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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“Our children change us…whether they live or not.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lord X was a tyrant, not a revolutionary. He wanted to take over the system, not change it.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Change is a function of time and experience, and time is implacable.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You are what you do. Choose again, and change.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you can’t win, change the game.” Ivan twitched a brow upward. “If there’s no game, isn’t winning a pretty meaningless concept?”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wear the cap and he the crown;— What of that? I sleep on straw and he on down;— What of that? And he's the king and I'm the clown;— What of that? If happy I, — and wretched he, — Perhaps the king would change with me!”
Charles Mackay (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not possible to remake this country, to democratize it, humanize it, make it serious, as long as we have teenagers killing people for play and offending life, destroying the dream, and making love unviable. If education alone cannot transform society, without it society cannot change either.”
Paulo Freire (1921–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Capablanca] wanted to change the rules already, back in the twenties, because he said chess was getting played out. He was right. Now chess is completely dead. It is all just memorization and prearrangement. It’s a terrible game now. Very uncreative.”
Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Radio Interview, October 16 2006
“There's nothing Trump can do that won't be forgiven, except change his immigration policies.”
Ann Coulter (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't believe Hurricane Harvey is God's punishment for Houston electing a lesbian mayor. But that is more credible than "climate change.”
Ann Coulter (born 1961) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comment on Twitter (August 30, 2017).
“Watching and wondering: Why does think aren't good enough to host a show on his network? MSNBC has done such a wonderful job spreading intersectionality to the rest of the world! Why no transgenders on their own network? [...] Which reminds me: Why does MSNBC put all its black hosts on the low-rated weekend ghetto? This must change!”
Ann Coulter (born 1961) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Ann Coulter Accuses MSNBC of Keeping Black Hosts on 'Weekend Ghetto' Shows (May 20, 2019) by Benjamin Fearnow, .
“The ANC has never at any period of its history advocated a revolutionary change in the economic structure of the country, nor has it, to the best of my recollection, ever condemned capitalist society.”
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...there ought to be a law that we change identities and families every ten years or so.”
John Updike (1932–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Things change," says Mr Shimada. "Is world's sad secret.”
John Updike (1932–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.”
Will Durant (1885–1981) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What is Civilization?" Ladies' Home Journal, LXIII (January, 1946)
“When you write a computer program you've got to not just list things out and sort of take an algorithm and translate it into a set of instructions. But when there's a bug — and all programs have bugs — you've got to debug it. You've got to go in, change it, and then re-execute … and you iterate. And that iteration is really a very, very good approximation of learning.”
Nicholas Negroponte (born 1943) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nicholas Negroponte: A 30-year history of the future, July 2014, TED Talks (about 13:40 into 19:43 video).
“natural selection has almost become irrelevant in human evolution. There's been no biological change in humans in 40,000 years or 50,000 years. Everything we call culture and civilisation we've built with the same body and brain.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Spice of Life", interview, Leader to Leader (Issue 15, 2000), pp. 14–19
“[A]lthough species may be discrete, they have no immutable essence. Variation is the raw material of evolutionary change. It represents the fundamental reality of nature, not an accident about a created norm. Variation is primary; essences are illusory. Species must be defined as ranges of irreducible variation.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Biological evolution is a theory about ties of physical genealogy based on reproduction with error and natural selection. Computers do not breed. Any direction imparted to biology by its Darwinian mechanism does not translate to pathways of industrial change; a biological past is no sure guide to a technological future.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Biological evolution is a system of constant divergence without subsequent joining of branches. Lineages, once distinct, are separate forever. In human history, transmission across lineages is, perhaps, the major source of cultural change. Europeans learned about corn and potatoes from Native Americans and gave them smallpox in return.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Words change their meanings, just as organisms evolve. We would impose an enormous burden on our economy if we insisted on payment in cattle every time we identified a bonus as a pecuniary advantage (from the Latin pecus, or cattle, a verbal fossil from a former commercial reality).”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) first seen 1070 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 1070
“[T]he effects of general change [in literature] are most tellingly recorded not in alteration of the best products, but in the transformation of the most ordinary workaday books; for when potboilers adopt the new style, then the revolution is complete.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Good Sports & Bad", p. 335; originally published in The New York Review of Books (1995-03-02)
“What's old collapses, times change, And new life blossoms in the ruins.”
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) said by 1805 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Act IV, sc. ii, in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 15th ed. (1980), p. 414
“Change in a trice The lilies and languors of virtue For the raptures and roses of vice.”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Change lays not her hand upon truth.”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the change of years, in the coil of things, In the clamour and rumour of life to be, We, drinking love at the furthest springs, Covered with love as a covering tree, We had grown as gods, as the gods above, Filled from the heart to the lips with love, Held fast in his hands, clothed warm with his wings, O love, my love, had you loved but me!”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mad mob does not ask how it could be better, only that it be different. And when it then becomes worse, it must change again. Thus they get bees for flies, and at last hornets for bees.”
Martin Luther (1483–1546) first seen 1526 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Whether Soldiers Can Also Be in a State of Grace (1526)
“I think the Congress should support the president’s request to fund programs that would protect people and change the culture of criminality and violence in Central America, helping people be able to stay safely in their homes and countries.”
Hillary Clinton (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It became clear to me that simply caring is not enough. To drive real progress, you have to change both hearts and laws. You need both understanding and action.”
Hillary Clinton (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So enough with the bigotry and bombast. Donald Trump's not offering real change. He's offering empty promises.”
Hillary Clinton (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Take clean energy. Some country is going to be the clean- energy superpower of the 21st century. Donald thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. I think it's real.”
Hillary Clinton (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A sense of security, of well-being, of summer warmth pervades my memory. That robust reality makes a ghost of the present. The mirror brims with brightness; a bumblebee has entered the room and bumps against the ceiling. Everything is as it should be, nothing will ever change, nobody will ever die.”
Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think the US is in a terrible state of denial … Worse than that, we seem to be caught in a kind of Götterdämmerung response: we'd rather have the world go down in flames than change our lifestyle or admit we're wrong.”
Kim Stanley Robinson (born 1952) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Future tense" in The Guardian (14 September 2005)
“So life adapts to conditions. And at the same time, conditions are changed by life. That is one of the definitions of life: organism and environment change together in a reciprocal arrangement, as they are two manifestations of an ecology, two parts of a whole.”
Kim Stanley Robinson (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If enough data points trouble the theory, the theory may be wrong. If the theory is basic, the paradigm may have to change.”
Kim Stanley Robinson (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A change in the form of government, why should that make a difference in the way he lived?”
Kim Stanley Robinson (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once upon a time she had suffered under the illusion that if she only exerted herself hard enough, the world would change. Now she knew better.”
Kim Stanley Robinson (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To a disciple who was forever complaining about others the Master said, "If it is peace you want, seek to change yourself, not other people. It is easier to protect your feet with slippers than to carpet the whole of the earth.”
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People who want a cure, provided they can have it without pain, are like those who favour progress, provided they can have it without change.”
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The people of a nation are enslaved when, together, they are helpless to institute effective change, when the people serve the government more than the government serves them.”
Gerry Spence (1929–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'The most common of all follies,' wrote H. L. Mencken, 'is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.' In culture after culture, people believe that the soul lives on after death, that rituals can change the physical world and divine the truth, and that illness and misfortune are caused and alleviated by spirits, ghosts, saints . . . and gods.”
Steven Pinker (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we wish to stop the atrocities, we will need to understand and change the social and economic conditions that cause them.”
Derrick Jensen (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's an old African proverb that says "If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." We have to go far — quickly. And that means we have to quickly find a way to change the world's consciousness about exactly what we're facing, and why we have to work to solve it.”
Al Gore (born 1948) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press conference at an Alliance for Climate Protection meeting (12 October 2007), after winning the Nobel Peace Prize (Video at YouTube).
“It is, in other words, time for a national oil change. That is apparent to anyone who has looked at our national dipstick.”
“You're unsure and you're not ready, So that must mean I want you. You're unavailable and disinterested, To you I look for comfort. A million times in a million ways, I will try to change you. A million months and a million days, I'll try to convince you.”
Alanis Morissette (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change. In my view, science and Buddhism share a search for the truth and for understanding reality. By learning from science about aspects of reality where its understanding may be more advanced, I believe that Buddhism enriches its own worldview.”
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 1935) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The New York Times (12 November 2005).
“Time is always moving on; nothing can stop it. We can’t change the past, but we can shape the future. The more compassionate you are, the more you will find inner peace.”
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 1935) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Official twitter page of the Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Tweet from 8. April 2019 11:30 am. Archived from the original on March 10, 2022 and January 9, 2024.
“Change from below, the formulation of demands from the populace to end unacceptable injustice, supported by direct action, has played a far larger part in shaping British democracy than most constitutional lawyers, political commentators, historians or statesmen have ever cared to admit. Direct action in a democratic society is fundamentally an educational exercise.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In New Politics (1970)
“We want industry to be in the public sector, to change the power structure of our society...We have not yet carved out of public enterprise a wide enough area of management decision which ought properly to be brought within the ambit of the workers themselves.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Brighton (6 October 1971)