CHANGE

Related States & Conditions | Syntonic | Dystonic

Change is Lord of the Universe … Nothing rests, everything moves; everything vibrates.
Khemetic Saying
Temt Tchaas: Egyptian Proverbs , Muata Ashaya Ashby, ed.

If you realize that all things change there is nothing you will try to hold onto.
Laozi
570-490 BCE, Chinese Philosopher, Founder of Daoism
Daode Jing

There is nothing permanent except change.
Heraclitus
c. 540 -c. 480 BCE, Greek Philosopher

You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing on.
Heraclitus
in Plato, Cratylus

All is change; all yields its place and goes.
Euripides
c. 485-406 BCE, Greek Dramatist, Poet

Nothing endures but change.
Horace
65-8 BCE, Roman Poet, Satirist

The universe is change; life is what thinking makes of it.
Marcus Aurelius
121-180, Roman Emperor, Stoic Philosopher
Meditations

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.
Unknown Monk
c. 1100 CE

Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.
Richard Hooker
1554-1600, English Theologian, Cleric
in Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language , 1755

Do not look forward in fear to the changes of life; rather look to them with full hope as they arise.
Francis de Sales
1567-1622, French Prelate, Patron Saint of Writers

Since 'tis Nature's law to change,
Constancy alone is strange.
John Wilmot Rochester
1647-1680, English Satirist, Poet, Courtier, Libertine
A Dialogue between Strephon and Daphne , 1691

There is nothing in this world constant but inconstancy.
Jonathan Swift
1667-1745, Irish Satirist, Poet, Essayist, Cleric
A Critical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind , 1709

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again. The world is not yet exhausted; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before.
Samuel Johnson
1709-1784, English Lexicographer, Poet, Critic, Essayist
in Julia Cameron, Transitions: Prayers and Declarations for a Changing Life , 1999

All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
Edward Gibbon
1737-1794, English Historian, Politician
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , 1776-1788

There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse; as I have found in traveling in a stage-coach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position and be bruised in a new place.
Washington Irving
1783-1859, American Writer, Diplomat
Tales of a Traveller , 1824

In a higher world it is otherwise; but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to change often.
John Henry Newman
1801-1890, English Cardinal, Theologian, Poet

Change is inevitable. In a progressive country change is constant.
Benjamin Disraeli
1804-1881, British Statesman, Prime Minister, Writer
Speech, 1867

No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible, until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.
John Stuart Mill
1806-1873, English Philosopher, Economist
Autobiography , 1873

The dogmas of the past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves.
Abraham Lincoln
1809-1865, 16th US President

The old order changeth, yielding place to the new …
Alfred Lord Tennyson
1809-1892, English Lyric Poet
The Idylls of the King

Things do not change; we change.
Henry David Thoreau
1817-1862, American Essayist, Writer, Naturalist
Walden , 1854

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
Leo Tolstoy
1828-1910, Russian Novelist, Essayist, Philosopher

In quiet uneventful lives, the changes internal and external are so small that there is little or no strain in the process of fusion and accommodation. In other lives there is great strain, but there is also great fusion and accommodating power.
Samuel Butler
1835-1902, English Writer, Painter, Philosopher, Scholar
The Way of All Flesh

What, then, is the true Gospel of consistency? Change. Who is the really consistent man? The man who changes. Since change is the law of his being, he cannot be consistent if he sticks in a rut.
Mark Twain
1835-1910, American Writer, Humorist, Journalist

To change one's life: Start immediately, do it flamboyantly, no exceptions, no excuses.
William James
1842-1910, American Psychologist, Philosopher

One must never lose time in vainly regretting the past nor in complaining about the changes which cause us discomfort, for change is the very essence of life.
Anatole France
1844-1924, French Writer, Poet, Critic

Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds, cannot change anything.
George Bernard Shaw
1856-1950, Irish Writer, Dramatist, Literary Critic, 1925 Nobel Laureate

Since changes are going on anyway, the great thing is to learn enough about them so that we will be able to lay hold of them and turn them in the direction of our desires. Conditions and events are neither to be fled from nor passively acquiesced in; they are to be utilized and directed.
John Dewey
1859-1952, American Educator, Philosopher, Reformer
Reconstruction in Philosophy

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order. Life refuses to be embalmed alive.
Alfred North Whitehead
1861-1947, English Mathematician, Philosopher

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
1869-1948, Indian Spiritual Leader

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.
G. K. Chesterton
1874-1936, English Writer, Poet, Critic
Orthodoxy , 1908

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Winston Churchill
1874-1965, British Prime Minister, Historian, 1953 Nobel Laureate

We cannot change anything unless we accept it.
Carl Jung
1875-1961, Swiss Psychologist, Theorist

Change not the mass but change the fabric of your own soul and your own visions, and you change all.
Vachel Lindsay
1879-1931, American Poet

None of us knows what the next change is going to be, what unexpected opportunity is just around the corner, waiting a few months or a few years to change all the tenor of our lives.
Kathleen Norris
1880-1966, American Writer, Pacifist, Activist
Hands Full of Living

Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.
Nikos Kazantzakis
1885-1957, Greek Writer

Keep changing. When you're through changing, you're through.
Bruce Barton
1886-1967, American Advertising Executive, Writer

Change yourself and you have done your part in changing the world. Every individual must change his own life if he wants to live in a peaceful world.
Paramahansa Yogananda
1893-1952, Indian Guru
Autobiography of a Yogi

Change means chaos, but it also means life.
Lin Yutang
1895-1976, Chinese Writer, Dramatist, Translator
in The New York Times Magazine , 1936

Change is a measure of time and, in the autumn, time seems speeded up. What was is not and never again will be; what is is change.
Edwin Teale
1899-1980, American Naturalist

The only sense that is common in the long run, is the sense of change, and we all instinctively avoid it.
E. B. White
1899-1985, American Writer, Humorist, Essayist

It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.
William Deming
1900-1993, American Statistician, Management Consultant

Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
Shunryu Suzuki
1905-1971, Japanese Zen Master

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Viktor Frankl
1905-1998, Austrian Psychotherapist, Concentration Camp Survivor

If you want to change the world, or to be an influence for such a change, you must begin within yourself by changing the way you see the world.
Eric Butterworth
1916-, Canadian/American Unity Cleric, Writer
Discover The Power Within You , 1968

At one end is the dimension of our being that is transient and evanescent, or continually changing and transforming through a process of evolution. At the other end of this pendulum is that part of consciousness that remains immortal and unchanged. This our whole being could be said to be a continuity of change – just as it's never the same water that passes under the bridge, yet at the same time it's the same river.
Vilayat Khan
1916-, Indian-British Sufi Master, Writer
Awakening: A Sufi Experience , 1999

Change is the law of life. Those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
John F. Kennedy
1917-1963, 35th US President

When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.
Kennedy

Our own dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.
Sydney J. Harris
1917-1986, American Journalist

We must change in order to survive.
Pearl Bailey
1918-1990, African-American Entertainer, Writer

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.
Isaac Asimov
1920-1992, Russian/American Biochemist, Writer
"My Own View," in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction , Holdstock, ed.

Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
James Baldwin
1924-1987, African-American Writer, Dramatist, Poet, Civil Rights Activist

Most of us are about as eager to change as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.
Baldwin

Change is the end result of all true learning. Change involves three things: First, a dissatisfaction with self – a felt void or need; second, a decision to change – to fill the void or need; and third, a conscious dedication to the process of growth and change – the willful act of making the change; Doing Something.
Leo Buscaglia
1924-1998, American Educator, Writer

We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.
R. D. Laing
1927-1989, Scottish Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst, Poet
The Politics of Experience , 1967

They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.
Andy Warhol
1927-1987, American Pop Artist
From A to B and Back Again , 1975

Changes become possible because of changes and release changes, which again makes possible further changes. So every reform that looks at itself in isolation will fail from a lack of insight into its own consequences.
Gunter Grass
1927-, German Writer
Der Burger und Seine Stimme , 1974

Change is not merely necessary to life – it is life.
Alvin Toffler
1928-, American Writer, Editor, Social Commentator

The problem is not therefore, to suppress change, which cannot be done, but to manage it. If we opt for rapid change in certain sectors of life we can consciously attempt to build stability zones elsewhere. A divorce perhaps, should not be too closely followed by a job transfer … the recent widow should not, perhaps, rush to sell her house.
Toffler

If we want to change a situation, we first have to change ourselves. And to change ourselves effectively, we first have to change our perceptions.
Stephen Covey
1932-, American Management Educator, Writer
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , 1989

Some women wait for something to change and nothing does change so they change themselves.
Audre Lorde
1934-1992, African-American Poet, Writer, Lesbian-Feminist Activist

People handle their fear of change in different ways, but the fear is inescapable if we are in fact to change.
M. Scott Peck
1936-, American Psychiatrist, Writer
The Road Less Travelled , 1978

The world in which we are born is not the world in which we will die. Change is the only constant thing in life.
Famous Amos
1937-, African-American Athlete, Entrepreneur
Watermelon Magic , 1996

Changes are not only possible and predictable, but to deny them is to be an accomplice to one's own unnecessary vegetation.
Gail Sheehy
1937-, American Journalist

A belated discovery, one that causes considerable anguish, is that no one can persuade another to change. Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be unlocked from the inside. We cannot open the gate of another, either by argument or by emotional appeal.
Marilyn Ferguson
1938-, American Writer, Mind Researcher
The Aquarian Conspiracy , 1980

Fluidity and discontinuity are central to the reality in which we live.
Catherine Bateson
1939-, American Scholar, Writer, Anthropologist

I change myself, I change the world.
Gloria Anzaldua
1942-, Mexican-American Educator, Writer, Editor
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza , 1987

Today, loving change, tumult, even chaos, is a prerequisite for survival, let alone success.
Tom Peters
1942-, American Management Consultant

The real meaning of revolution is not a change in management, but a change in man. This change we must make in our own lifetime and not for our children's sake, for the revolution must be born of joy and not sacrifice.
Daniel Cohn-Bendit
1945-, French Political Activist, Writer
Obsolete Communism, a Left-Wing Alternative

Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix.
Christina Baldwin
1946-, American Writer

The most powerful thing you can do to change the world, is to change your own beliefs about the nature of life, people, reality, to something more positive … and begin to act accordingly.
Shakti Gawain
1948-, American Therapist, Writer
Creative Visualization , 1978

If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.
Amy Tan
1952-, Chinese-American Writer

From where you are, from who you are in your everyday life, that's where you make change.
Toshi Reagon
1964-, African-American Musician, Songwriter, Producer

The only person you can change is yourself.
- Alcoholics Anonymous

If one desires a change, one must be that change before that change can take place.
Gita Bellin
Australian Teacher
A Sharing of Completion And Celebration , 1983

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.
- Karen Kaiser Clark

If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.
- Jack Dixon

There is no way to make people like change. You can only make them feel less threatened by it.
- Frederick O'R. Hayes
American Bureaucrat
in Fortune , 1969

When we become aware of ourselves, we find the potential for radical transformation. If you want to change, that's where you have to start from. If you really wake up, if you really notice, it's inevitable that change will take place.
Angel Kyodo Williams
African-American Zen Priest
Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace , 2000

BACK TO TOP | HOME

Wisdom for The Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing, © 2004