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
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatinaNederlands
Change
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“The hurricane that has swept us away is so strange & new a phenomenon that we shall not for some time understand its real meaning. ... It seems to me to be inspired by some definite desire for change: & means business. It may disappear as rapidly as it came: or it may be the beginning of a serious war of classes. Gladstone is doing all he can to give it the latter meaning.”
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) first seen 1880 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Arthur Balfour after the Conservatives' defeat in the general election (10 April 1880), quoted in Salisbury–Balfour Correspondence, ed. Robin Harcourt Williams (1988), p. 40
“It is patent on the face of history that the aggregates of men who form communities, like the aggregates of atoms that form living bodies, are subject to laws of progressive change – be it towards growth or towards decay.”
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) first seen 1883 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Disintegration', Quarterly Review, vol. 156 (July & October 1883), p. 570
“Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Wave of the Future (1940)
“On this day I remember words that have stayed with me since my childhood and which matter a great deal to me today, my school motto: "I will try my outmost". This is my promise to all of the people of Britain and now let the work of change begin.”
Gordon Brown (born 1951) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement at Downing Street, 27 June 2007.
“We must change our diet. The planet can’t support billions of meat-eaters.”
David Attenborough (born 1926) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Go vegetarian to save wildlife and the planet, Sir David Attenborough urges". The Independent (26 August 2020)
“As I see it humanity needs to reduce its impact on the Earth urgently and there are three ways to achieve this: we can stop consuming so many resources, we can change our technology and we can reduce our population. We probably need to do all three. m31m37-m31s56”
David Attenborough (born 1926) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Right now we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”
David Attenborough (born 1926) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the , "David Attenborough: collapse of civilisation is on the horizon", The Guardian, 3 December 2018.
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”
John Rogers (born 2000) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: This also appears in Ch. 10 of The Value of Nothing (2010) by Raj Patel, who later acknowledged it was a borrowed joke in "Citation Alert!" (21 January 2010) at rajpatel.org.
“If you dislike change, you're going to dislike irrelevance even more.”
Eric Shinseki (born 1942) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Mackubin Thomas Owens, "Marines Turned Soldiers", National Review Online, December 10, 2001
“Crowding, rapid change and the breakdown of communities have been widely recognized as sources of social problems. But we do not believe they are enough to account for the extent of the problems that are seen today.”
Theodore Kaczynski (1942–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We hope we have convinced the reader that the system cannot be reformed in such a way as to reconcile freedom with technology. The only way out is to dispense with the industrial-technological system altogether. This implies revolution, not necessarily an armed uprising, but certainly a radical and fundamental change in the nature of society.”
Theodore Kaczynski (1942–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Humankind is made for uncertainty, struggle, choice and change.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s too late to change your mind after you’ve jumped off the cliff.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Aviendha] didn't trust change. It couldn't be spotted or stabbed; it was more silent than any scout, more deadly than any assassin. No, she'd never trust it, but she would accept it.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can't change the way I am… but if I offended you, good, 'cause I still don't give a fuck!”
“there really is no normal, and the things that I do change: study Aikido, take photos, take a dance course, get back cooking, illustrate a songbook, take on a human rights project-write a book. But there are some friends who have remained constant”
“Cultural change is the statistical product of the separate behavioral responses of large numbers of human beings who cope as best they can with social existence.”
E. O. Wilson (1929–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Because it is... far slower than Lamarckian evolution, biological evolution is always quickly outrun by cultural change.”
E. O. Wilson (1929–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pure knowledge is the ultimate emancipator. It equalizes people and sovereign states, erodes the archaic barriers of superstition and promises to lift the trajectory of cultural evolution. But I do not believe that it can change the ground rules of human behavior or alter the main course of history's predictable trajectory.”
E. O. Wilson (1929–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In Darwin's theory, you just have to substitute 'mutations' for his 'slight accidental variations' (just as quantum theory substitutes 'quantum jump' for 'continuous transfer of energy'). In all other respects little change was necessary in Darwin's theory...”
Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I began to write in the first place because I expected everything to change, and I wanted to have things in writing the way they had been. Just a little things, of course. A little of my little.”
William Saroyan (1908–1981) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: One Day in the Afternoon of the World" (1964)
“What I have now offered is meant merely for the sake of my country, for the simple question is: will you change your Ministers and keep the Empire, or keep your Ministers and lose the Kingdom?”
William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons, supporting a motion of censure on the government of Lord North (15 March 1782), quoted in William Cobbett, Parliamentary History
“It’s not time to make a change, Just relax, take it easy You’re still young, that’s your fault, There’s so much you have to know. Find a girl, settle down, If you want you can marry Look at me, I am old, but I’m happy”
Cat Stevens (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don't you feel a change a coming From another side of time, Breaking down the walls of silence, Lifting shadows from your mind.”
Cat Stevens (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh very young, What will you leave us this time? There’ll never be a better chance to change your mind. And if you want this world to see better days, Will you carry the words of love with you? Will you ride the great white bird into heaven? And though you want them to last forever, You know they never will — you know they never will. And the goodbye makes the journey harder still.”
Cat Stevens (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would not change my native land For rich Peru with all her gold. A nobler prize lies in my hand Than East or Western Indies hold.”
Isaac Watts (1674–1748) said by 1748 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So, when a raging fever burns, We shift from side to side by turns; And 't is a poor relief we gain To change the place, but keep the pain.”
Isaac Watts (1674–1748) said by 1748 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I was little, every birthday was big — you just couldn't wait to get older. But a lot of great things happened around 30. From 28 to now has been a time of incredible change and growth, deepening and ripening, good stuff. It's been hard too, because when you're going through that stuff you have to go down into the mud. They've been really interesting years.”
Alicia Silverstone (born 1976) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Alicia Silverstone Interview on Her Age & Health - Redbook, Oct 2009
“All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him.”
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) said by 1889 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“New friends, however, will not be the same.” No, nor will you yourself remain the same; you change with every day and every hour.”
Seneca the Younger (5 BC–65) said by 65 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No one ever saw Cato change, no matter how often the state changed: he kept himself the same in all circumstances—in the praetorship, in defeat, under accusation, in his province, on the platform, in the army, in death.”
Seneca the Younger (5 BC–65) said by 65 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And we cannot change this order of things; but what we can do is to acquire stout hearts, worthy of good men, thereby courageously enduring chance and placing ourselves in harmony with Nature.”
Seneca the Younger (5 BC–65) said by 65 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Try to gain absolute mastery over the sexual instinct. If one succeeds in doing this, a physiological change is produced in the body by the development of a hitherto rudimentary nerve known as Medha (the function of which is to transmute the lower energies into the higher). The knowledge of the higher Self is gained after the development of this Medha nerve. (79)”
Ramakrishna (1836–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They would fail. We would always fail. We weren’t built to do anything but fail. We had the wrong kind of motives and we couldn’t change them. We had a built-in short-sightedness and an inherent selfishness and a self-concern that made it impossible to step out of the little human rut we traveled.”
Clifford D. Simak (1904–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These kind never change. The machine does something to a man. It brutalizes him. It serves as a buffer between himself and his environment and he is the worst for it. It arouses an opportunistic instinct and makes possible a greed that makes a man inhuman.”
Clifford D. Simak (1904–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The principle of flexibility... suggests a corresponding strategy of conflict resolution. ...the community will need stability and change, order and freedom, tradition and innovation. ...these unavoidable conflicts are much better resolved by establishing a dynamic balance.”
Fritjof Capra (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our strategy has been to change the subject a bit so that we can get the issue of intelligent design, which really means the reality of God, before the academic world and into the schools.”
Phillip E. Johnson (1940–2019) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: American Family Radio (10 January 2003)
“Whenever there is a substantial change in an industry there are opportunities for new leaders to emerge.”
Mark Shuttleworth (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This makes it morally unchristian for any human to legislate spiritual change since God himself does not force his people to do the same.”
Esala Tuibua wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The commencement of the last fifty years is about the beginning of that great change and improvement in the condition of women which exceeds all the gains of hundreds of years before.”
Lucy Stone (1818–1893) said by 1893 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, it is so wonderful to be here. And nothing — nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight. I have come here tonight to stand with you to change America, to restore its future, to rise to our best ideals, and to elect Barack Obama president of the United States.”
Ted Kennedy (1932–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Two things of opposite natures seem to depend On one another, as a man depends On a woman, day on night, the imaginedOn the real. This is the origin of change. Winter and spring, cold copulars, embrace And forth the particulars of rapture come.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fluctuations of certainty, the change Of degrees of perception in the scholar’s dark.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fat girl, terrestrial, my summer, my night, How is it I find you in difference, see you there In a moving contour, a change not quite completed?You are familiar yet an aberration.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poetry is a purging of the world's poverty and change and evil and death. It is a present perfecting, a satisfaction in the irremediable poverty of life.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The process begins with the individual woman’s acceptance that American women, without exception, are socialized to be racist, and sexist, in varying degrees, and that labeling ourselves feminists does not change the fact that we must consciously work to rid ourselves of the legacy of .”
Bell hooks (1952–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Feminism in the United States has never emerged from the women who are most by sexist ; women who are daily beaten down, mentally, physically, and spiritually-women who are powerless to change their condition in life. They are a silent majority. A mark of their victimization is that they accept their lot in life without visible question, without organized protest, without collective anger or rage.”
Bell hooks (1952–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Revolutionary feminism embraces men who are able to change, who are capable of responding mutually in a subject-to-subject encounter where desire and fulfillment are in no way linked to coercive subjugation. This feminist vision of the sexual imaginary is the space few men seem able to enter.”
Bell hooks (1952–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The ability to change should not be despised.”
Brian Aldiss (1925–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unstable condition A symptom of life In mental and environmental change Atmospheric disturbance The feverish flux Of human interface and interchange -- Vital Signs (1981)”
Neil Peart (1952–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source