Change

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Other things

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family."

~Anthony Brandt

The pessimist

"The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails."

~John Maxwell

If we don't change

If we don't change, we don't grow.
If we don't grow, we are not really living.
Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.

~ Gail Sheehy

As your mother tells you

"As your mother tells you, and my mother certainly told me, it is important, she always used to say, always to try new things."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

What

What do you expect me to do about it?

~John Dillinger

But if the archangel now

But if the archangel now, perilous, from behind the stars took even one step down toward us: our own heart, beating higher and higher, would beat us to death. Who are you?

~Rainer Maria Rilke

We cannot

We cannot change anything until we accept it.

~Carl Jung

The name

The name on the street for the Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary. Only, big news: They've changed the name. It's now called the Oswald State Correctional Facility, level four. I don't know what the difference is. Leo Glynn is still warden, Sister Peter Marie is still in psych, Tim McManus is still unit manager of Emerald City, and I know for damn sure none of us have changed. Beecher is still in the hospital after Schillinger and Keller broke his bones. Alvarez is still in solitary after blinding a CO. Adebisi, still in the loony ward, after changing hats. Maybe it's truth in advertising. Maybe by getting rid of the word "penitentiary" the state is finally admitting that nobody's penitent. Nobody's sorry. Nobody.

~Augustus Hill, OZ

Remember

Remember when your high school history teacher said that the course of human events changes 'cause of the deeds of great men. Well, the bitch was lying. Fuck Caesar, fuck Lincoln, fuck Mahatma Gandhi. The world keeps moving cause of you and me, the anonymous. Revolutions get going cause there ain't enoug...h bread. Wars happen over a game of checkers.

~Augustus Hill, OZ

The only way

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

~Alan Watts

The whole day

The whole day have I followed in the rocks, and you have changed and flowed from shape to shape.

~WB Yeats

Integrity is not

"Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will."

~ John McDonald

Find the courage

"Find the courage to hold onto your beliefs, even if the world around you chooses to believe differently. Have the courage to change those beliefs that no longer fit the person you have become. In doing so, you truly become yourself."

~ Daniel Levin

Man is capable

"Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary."

~Viktor E. Frankl

When we are

"When we are no longer able to change a situation – just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer – we are challenged to change ourselves."

~Viktor E. Frankl

The world is changed.

The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.

~Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings

If Aragorn survives

If Aragorn survives this war, you will still be parted. If Sauron is defeated and Aragorn made king and all that you hope for comes true you will still have to taste the bitterness of mortality. Whether by the sword or the slow decay of time, Aragorn will die. And there will be no comfort for you, no comfort to ease the pain of his passing. He will come to death an image of the splendor of the kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world. But you, my daughter, you will linger on in darkness and in doubt as nightfall in winter that comes without a star. Here you will dwell bound to your grief under the fading trees until all the world is changed and the long years of your life are utterly spent.

~Elrond, The Lord of the Rings

Persons and societies

"Persons and societies do not submit passively to surroundings and events. They make choices as to the places where they live and the activities in which they engage -- choices based on what they want to be, to do and to become. Furthermore, persons and societies often change their goals and ways; they can even retrace their steps and start in a new direction if they believe they are on a wrong course. Thus, whereas animal life is prisoner of biological evolution which is essentially irreversible, human life has the wonderful freedom of social evolution which is rapidly reversible and creative. Wherever human beings are concerned, trend is not destiny."

-- Rene Dubos

I like thinking of possibilities

"I like thinking of possibilities. At any time, an entirely new possibility is liable to come along and spin you off in an entirely new direction. The trick, I've learned, is to be awake to the moment."

-- Doug Hall