Quotes About Change

There comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness . . . that time is now.

You would see me there now, cultivating the earth and carrying firewood on my back up the hills to my home, where I would light a fire and cook the evening meal. I would not tell stories, because they have been replaced by books, the radio, and television

But the law's dream - anyone's dream - would be to turn the clock back and stop the bad thing from happening in the first place.

We always feel as though we react to things in the world; in fact we react to things in ourselves. And sometimes changing ourselves will be more effective and sensible than trying to change the world.

The minority gives way not because it is convinced that it is wrong, but because it is convinced that it is a minority. Stephen, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873)

The French had shown themselves the ablest architects of ruin that had hitherto existed in the world. In that very short space of time they had completely pulled down to the ground their monarchy, their church, their nobility, their law, their revenue, their army, their navy, their commerce, their arts, and their manufactures. Burke, speech in the House of Commons (1790)

Of this I am quite sure, that if we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future. Churchill, speech in the House of Commons (1940)

side of his head, over the bald spot, to the other.

Women's loyalty has to be earned with trust and affection, rather than barbaric rituals. The time has come to leave the old ways of suffering behind

When I was a child I said I don't want to be a woman. Why?! Because it's too painful to be a woman!" "Let us try and change what it means to be a woman.

My notion of a wife at 40 is that a man should be able to change her, like a bank note, for two 20s.

beautiful question is an ambitious yet actionable question that can begin to shift the way we perceive or think about something—and that might serve as a catalyst to bring about change.

Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller, who said, "It's easier to act your way33 into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting.

A beautiful question is an ambitious yet actionable question that can begin to shift the way we perceive or think about something—and that might serve as a catalyst to bring about change.

One good question can give rise to several layers of answers, can inspire decades-long searches for solutions, can generate whole new fields of inquiry, and can prompt changes in entrenched thinking," Firestein writes. "Answers, on the other hand, often end the process.

We've seen that companies sometimes use a hypothetical What If question to temporarily remove constraints that can inhibit ambitious thinking (What if cost weren't an issue—how might we do things differently?), and the same principle applies when people are pursuing new ideas or embarking on change in their lives. Often the biggest constraint is fear of failure.

what the New York Times recently characterized22 as a perfect storm in which no one, whether blue-collar or white-collar and whatever level of expertise, can afford to stand pat. "The need to constantly adapt is the new reality for many workers" was the theme of the piece headlined "The Age of Adaptation." The story had a term for what is now required of many workers—serial mastery.

When you change one small thing32 and it works, it can help breed the confidence to change other things—including bigger ones.

It's one thing to see a problem and to question why the problem exists—and maybe even wonder whether there might be a better alternative. It's another to keep asking those questions even after experts have told you, in effect, "You can't change this situation; there are good reasons why things are the way they are.

Products come and go, leaders come and go, trends come and go," says Yamashita, "but through all of that, you need to know the answer to the question What is true about us, at our core?

A recent article in Fast Company pointed out that a11 number of today's leading companies—Nike, Apple, Netflix—have increasingly been finding success by moving outside their primary area of expertise. The article, with the provocative headline "Death to Core Competency," suggests that whatever a company's specialty product or service might be—whatever got you to where you are today—might not be the thing that gets you to the next level.

Then Grove posed an interesting question to his partner: If we were kicked out of the company, what do you think the new CEO would do? Grove and Moore reasoned that a new leader would feel no emotional attachment to the declining memory-chip business and would probably leave it behind. So they did likewise, shifting Intel's focus to microprocessors—which set the stage for remarkable growth in the years to follow.

Keith Yamashita says companies can try to find their cause by asking, What does the world hunger for?

Cooperrider says that "organizations gravitate toward the questions they ask.