Change Quotes

"Of all the ages of civilization, this is the most favorable for the development of the imagination, because it is an age of rapid change. On every hand one may contact stimuli which develop the imagination. Through the aid of his imaginative faculty, man has discovered, and harnessed, more of Nature's forces during the past fifty years than during the entire history of the human race, previous to that time... p. 62"

"Understand: the world is a dangerous place. People are fickle. To survive, you must be able to change your colors like a chameleon."

"You are now at a crossroads. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully. Then act upon it. Giant Steps : Small Changes to Make a Big Difference : Daily Lessons in Self-mastery (1994), p. 341"

"We turn toward the silence of the world and find it gentle."

"“Today, the most dangerous advice you can give a child is ‘Go to school, get good grades and look for a safe secure job,’ ” he likes to say. “That is old advice, and it’s bad advice. If you could see what is happening in Asia, Europe, South America, you would be as concerned as I am.”"

"The great problems of life are never solved. They are only outgrown."

"Life is a series of surprises. We do not guess today the mood, the pleasure, the power of tomorrow, when we are building up our being."

"To change your life, you must first change your perspective. You must see obstacles as teachers and failures as data points."

"All personal breakthroughs begin with a change in beliefs. So how do we change? The most effective way is to get your brain to associate massive pain to the old belief. You must feel deep in your gut that not only has this belief cost you pain in the past, but it's costing you in the present and, ultimately, can only bring you pain in the future. p. 85"

"Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence."

"Limiting your options is the same as hanging on to old ideas."

"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate."

"There is every indication that the period ahead will be an innovative one, one of rapid change in technology, society, economy, and institutions. p. 803 (last page)"

"The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck."

"The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways. Adaptability is the ultimate skill for the modern era."

"There is a life and there is a death, and there are beauty and melancholy between."

"I’d rather welcome change than cling to the past."

"The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely."

"There is a point at which a transformation has to take place. p. 640"

"The world is a divine dream, from which we may presently awake to the glories and the certainties of day."

"Change is not something to be managed; it is something to be mastered. It is the raw material of greatness."

"One does not discover the absurd without being tempted to write a manual of happiness."

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity."

"The only thing we know about the future is that it is going to be different. p. 44"

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

"If you are not changing, you are dying. Stagnation is the precursor to irrelevance."

"Everything is permitted... does not mean that nothing is forbidden."

"Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes."

"The postwar [WWII] GI Bill of Rights - and the enthusiastic response to it on the part of America's veterans - signaled the shift to the knowledge society. Future historians may consider it the most important event of the twentieth century.We are clearly in the midst of this transformation; indeed, if history is any guide, it will not be completed until 2010 or 2020. But already it has changed the political, economic and moral landscape of the world. p. 3"

"The soul is no traveler; the wise man stays at home, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, he is at home still."

"When you find yourself in a new environment, do not try to impose your old ways. Observe, learn the new rules, and adapt your behavior accordingly."

"Man is not entirely guilty — he did not start history; nor is he wholly innocent — he is continuing it."

"A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them."