32 Awesome Quotes to Inspire Positive Change (2025)

It’s often said that change is the only constant in life. Yet humans are evolutionarily predisposed to resist change because of the risk associated with it. Despite this resistance to change, it is more important than ever. Napoleon once said, “One must change one’s tactics every 10 years if one wishes to maintain one’s superiority.” In today’s society the pace of change is immensely faster, and it will only continue to accelerate.

Organizations and people that don’t embrace change are bound to lose ground and stagnate. When you are anxiously anticipating a change–or in the midst of a challenging one–grab one of these quotes to help you or your team plow through it.

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. -Albert Einstein
Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts. -Arnold Bennett
Change is inevitable. Change is constant. -Benjamin Disraeli
When you’re finished changing, you’re finished. -Benjamin Franklin
The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change. -Bill Clinton
The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress. -Charles Kettering
If you don’t like change, you will like irrelevance even less. -General Eric Shinseki
Change means that what was before wasn’t perfect. People want things to be better. -Esther Dyson
Resistance at all cost is the most senseless act there is. -Friedrich Durrenmatt
If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living. -Gail Sheehy
Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. -George Bernard Shaw
When people shake their heads because we are living in a restless age, ask them how they would like to life in a stationary one, and do without change. -George Bernard Shaw
I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better. -Georg C. Lichtenberg
He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. -Harold Wilson
Change before you have to. -Jack Welch
People can cry much easier than they can change. -James Baldwin
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. -John F. Kennedy
Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof. -John Kenneth Galbraith
Be the change that you wish to see in the world. -Mahatma Gandhi
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
Your success in life isn’t based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change faster than your competition, customers, and business. -Mark Sanborn
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. -Maya Angelou
I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. -Mother Teresa
The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance. -Nathaniel Branden
Change your thoughts and you change your world. -Norman Vincent Peale
People don’t resist change. They resist being changed. -Peter Senge
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. -R. Buckminster Fuller
Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better. -Sydney J. Harris
It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.-W. Edwards Deming
There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction. -Winston Churchill
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. -Winston Churchill
And just for fun… “Change is inevitable–except from a vending machine.” -Robert C. Gallagher