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The
good we secure for ourselves is precarious and
uncertain until it is secured for all of us and
incorporated into our common life.
-- Jane
Addams |
Business,
labor and civil society organizations have
skills and resources that are vital in helping
to build a more robust global community.
-- Kofi
Annan
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Men
exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then
or bear with them.
-- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
“Law;
an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by
him who has care of the community”
-- St. Thomas Aquinas quotes (1225-1274)
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A
community is a group of people who have come together,
and they work and they live to try and improve
the standard of living and quality of life - and
I don't mean money.
-- William
Baldwin |
“It
is vain to talk of the interest of the community,
without understanding what is the interest of the
individual”
-- Jeremy Bentham ( Philosopher 1748-1832)
Hear
me, four quarters of the world - a relative I am!
Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative
to all that is! Give me the eyes to see and the strength
to understand, that I may be like you. With your power
only can I face the winds.
-- Black Elk, (1863-1950)
How
does one keep from "growing old inside"? Surely only
in community. The only way to make friends with time
is to stay friends with people…. Taking community
seriously not only gives us the companionship we need,
it also relieves us of the notion that we are indispensable.
-- Robert McAfee Brown
The
life I touch for good or ill will touch another life,
and that in turn another, until who knows where the
trembling stops or in what far place my touch will
be felt.
-- Frederick Buechner
No
part of the human community can live entirely on its
own planet, with its own laws of motion and cut off
from the rest of humanity.
-- Hugo Chavez
We
were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join
in community with the human race.
-- Cicero
We
have all known the long loneliness and we have
learned that the only solution is love and that
love comes with community.
-- Dorothy
Day |
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Years
ago I recognized my kinship with all living
things, and I made up my mind that I was not
one bit better than the meanest on the earth.
I said then and I say now, that while there
is a lower class, I am in it; while there is
a criminal element, I am of it; while there
is a soul in prison, I am not free.
-- Euguene
V. Debs
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Now
my friends, I am opposed to the system of society
in which we live today, not because I lack the natural
equipment to do for myself but because I am not satisfied
to make myself comfortable knowing that there are
thousands of my fellow men who suffer for the barest
necessities of life. We were taught under the old
ethic that man's business on this earth was to look
out for himself. That was the ethic of the jungle;
the ethic of the wild beast. Take care of yourself,
no matter what may become of your fellow man. Thousands
of years ago the question was asked; ''Am I my brother's
keeper?'' That question has never yet been answered
in a way that is satisfactory to civilized society.
Yes, I am my brother's keeper. I am under a moral
obligation to him that is inspired, not by any maudlin
sentimentality but by the higher duty I owe myself.
What would you think me if I were capable of seating
myself at a table and gorging myself with food and
saw about me the children of my fellow beings starving
to death.
-- Euguene
V. Debs, 1908
There
is more than a verbal tie between the words common,
community, and communication.... Try the experiment
of communicating, with fullness and accuracy,
some experience to another, especially if it be
somewhat complicated, and you will find your own
attitude toward your experience changing.
-- John
Dewey |
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No
man is an island...
-- John Donne
...any
man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in
mankind
-- John Donne
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I
think it is important that people who are perceived
as liberals not be afraid of talking about moral
and community values.
-- Marian
Wright Edelman
The
challenge of social justice is to evoke a sense
of community that we need to make our nation
a better place, just as we make it a safer place.
--
Marian
Wright Edelman
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A
human being is a part of the whole, called by
us, "Universe," a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings
as something separated from the rest -- a kind
of optical delusion of his consciousness. This
delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting
us to our personal desires and to affection for
a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be
to free ourselves from this prison by widening
our circle of compassion to embrace all living
creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but
the striving for such achievement is in itself
a part of the liberation and a foundation for
inner security
-- Albert
Einstein |
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This
world of ours... must avoid becoming a community
of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead,
a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
-- Dwight
D. Eisenhower
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What
do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult
for each other?
-- George Eliot
The
first duty of a human being is to assume the right
functional relationship to society -- more briefly,
to find your real job, and do it.
-- Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Genuine
politics -- even politics worthy of the name --
the only politics I am willing to devote myself
to -- is simply a matter of serving those around
us: serving the community and serving those who
will come after us. Its deepest roots are moral
because it is a responsibility expressed through
action, to and for the whole.
-- Vaclav
Havel |
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Every
individual has a place to fill in the world and is
important in some respect whether he chooses to be
so or not.
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne
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The
impersonal hand of government can never replace
the helping hand of a neighbor.
-- Hubert
Humphrey
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“A
world community can only exist with world communication,
which means something more than extensive software
facilities scattered about he globe. It means
common understanding, a common tradition, common
idea's and common ideals.”
-- Robert
Maynard Hutchins (1899-1977) |
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“A
community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared
to take the helm.”
-- Henrik Ibsen
While
the spirit of neighborliness was important on the
frontier because neighbors were so few, it is even
more important now because our neighbors are so many.
-- Lady Bird Johnson
The
American city should be a collection of communities
where every member has a right to belong. It should
be a place where every man feels safe on his streets
and in the house of his friends. It should be a place
where each individual's dignity and self-respect is
strengthened by the respect and affection of his neighbors.
It should be a place where each of us can find the
satisfaction and warmth which comes from being a member
of the community of man. This is what man sought at
the dawn of civilization. It is what we seek today.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson
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I
am in favor of increased communication and cooperation
between countries, but it is more important
that each country becomes responsible for its
own actions, its own communities, its own economies,
before starting to integrate in large regional
or global supranational organizations.
-- David
Korten
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What
cannot be achieved in one lifetime will happen when
one lifetime is joined to another.
-- Harold Kushner
I
also believe that it's almost impossible for people
to change alone. We need to join with others who
will push us in our thinking and challenge us
to do things we didn't believe ourselves capable
of.
-- Frances
Moore Lappe |
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“A
thing is right when it tends to preserve the
integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic
community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
~ Aldo
Leopold (American ecologist, 1887-1948)
We
abuse land because we regard it as a commodity
belonging to us. When we see land as a community
to which we belong, we may begin to use it with
love and respect.
~ Aldo
Leopold
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"Let
us at all times remember that all American citizens
are brothers of a common country, and should
dwell together in bonds of fraternal feeling."
-- Abraham
Lincoln
The
strongest bond of human sympathy outside the
family relation should be one uniting working
people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.
-- Abraham
Lincoln
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Each
of us is a being in himself and a being in society,
each of us needs to understand himself and understand
others, take care of others and be taken care of himself.
-- Haniel Long
Never
doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the
only thing that ever has.
-- Margaret
Mead |
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We
cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers
connect us with our fellow men.
-- Herman Melville
But
the life that no longer trust another human being
and no longer forms ties to the political community
is not a human life any longer.
-- Martha Nussbaum
We
don't accomplish anything in this world alone ...
and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry
of one's life and all the weavings of individual threads
from one to another that creates something.
-- Sandra Day O'Connor
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There
can be no vulnerability without risk; there
can be no community without vulnerability; there
can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without
community.
-- M.
Scott Peck
"It
is our task—our essential, central, crucial
task—to transform ourselves from mere social
creatures into community creatures."
-- M.
Scott Peck
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Living
together is an art.
-- William Pickens
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“A
community is democratic only when the humblest
and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil,
economic, and social rights that the biggest
and most powerful possess.”
-- A.
Philip Randolph
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Isn't
everyone a part of everyone else?
-- Budd Schulberg,
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"I
am of the opinion that my life belongs to the
community, and as long as I live it is my privilege
to do for it whatever I can."
-- George
Bernard Shaw
"Independence"...
middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent
on one another, every soul of us on earth.
-- George
Bernard Shaw
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If
you were all alone in the universe with no one to
talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of
the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be
your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love,
which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We
must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge,
the joy of growth.
-- Mitsugi Saotome
“A
healthy social life is found only, when in the
mirror of each soul the whole community finds
its reflection, and when in the whole community
the virtue of each one is living”
-- Rudolf
Steiner |
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On
this shrunken globe, men can no longer live as strangers.
-- Adlai E. Stevenson
I
am a part of all that I have met.
-- Lord Tennyson
“Community
cannot for long feed on itself; it can only flourish
with the coming of others from beyond, their unknown
and undiscovered brothers.”
-- Howard Thurman (American Theologian, 1900-1981)
The
universal brotherhood of man is our most precious
possession.
-- Mark
Twain |
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“What
should young people do with their lives today? Many
things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to
create stable communities in which the terrible disease
of loneliness can be cured.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (American writer, b.1922)
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The
love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply
means being able to say, "What are you going
through?"
-- Simone
Weil
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A
man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good,
but for neglecting his neighbor's.
-- Richard Whately
This
is the duty of our generation as we enter the
twenty-first century -- solidarity with the weak,
the persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those
in despair. It is expressed by the desire to give
a noble and humanizing meaning to a community
in which all members will define themselves not
by their own identity but by that of others.
-- Elie
Wiesel |
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In
every community there is work to be done. In
every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every
heart there is the power to do it.
-- Marianne
Williamson
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One
of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense
of fellowship with other human beings as we take our
place among them.
-- Virginia Woolf
