The Best 101 Inspirational Quotes About Change You’ll Ever Read

When times are uncertain, it never hurts to recall some inspirational quotes. These quotes about change will give you some perspective as things around you shift or when someone is about to embark on a new chapter in their life. Although change may be hard, you’ll find that taking a big risk can sometimes yield amazing results.

No matter what motivational quote you’re looking for, these inspiring sayings will help you change yourself and the world around you for the better.

1. “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” — Albert Einstein

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

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

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

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

6. “All great changes are preceded by chaos.” — Deepak Chopra

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

8. “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” — John D. Rockefller

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

10. “It doesn’t matter how strong your opinions are. If you don’t use your power for positive change, you are indeed part of the problem.” — Coretta Scott King

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

12. “By changing nothing, nothing changes.” — Tony Robbins

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

14. “A wise man changes his mind; a fool never will.” — Icelandic Proverb

15. “Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.” — Nikos Kazantzakis

16. “We all get scared and want to turn away, but it isn’t always strength that makes you stay. Strength is also making the decision to change your destiny.” — Zoraida Córdova

17. “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” — George Bernard Shaw

18. “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” — John C. Maxwell

19. “To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” — Henri Bergson

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

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

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

23. “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

24. “Change your thinking, change your life.” — Ernest Holmes

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

26. “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

27. “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

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

29. “Life is progress, and not a station.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

30. “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.” — John Wooden

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

32. “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” — Steve Jobs

33. “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

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

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

36. “You must welcome change as a rule, but not as your ruler.” — Denis Waitley

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

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

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

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

41. “The present changes the past. Looking back, you do not find what you left behind.” — Kiran Desai

42. “Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk.” — William Arthur Ward

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

44. “You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy.” — C. JoyBell C.

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

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

47. “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” — Viktor Frankl

48. “All things must change to something new, to something strange.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

49. Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future — Walt Disney

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

51. “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead

52. “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

53. “Change in all things is sweet.” — Aristotle

54. “Time may change me, but I can’t trace time.” — David Bowie

55. “Just because everything is different doesn’t mean anything has changed.” — Irene Peter

56. “Without change, something sleeps inside us and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.” — Frank Herbert

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

58. “All things are difficult before they are easy.” — Thomas Fuller

59. “You’ve done it before, and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.” — Ralph Marston

60. “When in doubt, choose change.” — Lily Leung

61. “Words are where most change begins.” — Brandon Sanderson

62. “Perfection is immutable. But for things imperfect, change is the way to perfect them.” — Owen Feltham

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

64. “Growth and comfort do not coexist.” — Ginni Rometty

65. “Just take any step, whether small or large. And then another and repeat day after day. It may take months, maybe years, but the path to success will become clear” — Aaron Ross

66. “Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future; act now, without delay.” — Simone de Beauvoir

67. “If you know what you want to achieve in life, then you are more inspired to change for the better.” — Philip Vang

68. “There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have found in traveling in a stagecoach, it is often a comfort to shift one’s position and be bruised in a new place.” — Washington Irving

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

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

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

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

73. “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” — William Arthur Ward

74. “In order to design a future of positive change, we must first become experts at changing our minds.” — Jacque Fresco

75. “Change is hardest at the beginning, messiest in the middle, and best at the end.” — Robin Sharma

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

77. “Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later. — Bob Goff

78. “In any given moment, we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.” — Abraham Maslow

79. “Play to your strengths. If you aren’t great at something, do more of what you’re great at.” — Jason Lemkin

80. “A tiny change today brings a dramatically different tomorrow.”– Richard Bach

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

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

83. “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” — Johnny Cash

84. “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” — Paulo Coelho

85. “All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.” — Ellen Glasgow

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

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

88. “Do not waste time on things you cannot change or influence.” — Robert Greene

89. “We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.” — Sheryl Sandberg

90. “Change your thoughts, and you change your world.” – Norman Vincent Peale

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

92. “The most beautiful and profound way to change yourself is to accept yourself completely, as imperfect as you are.” — Maxime Lagacé

93. “Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.” — Robert Frost

94. “Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.” — Dalai Lama

95. “Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.” — Frida Kahlo

96. “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

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

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

99. “The main dangers in this life are the people who want to change everything or nothing.” — Nancy Astor

100. “People do not change; they are merely revealed.” — Anne Enright

101. “Resistance is never the agent of change. You have to embrace the actions that are going to get you closer to your goal.” — Ali Vincent

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