Quotes About Transformation

We want God to fix all our problems. God says instead, "I have a purpose for your problems. I want to use your problems to change you and to reveal My grace and power to the world." That is the Truth—and the Truth will set you free.

Han aprendido a ser lo que no son y lo que son. (de El Sueño ds la Razón Produce Monstruos)

The revolution opened doors for us and allowed an enormous social mobility. Many walls that blocked communication were demolished, and taboos were cast out. (Interview in A Contemporary Cuba Reader, 2000)

Three books set in Iran—first a novel about two lovers caught up in the Iranian Revolution, then two books about Iran since the Revolution: The Persian Bride by James Buchan The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran by Robin B. Wright Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran by Elaine Sciolino

The one certainty in life is that it changes.

We have made cities out of our suburbs, and now, with the corporate drift form urban centers, are beginning to make suburbs out of our cities.

Actually, therapy isn't just about feeling better - it's about getting better, which usually involves feeling worse for a while.

But here's the deal: when we face the worst that's in us, somehow we become better than we are - better than we ever thought we could be.

Ultimately, who we are can't be hidden. But here's the deal: when we face the worst that's in us, somehow we become better than we are - better than we ever thought we could be.

It reminds me that something can be broken and then get tossed around a lot and what comes out at the end is amazing.

I'm not saying I'm glad it happened. Not exactly. But I'm not sorry to be the person I am today, and to have the life I have now. Even though it's not what I thought I wanted for my future, a year ago, it is what I want now. ...

But I know that I'm not who I was supposed to be. Who I could have been. And I know it's because I was too afraid for too long.

We do not always respond to shocks with regression. Sometimes, in the face of crisis, we grow up—fast.

We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a 'thing-oriented society' to a 'person-oriented society.

And yet these protests have also shown that saying no is not enough. If opposition movements are to do more than burn bright and then burn out, they will need a comprehensive vision for what should emerge in the place of our failing system, as well as serious political strategies for how to achieve those goals.

This is another lesson from the transformative movements of the past: all of them understood that the process of shifting cultural values—though somewhat ephemeral and difficult to quantify—was central to their work. And so they dreamed in public, showed humanity a better version of itself, modeled different values in their own behavior, and in the process liberated the political imagination and rapidly altered the sense of what was possible.

Obama, in sharp contrast not just to social movements but to transformative presidents like FDR, follows the logic of marketing: create an appealing canvas on which all are invited to project their deepest desires but stay vague enough not to lose anyone but the committed wing nuts (which, granted, constitute a not inconsequential demographic in the United States).

Creative destruction is our middle name, both within our own society and abroad. We tear down the old order every day, from business to science, literature, art, architecture, and cinema to politics and the law … . They must attack us in order to survive, just as we must destroy them to advance our historic mission. —Michael Ledeen, The War Against the Terror Masters, 2002

cambiar de rumbo puede salvar vidas a una escala

During extraordinary historical moments—both world wars, the aftermath of the Great Depression, or the peak of the civil rights era—the usual categories dividing "activists" and "regular people" became meaningless because the project of changing society was so deeply woven into the project of life. Activists were, quite simply, everyone.

To [Heartland president Joseph Bast], it looks like the end of the world. It's not, of course. But it is, for all intents and purposes, the end of his world.

In Argentina, urban poverty plummeted from 54.7 percent in 2003 to 6.5 percent in 2011, according to government data collected by the U.N.

We need to remember that the work of our time is bigger than climate change. We need to be setting our sights higher and deeper. What we're really talking about, if we're honest with ourselves, is transforming everything about the way we live on this planet.

The kind of transformation that is now required [to address the climate crisis] will happen only if it is treated as a civilizational mission, in our country and in every major economy on earth.