Systemic Change Quotes

• We must stop constantly fighting for human rights and equal justice in an unjust system, and start building a society where equal rights are an integral part of the design.

  Jacque Fresco

  Integrity, Fighting, Equality

  "The Best That Money Can't Buy: Beyond Politics, Poverty, & War". Book by Jacque Fresco, 2002.

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• To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.

  John Henry Newman

  Life, Change, Spiritual

  John Henry Newman (1845). “An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine”, p.39, CreateSpace

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• Relationships matter: the currency for systemic change was trust, and trust comes through forming healthy working relationships. People, not programs, change people.

  Bruce D. Perry

  People, Healthy, Matter

  Bruce D. Perry, Maia Szalavitz (2017). “The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook--What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing”, p.85, Hachette UK

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• To manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately.

  Russell L. Ackoff

  Leadership, Integrity, Taken

  "On purposeful systems (1972)". "Thinking about Quality: Progress, Wisdom, and the Deming Philosophy". Book by Clare Crawford-Mason and Lloyd Dobyns, p. 40, 1994.

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• The path to big, systemic change is collective action. That takes Sister Courage.

  Gloria Feldt

  Path, Action, Bigs

  Gloria Feldt (2012). “No Excuses: Nine Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power”, p.242, Seal Press

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• To create a world in which life can flourish and prosper we must replace the values and institutions of capitalism with values and institutions that honor life, serve life's needs, and restore money to its proper role as servant. I believe we are in fact being called to take a step to a new level of species consciousness and function.

  David Korten

  Life, Inspiring, Money

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• I'm not taking power. I'm catalyzing systemic change.

  Ashraf Ghani

  "Ashraf Ghani: U.S. Critical To Afghanistan's Future". "The Two-Way" with David Greene, Renee Montagne, www.npr.org. March 22, 2015.

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• The system of patriarchy is a historic construct; it has a beginning; it will have an end. Its time seems to have nearly run its course—it no longer serves the needs of men or women and in its inextricable linkage to militarism, hierarchy, and racism it threatens the very existence of life on earth. What will come after, what kind of structure will be the foundation for alternate forms of social organization we cannot yet know. We are living in an age of unprecedented transformation. We are in the process of becoming.

  Gerda Lerner

  Life, Running, Men

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• The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.

  Bill Mollison

  Change, Food, Garden

  "An introduction to permaculture". Book by Bill Mollison, 1991.

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• You can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside.

  Barack Obama

  Change, America, Usa

  "Obama: 'You can't change Washington from the inside'". www.foxnews.com. September 21, 2012.

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• In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.

  Coco Chanel

  Inspirational, Confidence, Fashion

  "Coco Chanel : Her Life, Her Secrets". Book by Marcel Haedrich, 1971.

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• The linear 'Take - Make - Dispose' system, which depletes natural resources and generates waste, is deeply flawed and can be productively replaced by a restorative model in which waste does not exist as such but is only food for the next cycle

  Ellen MacArthur

  Business, Doe, Restoration

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• Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people.

  Andrew Mellon

  Real, Live Life, Hard Work

  "The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover - The Great Depression, 1929-1941". Book by Herbert Hoover, www.huffingtonpost.com. 1951.

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• Try and identify where the money can go to create conditions for true systemic change.

  Peter Buffett

  Trying, Conditions

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

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• As a nation, we are on a path of rapid and deep systemic change to our health system, and it's going to unfold for some time to come. It is already transforming the fundamental nature of the U.S. medical care delivery system.

  John E. McDonough

  Fundamentals, Care, Path

  Source: sponsored.bostonglobe.com

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• I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible. ... because I believe the big problem is not taxes, the big problem is spending.

  Milton Friedman

  Believe, Cutting, Thinking

  "Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and other big government Republicans hijacked the conservative cause". Book by Richard A Viguerie, p. 46, 2006.

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• Currently, we allow our political and business leaders to get away with murder. Now is the time to change that. We need direct liability for those who are destroying our future and this planet. We need fast, profound and systemic change. History only moves forward when courageous people get up and act. That's why I support this citizens' initiative to recognise ecocide as the crime it is.

  Kumi Naidoo

  Moving, Profound, People

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• My wife and I have purchased two hybrids. We bought a 3 kw photovoltaic unit. We recycle and offset our carbon emissions on the Internet. We turn things off. But we also spend two nice salaries every year, and here's the dirty little secret - our environmental footprint is HUGE, I'm sure. We've all got to do what we can in our individual lives, but we've also got to drive the systemic changes that will make the big differences.

  James Gustave Speth

  Nice, Dirty, Years

  "Book World: 'The Bridge at the Edge of the World'". Live chat, www.washingtonpost.com. April 29, 2008.

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• The politicians always told us that the Cold War stand-off could only change by way of nuclear war. None of them believed that such systemic change was possible.

  Lech Walesa

  War, Nuclear, Way

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