Quotes About Change

Anybody who tries to change society without examining the family is trying to push a shadow without moving a statue.

In our society many of the old rituals have lost much of their power. New ones have not arisen.

People do not consciously and rationally choose the form of their society. Societies develop through processes of social evolution that are not under rational human control.

And I do believe that the way to change a society, to uplift people - not just their spirit, but to uplift their society and economic base - is through education.

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.

alles wäre sauber und still, leer und kinderlärmfrei gewesen. Aber willst du mit vierzig, mit fünfzig noch so leben? hat Simon gefragt, und ich habe nichts geantwortet. Ja, vielleicht will ich.

El mundo sería infinitamente mejor si los líderes pudieran entender y aplicar las dinámicas que se esconden tras las apariencias que mueven y moldean el mundo.

Ah, how fatefully swift is the move from one feeling to another.

Ser dos significa aceptar un futuro indeteminado

As can be seen, 'crisis', in its proper sense, expresses something positive, creative and optimistic, because it involves a change, and may be a rebirth after a break-up. It indicates separation, certainly, but also choice, decisions and therefore the opportunity to express an opinion.

Volar liviano produce alegría, volar a la deriva es angustiante. El cambio es embriagador, la volatilidad es preocupante. ¿La insoportable levedad del sexo?

Like the phoenix, socialism is reborn from every pile of ashes left day in, day out, by burnt-out human dreams and charred hopes.

To quote from Le Délabrement de l'Occident of Cornelius Castoriadis, An autonomous society, a truly democratic society, is a society which questions everything that is pre-given and by the same token liberates the creation of new meanings.

Consuming life cannot be other than a life of rapid learning, but it also needs to be a life of swift forgetting.

The liquid modern variety of adiaphorization is cut after the pattern of the consumer–commodity relation, and its effectiveness relies on the transplantation of that pattern to interhuman relations.

a young American with a moderate level of education expects to change jobs at least eleven times during his or her working life – and the pace and frequency of change are almost certain to go on growing before the working life of the present generation is over.

In the world of structural unemployment no one can feel truly secure. Secure jobs in secure companies seem to be the yarn of grandfathers' nostalgia;

Ser local en un mundo globalizado es una señal de penuria y degradación social.

Tenemos opiniones definidas acerca de cómo hacer las cosas y de cómo deberían ser los otros. Estas opiniones carecen de comprensión, porque cuanto más definitivas son las opiniones, tanto más necesario es que no nos distraigamos comprendiendo demasiado a los que queremos cambiar".

a matter of fact, Havel had but three weapons to use in his effort to change history: hope, courage and stubbornness – weapons which all of us possess in one measure or another. The sole difference between Václav Havel and the rest of us is that we, unlike Havel, seldom reach for those weapons; and when (if) we do, we do it with much less – weaker and shorter-lived – determination.

La interrupción, la incoherencia, la sorpresa son las condiciones habituales de nuestra vida. Se han convertido incluso en necesidades reales para muchas personas, cuyas mentes sólo se alimentan […] de cambios súbitos y de estímulos permanentemente renovados […] Ya no toleramos nada que dure. Ya no sabemos cómo hacer para lograr que el aburrimiento dé fruto.

Forms of modern life may differ in quite a few respects – but what unites them all is precisely their fragility, temporariness, vulnerability and inclination to constant change. To 'be modern' means to modernize – compulsively, obsessively; not so much just 'to be', let alone to keep its identity intact, but forever 'becoming', avoiding completion, staying underdefined.

La posibilidad de contener y asimilar la imparable masa de innovaciones es cada vez menos promisoria, por no decir inalcanzable.

Living under liquid modern conditions can be compared to walking in a minefield: everyone knows an explosion might happen at any moment and in any place, but no one knows when the moment will come and where the place will be.