It passes on just like this, not ceasing day or night!
Our note: Said by Confucius as he stood beside a stream.
Verified in the full text of The Analects on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #3330
Quotes about change
50 verified quotes from 33 writers, c. 475 BC to 1923.
Quotes 1 to 25 of 50, page 1 of 2.
Nothing stays put in these quotes: not seasons, not opinions, not people. Marcus Aurelius reminds himself that the universe is transformation; Thoreau says things do not change, we do; Alice cannot go back to yesterday because she was a different person then.
Some of the writers welcome change and some brace against it. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein calls sudden change the most painful thing for the human mind, while Montgomery’s Anne looks forward to a new day with no mistakes in it yet. Each line was matched in the full text of a named public-domain edition, which we link so you can read it in context.
What “verified” means, and what we leave out: How we verify.
Confucius, The Analects, c. 475 BCTranslated by James Legge (1861) Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life
Epictetus, The Encheiridion, c. AD 125Translated by George Long (1877) Our note: The Encheiridion is a short handbook of Epictetus's teaching, put together by his student Arrian.
Verified in the full text of The Encheiridion on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #10661 · Collected in A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion
Never say about anything, I have lost it, but say I have restored it.
Epictetus, The Encheiridion, c. AD 125Translated by George Long (1877) Our note: The Stoic habit of treating what we have as on loan, so that losing it is giving it back.
Verified in the full text of The Encheiridion on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #10661 · Collected in A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion
Remember that to change thy opinion and to follow him who corrects thy error is as consistent with freedom as it is to persist in thy error.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, c. AD 180Translated by George Long (1862) Our note: Book VIII, on accepting correction.
Verified in the full text of Meditations on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #15877 · Collected in The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
…and constantly bear in mind how many of these changes thou hast already witnessed. The universe is transformation: life is opinion.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, c. AD 180Translated by George Long (1862) Our note: Book IV, on the constant change of all things.
Verified in the full text of Meditations on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #15877 · Collected in The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on
Omar Khayyam, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, c. AD 1120Translated by Edward FitzGerald (1859) Our note: One of the best-known quatrains in Edward FitzGerald's free English version of the Persian verses.
Verified in the full text of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #246
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments, love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116, 1609 Our note: The opening of the sonnet about love that does not change.
Verified in the full text of Sonnet 116 on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Woodland Road with Travelers, Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1607
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, …
Jaques, in As You Like It by William Shakespeare, 1623 Our note: The start of Jaques's speech on the seven ages of a life.
Verified in the full text of As You Like It on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Painted the same decade: A Musician and His Daughter, Thomas de Keyser, 1629
A sadder and a wiser man, He rose the morrow morn
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1798 Our note: The Wedding-Guest after hearing the Mariner out.
Verified in the full text of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #151
Painted the same decade: Sebastián Martínez y Pérez (1747–1800), Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes), 1792
Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
Victor Frankenstein, in Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1818 Our note: Victor, in the grip of guilt and fear later in the novel.
Verified in the full text of Frankenstein on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #84
Painted the same decade: Evening: Landscape with an Aqueduct, Théodore Géricault, 1818
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind, 1820 Our note: The closing line of the ode.
Verified in the full text of Ode to the West Wind on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #4800 · Collected in The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Painted the same decade: Heroic Landscape with Rainbow, Joseph Anton Koch, 1824
…every thing you have missed, you have gained something else; and for every thing you gain, you lose something.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation, 1841 Our note: Emerson's idea that every gain and loss is balanced.
Verified in the full text of Compensation on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, 1841 Our note: Emerson defends changing your mind when you learn something new. Note the word "foolish"; it is often dropped.
Verified in the full text of Self-Reliance on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2944 · Collected in Essays, First Series
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
Ebenezer Scrooge, in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843 Our note: Scrooge's promise after the three spirits have visited him.
Verified in the full text of A Christmas Carol on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #46
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it
Jane Eyre, in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, 1847 Our note: Jane, restless on the roof of Thornfield Hall.
Verified in the full text of Jane Eyre on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1260
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
…they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind
Catherine Earnshaw, in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, 1847 Our note: Catherine Earnshaw to Nelly Dean, on dreams that stayed with her.
Verified in the full text of Wuthering Heights on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #768
Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846
My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees
Catherine Earnshaw, in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, 1847 Our note: Catherine comparing her feelings for Edgar Linton and for Heathcliff.
Verified in the full text of Wuthering Heights on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #768
Painted the same decade: Study of a Female Nude, Henri Lehmann, 1840
The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, 1850 Our note: The narrator on how Hester's long exile from society loosened her hold on its rules.
Verified in the full text of The Scarlet Letter on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #33
Painted the same decade: The Artist's Sitting Room in Ritterstrasse, Adolph Menzel, 1851
Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; …
Ishmael, in Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, 1851 Our note: From the first chapter, where Ishmael explains why he goes to sea.
Verified in the full text of Moby-Dick on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #2701
Painted the same decade: The Artist's Sitting Room in Ritterstrasse, Adolph Menzel, 1851
I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854 Our note: Thoreau argues that real change happens in the person, not the wardrobe.
Verified in the full text of Walden on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #205
Painted the same decade: The Artist's Sitting Room in Ritterstrasse, Adolph Menzel, 1851
Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854 Our note: From the conclusion of Walden.
Verified in the full text of Walden on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #205
Painted the same decade: Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine, Théodore Chassériau, 1851
It is never too late to give up our prejudices.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854 Our note: An early line in Walden about questioning what everyone takes for granted.
Verified in the full text of Walden on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #205
Painted the same decade: The Artist's Sitting Room in Ritterstrasse, Adolph Menzel, 1851
Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, 1855 Our note: Near the end of "Song of Myself."
Verified in the full text of Song of Myself on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1322 · Collected in Leaves of Grass
Painted the same decade: Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine, Théodore Chassériau, 1851
…the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858 Our note: The Autocrat, Holmes's talkative boarding-house narrator.
Verified in the full text of The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #751
Painted the same decade: Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine, Théodore Chassériau, 1851
…but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858 Our note: The Autocrat, following his remark about the direction we are moving.
Verified in the full text of The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #751
Painted the same decade: Madame Frederic Breyer (Fanny Hélène Van Bruyssel, 1830–1894), Gustave Courbet, 1858