Change The Person Quotes

“Hurt people hurt people. We are not being judgmental by separating ourselves from such people. But we should do so with compassion. Compassion is defined as a "keen awareness of the suffering of another coupled with a desire to see it relieved." People hurt others as a result of their own inner strife and pain. Avoid the reactive response of believeing they are bad; they already think so and are acting that way. They aren't bad; they are damaged and they deserve compassion. Note that compassion is an internal process, an understanding of the painful and troubled road trod by another. It is not trying to change or fix that person.”

— Will Bowen

“To judge is to believe that a person is capable of doing better. It's to know that people can change their behavior, even quite radically in response to what is expected of them.”

— Larissa MacFarquhar

“The power of resistance is to set an example: not necessarily to change the person with whom you disagree, but to empower the one who is watching and whose growth is not yet completed, whose path is not at all clear, whose direction is still very much up in the proverbial air.”

— Tim Wise

“Positivity can be a negative," I tell her, "if it's used to diminish events that should be cause for concern. Saying 'bad things happen to good people' or "God doesn't give anyone more than they can handle', for instance, isn't necessarily helpful to the person to whom something bad happened
it is much more beneficial to those who wish to be dismissive- who don't really care to think about the why or how or who. And if we cease to see the real human part in events
if instead, we relegate human experiences to some sort of mystical concept like karma, destiny or everything happens for a reason, and consider more realistic views to be negative
then we diminish compassion and empathy, as well as the possibility of positive change.”

— Jane Devin

“The person who, at any stage of a conversation, disagrees, should at least hope to reach agreement in the end. He should be as much prepared to have his own mind changed as seek to change the mind of another ... No one who looks upon disagreement as an occasion for teaching another should forget that it is also an occasion for being taught.”

— Mortimer J. Adler

“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.
Cesar Chavez
Address to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Nov. 9, 1984”

— Cesar Estrada Chavez

“And there's nothing sadder, nothing harder in the world than watching the person you love fall apart right before your eyes-and you can't say or do anything to change it.”

— Jay McLean

“Laser Pointer Q. If every person on Earth aimed a laser pointer at the Moon at the same time, would it change color?”

— Randall Munroe

“We generally have methods of "keeping lonely thoughts away," and our anxiety may appear only in occasional dreams of fright which we try to forget as soon as possible in the morning. But these differences in intensity of the fear of loneliness, and the relative success of our defenses against it, do not change the central issue. Our fear of loneliness may not be shown by anxiety as such, but by subtle thoughts which pop up to remind us, when we discover we were not invited to so-and-so's party, that someone else likes us even if the person in question doesn't, or to tell us that we were successful or popular in such-and-such other time in the past.”

— Rollo May

“Today we have to learn all over again that love for the sinner and love for the person who has been harmed are correctly balanced if I punish the sinner in the form that is possible and appropriate. In this respect there was in the past a change of mentality, in which the law and the need for punishment were obscured. Ultimately this also narrowed the concept of law, which in fact is not only just being nice or courteous, but is found in the truth. And another component of the truth is that I must punish the one who has sinned against real love”

— Pope Benedict XVI

“Jacquelyn you are not helping," he told her with a growl. "I realize you do not understand the intensity of my feelings for you, but I cannot change my nature. In the wild, wolves mate for life, and a male wolf will kill any who tries to take his mate. It is the same with my species. I realize this Trent," Fane said his name in obvious repugnance "was a part of your life and you can't change that, and it's not that I dislike him as a person. It's just that I am jealous of the obvious affection you felt and still feel for him. I don't like the fact that you were intimate with him, when that is my right alone."
Loftis, Quinn (2011-06-29). Prince of Wolves (The Grey Wolves Series Book 1) (Kindle Locations 2366-2370). Kindle Edition.”

— Quinn Loftis

“I don't vote. I voted Labour once, in that moment of euphoria. I know that if people only made a voice for change, then change will happen, but I'm not that person. I'm painting pictures.”

— Gary Hume

“Physical presence provides chemical, relational, psychological and physiological effects that virtual relationships cannot. Our brains change in the presence of another person and their behavior.”

— Henry Cloud

“Who told you you couldn't come back when you're grown? Was it the same person who told you grown-ups don't cry or blush or clap their hands when they're happy? Don't try to say otherwise, I've seen you fighting like a boxer to change your face so that it never shows anything. Whoever told you that's what growing up means is a villain, as true as a mustache. I am growing up, too, and look at me! I cry and I blush and I live in Fairyland always!”

— Catherynne M. Valente

“What the guys have learned is that whether you're preaching to one or 10,000, it really doesn't matter. That one person you touch may change the nation - could be the Billy Graham of Ethiopia.”

— Michael Scott

“Aside from my work, in my everyday private life, I'm not a very adventureous person. I don't look for change.”

— Namie Amuro

“Never change the person that you are just to fit in. You'll find your true friends that like you for you, and if you are happy with doing things that you genuinely enjoy, it shouldn't matter what other people think.”

— Nicole Anderson

“Not enough books focus on how a culture responds to radically new ideas or discovery. Especially in the biography genre, they tend to focus on all the sordid details in the life of the person who made the discovery. I find this path to be voyeuristic but not enlightening. Instead, I ask, After evolution was discovered, how did religion and society respond? After cities were electrified, how did daily life change? After the airplane could fly from one country to another, how did commerce or warfare change? After we walked on the Moon, how differently did we view Earth? My larger understanding of people, places and things derives primarily from stories surrounding questions such as those.”

— Neil DeGrasse Tyson

“I feel like all my faults go into making the person that I am. I like myself as a person. And I think taking any fault away would change who I am as a person.”

— Will Forte

“She goes off to see a shrink, to see if she can improve herself, make herself over into a new woman, one who no longer gives a shit. She would like that. The shrink is a nice person; Roz likes her. Together the two of them labor over Roz's life as if it's a jigsaw puzzle, a mystery story with a solution at the end. They arrange and rearrange the pieces, trying to get them to come out better. They are hopeful: if Roz can figure out what story she's in, then they will be able to spot the erroneous turns she took, they can retrace her steps, they can change the ending. They work out a tentative plot.”

— Margaret Atwood

“They came close. Oh they came close. Was all set to put a gun in my mouth and pull the trigger. But there was a computer glitch. Isnt that something? A stupid glitch and I had to wait a few days and then I saw the errors of my ways, saw so clearly that I was killing the wrong person. Its not me that needs killing, its them. Funny how things can change in the wink of an eye.”

— Hubert Selby, Jr.

“I think my ideal man would speak many languages. He would speak Ibo and Yoruba and English and French and all of the others. He could speak with any person, even the soldiers, and if there was violence in their heart he could change it. He would not have to fight, do you see? Maybe he would not be very handsome, but he would be beautiful when he spoke. He would be very kind, even if you burned his food because you were laughing and talking with your girlfriends instead of watching the cooking. He would just say, 'Ah, never mind'.”

— Chris Cleave

“I don't understand why people keep pushing that "Don't be some random person. BE UNIQUE" message. You're already incredibly unique. Everyone is incredibly unique. That's why the police use fingerprints to identify people. So you're incredibly unique  ... but in the exact same way that everyone else is. (Which, admittedly, doesn't really sing and is never going to make it on a motivational T-shirt.) So none of us are unique in being unique because being unique is pretty much the least unique thing you can be, because it comes naturally to everyone. So perhaps instead of "BE UNIQUE" we should be saying, "Be as visibly fucked up as you want to be because being unique is already taken." By everyone, ironically enough. Or maybe we should change the message to "Don't just be some random person. Be the MOST random person.”

— Jenny Lawson

“There's no committee that says, 'This is the type of person who can change the world - and you can't.' Realizing that anyone can do it is the first step. The next step is figuring out how you're going to do it.”

— Adora Svitak

“I would not change places with the wealthiest and most influential person in the world. I would rather be a child of the King, a joint-heir with Christ, a member of the Royal Family of heaven!”

— Billy Graham

“When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that person's life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his”

— Paulo Coelho

“We're all sinking in the same boat here. We're all bored and desperate and waiting for something to happen. Waiting for life to get better. Waiting for things to change. Waiting for that one person to finally notice us. We're all waiting. But we also need to realize that we all have the power to make those changes for ourselves.”

— Susane Colasanti

“As a woman, you feel like you can change the person, but I don't think that's the way it works.”

— Eva Longoria

“I want to make people think, and I don't want to come across like I am egotistical or that I want to change people's thoughts. I don't believe that as a comic I can convert anyone's opinion. I think I can maybe make someone look in one direction or the other but I can't make a religious person stop believing in God.”

— Jim Jefferies

“Words are such powerful things. We can rip somebody apart with them, we can write words down that can forever hurt another person. We can use them to tell stories and lies. We can misquote them and change what other people said to make ourselves look good ...”

— Joan Bauer

“When faced with world problems - like hunger, overpopulation, nuclear weapons, the arms trade - you may be among those who are overwhelmed by a feeling of "Help! What on earth can I, just one person, do about this?" Take heart. That's a sane response. It's the basis for a whole new attitude to world problems, where change at the level of the individual is more and more recognised as essential to change in huge world systems.”

— Scilla Elworthy

“Those are the stakes that are constantly there and how do those stakes change you? How does that change the person you are? If it does just turn out to be about survival then is that living? How does that make you, you? How does that change your identity? That picture of the governor, his wife, and his daughter, he wasn't that guy before this all started. People dying around him changed him into that.”

— Scott M. Gimple

“Choices can change our lives profoundly. The choice to mend a broken relationship, to say "yes" to a difficult assignment, to lay aside some important work to play with a child, to visit some forgotten person - these small choices may affect many lives eternally.”

— Gloria Gaither

“Prayer among men is supposed a means to change the person to whom we pray; but prayer to God doth not change him, but fits us to receive the things prayed for.”

— Benjamin Stillingfleet

“We who are born from above testify to the change that God has wrought in our hearts. Perhaps the best time for you to tell someone what has taken place in your life is when that person comes to you and says, 'What has happened to you? I have known you before and after. You are different, Tell me about it.' This is the best opportunity to tell someone about Christ. If they don't see a difference, all the talking in the world is meaningless.”

— Paris Reidhead

“If you want to be happy, make someone else happy. If you want to find the right person in your life, be the right person. If you want to see change in the world, become the change you want to see.”

— Deepak Chopra

“Negative feelings are in you, not in reality. Stop trying to change reality. That's crazy! Stop trying to change the other person. We spend all our time and energy trying to change external circumstances, trying to change our spouses, our bosses, our friends, our enemies, and everybody else. We don't have to change anything. Negative feelings are in you.”

— Anthony De Mello

“I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a 'transformer' in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader.”

— Stephen Covey

“Change is not something that we should fear. Rather, it is something that we should welcome. For without change, nothing in this world would ever grow or blossom, and no one in this world would ever move forward to become the person they're meant to be.”

— B.K.S. Iyengar

“You know how everyone felt like they were the favorite person of Rasulallah salAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam? We need to bring that sunnah into our homes. When we speak to our mother, she should feel that she's the most loved person in our life. When we speak to our wife, she should also get the same feeling. Before we try to change the world, let's bring balance in our homes.”

— Nouman Ali Khan

“You can have more, be more and do more because you can change the person you are.”

— Brian Tracy

“The first step to forgiveness is the desire to do it, no matter how you feel toward the person who hurt you. Then you make the decision to do it which means it's a firm decision that won't change when your feelings change. The next step is to depend on the Holy Spirit to help you do what you've decided to do.”

— Joyce Meyer

“It's more about balance for me. I used to be an all or nothing person. And now I would rather have a lifestyle change - rather than use the word 'diet' - where 90 percent of the time spend my life that way and 10 percent of the time have fun and do what my body feels like it needs or craves.”

— Julianne Hough

“Don't sit down in the middle of the woods. If you're lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.”

— Margaret Atwood

“Not to settle. If you're not happy with a person, leave. And wait until you find that one person who makes you feel good about yourself every single day and is not expecting you to change, but to grow.”

— Zoe Saldana