Change can be daunting, and it can feel like we’re struggling to keep up. But it can also be a source of inspiration and growth if we allow ourselves to embrace it.

To help foster that positive perspective, here are 100 quotes about change that offer some much-needed motivation and encouragement for times when change may feel overwhelming or disheartening.

From timeless classics to modern musings, these quotes explore the many facets of change and how it affects us in our day-to-day lives.

If you need a little extra dose of reassurance while navigating this ever-changing world, look no further!

  1. Be the change that you wish to see in the world. -Mahatma Gandhi
  2. To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. -Winston Churchill
  3. There is nothing permanent except change. -Heraclitus
  4. The changes we dread most may contain our salvation. -Barbara Kingsolver
  5. The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress. -Charles Kettering
  6. Change is painful, but nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong. -Mandy Hale
  7.  And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time. -Libba Bray
  8. There is nothing brilliant or outstanding in my record except perhaps this one thing. I do the things I believe ought to be done. And when I make up my mind to do a thing, I act. -Theodore Roosevelt
  9. The present changes the past. Looking back, you do not find what you left behind. -Kiran Desai
  10. Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. -Andre Gide
  11. Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn’t stop for anybody. -Stephen Chbosky
  12. Change before you have to. -Jack Welch
  13. Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality. -Nikos Kazantzakis
  14. The change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. -Barack Obama
  15. Change is inevitable. Change is constant. -Benjamin Disraeli
  16. There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have found in traveling in a stagecoach, it is often a comfort to shift one’s position and be bruised in a new place. -Washington Irving
  17. Change alone is eternal, perpetual, and immortal. –Arthur Schopenhauer
  18.  Taking a new step, and uttering a new word, is what people fear most. -Fyodor Dostoevsky
  19. For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
  20. All things must change to something new, to something strange. -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  21. Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. -Leo Tolstoy
  22. Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great. -John D. Rockefeller
  23. If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. -Maya Angelou
  24. The only way to make sense of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. -Alan Watts
  25. If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living. -Gail Sheehy
  26. Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong. -N.R. Narayana Murthy
  27. We are not trapped or locked up in these bones. No, no. We are free to change. And love changes us. And if we can love one another, we can break open the sky. -Walter Mosley
  28. Fear is forward. No one is afraid of yesterday. -Renata Adler
  29. The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; cease to be minds. -Friedrich Nietzsche
  30. Change, like sunshine, can be a friend or a foe, a blessing or a curse, a dawn or a dusk. -William Arthur Ward
  31. 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
  32. A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will. -Icelandic Proverb
  33. I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. -Jimmy Dean
  34. The moment of change is the only poem. -Adrienne Rich
  35. The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance. -Nathaniel Braden
  36. One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world. -Malala Yousafzai
  37. I have accepted fear as part of life – specifically the fear of change… I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back…. -Erica Jong
  38. A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. -John A. Shedd
  39. They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. – Andy Warhol
  40. You must welcome change as the rule, but not as your ruler. -Denis Waitley
  41. Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
  42. The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude. -Oprah Winfrey
  43. To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. -Winston Churchill
  44. If you do not change direction, you might end up where you are heading. -Lao Tzu
  45. God grants me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. -Reinhold Niebuhr
  46. I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. -Mother Teresa
  47. I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. -Plutarch
  48. You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will. -Stephen King
  49.  Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby- awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess. -Lemony Snicket
  50. Things do not change; we change. -Henry David Thoreau
  51. It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform. -Roy T. Bennett
  52. Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. -Harriet Tubman
  53. Play to your strengths. If you aren’t great at something, do more of what you’re great at. -Jason Lemkin
  54. We must be impatient for change. Let us remember that our voice is a precious gift and we must use it. -Claudia Flores
  55. 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
  56. When in doubt, choose change. -Lily Leung
  57. To change one’s life: 1. Start immediately. 2. Do it flamboyantly. 3. No exceptions. -William James
  58. By changing nothing, nothing changes. -Tony Robbins
  59. Life is progress, and not a station. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
  60. Change alone is unchanging. -Heraclitus
  61. Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself. -Rumi
  62. True life is lived when tiny changes occur. -Leo Tolstoy
  63. Don’t let rejection create self-doubt. The founder of Starbucks was turned down by 217 of the 242 investors he initially spoke with. -Elizabeth Galbut
  64. We all get scared and want to turn away, but it isn’t always strength that makes you stay. Strength is also making the decision to change your destiny. -Zoraida Córdova
  65. When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves. -Viktor. E Frankl
  66. To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. -Henri Bergson
  67. Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. -George Bernard Shaw
  68. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. -Arthur Ashe
  69. The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging. –Warren Buffett
  70. Nothing is forever except change. -Buddha
  71. The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. -Albert Einstein
  72. A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will. -Spanish Proverb
  73. Every day the clock resets. Your wins don’t matter. Your failures don’t matter. Don’t stress on what was, fight for what could be. -Sean Higgins
  74. All great changes are preceded by chaos. -Deepak Chopra
  75. We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses. -Carl Jung
  76. Time may change me, but I can’t trace time. -David Bowie
  77. Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn’t stop for anybody. –Stephen Chbosky
  78. If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. -Toni Morrison
  79. If people refuse to look at you in a new light and they can only see you for what you were, only see you for the mistakes you’ve made, if they don’t realize that you are not your mistakes, then they have to go. -Steve Maraboli
  80. Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be. -John Wooden
  81. Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change. -Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
  82. The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. -Steve Jobs
  83. The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude. -Oprah Winfrey
  84. It doesn’t matter how strong your opinion is. If you don’t use your power for positive change, you are indeed part of the problem. -Coretta Scott King
  85. Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is a disaster. -Elon Musk
  86. We can’t be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. -C. Joybell C.
  87. If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when? -Hillel
  88. Do what is right, not what is easy nor what is popular. -Roy T. Bennett
  89. You can’t stop the future. You can’t rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret…is to press play. -Jay Asher
  90. Change your thinking, change your life. -Ernest Holmes
  91. Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. -Lao Tzu
  92. Moving doesn’t change who you are. It only changes the view outside your window. -Rachel Hollis
  93. ‘The measure of intelligence is the ability to change. -Albert Einstein
  94. Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. -James Baldwin
  95. If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. -Wayne Dyer
  96. It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. -Charles Darwin
  97. Change, like healing, takes time. -Veronica Roth
  98. At any given moment, you have the power to say: this is not how the story is going to end. -Christine Mason Miller
  99. To say goodbye is to die a little. -Raymond Chandler
  100. Change is inevitable. Growth is optional. -John C. Maxwell

Change may be hard, and sometimes it can feel uncomfortable and unfamiliar. Even when it feels tough, change is ultimately important for growth.

As many of the 100 quotes about change demonstrate, taking risks and being open to unexpected outcomes is key to maintaining a positive outlook in our ever-changing lives.

No matter the outcome, we can find reassurance that the process of change offers valuable lessons.

Perhaps the most significant takeaway from these quotes is a reminder that embracing uncertainty and vulnerability provides us with a powerful opportunity for transformation and progress.