"The only constant in life is change," the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus famously observed. Dealing with change is nothing new; it comes with the territory of being human. Yet, in the midst of 21st-century upheavals and uncertainties, change can often feel overwhelming.

Fortunately, Heraclitus isn't the only deep thinker who had something memorable to say on the subject. Below are 60+ quotes about change from a wide range of authors. Their words reflect the nature of change and the swirl of feelings surrounding it, from fear to exhilaration. In this collection, you'll find gentle reminders that change will keep happening and reassurance that you can handle it.

On the nature of change

• "What she had learned was that life, any life, was death and rebirth, death and rebirth. Everything always changed." -Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

• "All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change." -Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower

• "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, The Graveyard Book

• "Change is freedom, change is life." -Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed

• "And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees and changing leaves." -Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

• "Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child—What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end." -Michelle Obama, Becoming

• "Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn't stop for anybody." -Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

• "I don’t like knowing people in the context of things. 'Oh, that’s the person I work out with. That’s the person I’m in a book club with. That’s the person I did that show with.' Because once the context ends, so does the friendship." -Jennette McCurdy, I'm Glad My Mom Died

• "Unexpected goodness is as large and overwhelming as unexpected tragedy." -Nora McInerny, No Happy Endings

• "When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back." -Paulo Coelho, The Devil and Miss Prym

• "The world doesn't change in front of your eyes, it changes behind your back." -Terry Hayes, I Am Pilgrim

• "Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it." -Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale

• "I've tried in this telling, time and time again, to pinpoint the moment where everything starts to fall apart. Everything, meaning me. But there's also the opposite, where some little nut cracks open inside you and a tree starts to grow. Even harder to nail. Because that thing's going to be growing a long time before you notice. Years maybe. then one day you say, Huh, that little crack between my ears has turned into this whole damn tree of wonderful." -Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

• "Some changes happen deep down inside of you. And the truth is, only you know about them. Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be." -Judy Blume, Tiger Eyes

• "It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime." -Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

• "She was no longer who she used to be, and she wasn't yet whoever she was becoming." -Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

On fear of change

• "Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change." -Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

• "Whenever you feel afraid, just remember. Courage is the root of change—and change is what we're chemically designed to do." -Bonnie Garmus, Lesson in Chemistry

• "We can't have change without loss, which is why so often people say they want change but nonetheless stay exactly the same." -Lori Gottlieb, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

• "When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about." -Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

• "Change isn’t always for the worst; the shell that forms around a piece of sand looks to some people like an irritation, and to others, like a pearl." -Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper

• "The changes we dread most may contain our salvation." -Barbara Kingsolver, Small Wonder

• "Avoidance will make you feel less vulnerable in the short run, but it will never make you less afraid." -Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart

• “The key to change is letting go of the fear.” -Pittacus Lore, The Power of Six

• "I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship." -Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

• "You can’t save others from themselves because those who make a perpetual muddle of their lives don’t appreciate your interfering with the drama they’ve created. They want your poor-sweet-baby sympathy, but they don’t want to change." -Sue Grafton, T Is for Trespass

• "Who are you when you can no longer be the thing you’ve always been, the thing you’ve trained to be?" -Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex, Spare

• "Some people will always fear change. But we can't indulge them." -Veronica Roth, Allegiant

On making change happen

• "They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." -Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

• "If you're serious about changing your life, you'll find a way. If you're not, you'll find an excuse." -Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass

• "Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground, and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too. They start over. They find a way." -Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere

• "Whatever’s back there don’t matter. It’s what’s ahead of you that counts." -James McBride, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

• "Nothing changes if nothing changes." -Maria Bamford, Sure, I'll Join Your Cult

• "They tell you: Follow your dreams. Listen to your spirit. Change the world ... I think that’s crap. I think a lot of people dream. And while they are busy dreaming, the really happy people, the really successful people, the really interesting, powerful, engaged people? Are busy doing." -Shonda Rhimes, Year of Yes

• "You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes." -A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

• "You cannot change what you are, only what you do." -Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

• "As for opportunity, she knew better than anyone: You had to make it for yourself." -Leigh Bardugo, Hell Bent

• "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." —Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

• "And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time." -Libba Bray, The Sweet Far Thing

• "One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world." -Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala

• "You can’t stop the future, you can’t rewind the past, the only way to learn the secret ... is to press play." -Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why

• "Today I am in control because I want to be. I have my fingers on the switch, but have lived a lifetime ignoring the control I have over my own world. Today is different." -A. S. King, Please Ignore Vera Dietz

On changing your mindset

• "Believe something and the Universe is on its way to being changed. Because you've changed, by believing. Once you've changed, other things start to follow. Isn't that the way it works?" -Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

• "What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it." -Maya Angelou, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

• "Words are where most change begins." -Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

• "There are times in our lives when we have to realize our past is precisely what it is, and we cannot change it. But we can change the story we tell ourselves about it, and by doing that, we can change the future." -Eleanor Brown, The Weird Sisters

• "I have come to believe that while the past is unchangeable, our perceptions of it are malleable." -Nicholas Sparks, The Wedding

• "Whomever you become, whatever you make yourself into, that is who you always were." -Tara Westover, Educated

• "Change is one thing. Acceptance is another." -Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

• "Gratitude can transform any situation. It alters your vibration, moving you from negative energy to positive. It’s the quickest, easiest, most powerful way to effect change in your life—this I know for sure." -Oprah Winfrey, What I Know for Sure

• "It is not possible to control the outside of yourself until you have mastered your breathing space. It is not possible to change anything until you understand the substance you wish to change." -Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

• "It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then." -Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

On embracing change

• "The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket." -Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

• "We should strive to welcome change and challenges, because they are what help us grow." -H. G. Wells, The Time Machine

• "Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving." -Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

• "Things change, but we stretch and grow and make room for one another," -Emily Henry, Happy Place

• "A change is as good as a rest." -Stephen King, Hearts in Atlantis

• "Most people's problems would be solved if they would only give more things a chance." -Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

• "We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming—well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate." -Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses

• "If nothing ever changed, there would be no such things as butterflies." -Wendy Mass, The Candymakers

• "You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down." -Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

• "You’ve changed me forever. And I’ll never forget you." -Kiera Cass, The Elite

• "Can’t say it often enough—change your hair, change your life." -Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice

• "It isn't a sadness, but a joy, that we don't do the same thing for the length of our lives." -Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow