Slow Change Quotes

Indian democracy has often been likened to the stately progress of the elephant - ponderous in its gait and reluctant to change course, but not easily swayed from its new path when it does.

Countries are not like financial markets. Social change cannot be executed as swiftly as credit-default swaps. You cannot sell short on social commitments and practical responsibilities.

Always remember that the future comes one day at a time.

American public opinion is like an ocean, it cannot be stirred by a teaspoon.

Change is incremental and real change, enduring change, occurs one step at a time.

Gradualism in theory is perpetuity in practice.

Growth becomes less important than stability; we have to give people changes slowly.

I'd look at one of my stonecutters hammering away at the rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet, at the hundred and first blow it would split in two, and I knew it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

Nature herself has never attempted to effect great changes rapidly.

Nature does not proceed by leaps.

In rural parts of China, it's like stepping back into the era of my grandfather or great-grandfather - not much has changed.

Democracy is rarely easy, nor swift.

We are making our revolution slowly and by constitutional methods.

We must wait for the slow progress of moral causes

Political and social change is always a stagger-step process.

Development comes from within. Nature does not hurry but advances slowly.

Sometimes the wheel turns slowly, but it turns.

International exchanges are not a great tide to sweep away all differences, but they will slowly wear away at the obstacles to peace as surely as water wears away a hard stone.

When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually you have a big improvement in conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don't look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That's the only way it happens - and when it happens, it lasts.

But the real focus should be on people who are buying today because the base is so big it will take a long time for any change materialize on an overall basis.

You know it's only 50 miles from Grand River to Canton, but it took me 67 years to travel that distance.

No one ever became thoroughly bad in one step.

Human nature, if it changes at all, changes not much faster than the geological face of the earth.

Every couple needs glue to stay together. Like all marriages, I suspect, if you're busy you don't see it coming until you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. It's a bit like going broke. It happens slowly and then very quickly.

We cannot, in a moment, get rid of habits of a lifetime.