Insights Four51 featured a collection of quotes on democracy back in November when we marched to the polls. Except for the Coleman/Franken tilt in the strange state of Minnesota, November’s battles have been settled.

Now it’s January. Inauguration Day, to be precise. Time for new leaders to lead in new ways. Time for change.

Here are a few thoughts on change from the great thinkers down through the ages. If there’s a common thread, it’s this: buck up and deal with it; change is a constant.

——————————–

He who rejects change is the architect of decay.  The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.
~Harold Wilson

It is not necessary to change.  Survival is not mandatory.  ~W. Edwards Deming

There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse!  As I have often found in travelling in a
stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position, and be bruised in a new place.  ~Washington Irving

When you are through changing, you are through.  ~Bruce Barton

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.  ~Confucius

Stubborness does have its helpful features.  You always know what you are going to be thinking tomorrow.  ~Glen Beaman

After you’ve done a thing the same way for two years, look it over carefully.  After five years, look at it with
suspicion.  And after ten years, throw it away and start all over.  ~Alfred Edward Perlman

——————————–

And finally, from the great American philosopher George Carlin: I put a dollar in one of those change machines.
Nothing changed.

Popularity: 91%