A Quote by Emile Durkheim

What history teaches us is that man does not change arbitrarily; he does not transform himself at will on hearing the voices of inspired prophets. The reason is that all change, in colliding with the inherited institutions of the past, is inevitably hard and laborious; consequently it only takes place in response to the demands of necessity. For change to be brought about it is not enough that it should be seen as desirable; it must be the product of changes within the whole network of diverse casual relationships which then determine the situation of man.

Emile Durkheim

Quote Topics

About Brought Casual Casual Relationships Change Changes Consequently Demands Desirable Determine Diverse Does Enough Hard Hearing Himself History Inevitably Inherited Inspired Institutions Laborious Man Must Necessity Network Only Past Place Product Prophets Reason Relationships Response Seen Should Situation Takes Teaches Then Transform Us Voices Which Whole Will Within

Quote Author

Emile Durkheim
French - Sociologist
April 15, 1858 - November 15, 1917

But just as haste and restlessness are typical of our present-day life, so change also takes place more rapidly than before. This applies to change in the relationships between nations as it does to change within an individual nation.

Gustav Stresemann

Jesus does not respond to our worry-filled way of living by saying that we should not be so busy with worldly affairs. He does not try to pull us away from the many events, activities, and people that make up our lives. . . . He asks us to shift the point of gravity, to relocate the center of our attention, to change our priorities. Jesus does not speak about a change of activities, a change in contacts, or even a change of pace. He speaks about a change of heart.

Henri Nouwen

To make a revolution, people must not only struggle against existing institutions. They must make a philosophical/ spiritual leap and become more 'human' human beings. In order to change/ transform the world, they must change/ transform themselves.

Grace Lee Boggs

Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity of self-change. And in observing himself a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that self-observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening.

G. I. Gurdjieff

Cultural survival is not about preservation, sequestering indigenous peoples in enclaves like some sort of zoological specimens. Change itself does note destroy a culture. All societies are constantly evolving. Indeed a culture survives when it has enough confidence in its past and enough say in its future to maintain its spirit and essence through all the changes it will inevitably undergo.

Wade Davis

The total quantity of all the forces capable of work in the whole universe remains eternal and unchanged throughout all their changes. All change in nature amounts to this, that force can change its form and locality, without its quantity being changed. The universe possesses, once for all, a store of force which is not altered by any change of phenomena, can neither be increased nor diminished, and which maintains any change which takes place on it.

Hermann von Helmholtz

No man can change himself into anything from sheer reason; he can only change into what he potentially is.

Carl Jung

A man who goes forth to take the life of another whom he does not know must believe one thing only - that by his act he will change the course of history.

Yitzhak Shamir

A man who goes forth to take the life of another whom he does not know must believe only one thing: that by his act he will change the course of history.

Yitzhak Shamir

To change man, the audience by which he judges himself must be changed. A man is defined by his audience: by the people, institutions, authors, magazines, movie heroes, philosophers by whom he pictures himself being cheered and booed. Major psychological disturbances, 'identity crises', are caused when an individual begins to change the audience for whom he plays: from parents to peers; from peers to the works of Albert Camus; from the Bible to Hugh Hefner.

Luke Rhinehart

The number of hypotheses and theories about climate change are numerous. Quite naturally they have caught the public attention, as any proof of past climactic change points to the possibility of future climate change, which inevitably will have significant implications for global economics.

Eduard Bruckner

Transform yourself. It is not the opponent that will change, or the Frisbee. They will change in relation to your change. You must change.

Frederick Lenz

When we find ourselves in the same situation repeatedly as a result of our conditioned responses, we must stop and do a new thing. The situation may look different. The route we take there may be altogether different. The lesson we must learn does not change. Get honest! Pay attention! Change what you do to create a change for yourself!

Iyanla Vanzant

We have been making changes continuously. You cannot expect everything to be perfect the minute it is made. Things change; they are dynamic as you progress. The requirements change. Demands change. So you change with that.

Rajiv Gandhi

Since time itself is not movement, it must somehow have to do with movement.Time is initially encountered in those entities which are changeable, change is in time. How is time exhibited in this way of encountering it, namely, as that within which things change? Does it here give itself as itself in what it is? Can an axplacation of time starts here guarantee that time will thereby provide as it were the fundamental phenomena that determine it in its own being?