R. Buckminster Fuller Quotes

Without reforms we will repeat the failures of the past.

The circumstances of the world are continually changing, and the opinions of man change also; and as government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it.

The American Dream can no more remain static than can the American nation.... We cannot any longer take an old approach to world problems. They aren't the same problems. It isn't the same world. We must not adopt the methods of our ancestors; instead, we must emulate that pioneer quality in our ancestors that made them attempt new methods for a New World.

There is always room for understanding towards those who see the old ways crumbling. And today I say simply this: It must come. It is right that it should come. And when it does, you will find that a burden has been lifted from your shoulders too.

The old order changeth, yielding place to new; And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world..

Conservatism cherishes tradition; innovation fetishizes novelty. They tug in different directions, the one toward the past, the other toward the future.

We need to open up the future. We also need to keep everything valuable from the past.

Reform is not a period of retreat.

When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future.

We emphasize that we believe in change because we were born of it, we have lived by it, we prospered and grew great by it. So the status quo has never been our god, and we ask no one else to bow down before it.

There will always be men struggling to change, and there will always be those who are controlled by the past.

Success follows those adept at preserving the substance of the past by clothing it in the forms of the future.

We are a party of innovation. We do not reject our traditions, but we are willing to adapt to changing circumstances, when change we must. We are willing to suffer the discomfort of change in order to achieve a better future.

When I was campaigning, I told the people if nothing happens under my mandate it will still be a positive thing because my mandate will be used as a rupture between the past and the future.

We don't have to be imprisoned by the past. When something isn't working, we can and should change.

If you want change, you have to offer change.

The price of doing the same old thing is higher than the price of change.

The urgent question of our time is whether we can make change our friend and not our enemy.

Tradition, by its very nature, includes continuous change.

If we want everything to remain as it is, it will be necessary for everything to change.

Youth should not accept the old order if the world is to move on.

Reform that you may preserve.

Defending yesterday … is far more risky than making tomorrow.

The one thing I do know is change is coming so quickly

Change is strong, but habit is strong too; and you cannot change the old for new, like a garment.