You might be one of those people who resist change but whether you like to admit it or not, we’re all surrounded by it. People change, nature changes, circumstances change, your life changes and at the end of the day, you also change.
Of course, not every change is the same. People and things change for better or for worse.
Either way, everything and everyone becomes different at a certain point. That is just an inevitable part of life and there is not much you can do about it.
Nevertheless, change is not always easy to accept. There are times when the process of getting used to new circumstances is painful and difficult.
That’s why we’re here. We’ve collected some of the best inspirational quotes by famous people regarding change.
These people change quotes come from respectable authors, psychologists, philosophers, artists, and politicians, so you can be sure that these are the people who have something smart to say. Read on!
100 Motivational Quotes On Change
1. “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy
2. “Maybe sometimes people did not actually change. Maybe you just never knew who they really were.” – Unknown
3. “It’s funny how you can know somebody for so long and they change right in front of you.” – Karina Barton
4. “The larger the change, the more people will resist it. Thus, make it seem so tiny and trivial that people don’t even realize it.” – Maxime Lagacé
5. “Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.” – Mahatma Gandhi.
6. “Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn’t stop for anybody.” – Stephen Chbosky
7. “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
8. “It’s hard to watch people change, but it’s even harder to remember who they used to be.” – Wiz Khalifa
9. “Progress is impossible without change & those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
10. “My theory on life is that life is beautiful. Life doesn’t change. You have a day, and a night, and a month, and a year. We people change – we can be miserable, or we can be happy. It’s what you make of your life.” – Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
11. “I think it happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you’ve known forever don’t see things the way you do. And so you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on.” – Nicholas Sparks
12. “For people who had curve balls thrown at them, it is easier to digest change and digest change in other people. Change only scares the small-minded.” – Casey Affleck
13. “People said I’ve changed so much. Well, here’s the honest truth: I grew up. I stopped letting people push me around all the time. I learned that you can’t always be happy. I accepted reality.” – Unknown
14. “People will notice the change in your attitude towards them but won’t notice their behavior made you change” – Unknown
15. “People lose people, we lose things in our life as we’re constantly growing and changing. That’s what life is is change, and a lot of that is loss. It’s what you gain from that loss that makes life.” – Thomas Jane
16. “Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.” – Kahlil Gibran
17. “Money and success don’t change people; they merely amplify what is already there.” – Will Smith
18. “Life will only change when you become more committed to your dreams than you are to your comfort zone.” – Billy Cox
19. “People underestimate their capacity for change. There is never a right time to do a difficult thing.” – John Porter
20. “Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby – awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess.” – Lemony Snicket
21.“I find the best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves.” – Steve Maraboli.
22. Don’t be too confident when someone tells you they like you. The real question is until when? Because people change and so do feelings.” – Ritu Ghatourey
23. “Some people don’t want to believe that. But if you’re over age twenty-one, your life is what you’re making of it. To change your life, you need to change your priorities” – John. C Maxwell
24. “Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” – Simone de Beauvoir
25. “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.” – Anatole France
26. “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” – Andy Warhol
27. “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
28. “You’re always you, and that doesn’t change, and you’re always changing, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” – Neil Gaiman
29. “True life is lived when tiny changes occur.” – Leo Tolstoy
30. “Some people change when they think they’re a star or something.” – Paris Hilton
31. “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.
32. “Some people change their ways when they see the light; others when they feel the heat.” – Caroline Schoeder
33. “What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.” – Henry David Thoreau
34. “Every positive change in your life begins with clear, unequivocal decisions that you are going to either do something or stop doing something.” – Unknown
35. “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
36. “People change and forget to tell each other.” – Lillian Hellman
37. “I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” – Marilyn Monroe
38. “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
39. “A year from now you will wish you had started changing today.” – Karen Lamb
40. “The only way that we can live is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself.” – C. JoyBell C
41. “No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you’ve come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself.” – Madonna
42. “What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.” – Victor Frankl
43. “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” – Victor Frankl
44. “Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others.” – Benjamin Franklin
45. “Things changed, people changed, and the world went rolling along right outside the window.” – Nicholas Sparks
46. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
47. “When people shake their heads because we are living in a restless age, ask them how they would like to live in a stationary one, and do without change.” – George Bernard Shaw
48. “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” – Albert Einstein
49. “A photograph never grows old. You and I change, people change all through the months and years but a photograph always remains the same. How nice to look at a photograph of mother or father taken many years ago. You see them as you remember them. But as people live on, they change completely. That is why I think a photograph can be kind.” – Albert Einstein
50. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou
51. “People don’t resist change. They resist being changed.” – Peter Senge
52. “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 strength to start all over again.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
53. “When people are ready to, they change. They never do it before then, and sometimes they die before they get around to it. You can’t make them change if they don’t want to, just like when they do want to, you can’t stop them.” – Andy Warhol
54. “Love is rare, life is strange. Nothing lasts, people change” Unknown
55. “The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.” – Robert Greene
56. “Things do not change, we change.” – Henry David Thoreau
57. “A good marriage is one which allows for change and growth in the individuals and in the way they express their love.” – Pearl S. Buck
58. “The only way to grow is through change.” – Winston Churchill
59. “I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.” – Aldous Huxley
60. “I don’t think people change. I think they definitely mature. But I think the essence of what I am today is the same as when I was five years old. It’s just maturity. I’ve become a healthier, fuller expression of that essence.” – Ricky Williams
61. “People change for two reasons: Either they learned a lot or they’ve been hurt too much.” – Unknown
62. “It’s unbelievable how fast people can change. One day, you mean everything to them. The next day, you don’t even exist anymore” – Unknown
63. “Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes.” – Hugh Prather
64. “People change. Love hurts. Friends leave. Things go wrong. But just remember that life goes on.” – Unknown
65. “When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” – Steve Jobs
66. “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
67. “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” – Alan Watts
68. “Pain changes people but it also makes them stronger.” – Unknown
69. “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs
70. “It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.” – Roy T. Bennett
71. “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
72. “Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.” – Maya Angelou
73. “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” – Lao Tzu
74. “Change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires change. Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.” – Henry Steele Commager
75. “You cannot have the same kind of character again and again in every season or every stage of your life. You change, people change.” – Varun Grover
76. “I don’t know that love changes. People change. Circumstances change.” – Nicholas Sparks
77. “The more things change, the more they are the same.” – Alphonse Karr
78. “There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.” – Winston Churchill
79. “People don’t change. Their priorities do.” – Unknown
80. “A word fitly spoken can change a person’s life.” – Louis Howard
81. “People want to change everything and, at the same time, want it all to remain the same.” – Paulo Coelho
82. “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude” – Oprah Winfrey
83. “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” – Jimmy Dean
84. “Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future.” – Walt Disney
85. “No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side. Or you don’t.” – Stephen King
86. “Changing is what people do when they have no options left.” – Holly Black
87. “What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.” – Abraham Maslow
88. “Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.” – Alexis Carrel
89. “We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.” – Max DePree
90. “Everyday is another chance to change your life.” – Unknown
91. “Change can either challenge or threaten us. Your beliefs pave your way to success or block you.” – Marsha Sinetar
92. “The 3 C’s of Life: Choices, Chances, Changes. You must make a choice to take a chance or your life will never change.” – Unknown
93. “Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or dusk.” – William Arthur Ward
94. “You have to stop thinking you’ll be stuck in your situation forever. We feel like our heart will never heal or we’ll never get out of this impossible struggle. Don’t confuse a season for a lifetime. Even your trails have an expiration date. You will grow, life will change, and things will work out.” – Brittney Moses.
95. “Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” – Bernice Johnson Reagon
96. “I’ve learned that for many people, change is uncomfortable. Maybe they want to go through it, and they can see the benefit of it, but at a gut level, change is uncomfortable.” – Mitchell Baker
97. “I firmly believe that every six years, a person goes through a serious change. Think about it: At 6, you start school. At about 12, you start hitting puberty. And then it goes on. You start hitting these different mental levels, and people change.” – Randy Houser
98. “Sometimes it’s not the people who change, it’s the mask that falls off.” – Unknown
99. “Prayer changes things? No! Prayer changes people, and people change things.” – Burton Hills
100. “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
It doesn’t matter whether you’re the one who changed or someone’s change impacted or hurt you. Either way, we hope that you’ll find something to comfort your soul in this list of the best people change quotes.