We all want to be better individuals. Many successful people provided insightful quotes about how we might change and improve. So, I’ve compiled 125 short quotes about changing yourself for the better and putting yourself first to inspire you.
Everyone has moments in their lives when they want to make a positive change. When change occurs, we experience fear.
Change is essential for personal progress. Face obstacles to learn about ourselves and our hidden abilities.
These uplifting quotes act as an inspiration that we may all improve if we work hard enough, day after day. Even when we feel stuck or worried these words can give us hope and show that positive change is possible. Change begins with one step and an intention to do better.
So, let’s look at short quotes about changing yourself for the better and see how powerful they are in creating a brighter, more rewarding future.
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Short Quotes about Changing Yourself for the Better
1. “Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” — Simone de Beauvoir
2. “Change your thoughts and you change your world.” — Norman Vincent Peale
3. “Changing is what people do when they have no options left.” — Holly Black
4. “We first make our habits, then our habits make us.” — John Dryden
5. “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” — Albert Einstein
6. “Words are where most change begins.” — Brandon Sanderson
7. “Our ability to adapt is amazing. Our ability to change isn’t quite as spectacular.” — Lisa Lutz
8. “Nothing is lost . . . Everything is transformed.” — Michael Ende
9. “Sometimes you hit a point where you either change or self-destruct.” — Sam Stevens
10. “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” — Leo Tolstoy
11. “The world doesn’t change in front of your eyes, it changes behind your back.” — Terry Hayes
12. “Change is the end result of all true learning.” — Leo Buscaglia
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13. “If you want to change attitudes, start with a change in behavior.” — Katherine Hepburn
14. “Tides do what tides do–they turn.” — Derek Landy
15. “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” — Winston Churchill
16. “Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.” — Confucius
17. “Change begins at the end of your comfort zone.” — Roy T. Bennett
18. “True life is lived when tiny changes occur.” — Leo Tolstoy
19. “Change brings opportunity.” — Nido Qubein
20. “Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.” — Nikos Kazantzakis
21. “Sometimes good things fall apart so better things could fall together.” — Marilyn Monroe
22. “A bend in the road is not the end of the road… Unless you fail to make the turn.” — Helen Keller
23. “Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
24. “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” — Angela Davis
25. “There is nothing permanent except change.” — Heraclitus
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26. “Change is made of choices, and choices are made of character.” — Amanda Gorman
27. “You cannot change what you are, only what you do.” — Philip Pullman
28. “Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not.” — Stephen King
29. “Tradition is nothing but ancestral peer pressure.” — Indya Moore
30. “Change before you have to.” — Jack Welch
31. “Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.” — Walt Disney
32. “Fashion changes, but style endures.” — Coco Chanel
33. “Maturity is when you stop complaining and making excuses, and start making changes.” — Roy T. Bennett
34. “You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read.” — Cesar Chavez
35. “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” — John C. Maxwell
36. “Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.” — Bill Nye
37. “And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time.” — Libba Bray
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38. “We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” — Rick Warren
39. “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin
40. “In order to change the world, you have to get your head together first.” — Jimi Hendrix
41. “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” — Sydney J. Harris
42. “People are very open-minded about new things, as long as they’re exactly like the old ones.” — Charles F. Kettering
43. “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” — Mary Shelley
44. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” — Babe Ruth
45. “The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change.” — Bill Clinton
46. “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” — Wayne W. Dyer
47. “Changing is what people do when they have no options left.” — Holly Black
48. “Our ability to adapt is amazing. Our ability to change isn’t quite as spectacular.” — Lisa Lutz
49. “You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.” — Shonda Rhimes
50. “Things don’t have to change the world to be important.” — Steve Jobs
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51. “It is never too late to be who you might have been.” — George Eliot
52. “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” — Steve Jobs
53. “Change before you have to.” — Jack Welch
54. “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” — John D. Rockefller
55. “What’s dangerous is not to evolve.” — Jeff Bezos
56. “By changing nothing, nothing changes.” — Tony Robbins
57. “Sometimes good things fall apart so better things could fall together.” — Marilyn Monroe
58. “When you love someone, you love the person as they are, and not as you’d like them to be.” — Leo Tolstoy
59. “A wise man changes his mind; a fool never will.” — Icelandic Proverb
60. “Change in all things is sweet.” — Aristotle
61. “Life is progress, and not a station.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
62. “Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.” — Brene Brown
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63. “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” — Carl Roger
64. “Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.” — Dalai Lama
65. “Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.” — Dr. Suess
66. “People do not change; they are merely revealed.” — Anne Enright
67. “The present changes the past. Looking back you do not find what you left behind.” — Kiran Desai
68. “There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” — C.S. Lewis
69. “One day spent with someone you love can change everything.” — Mitch Albom
70. “Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn’t stop for anybody.” — Stephen Chobsky
71. “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
72. “The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.” — Nathaniel Branden
73. “You must welcome change as the rule, but not as your ruler.” — Denis Waitley
74. “You’re always you, and that don’t change, and you’re always changing, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” — Neil Gaiman
75. “Words are where most change begins.” — Brandon Sanderson
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76. “Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes.” — Hugh Prather
77. “Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” — Simone de Beauvoir
78. “To change one’s life: 1. Start immediately. 2. Do it flamboyantly. 3. No exceptions.” — William James
79. “No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again.” — Buddha
80. “Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” — Carol Burnett
81. “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.” — Unknown
82. “How wonderful is it that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” — Anne Frank
83. “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin
84. “If your past calls, don’t answer. It has nothing new to say.” — Unknown
85. “Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.” — John Green
86. “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.” — Peter Drucker
87. “The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.” — Mary Pickford
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88. “Every morning we are born again. What we do today matters most.” — Buddhist Proverb
89. “The changes we dread most may contain our salvation.” — Barbara Kingsolver
90. “Time may change me, but I can’t trace time.” — David Bowie
91. “One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.” — Gerard Way
92. “All great changes are preceded by chaos.” — Deepak Chopra
93. “When in doubt, choose change.” — Lily Leung
94. “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” — E.E. Cummings
95. “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” — Wayne W. Dyer
96. “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” — Andre Gide
97. “True life is lived when tiny changes occur.” — Leo Tolstoy
98. “Change is growth. For me it has been a very spiritual and musical rebirth.” — Lenny Kravitz
99. “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” — Billie Jean King
100. “Some of us think holding on makes us strong but sometimes it is letting go.” — Hermann Hesse
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101. “Be the change you want to see in your networks.” — James H. Fowler
102. “To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” — Henri Bergson
103. “If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” — Gail Sheehy
104. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” — Anaïs Nin
105. “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” — Stephen Hawking
106. “If you risk nothing, then you risk everything.” — Geena Davis
107. “Growth and comfort do not coexist.” — Ginni Rometty
108. “Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” — Jim Rohn
109. “A problem is a chance for you to do your best.” — Duke Ellington
110. “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” — George Bernard Shaw
111. “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.” — Lucille Ball
112. “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” — Andy Warhol
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113. “When you embrace change you will begin to see it as an opportunity for growth.” — Jack Canfield
114. “Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” — George Lucas
115. “All things are difficult before they are easy.” — Thomas Fuller
116. “Don’t find fault, find a remedy: anyone can complain.” — Henry Ford
117. “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” — Woodrow Wilson
118. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
119. “You only live once, but if you live it right, once is enough.” — Mae West
120. “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” — Dolly Parton
121. “Become the person who would attract the results you seek.” — Jim Cathcart
122. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.” — Roy T. Bennett
123. “You cannot change what you are, only what you do.” — Philip Pullman
124. “Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you’d like to act.” — Bob Dylan
125. “Change is hardest at the beginning, messiest in the middle and best at the end.” — Robin Sharma
Final Thoughts
I hope these motivational short quotes about changing yourself for the better inspire you to rethink your life and create great changes in yourself. Nobody can change your life but you.
If you want to alter your life forever, you may do it by changing the narrative and living your dreams through the life-changing power of writing your own story.
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