Quotes About Change

It was at that battle that Goethe, present on the staff of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, made (we are told) a famous remark: "From today and from this place begins a new epoch in the history of the world.

Consequently—since there is a natural selection of institutions and ideas as well as of organisms and groups—the passage from hunting to agriculture brought a change from tribal property to family property; the most economical unit of production became the unit of ownership. As the family took on more and more a patriarchal form, with authority centralized in the oldest male, property became increasingly individualized, and personal bequest arose.

When abundance comes, and the danger subsides, social cohesion is lessened, and individualism increases; communism ends where luxury begins.

Obey even the unjust law, answers Spinoza, if reasonable protest and discussions are allowed and speech is left free to secure a peaceful change.

Society is a growth in time, not a syllogism in logic; and when the past is put out through the door it comes in at the window.

life means for us constantly to transform into light and flame all that we are or meet with";1

Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle.

The Bourbons might have preserved themselves," said Napoleon, "if they had controlled writing materials. The advent of cannon killed the feudal system; ink will kill the modern social organization.

La naturaleza ama la diferencia como material necesario para la selección y la evolución;

Generaciones de hombres establecen un dominio creciente sobre la tierra, pero están destinados a convertirse en fósiles en su suelo.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Vanity increases with age.

Government and History

But how far has human nature changed in the course of history? Theoretically there must have been some change; natural selection has presumably operated upon psychological as well as upon physiological variations. Nevertheless, known history shows little alteration in the conduct of mankind.

we must not expect the world to improve much faster than ourselves

The secret to having a good time in Ottawa? Move.

When sakura fall from the branch, the shock waves can shatter entire cities.

Age has a way of giving humans a gravitas that they haven't earned. Like most people, I have essentially the same personality I had at twenty-two. But because a decade has passed since then, I'm given more authority now. I'm thought of as wiser. I'm not. The same shit will happen in another decade. I'll still be the same guy. But "wiser." And as much of an idiot as ever. I like it. I could get used to this adult business.

Whereas we, the dead, are the true inheritors of the Modern. The live lot assemble time into lazy decadences--ten-year periods of conspicuous attitudinising, which are only ever grasped in nostalgic retrospect.

Oh, the future--it's always so fucking dated. For you, for me, for all of us. If only there were some way out of it.

for now though our investigation into how future enters and then changes us must return to the idea of the self as a storyteller. In doing so we will realize just how porous the boundary is really is between the stories that surround us and the story that is us.

In the memorable words of Professor Roy Baumeister, 'Life is change that yearns for stability

Who can know when his world is going to change? who can tell before it happens....the doors that were slamming shut while others slid into the clear.Who can sense revelation in the wind? What happened was just this :I got hooked on the story.

The question is not why should we change but rather what sort of death wish are we promoting by refusing to change?