the most outlandish of it, no matter how badly it’s written, has a distinct therapeutic value because all of it has as its primary postulate that the world does change. I cannot overemphasize the importance of that idea.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Guest of Honor Speech at the Third World Science Fiction Convention—Denver, 1941 (p. 157)
“See how involved it gets? Clover, bees, nitrogen, escape speed, power, plant-animal balance, gas laws, compound interest laws, meteorology—a mathematical ecologist has to think of everything and think of it ahead of time. Ecology is explosive; what seems like a minor and harmless invasion can change the whole balance.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Daddy says that, in a dilemma, it is helpful to change any variable, then reexamine the problem.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The concept of change baffled them.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“File off the serial numbers, change the body lines a bit, give it a new paint job, switch it over the state line, and it’s yours!—that’s the secret of literary success. Editors always claim to be looking for new stories but they don’t buy them; they buy “mixture as before.” Because the cash customers want to be entertained, not amazed, not instructed, not frightened.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The immediate purpose with which the Italians and Germans effected the great change in European constitution was unity, not liberty. They constructed, not securities, but forces. Machiavelli's hour had come.”
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introductory note to L. Arthur Burd's Il Principe by Niccolo Machiavelli, p. xxxlv (1891)
“Reformation. Scotland is the only kingdom in which the change was accomplished in spite of the crown. Ireland the only country where it was prevented in spite of the crown.”
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Private notes, quoted in Herbert Butterfield, ‘Acton: His Training, Methods and Intellectual System’, in A. O. Sarkissian (ed.), Studies in Diplomatic History and Historiography in honour of G. P. Gooch, C.H. (1961), pp…
“My father was an atheist and he always described himself as a Serb. Okay, maybe we were Muslim for 250 years, but we were orthodox before that and deep down we were always Serbs, religion cannot change that. We only became Muslims to survive the Turks.”
Emir Kusturica (born 1954) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Guardian (4 March 2005)
“I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.”
Tom Stoppard (1937–2025) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview, The Guardian [London] (18 March 1988)
“Oh please...As a standup, I tried to change the world. As an entertainer, I try to entertain. And as a lesbian, I try to pick up the prettiest girl in the room. Not necessarily in that order.”
Lea DeLaria (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have been given a gift that is really, really precious. It’s simple. It isn’t going to get us anything. It isn’t there to augment anything. It’s there for us to be able to experience something that is within ourselves. It is not there to change our religions, our practices, our daily lives. But it is only there for one reason, for one reason alone. Simple happiness. Simple joy.”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia April 2, 1987
“He is here to change the world and bring peace”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rennie Davis, UPI, July 13, 1975