Quotes About Change

Power goes to those who end the revolution. Not the one who starts it.

What limits individuals as well as nations is the inability to confront reality, to see things for what they are. As we grow older, we become more rooted in the past. Habit takes over. Something that has worked for us before becomes a doctrine, a shell to protect us from reality. Repetition replaces creativity.

Power rarely ends up in the hands of those who start a revolution, or even those who further it; power sticks to those who bring it to a conclusion

Do not be afraid to bring out the more sensitive or ambitious sides to your character. These repressed parts of you are yearning to be let out. In the theater of life, expand the roles that you play. Don't worry about people's reactions to any changes in you they sense. You are not so easy to categorize, which will fascinate them and give you the power to play with their perceptions of you, altering them at will.

Never criticize people overtly—that will make them insecure, and resistant to change. Plant ideas, insinuate suggestions. Charmed by your diplomatic skills, people will not notice your growing power.

You must never assume that what people say or do in a particular moment is a statement of their permanent desires.

It was all down, down, down, gradually--ruin and levelling and disappearance. Then it was all up, up, up, gradually, as seeds grew to saplings, and saplings to forest trees, and bramble and fern came creeping in to help.

And perhaps we have reason to be very grateful that, both as children and long afterwards, we are never allowed to guess how the absorbing pursuit of the moment will appear, not only to others, but to ourselves, a very short time hence.

I'm going to make an animal out of you, my boy!

Time, the destroyer of all things beautiful

and I shall keep a pony-chaise to jog about the country in, just as I used to in the good old days, before I got restless, and

This is the end of everything' (he said), 'at least it is the end of the career of Toad, which is the same thing; the popular

WHOSE hour, you should rather say,' replied the Badger. 'Why, Toad's hour! The hour of Toad! I said I would take him in hand as soon as the winter was well over, and I'm going to take him in hand to-day!

Animals arrived, liked the look of the place, took up their quarters, settled down, spread, and flourished. They didn't bother themselves about the past--they never do; they're too busy...And they don't bother about the future, either--the future when perhaps the people will move in again--for a time--as may very well be. The Wild Wood is pretty well populated by now; with all the usual lot, good, bad, and indifferent--I name no names. It takes all sorts to make a world.

People come--they stay for a while, they flourish, they build--and they go. It is their way. But we remain. There were badgers here, I've been told, long before that same city ever came to be. And now there are badgers here again. We are an enduring lot, and we may move out for a time, but we wait, and are patient, and back we come. And so it will ever be.

Write poetry as if you were in love. If you are always in love you will not always write the same poem, but if you are never in love, you may. - from My Olivetti Speaks

You have probably heard the saying that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Actually, there is another saying that is probably more accurate, but is not quite as well known: 'The quickest way to become an old dog is to quit learning new tricks.

Dynasties rise and fall according to what the Chinese used to call 'the mandate of heaven', but life for the peasant changes little.

But chance runs like a river through all our lives, and being prepared for surprise is the best we can do.

It was as though, in one moment, he had become a stranger. And I a stranger to myself.

Why hell, look at us. Old men alone. Decrepit old bachelors out here in the country seventeen miles from the closest town which don't amount to much of a good goddamn even when you get there. Think of us. Crotchety and ignorant. Lonesome. Independent. Set in all our ways. How you going to change now at this age of life? I can't say, Raymond said. But I'm going to. That's what I know.

FORTY YEARS AGO

Lo echabas de menos? Por supuesto. Sobre todo la intimidad. Ya no teníamos la misma. Teníamos un trato cordial y formalmente agradable y educado, pero nada más. No

From the very beginning of time itself, enemies have become friends, and friends have become lovers. It is not beyond the realm of possibility, even if history and experiences might be against it. Against us.