26 Quotes About Change & Impermanence
Nothing holds still — not seasons, not feelings, not you. These quotes on change and impermanence are about making peace with the one constant, and learning to move with it instead of against it.
“The cure for burnout is not self-care. The cure is care that comes from outside — the structural conditions changing, the relationships repairing, the work itself being made human again.”
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
“Flow is the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.”
“The body is always with us, but the self disappears in flow.”
“Flow is the optimal performance state of the human nervous system.”
“In flow, the brain becomes hyper-efficient. Five major neurochemicals can be active at once — almost nowhere else in life does this happen.”
“The four phases of the flow cycle: struggle, release, flow, recovery. Skip any one and you cannot get the next.”
“Group flow is the most powerful productivity tool we have. Pixar runs on it. The Lakers won on it.”
“Flow rides on top of a neurochemical cocktail: norepinephrine, dopamine, anandamide, serotonin, endorphins. The most addictive blend the brain can produce.”
“The brain in flow drops the prefrontal cortex offline. That is why the self disappears.”
“Flow has a dark side. It is also what the slot machine produces. The neurochemistry does not care if you are an artist or an addict.”
“You cannot live in flow. The body cannot sustain it. The recovery is real.”
“The only place you can change anything is inside yourself. The outside world is the printout.”
“Anubis weighs the heart. Thoth records the result. Ammit waits. The deceased recites the 42 Confessions. The room is silent. The feather does not move. It is the heart that must change.”
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
“A good cook changes his knife once a year, because he cuts. A bad cook changes his knife once a month, because he hacks. The Cook Ting follows the openings — his knife is nineteen years old, and the edge is as fresh as the day it was sharpe…”
“Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free. Stay centred by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.”
“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”
“When you understand the meaning of impermanence, all clinging falls away. When clinging falls away, the heart is light. When the heart is light, the mind is free.”
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
“No matter how full the river is, it still wants to grow.”
“Wabi-sabi is the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is the beauty of things modest and humble. It is the beauty of things unconventional.”
“All things are impermanent, all things are imperfect, and all things are incomplete. Three simple realities — and wabi-sabi is the grace of living inside them rather than against them.”
“Wabi-sabi reminds us that we are all transient beings on this planet — that our bodies, as well as the material world around us, are in the process of returning to dust.”