Words of Wisdom on Change
In developing our seminars and
keynote
presentations, we are fortunate to run across many words of wisdom.
If you need a refreshing thought, idea, slogan, or profound nugget for an
upcoming meeting, presentation, or lunch room bulletin board, take a look at the
following words of wisdom on change.
Don't miss our other categories of Words of
Wisdom.
Random Thoughts on Change
A man who does not leave his hut will bring nothing in.
~ West African Proverb
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while
the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.
~ Bruce Lee, martial artist and Actor
It is generally much easier to kill an organization than
change it substantially!
~ Kevin Kelly, Out of Control
Leaders need to be the Rock of Gibraltar on Roller Blades!
~ Tom Peters
The new competitive realities demand that we turn our backs on
the ones who brung us. Every leader needs a formal “forgetting strategy.”
~ Tom Peters
When the speed of change outside the organization exceeds the speed of change
within ... The end is in sight!
~ Jack Welch, C.E.O., General Electric
When you shift people’s perceptions, their actions follow.
~ Rayona Sharpnack, Founder, Institute for Women’s Leadership
If nothing changes, nothing changes!
Think about it!
~ Anonymous
If you always do what you always did —
you'll always get what you always got!
~ Unknown
Dissatisfaction is the basis of progress.
When we become satisfied,
we become obsolete.
~ J. Willard Marriott
A bend in the road
is not the end of the road ...
unless you fail to make the turn.
~ Anonymous
Change happens, that is for sure, and not just in our modern,
21st century era. It seems that the stress of the new affects most people in
every age. So the trick is not to resist it, but to go with it. The real problem
for the creative person is getting over the resistance of those who don’t want
to change.
~ Anonymous
Keep constantly in mind in how many things you yourself have
witnessed changes already. The universe is change, life is understanding.
~ Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor
Observe constantly that all things take place by change.
~ Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor
Those who have changed the universe have never done it by
changing officials, but always by inspiring the people.
~ Napoleon Bonaparte, French military and political leader
The only way to change our lives is by changing our minds.
~ Anonymous
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To
change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
~ Richard Buckmunister Fuller, American visionary, designer, architect, poet,
author, and inventor
Faced with changing one's mind, or proving that there is no
need to do so, most people get busy on the proof.
~ John Kenneth Galbraith, influential Canadian-American economist
In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst
enemy.
~ J. Paul Getty, American industrialist and founder of the Getty Oil Company.
In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth,
while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that
no longer exists.
~ Eric Hoffer, American social writer
There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from
bad to worse! As I have often found in traveling in a stagecoach, that; it is
often a comfort to shift one’s position, and be bruised in a new place.
~ Washington Irving, short story writer, essayist, biographer
There is nothing more certain and unchanging than uncertainty
and change.
~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the U.S.
The world hates change yet it is the only thing that has
brought progress.
~ Charles F. Kettering, teacher, mechanic, engineer, scientist, inventor, and
social philosopher
The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in
the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the
greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.
~ Martin Luther King, Baptist minister, Nobel Prize winner and leader of the
American civil rights movement
You don't get creative by staying in the same place.
~ Andy Law, author
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous
to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the
introduction of a new order to things.
~ Niccolo Machiavelli, Italian diplomat, political philosopher, musician, poet,
and playwright
Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
~ Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist
Change does not change tradition, it strengthens it. Change is
a challenge and an opportunity, not a threat.
~ Prince Phillip
Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot
change their minds, cannot change anything.
~ George Bernard Shaw, world-famous Irish playwright, critic, and political
activist
A competitive world offers two possibilities. You can lose.
Or, if you want to win, you can change.
~ Lester Thurow, former dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of
numerous bestsellers on economic topics
Change is not merely necessary to life—it is life.
~ Alvin Toffler, American writer and futurist
The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to
preserve change amid order.
~ Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher
