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Who really said it

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

Written by John Henry Newman 1801–1890 · English theologian, poet & cardinal
Verified Free to reuse

Newman wrote this in ‘An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine’ (1845), Chapter 1, Section 1. The full sentence reads ‘…here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.’ The popular short form is his genuine wording, confirmed against the primary text.

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often” John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), ch. 1

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Provenance

The source

Work
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine
Author
John Henry Newman
First published
1845
Location
Chapter 1, Section 1, ¶7 (p. 39)

It changes with them in order to remain the same. In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.

Newman is describing how a living idea necessarily develops over time to stay true to itself — the ‘change’ he means is faithful growth, not reinvention.

Read Chapter 1 at the Newman Reader

How we know

Public domain

Newman’s ‘An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine’ was first published in 1845, long before 1931, so the English text is in the public domain in the United States.

Fact-check

The Churchill mix-up

This line is genuinely Newman’s, but it is often met in a punchier form credited to Winston Churchill.

Winston Churchill paraphrase

The widely shared ‘To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often’ is routinely pinned on Churchill. He did use a version of the thought, but the Churchill Project ↗ identifies Newman’s 1845 Essay as the real origin.

The original words are Newman’s, from his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine ↗ (1845); the Churchill line is a later paraphrase of it.

Context

Why it was written

Newman wrote the sentence at a hinge moment in his life. As he completed the Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine in 1845, he was reasoning his way out of the Church of England and into Roman Catholicism — and the book’s central claim is that a true doctrine, like a living thing, unfolds and grows over centuries rather than staying frozen.

In that setting the line is not a motivational slogan about self-improvement but a theological argument: to be a living idea in this world is to change, and the deepest fidelity shows itself through repeated, faithful development.

Here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Change Growth

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, Ch. 1newmanreader.org

The primary text; the sentence sits at the end of Section 1.
John Henry Newmanen.wikiquote.org

Lists the line in the sourced section with the 1845 Essay citation.
Churchill Quotes Others Without Creditwinstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu

The Churchill Project traces the popular 'to improve is to change' variant back to Newman.
John Henry Newmanen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the theologian, poet and cardinal who wrote the line.

The author

Who was John Henry Newman?

John Henry Newman

1801–1890 · English theologian, poet & cardinal

John Henry Newman was a leading figure of the Oxford Movement who converted from the Church of England to Roman Catholicism in 1845 and was later made a cardinal. His Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, written as he moved toward Rome, argued that living ideas necessarily grow and change over time while remaining true to themselves. He was canonised as a saint by the Catholic Church in 2019.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (London: James Toovey, 1845), ch. 1, sec. 1, p. 39.

MLA (9th ed.)

Newman, John Henry. An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. James Toovey, 1845.

APA (7th ed.)

Newman, J. H. (1845). An essay on the development of Christian doctrine. James Toovey.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/to-live-is-to-change-and-to-be-perfect-is-to-have-changed

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