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80 Powerful Quotes About Change to Welcome the Inevitable

Change can be frightening and complicated, but it can also be exciting. Things around you may start to shift or you may be about to start a new chapter in your life.  

While change can be difficult, you’ll most likely realize that it can yield amazing results. If you’re looking for some motivational sayings to inspire personal growth and change, we’ve got you covered.  

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In this article, we’ve put together a list of 80 powerful quotes about change to show you that moving on and taking a risk in life can be exactly what you need.  

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”  

Winston Churchill

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”  

Albert Einstein

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

Barack Obama

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

James Baldwin

“Change, like healing, takes time.”  

Veronica Roth

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

Mahatma Gandhi

“All great changes are preceded by chaos.”  

Deepak Chopra

“Change before you have to.”  

Jack Welch

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

Oprah Winfrey

“There is nothing permanent except change.” 

Heraclitus

“It doesn’t matter how strong your opinion are. If you don’t use your power for positive change, you are indeed part of the problem.”  

Coretta Scott King

“Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn’t stop for anybody.”  

Stephen Chbosky

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”  

Albert Einstein

“Change alone is eternal, perpetual and immortal.”  

Arthur Shopenhauer

“A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will.”  

Icelandic Proverb

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

Leo Tolstoy 

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”

Maya Angelou 

“We must be impatient for change. Let us remember that our voice is a precious gift and we must use it.” 

Claudia Flores

“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”  

George Bernard Shaw

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”  

Jalaluddin Rumi

“By changing nothing, nothing changes.”  

Tony Robbins

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

Harriet Tubman 

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”  

Winston Churchill

“Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.”  

Elon Musk

“If you do not change direction, you might end up where you are heading.” 

Lao Tzu

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”  

Mother Teresa

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Margaret Mead 

“Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.”  

John C. Maxwell

“True life is lived when tiny changes occur.”

Leo Tolstoy 

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” 

Jimmy Dean

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”  

Reinhold Niebuhr

“The moment of change is the only poem.”  

Adrienne Rich

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”  

Albert Einstein

“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

“Change your thinking, change your life.”  

Ernest Holmes

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

Rachel Hollis

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

Socrates

“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

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

Alan Watts

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”  

Mary Shelley

“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

“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”  

John Wooden

“If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.” 

Roy T. Bennett

“Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.”

Nikos Kazantzakis 

“When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.”  

Viktor E. Frankl

“The changes we dread most may contain our salvation.” 

Barbara Kingsolver

“I have accepted fear as part of life specifically the fear of change. I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.”  

Erica Jong

“Life is a progress, and not a station.”  

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Nothing is forever except change.” 

Buddha

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”  

Wayne W. Dyer

“Our 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 

“We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.”  

Carl Jung

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

Charles Darwin 

“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

“Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess.”  

Lemony Snicket

“You must welcome change as the rule, but not as your ruler.”  

Denis Waitley

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

Mandy Hale

“If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said ‘Don’t change anything.’”  

Henry Ford

“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.”

Nathaniel Branden

“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.”  

C. JoyBell C.

“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”  

Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Change is inevitable. Change is constant.”

Benjamin Disraeli 

“Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk.”  

William Arthur Ward

“Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.”

John Maxwell 

“In order to change the world, you have to get your head together first.”  

Jimi Hendrix

“Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.”  

Confucius

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” 

Henri Bergson

“You’re always you, and that don’t change, and you’re always changing, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”  

Neil Gaiman

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

Andy Warhol

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

Debby Boone

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” 

William Arthur Ward

“One child, one teacher, one pen, and one book can change the world.”  

Malala Yousafzai

“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.”

Jim Rohn 

“There is a kind of magicness about going far away and then coming back all changed.”  

Kate Douglas Wiggin

“And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time.” 

Libba Bray

“The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.”  

 Friedrich Nietzsche

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

Socrates

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

Arnold Bennett 

“Change in all things is sweet.” 

Aristotle

“Money and success don’t change people; they merely amplify what is already there.”

Will Smith 

Wrapping Up  

We hope these quotes encourage you to embrace change and face the ups and downs of life. If they did and if you enjoyed them, don’t forget to share them with others who may need some inspirational words to deal with the changes in their lives as well.  

Check out our quotes collection about travel and book reading to inspire you more.

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Dani Rhys
Dani Rhys

Dani Rhys has worked as a writer and editor for over 15 years. She holds a Masters degree in Linguistics and Education, and has also studied Political Science, Ancient History and Literature. She has a wide range of interests ranging from ancient cultures and mythology to Harry Potter and gardening. She works as the chief editor of Symbol Sage but also takes the time to write on topics that interest her.