Clinton said this almost verbatim in his first televised Oval Office address, the “Address to the Nation on the Economic Program” of February 15, 1993. The exact wording is confirmed in the official transcript, drawn from the Public Papers of the Presidents.
“The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change” Bill Clinton, Address to the Nation on the Economic Program, February 15, 1993 (Oval Office).
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Provenance
The primary source
Speech
Address to the Nation on the Economic Program
Delivered
February 15, 1993 · the Oval Office, the White House
Published
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1993, Book I
My message to you is clear: The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change. After all, that’s why you sent me here: not to keep this seat warm but to work for fundamental change, to make Washington work for all Americans, not just the special interests, and to chart a course that will enable us to compete and win in this new world.
The line as delivered opens with “My message to you is clear:” — the widely circulated version simply lifts the sentence that follows.
The full text is preserved by The American Presidency Project, which reproduces the Public Papers version dated February 15, 1993.
The govinfo index to the Public Papers 1993, Book I lists this “Address to the Nation—Economic program” among Clinton’s official addresses.
ABC’s Nightline covered the same February 15 address that evening, confirming the date and occasion (its transcript paraphrases rather than reprints the speech).
✓Public domain
This is a U.S. presidential address delivered in the President’s official capacity, so it is a work of the U.S. federal government and carries no copyright under 17 U.S.C. § 105. It is in the public domain and reprinted in the government’s own Public Papers of the Presidents.
Context
Why it was said
Clinton delivered the line from behind the Resolute desk on the evening of February 15, 1993, less than a month into his term. The speech previewed the deficit-reduction and public-investment program he would lay out to a joint session of Congress on February 17 — and asked Americans to accept short-term sacrifice, including new taxes, for long-term gain.
The sentence functions as the emotional hinge of that pitch: it reframes an uncomfortable change as the cheaper option compared with the hidden, compounding cost of standing still. Detached from the 1993 budget fight, it has since been recycled endlessly as a generic change-management and business-transformation maxim, often with no source attached.
“The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change.”
A note on the wording
As delivered, the sentence is preceded by “My message to you is clear:” The stand-alone quotation that circulates online is an exact excerpt of what followed — not a paraphrase — so the popular wording is faithful to the source.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
William Jefferson Clinton (b. 1946) served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001, after twelve years as Governor of Arkansas. This line comes from the very first prime-time Oval Office address of his presidency, on the night of February 15, 1993, framing the economic package he would formally send to Congress two days later. Change-and-status-quo rhetoric was a signature of his “New Democrat” message, which makes the quotation entirely characteristic of him.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Primary source — Chicago
William J. Clinton, “Address to the Nation on the Economic Program,” February 15, 1993, in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1993, Book I (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1994); text via The American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara).
MLA (9th ed.)
Clinton, William J. "Address to the Nation on the Economic Program." 15 Feb. 1993, the Oval Office, the White House. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1993, Book I, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1994; American Presidency Project, presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-nation-the-economic-program.
APA (7th ed.)
Clinton, W. J. (1993, February 15). Address to the nation on the economic program [Speech transcript]. In Public papers of the presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1993 (Book I). Government Printing Office. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-nation-the-economic-program
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-price-of-doing-the-same-old-thing-is-far-higher-than