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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“Nothing worse than a hypocrite Change, he ain't really different He ain't even try to get permission Ask for advice and they dissed him Said I'm finna do a gospel album What have you been hearing from the Christians? They'll be the first one to judge me Make it feel like nobody love me.”
Kanye West (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Natural, reckless, correct skill; Yesterday's clarity is today's stupidity The universe has dark and light, entrust oneself to change One time, shade the eyes and gaze afar at the road of heaven.”
Ikkyū (1394–1481) said by 1481 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Ikkyū and The Crazy Cloud Anthology : A Zen Poet of Medieval Japan (1986) by Sonja Arntzen.
“Without good-will, no man has any presumptive right, except the right or opportunity to change his will, so long as there is hope of it.”
William Ernest Hocking (1873–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sex class is so deep as to be invisible. Or it may appear as a superficial inequality, one that can be solved by merely a few reforms, or perhaps by the full integration of women into the labour force. But the reaction of the common man, woman, and child - That? Why you can't change that! You must be out of your mind!' - is the closest to the truth.”
Shulamith Firestone (1945–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m just trying to change my life because I’m not above killing any drug dealer for money.”
Mike Tyson (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is all very well to sit back and hope for "the best in this best of all possible worlds" but it's the course of personal and national suicide. Unless there is a vast alteration in man's civilization as it stumbles along today, man will not be here very long and none of us. Times must change.”
L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Times Must Change" in Ability # 179 (March 20, 1966).
“Try to realize it's all within yourself, No one else can make you change. And to see you're really only very small And life flows in within you and without you.”
George Harrison (1943–2001) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Within You Without You, from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
“If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”
Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to World's Salesmanship Congress, Detroit (10 July 1916)
“He who invokes history is always secure. The dead will not rise to witness against him.You can accuse them of any deeds you like. Their reply will always be silence.Their empty faces swim out of the deep dark. You can fill them with any features desired.Proud of dominion over people long vanished, Change the past into your own, better likeness.”
Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Child of Europe" (1946)
“Geneticists will tell you that. Evolution is always happening. What they mean is that the genes of this generation are not precisely what they were the preceding generation. Nor will they be precisely the same in the next. And evolution is that change.”
Jonathan Weiner (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rapid accumulation of change is not always progress, and forward motion is not always an advance.”
Jonathan Weiner (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music is like a drug; when you hear it, you have a vision. And that vision can change over time or remain the same. You know, that first time you’re in love and you hear a love song and every time you think about it you have that vision of your special someone. And then two years later, after you broke up, you’re at the bar. And you hear that song and you go, "Son of a bitch... I’ll have a Jaeger.”
Lewis Black (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Movies touch our hearts, and awaken our vision, and change the way we see things. They take us to other places. They open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our lifetime. We need to keep them alive.”
Martin Scorsese (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some force whole regions, in despite O' geography, to change their site; Make former times shake hands with latter, And that which was before come after. But those that write in rhyme still make The one verse for the other's sake; For one for sense, and one for rhyme, I think 's sufficient at one time.”
Samuel Butler (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Samuel Butler
“What we need is a drastic change in attitude on the part of everybody concerned.”
Mahathir Mohamad (born 1925) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Change and development are integral to any society and nation. The problem that confronts societies and nations, however, is that not all developments are for the better.”
Mahathir Mohamad (born 1925) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ethnicity remains a thorn in the Malaysian body, stifling change and progress. But there is no choice for Malaysia and Malaysians. We just have to continue our efforts to bring the different ethnic groups together.”
Mahathir Mohamad (born 1925) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For every generation, there is a destiny. For some, history decides. For this generation, the choice must be our own. [...] Our destiny in the midst of change will rest on the unchanged character of our people, and on their faith.”
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.”
Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Day of Affirmation, address delivered at the University of Cape Town, South Africa (June 6, 1966); reported in the Congressional Record (June 6, 1966), vol. 112, p. 12430
“Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and then the total — all of these acts — will be written in the history of this generation.”
Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like people to go away from a Queen show feeling fully entertained, having had a good time. I think Queen songs are pure escapism, like going to see a good film - after that, they can go away and say that was great, and go back to their problems. I don't want to change the world with our music. There are no hidden messages in our songs, except for some of Brian's.”
Freddie Mercury (1946–1991) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Man Who Would Be Queen" in Melody Maker (2 May 1981).
“I prayed all night long for my master. Till the first of March; and all the time he was bringing people to look at me, and trying to sell me. I changed my prayer. First of March I began to pray, 'Oh Lord, if you ain't never going to change that man's heart, kill him, Lord, and take him out of the way'.”
Harriet Tubman (1820–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1971), by Sarah Hopkins Bradford, Freeport: Books for Libraries Press, pp. 14-15.
“The human mind invents its Puss-in-Boots and its coaches that change into pumpkins at midnight because neither the believer nor the atheist is completely satisfied with appearances.”
André Malraux (1901–1976) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Antimémoires, preface (1967)
“Industry must be humanized, not destroyed. It must be the instrument not of selfishness, but of service. Change not the law, but the attitude of the mind. Let our citizens look not to the false prophet but to the pilgrims. Let them fix their eyes on Plymouth Rock as well as Beacon Hill. The supreme choice must be not to things that are seen, but to things that are unseen.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A mightier force than ever followed Grant or Lee has leveled both their hosts, raised up an united Nation, and made us all partakers of a new glory. It is not for us to forget the past but to remember it, that we may profit by it. But it is gone; we can not change it. We must put our emphasis on the present and put into effect the lessons the past has taught us.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough. Money constitutes no proper basis of civilization. The time has come to regenerate society — we are on the eve of universal change.”
Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Open letter to the American Railway Union, Chicago Railway Times (1 January 1897)
“[about a clerk, after recounting a story he read in which someone presented a store cashier with a million dollar bill and asked for change]”
Jeff Foxworthy (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Your heart is as fresh as your face; and that is well. The useless men are those who never change with the years. Many views that I held to in my youth and long afterwards are a pain to me now, and I am carrying away from Thrums memories of errors into which I fell at every stage of my ministry. When you are older you will know that life is a long lesson in humility.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For heroes do not make history—that is the historians’ job—but, passive, let themselves be borne along, swept up to the crest of the tide of change, of chance, of war.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man can trust his luck, but a society can’t; and cultural change, like random mutation, may make things chancier. So they have gone very slowly. At any one point in their history a hasty observer would say that all technological progress and diffusion had ceased. Yet it never has. Compare the torrent and the glacier. Both get where they are going.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You can’t crush ideas by suppressing them. You can only crush them by ignoring them. By refusing to think, refusing to change. And that’s precisely what our society is doing!”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To know there is a choice is to have to make the choice: change or stay: river or rock.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Man of the People", p. 104; first published in Asimov's (1995)
“Certainly the effort to remain unchanged, young, when the body gives so impressive a signal of change as the menopause, is gallant; but it is a stupid, self-sacrificial gallantry, better befitting a boy of twenty than a woman of forty-five or fifty. Let the athletes die young and laurel-crowned. Let the soldiers earn the Purple Hearts. Let women die old, white-crowned, with human hearts”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Space Crone" (1976)
“We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bryn Mawr Commencement Address" (1986)
“Cripple crow say something for our grieving, where do we go once we start leaving. Well close that wound or else keep on bleeding and change your tune, it's got no meaning.”
Devendra Banhart (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everything that happens is supposed to be And it's all pre-determined, can't change your destiny Guess I'll just keep moving, someday maybe I'll get to where I'm going”
Conor Oberst (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now the sky is a torn up denim and the clouds are just splattered paint It's a room I'm renovating; it's a name I got to change”
Conor Oberst (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It has varied. I don’t know if it’s good or bad but a dear friend of mine Aziz (Mirza) asked me not to do Don. I was also told to cut my hair and to change my name because someone said that there couldn’t be a movie star by the name of Shah Rukh Khan. (when asked the worst piece of professional advice that someone has given him)”
Shahrukh Khan (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What do I want to say to little girls that I know? Don’t change. Be who you are.”
Sandra Bullock (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Therefore, as we see it, the cold war is not an attempt to change each other's systems of government, but to influence those that are uncommitted.”
Walter Reuther (1907–1970) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Text of interview with Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev, San Francisco, California, September 20, 1959, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 303
“The Prime Minister [i.e. Benjamin Netanyahu] convinced me that Israel is developing weapons that will change the future of warfare. They would love to partner with the United States, which is the most important form of aid we could ever give them and the most important event that would provide security to both countries.”
Lindsey Graham (1955–2026) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement from U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham", United States Senate (January 18, 2026).
“There is every indication that the period ahead will be an innovative one, one of rapid change in technology, society, economy, and institutions.”
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think the growth industry of the future in this country and the world will soon be the continuing education of adults. ...I think the educated person of the future is somebody who realizes the need to continue to learn. That is the new definition and it is going to change the world we live in and work in.”
Peter Drucker (1909–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You gonna lose a deal over $35? Thats chump change! My lunch cost $35!”
“As long as politics is the shadow cast on society by big business, the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance.”
John Dewey (1859–1952) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in John Dewey and American Democracy by Robert Westbrook (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), p. 440; cited in Understanding Power (2002) by Noam Chomsky, ch. 9, footnote 16; originally from "The Need for a …
“Equally there is no rhythm when variations are not placed. There is a wealth of suggestions in the phrase “takes place”. The change not only comes but it belongs; it had its definite place in a larger whole.”
John Dewey (1859–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the late eighteenth and the greater part of the nineteenth centuries appeared the first marked cultural shift in the attitude taken toward change. Under the names of indefinite perfectibility, progress, and evolution, the movement of things in the universe itself and of the universe as a whole began to take on a beneficent instead of hateful aspect.”
John Dewey (1859–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The revolution in scientific ideas just mentioned is primarily logical. It is due to recognition that the very method of physical science, with its primary standard units of mass, space, and time, is concerned with measurements of relations of change, not with individuals as such.”
John Dewey (1859–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are many creeds but only one faith. Creeds may change, develop, and grow flat, while the substance of faith remains the same in all ages. The overgrowth of creed may bring about the disintegration of that substance. The proper relation is a minimum of creed and a maximum of faith.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hope I can pass on a few thoughts and ideas to the Sci-Fi channel to encourage people to see that they are living in a conditioned illusion and we can change it any time we want. We can be people and not sheeple.”
David Icke (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source