100 Quotes About Change That Will Stay With You

Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher once said, “change is the only constant in life.” Change is as natural as breathing, but sometimes it’s hard to adjust or make room for the shifts in your life. Everyone deals with it differently. Change is an integral part of everyone’s life, which is one of the few things we all have in common. When adapting to new circumstances, it’s nice to have support or be able to talk to someone who has experienced a similar situation. Change comes in many forms like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar, dealing with death, or scoring a new job. The point is we get it.

Change is an inevitable part of life, but that doesn’t always mean it’s easy to recognize or accept when it comes your way. Whether it’s an evolving family dynamic, a big move, or even a natural progression with age, sometimes we need a little perspective to handle it all. Thankfully, we have you covered. Read these poignant quotes and sayings about change when you need a little help embracing the transitions in your life.

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1. “The moment of change is the only poem.” — Adrienne Rich

2. “Life’s a little bit messy. We all make mistakes. No matter what type of animal you are, change starts with you.” — Zootopia

3. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” — Gandhi

4. “Even the tiniest of actions can change the future.” — Tomorrowland

5. “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” — Rob Siltanen

6. “If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on being what you’ve always been. Nothing changes unless you make it change.” — The Samaritan

7. “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” — Leo Tolstoy

8. “A guy can change anything. His face, his home, his family, his girlfriend, his religion, his God. But there’s one thing he can’t change. He can’t change his passion.” — The Secret in Their Eyes

9. “Only I can change my life. No can do it for me.” — Carol Burnett

10. “Those who expect moments of change to be comfortable and free of conflict have not learned their history.” — Joan Wallach Scott

11. “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” — Charles Kettering

12. “Change is inevitable — except from a vending machine.” — Robert C. Gallagher

13. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” — R. Buckminster Fuller

14. “Change means that what was before wasn’t perfect. People want things to be better.” — Esther Dyson

15. “No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.” — Dead Poets Society

16. “Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights.” — Pauline R. Kezer

17. “Become a student of change. It is the only thing that will remain constant.” — Anthony D’Angelo

18. “When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge.” — Tuli Kupferberg

19. “Change before you have to.” — Jack Welch

20. “The changes we dread most may contain our salvation.” — Barbara Kingsolver

21. ” Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” — Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

22. “You must welcome change as the rule but not as your ruler.” — Denis Waitley

23. “He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.” — Harold Wilson

24. “We are all different and our needs change as we go through life.” — Joanna Jast

25. “The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.” — Nathaniel Branden

26. “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” — Lao Tzu

27. “People can cry much easier than they can change.” — James Baldwin

28. “If you don’t like change, you will like irrelevance even less.” — General Eric Shinseki

29. “For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.” — The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

30. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” — Barack Obama

31. “If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” — Gail Sheehy

32. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela

33. “We can’t be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don’t have something better.” — C. Joybell C.

34. “Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes.” — Hugh Prather

35. “Some changes look negative on the surface, but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.” — Eckhart Tolle

36. “Change is painful, but nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong.” — Mandy Hale

37. “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” — John Maxwell

38. “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” — Jalaluddin Mevlana Rumi

39. “Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by discomforts.” — Arnold Bennett

40. “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” — John F. Kennedy

41. “Dreams are the seeds of change. Nothing ever grows without a seed, and nothing ever changes without a dream.” — Debby Boone

42. “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” — Andy Warhol

43. “Don’t expect to see a change if you don’t make one.” — Unknown

44. “We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.” — Harrison Ford

45. “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin

46. “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.” — Helen Keller

47. “We are not trapped or locked up in these bones. No, no. We are free to change. And love changes us. And if we can love one another, we can break open the sky.” — Walter Mosley

48. “Change, like healing, takes time.” — Veronica Roth

49. “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” — Alan W. Watts

50. “There is a kind of magicness about going far away and then coming back all changed.” — Kate Douglas Wiggin

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51. “When in doubt, choose change.” – Lily Leung

52. “I cannot say whether things will get getter if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.” — Georg C. Lichtenberg

53. “There is nothing permanent except change.” — Heraclitus

54. “True life is lived when tiny changes occur.” — Leo Tolstoy

55. “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” — Oprah Winfrey

56. “Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong.” — N.R. Narayana Murthy

57. “It’s not abut standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating, they have to be about change.” — Miles Davis

58. “Change always comes bearing gifts.” — Price Pritchett

59. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Socrates

60. “Often the reason we don’t make changes in our life is because we feel overwhelmed by the perceived enormity of the task ahead of us. By looking for small ways to take action, we remove this barrier blocking us from living our life in line with what we value most.” — Cyd Cassados

61. “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” — Stephen Hawking

62. “Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.” — Athur Schopenhauer

63. “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin

64. “Don’t make a change too complicated, just begin.” — Unknown

65. “Love change, fear staying the same.” — Maxime Lagacé

66. “Life will only change when you become more committed to your dreams than you are to your comfort zone.” — Billy Cox

67. “The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surrounding.” — Kakuzo Okakura

68. “When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.” — Chinese Proverb

69. “Things do not change. We change.” — Henry David Thoreau

70. “Change is the end result of all true learning.” — Leo Buscaglia

71. “Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix.” — Christina Baldwin

72. “Change has to come for life to struggle forward.” — Helen Hollick

73. “When you are through changing, you are through.” — Bruce Barton

74. “Your life does not get better by chance; it gets better by change.” — Jim Rohn

75. “Every day of our lives, we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference.” — Mignon McLaughlin

76. “To get from where we don’t want to be to where we do want to be requires two things: time and a change of direction.” — Andy Stanley

77. “The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready an any moment to give up what you are for what you might become.” — W.E.B.

78. “Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.” — Arnold Bennett

79. “Your desire to change must be greater than your desire to stay the same.” — Unknown

80. “A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it.” — Chinese Proverb

81. “You can live your dreams if you can embrace change. It’s by taking chances that you’ll learn how to be brave.” — Nikita Koloff

82. “If change is constant, then learning must also be continual.” — Meir Liraz

83. “You gotta know when it’s time to turn the page.” — Tori Amos

84. “Making changes is very difficult. Therefore, if you are to emerge successful, you need to find a way of being continually motivated to change.” — Nick Bell

85. “Small changes often will result in a huge overall change eventually.” — Clodagh Swanson

86. “Time flies, people change. You’re not always needed. There are times to move forward and places to let go.” — Unknown

87. “You’ve got to make a conscious choice every day to shed the old — whatever ‘the old’ means for you.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach

88. “Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.” — Steve Maraboli

89. “When life seems hopeless, rearrange things for a dose of dopeness.” — Kid Cudi

90. “Change can either challenge or threaten us. Your beliefs pave your way to success or block you.” — Marsha Sinetar

91. “We are restless because of incessant change, but we would be frightened if change were stopped.” — Lyman Lloyd Bryson

92. “There will always be change, shift, and ups and downs.” — Cat O’Connor

93. “If there are things in your life you want to change, you don’t change them from the outside in. You change them from the inside out.” — Rick Warren

94. “We are constantly changing, but you decide how to change. Who you are isn’t something you were forced to be.” — Albert Rogerts

95. “Sometimes one day changes everything; sometimes years change nothing.” — Irish Saying

96. “I reserve the right to evolve. What I think and feel today is subject to revision tomorrow.” —Laurence Overmire

97. “If you get knocked down seven times, you get up eight. You’re going to have to learn how to adapt.” — Dr. Tim Wallace

98. “Regardless of the change a person wants to make, three things remain true: Any major change actually requires many smaller changes; taking an all-or-nothing or extreme approach doesn’t work; and small changes that we can manage and master feed our desire to succeed.” — Brett Blumenthal

99. “Change always finds a way, but it’s easier if you embrace it.” — Anyonymous

100. “Well, I’ve been ‘fraid of changin’/’Cause I’ve built my life around you/But time makes you bolder/Even children get older/And I’m gettin’ older, too.” — Fleetwood Mac, “Landslide”

101. “Moving doesn’t change who you are. It only changes the view outside your window.” — Rachel Hollis

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