130 Inspiring Quotes about Change: Wisdom for Life’s Transitions

Change is inevitable, though often uncomfortable.

Life rarely goes according to plan, so it’s important to learn how to adapt.

The following wise and humorous quotes about change can help put life’s unexpected twists and turns into perspective.

Short Quotes about Change for Instagram

“Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end.” – Robin Sharma

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

“Sometimes, the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life.” – Naeem Callaway

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

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

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

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

“It takes courage to let go of the familiar and embrace the new.” – Alan Cohen

“Don’t resist change. You’ll be surprised at what it brings.” – Unknown

“Change is not something that we should fear. Rather, it is something that we should welcome. For without change, nothing in this world would ever grow or blossom.” – B.K.S. Iyengar

“Stay positive; stay hopeful.” – Joel Osteen

“Change is the only constant in life.” – Heraclitus

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

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

“Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong.” – Mandy Hale

“Change may not always bring growth, but there is no growth without change.” – Roy T. Bennett

“Embrace each challenge in your life as an opportunity for self-transformation.” – Bernie S. Siegel

“Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” – Marilyn Monroe

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” – John D. Rockefeller

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

“Life is about change. Sometimes it’s painful. Sometimes it’s beautiful. But most of the time, it’s both.” – Lana Lang

“We cannot become what we want by remaining what we are.” – Max DePree

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” – Seneca

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

“As the sun’s shadow shifts, so there is no permanence on earth.”

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

“A little axe can cut down a big tree.” – Jamaican (on permanence and change)

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

“A rolling stone gathers no moss.” – John Heywood

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything” – George Bernard Shaw

“At high tide, fish eat ants; at low tide, ants eat fish.” – Thai (on permanence and change)

“People who wait for changes to occur on the outside before they commit to making changes on the inside will never make any changes at all.” – Author Unknown

“The wheel of change moves on, and those who were down go up and those who were up go down.” – Jawaharlal Nehru

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

“A year’s care; a minute’s ruin.” – Filipino Proverb

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“An hour may destroy what an age was building.” – English (on permanence and change)

“I can’t say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is that they must change if they are to get better.” – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

“Things can change in a day.” – Arundhati Roy

“One cannot be too careful with words, they change their minds just as people do.” – Jose Samarago

“The people who are crazy enought to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” – Walter Isaacson

“The people who are crazy enought to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” – Walter Isaacson

“Don’t waste your energy trying to change opinions.” – Leo Buscaglia

“We don’t ask you to believe in our ability to bring change, rather, we ask you to believe in yours.” – Barack Obama

“Every morning we get a chance to be different. A chance to change. A chance to be better.” – Nicole Williams

“Some people will always fear change. But we can’t indulge them.” – Veronica Roth

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

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

“The only people who like change are wet babies.” – Author Unknown

“A decision made at night may be changed in the morning.” – Samoan (on permanence and change)

“The art of life is a constant readjustment to our surroundings.” – Kakuzo Okakaura

“Life is like the moon: now full, now dark.” – Polish (on permanence and change)

“The winds of heaven change suddenly; so do human fortunes.” – Chinese (on permanence and change)

“When the moon is full, it begins to wane.” – Japanese (on permanence and change)

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

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

“When you are through changing, you are through.” – Bruce Barton

“You can avoid having ulcers by adapting to the situation: If you fall in the mud puddle, check your pockets for fish.” – Author Unknown

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

“Everything comes to pass, nothing comes to stay.” – Matthew Flickstein

“Persist as resolutely as you persist in eating.” – Maori (on permanence and change)

“Things do not change; we change.” – Henry David Thoreau

“The leopard does not change his spots.” – William Shakespeare

“Come what may, time and hour runs through the roughest day.” – William Shakespeare

“Any plan is bad that cannot be changed.” – Italian (on planning)

“Change is inevitable. Change is constant.” – Benjamin Disraeli

“All good things must come to an end.” – H.H. Riley

“Off with the old and on with the new.” – unknown

“Nothing remains constant except change itself.” – unknown

“The change is for a cause.” – Lailah Gifty Akita

“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

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

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

“It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.” – Roy T. Bennett

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

“The only way that we can change is if we learn.” – C. JoyBell C.

“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.

“Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.” – Shunryu Suzuki

“After you’ve done a thing the same way for two years, look it over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over.” – Alfred Edward Perlman

“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

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

“Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.” – James Belasco and Ralph Stayer

“People don’t resist change. They resist being changed!” – Peter Senge

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” – Charles Darwin

“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.” – Eric Roth

“Even if you cannot change all the people around you, you can change the people you choose to be around.” – Roy T. Bennett

“Don’t just change, transform.” – Roy T. Bennett

“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

“When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready.” – Paulo Coelho

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

“You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Roy T. Bennett

“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

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

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

“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

“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

“We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.” – Katharine Hepburn

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

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

“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

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” – Wayne W. Dyer

“It’s never too late to change your life for the better. You don’t have to take huge steps to change your life. Making even the smallest changes to your daily routine can make a big difference to your life.” – Roy T. Bennett

“Believe something and the Universe is on its way to being changed. Because you’ve changed, by believing. Once you’ve changed, other things start to follow. Isn’t that the way it works?” – Diane Duane

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

“One day spent with someone you love can change everything.” – Mitch Albom

“You cannot change what you are, only what you do.” – Philip Pullman

“I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.” – Aldous Huxley

“You cannot change anyone, but you can be the reason someone changes.” – Roy T. Bennett

“Things change, people change, but that doesn’t mean you should forget the past.” – GAIL CARSON LEVINE

“Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change.” – Andre Gide

“Once you’ve chosen a man, don’t try to change him,’I wrote with more confidence. ‘It can be done. More important – don’t let him try to change you.” – Diana Gabaldon

“You have been blessed with immeasurable power to make positive changes in your life.” – Steve Maraboli

“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” – Simone De Beauvoir

“We can either try to change everything or just make the most of whatever time we have.” – Ally Condie

“In fact, once he is motivated no one can change more completely than the man who has been at the bottom.” – Malcolm X

“She was reaching the limits of how much its possible to change a man.” – David Nicholls

“I change too quickly: my today refutes my yesterday.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“Our heads are round so thought can change direction.” – Allen Ginsberg

“Change isn’t always for the best.” – Nicholas Sparks

“There is no intelligence where there is no need of change.” – H.G Wells

“Everything is relative in this world, where change alone endures.” – Leon Trotsky

“When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.” – ZigZiglar

“A person can’t change all at once.” – Stephen King

“Living things tend to change unrecognizably as they grow.” – Diane Ackerman

“People can’t live with change if there’s not a changeless core inside them.” – Stephen R. Covey

“If you want to change the way people respond to you, change the way you respond to people.” – Timothy Leary

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

“If you don’t like something, change it, if you can’t change it, chage your attitude.” – Maya Angelou

“Change your thoughts, change your life.” – James Allen

“We change the kind of person we are, and we change the kind of world we live in.” – Rabbi Harold Kushner

“To change our realities, we also have to change our myths.” – Riane Eisler