Et ignotas animum dimittit in artes. –Ovid, Metamorphoses, VIII, 188
They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.
Change always comes bearing gifts.
It's the most unhappy people who most fear change.
Change or die.
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You might say I’m a fan of change. But how much can anyone actually want change? Any time you become attached to something, you don’t want it to change. Any time you start to enjoy a moment, a situation, you secretly deny to yourself its inevitable malleability. Is there a way to have both at once – to enjoy the moment and desire change? I’m getting much more philosophical than I want to. The point is, I quite like Daedalus and I definitely love that quote. Daedalus has a bit of the trickster motif in him and a bit of the wiseman archetype. And he factors into a number of Greek myths in various enjoyable ways. Ultimately, though, he’s most known for changing – for evolving – when he creates wings for himself and takes to the heavens. His son isn’t quite as wise or as anything as Daedalus, which is a shame. But Daedalus changes to save his life. And so creates a new one.
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Confucius, Price Pritchett, Mignon McLaughlin and Eldridge Cleaver supplied the quotes at the beginning of the post. And the topic is of course Ovid, but it was chosen because James Joyce uses it to begin A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.