Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 175 |
| AUTHOR: | Lucius Cary, 2d Viscount Falkland (1610?–1643) |
| QUOTATION: | When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | While the exact date and audience of this speech are uncertain, the speech is known to deal with the Root and Branch Petition, which proposed doing away with bishops in the church (the episcopal system). Some historians consider this issue as the beginning of the definition of parties in Parliament.—J. A. R. Marriott, The Life and Times of Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland, pp. 179–80 (1907). |
| SUBJECTS: | Change |