The Power of Quotes

I love quotes. I collect them. I use them in my e-mail footers. I search for them. I ponder them. Some are from smart and well known people. Others are not.

And here is why I find quotes so powerful.  For me, quotes elegantly capture an essential truth in words that is easy to grasp but not so easy to assimilate. The best quotes are “sticky” in the Dan Heath manner. They are thought compelling. They create an emotional reaction, paint a picture in our mind and cause us for one small moment to look inside ourselves.

I often use quotes in my change work, for all those reasons. Quotes can help us understand and articulate our world view, our core beliefs. They also can point out to us that there are a number of ways of looking at a certain situation.

Here are some of my favorite quotes on change. I encourage you to read through them and identify those which most reflect your personal beliefs about change. Which ones speak to your approach to change? Which do you disagree with? Which present a different way of thinking about change?

“When the drumbeat changes, the dance changes.”   Hausa People

“Opportunities are never lost. The other fellow takes those that you miss.”   Anonymous

“We must change to master change.”   Lyndon Johnson

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.”  Seneca

“Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and we shall find the way.”   Abraham Lincoln

“We don’t see things the way they are. We see things as we are.”  Anais Nin

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you must put up with the rain.”    Dolly Parton

“The business graveyard is lettered with companies that failed to recognize inevitable changes.”   Anonymous

“All birth is unwilling.”   Pearl Buck

“You must do the things you think you cannot do.”  Eleanor Roosevelt

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”  Helen Keller

“To resist change is like holding your breath….if you persist you will die. We must accept motion, must live with motion, and must know ourselves to be forever moving.”   David Meier

“Before you change your thinking, you must change what goes into your mind.”  Anonymous

“Progress is not created by content people.”  F. Tyger

“Come to the edge,’ he said. They said, ‘We are afraid.’ ‘Come to the edge,’ he said. They came. He pushed them…..and they flew.”    Guillaume Apollinaire

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”   Charles Darwin