"Peace
comes from being able to contribute the best
that we have, and all that we are, toward creating
a world that supports everyone. But it is also
securing the space for others to contibute the
best that they have and all that they are."
-- Hafsat
Abiola |
|
 |
Social
advance depends as much upon the process through
which it is secured as upon the result itself.
-- Jane
Addams |
How
can one not speak about war, poverty and inequality
when people who suffer from these afflictions don't
have a voice to speak?
-- Isabel Allende
"Life
is short and we have never too much time for gladdening
the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey
with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind."
-- Henri Frederick Amiel
There
is only one way of not hating those who do us wrong,
and that is by doing them good.
-- Henri Amiel
"Do
every act of your life as if it were your last."
-- Marcus Aurelius
We
look into mirrors but we only see the effects of our
times on us not our effects on others.
-- Pearl Bailey
“To
work in the world lovingly means that we are defining
what we will be for, rather than reacting to what
we are against.”
-- Christina Baldwin
"Shall
we make a new rule of life from tonight: always try
to be a little kinder than is necessary."
-- Sir James M. Barrie
 |
"To
cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster
its renewal is our only legitimate hope of
survival."
-- Wendell
Berry
|
Can
I see another's woe, And not be in sorrow too? Can
I see another's grief, And not seek for kind relief?
-- William Blake
|
|
When
the story of these times gets written, we
want it to say that we did all we could, and
it was more than anyone could have imagined.
--
Bono
|
There
is no time left for anything but to make peace
work a dimension of our every waking activity.
-- Elise
Boulding |
|
"All
that a pacifist can undertake - but is a very great
deal - is to refuse to kill, injure or otherwise cause
suffering
to another human creature, and untiringly to order
his life by the rule of love though others may be
captured by hate."
-- Vera Brittain
The
pacifist's task today is to find a method of helping
and healing which provides a revolutionary constructive
substitute for war.
-- Vera Brittain
In
striving for the best, in losing onself in others,
one is lifted above the common material furniture
of life, above the gaudy trappings and encumbering
paraphenalia... into the realm of peace which passeth
understanding.
-- Olympia Brown (1835-1926)
|
|
You
cannot make yourself feel something you do
not feel, but you can make yourself do right
in spite of your feelings.
-- Pearl
S. Buck
|
"Believe
nothing merely because you have been told it...Do
not believe what your teacher tells you merely
out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after
due examination and analysis, you find to be kind,
conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of
all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to,
and take it as your guide."
-- Buddha
Better
than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings
peace.
--Buddha
When
you stop giving and offering something to the rest
of the world, it's time to turn out the lights.
-- George Burns
In
such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners,
it is the job of thinking people not to be on the
side of executioners.
--Albert Camus
A
simple and proper function of government is
just to make it easy for us to do good and difficult
for us to do wrong.
-- Jimmy
Carter |
|
Each
person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If
he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great
deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not
complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage
for a person to listen to his own goodness and act
on it.
-- Pablo Casals
|
|
To
the wrongs that need resistance, To the right
that needs assistance, To the future in the
distance, Give yourselves.
-- Carrie
Chapman Catt
When
a just cause reaches its flood tide - whatever
stands in the way must fall before its overwhelming
power
-- Carrie
Chapman Catt
Service
to a just cause rewards the worker with more
real happiness and satisfaction than any other
venture of life.
-- Carrie
Chapman Catt
|
"Our
lives are to be used and thus to be lived as
fully as possible, and truly it seems that we
are never so alive as when we concern ourselves
with other people."
-- Harry
Chapin |
|
Those
who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the
person doing it.
-- Chinese Proverb
|
|
Service
is the rent you pay for room on this earth.
-- Shirley
Chisholm
"Most
Americans have never seen the ignorance, degradation,
hunger, sickness, and futility in which many
other Americans live...They won't become involved
in economic or political change until something
brings the seriousness of the situation home
to them."
-- Shirley
Chisholm
|
"Of
neighborhoods, benevolence is the most beautiful.
How can the man be considered wise who when he had
the choice does not settle in benevolence."
-- Confucius
"He
who wishes to secure the good of others has already
secured his own."
-- Confucius
“We
are all angels with only one wing. We can only fly
while embracing each other.”
-- Luciano de Crescenzo
You
cannot hope to build a better world without improving
the individuals. To that end, each of us must work
for our own improvement and, at the same time, share
a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular
duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be
most useful.
-- Marie Curie
I
believe that individuals can make a difference in
society. Since periods of change such as the present
one come so rarely in human history, it is up to each
of us to make the best use of our time to help create
a happier world.
-- The
Dalai Lama
"We
have a responsibility to look after our planet. It
is our only home."
--
The
Dalai Lama
|
Our
prime purpose in this life is to help others.
And if you can't help them, at least don't
hurt them.
-- The
Dalai Lama
|
|
"It
is our collective and individual responsibility to
protect and nurture the global family, to support
its weaker members and to preserve and tend to the
environment in which we all live."
--
The
Dalai Lama
"I
believe that to meet the challenge of our times, human
beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal
responsibility. We must all learn to work not just
for our own self, family, or nation but for the benefit
of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the
key to human survival. It is the best foundation for
world peace, the equitable use of natural resources,
and through concern for future generations, the proper
care of the environment."
-- The
Dalai Lama
If
I'm going to die, the best way to prepare is to quiet
my mind and open my heart. If I'm going to live, the
best way to prepare for it is to quiet my mind and
open my heart.
-- Ram Dass (1890-1925)
"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
 |
It is when you have done your work honestly,
when you have contributed your share to the
common fund that you begin to live.
-- Euguene
V. Debs
|
"If
I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live
in vain. If I can ease one life the aching, or cool
one pain, or help one fainting robin unto his nest
again, I shall not live in vain."
-- Emily Dickinson
"Change
starts when someone sees the next step."
-- William Drayton.
"The
most important thing in communication is to hear what
isn't being said."
-- Peter F. Drucker.
"Keep
on sowing your seed, for you never know which will
grow -- perhaps it all will."
-- Ecclesiastes
"You
can achieve much in life if you don't mind doing
the work and giving someone else the credit."
-- Marian
Wright Edelman |
|
|
|
"A
hundred times every day I remind myself that
my inner and outer life depends on the labors
of other men, living and dead, and that I
must exert myself in order to give in the
measure as I have received and am still receiving."
-- Albert
Einstein
"Only
a life lived for others is worth living."
-- Albert
Einstein
|
"It
is never too late to be what we might have been."
-- George Eliot
"Our
deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds."
-- George Eliot
|
"It
is one of the most beautiful compensations
of this life that no man can sincerely try
to help another without helping himself."
-- Ralph
Waldo Emerson
You
cannot do a kindness too soon because you
never know how soon it will be too late.
-- Ralph
Waldo Emerson
"Nothing
great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."
-- Ralph
Waldo Emerson
|
|
"Life
is not so short but that there is always time enough
for courtesy."
-- Ralph
Waldo Emerson
"I
am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."
-- Edward Everett
Speak,
move, act in peace…
-- Francois Fenelon (1651-1715)
Washing
one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and
the powerless means to side with the powerful, not
to be neutral.
-- Paulo Feire
Lord,
make me an instrument of Your peace! Where there
is hatred let me sow love; Where there is injury,
pardon.
-- Saint
Francis of Assisi |
|
|
|
"Be
the change you want to see in the world."
-- Mohandas
Gandhi
"If
one does not practice nonviolence in one's
own personal relations with others and hopes
to use it in bigger affairs, one is vastly
mistaken."
-- Mohandas
Gandhi
The
future depends on what we do in the present.
-- Mohandas
Gandhi
|
Live
as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were
to live forever.
-- Mohandas
Gandhi
"Tenderness
and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair
but manifestations of strength and resolution."
-- Kahil Gibran
If
someone listens, or stretches out a hand, or whispers
a kind word of encouragement, or attempts to understand
a lonely person, extraordinary things begin to happen.
-- Loretta Girzaitis (b. 1920)
Treat
people as if they were what they ought to be and you
help them to become what they are capable of being.
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Great
things are not done by impulse, but by a series of
small things brought together.
-- Vincent Van Gogh
You
cannot rectify every real or alleged wrong immediately.
Time must enter into the picture.
-- Justice Arthur Joseph Goldberg
Be
tough in the way a blade of grass is: rooted, willing
to lean, and at peace with what is around it.
-- Natalie Goldberg
"Never
be discouraged from being an activist because people
tell you that you'll not succeed. You have already
succeeded if you're out there representing truth or
justice or compassion or fairness or love."
~ Doris Haddock (Granny D)
"Nobody
who ever gave his best regretted it."
-- George Halas
|
Every
breath we take, every step we make, can be
filled with peace, joy, and serenity. We need
only to be awake, alive in the present moment.
-- Thich
Nhat Hanh (b. 1926)
|
|
"We
often think of peace as the absence of war; that if
the powerful countries would reduce their arsenals,
we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the
weapons, we see our own minds - our prejudices, fears,
and ignorance. Even if we transported all the bombs
to the moon, the roots of war and the reasons for
bombs would still be here, in our hearts and minds,
and sooner or later we would make new bombs. Seek
to become more aware of what causes anger and separation,
and what overcomes them. Root out the violence in
your life, and learn to live compassionately and mindfully."
--
Thich
Nhat Hanh (b. 1926)
"Our
lives are fed by kind words and gracious behavior.
We are nourished by expressions like 'excuse me' and
other such simple courtesies...Rudeness, the absence
of the sacrament of consideration, is but another
mark that our time-is-money society is lacking in
spirituality, if not also in its enjoyment of life."
-- Ed Hays
Make
a habit of two things--to help, or at least, to do
no harm.
-- Hippocrates
Prayer
indeed is good, but while calling on the gods a man
should himself lend a hand.
-- Hippocrates
If
you love an idea, an idea that is larger than yourself,
then love it with all your heart; love it enough to
act on it. Love it enough to put it into the world.
. Don't give up until you do.'
-- Juliet Hollister, founder of the Temple of Understanding
Instead
of proving to be "labor saving devices," our
machines create more work for more of us to do! Instead
of the "problem" of leisure, we face an array of problems
caused by overwork; families that erode because we
have less time to be at home, troubled and troubling
young people who share little or no time with adults,
anemic communities bled dry of the people's time,
their life's blood, and institutions that focus solely
on teaching people how to work rather than how to
live together freely.
-- Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt
|
This
is my creed: Happiness is the only good; reason
the only torch; justice the only worship,
humanity the only religion, and love the only
priest.
~ Robert
G. Ingersoll
|
|
I
am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant
doing my best against the odds. As I develop
and serve, be patient. God is not finished with
me yet.
-- Jesse
Jackson |
 |
"I
am done with great things and big plans, great institutions
and big success. I am for those tiny, invisible loving
human forces that work from individual to individual,
creeping through the crannies of the world like so
many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water,
which, if given time, will rend the hardest monuments
of pride."
-- William James (1842-1910)
There
is but one unconditional commandment ... to bring
about the very largest total universe of good which
we can see.
-- William James (1842-1910)
"Through
our willingness to help others we can learn to be
happy rather than depressed."
-- Gerald Jampolsky
|
"Whenever
you are to do a thing, though it can never
be known but to yourself, ask yourself how
you would act were all the world looking at
you and act accordingly."
-- Thomas
Jefferson
Every
human beings feels pleasure in doing good
to another.
-- Thomas
Jefferson
|
|
There
are no problems we cannot solve together, and very
few that we can solve alone.
-- Lyndon Baines Johnson
Obstacles
don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't
turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it,
go through it, or work around it....
-- Michael Jordan
 |
"I
find life an exciting business and most exciting
when it is lived for others."
-- Helen
Keller
|
And
when at some future date the high court of
history sits in judgment on each of us, recording
whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled
our responsibilities to the state, our success
or failure, in whatever office we hold, will
be measured by the answers to four questions:
First, were we truly men of courage... Second,
were we truly men of judgment... Third, were
we truly men of integrity... Finally, were
we truly men of dedication?—
-- John
F. Kennedy, 1961
|
 |
|
|
Some
people see things as they are and say 'why',
I look at things that never were and say 'why
not'.
-- Robert
F. Kennedy
|
A
loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person
lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your
mirror.
-- Ken Keyes, Jr.
"It
seems essential, in relationships and all tasks, that
we concentrate only on what is most significant and
important."
-- Soren Kierkegaard
|
"Life's
most persistent and urgent question is, What
are you doing for others?"
-- Martin
Luther King, Jr.
"The
hope of a secure and livable world lies with
disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated
to justice, peace and brotherhood."
-- Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Cowardice
asks the question: is it safe? Expediency
asks the question: is it politic? Vanity asks
the question: is it popular? But conscience
asks the question: is it right? And there
comes a time when one must take a position
that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular-
but one must take it simply because it is
right. --
Martin
Luther King, Jr.
|
|
The
time is always right to do what is right.
-- Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Take
the first step in faith. You don't have to see the
whole staircase, just take the first step.
-- Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Don't
believe that winning is really everything. It's more
important to stand for something. If you don't stand
for something, what do you win?
-- Lane Kirkland
We
have come too far, -- struggled too long, -- sacrificed
too much and have too much left to do, -- to allow
that which we have achieved for the good of all to
be swept away without a fight. And we have not forgotten
how to fight.
-- Lane Kirkland
"In
the long run, we get no more than we have been willing
to risk giving."
-- Sheldon Kopp
|
That we may fail in the struggle ought not
to deter us from the support of a cause we
believe to be just.
-- Abraham
Lincoln
With
malice toward none, with charity for all,
with firmness in the right as God gives us
to see the right, let us strive on to finish
the work we are in, to bind up the nation's
wounds.
-- Abraham
Lincoln
|
 |
"To
give without any reward, or any notice, has a special
quality of its own."
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
"When
I dare to be powerful -- to use my strength in the
service of my vision, then it becomes less and less
important whether I am afraid."
-- Audre Lorde
"Each
one of us should lead a life stirring enough to start
a movement."
-- Max Lucado
How
do we become true and good, happy and genuine, joyful
and free? Only by getting in touch with good, true,
happy, genuine human beings, only by seeking the company
of the strong and the free, only by catching spontaneity
and freedom from those who are themselves
spontaneous and free.
-- Charles Malike (1906-1988)
Be
ashamed to die until you have won some victory for
humanity
-- Horace Mann
"Do
every act of your life
as if it were your last."
-- Marcus Aurelius
|
|
“None
of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves
up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody
- a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or
a few nuns - bent down and helped us pick up
our boots.”
-- Thurgood
Marshall |
“What
is the quality of your intent? Certain people have
a way of saying things that shake us at the core.
Even when the words do not seem harsh or offensive,
the impact is shattering. What we could be experiencing
is the intent behind the words. When we intend to
do good, we do. When we intend to do harm, it happens.
What each of us must come to realize is that our intent
always comes through. We cannot sugarcoat the feelings
in our heart of hearts. The emotion is the energy
that motivates. We cannot ignore what we really want
to create. We should be honest and do it the way we
feel it. What we owe to ourselves and everyone around
is to examine the reasons of our true intent. My intent
will be evident in the results.”
-- Thurgood
Marshall
"All
things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,
do ye even so to them."
-- Matthew 7:12
"If
you have a great ambition, take as big a step as possible
in the direction of fulfilling it. The step may only
be a tiny one, but trust that it may be the largest
one possible for now."
-- Mildred McAfee
"Make
no judgements where you have no compassion."
-- Anne McCaffrey
|
|
So,
I think that’s the centerpiece of morality:
Don’t lie. But to do that, you have to go
a step further and find out what the truth
is. You know, it’s easy to say, “I’ll never
tell a lie.” But if you say, “I’m going to
speak the truth,” you’re going to have to
work damn hard to find out what the truth
is. The next thing is just plain, old, simple
kindness: to other people, to your family.
Love for other people. I think that’s another
very important part of morality, being genuinely
compassionate and concerned about the feelings
and well being of other people, especially
those that depend on you directly.
-- George
McGovern
|
"When
you forgive, you in no way change the past -- but
you sure do change the future."
-- Bernard Meltzer.
"We
may give without loving, but we cannot love without
giving."
-- Bernard Meltzer.
"Blessed
are those who give without remembering. And blessed
are those who take without forgetting."
-- Bernard Meltzer
"Do
all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
At all times you can
To all the people you can
As long as you can."
-- Bernard Meltzer (My Golden Rule)
"If
you have learned how to disagree without being disagreeable,
then you have discovered the secrete of getting along
-- whether it be business, family relations, or life
itself."
-- Bernard Meltzer.
"Before
you speak ask yourself if what you are going to say
is true, is kind, is necessary, is helpful. If the
answer is no, maybe what you are about to say should
be left unsaid."
-- Bernard Meltzer
"Fear
less, hope more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less,
say more; Hate less, love more; And all good things
are yours."
--Jean Baptiste Moliere
Whoever
fights monsters should see to it that in the process
he does not become a monster.
-- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzche
|
My
country is the world, and my religion is to
do good.
-- Thomas
Paine
|
|
|
|
Each
person must live their life as a model for
others.
Memories
of our lives, of our works and our deeds will
continue in others.
-- Rosa
Parks
|
You
make a living by what you earn, but you make a life
by what you give.
-- Lowell Perry
"What
we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What
we have done for others and the
world remains and is immortal."
--Albert Pike
"Teach
me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me."
-- Alexander Pope, The Universal Prayer, 1738
"If
you think the efforts of one individual will be nothing,
then you have never been to bed with a mosquito".
~ Betty Reese
|
|
Don't
let yesterday use up too much of today.
-- Will
Rogers
|
"Let
a good person do good deeds with the same zeal that
an evil person does bad ones."
-- Shalom Rokeach
|
The
motto of war is: "Let the strong survive;
let the weak die." The motto of peace is:
"Let the strong help the weak to survive."
--Franklin
Delano Roosevelt
|
|
There
is no greater calling than to serve your Brother.
And, no greater satisfaction than to have done it
well.
-- Walter Reuther
"Let
the beauty we love be what we do."
-- Rumi
|
We
must do what we conceive to be the right thing,
and not bother our heads or burden our souls
with whether we are going to be successful.
Because if we don't do the right thing, we'll
be doing the wrong thing, and we will just
be part of the disease, and not a part of
the cure.
-- E.F.
Schumacher
|
|
|
|
"A
man can do only what a man can do. But if
he does that each day he can sleep at night
and do it again the next day."
-- Albert
Schweitzer
"The
purpose of human life is to serve and show
compassion and the will to help others."
-- Albert
Schweitzer
|
"Wherever
there is a human being there is an opportunity for
kindness"
-- Seneca
"A
gift consists not in what is done or given, but in
the intention of the giver or doer."
-- Seneca
There
is no short cut to a place worth going.
-- Beverly Sills
"Put
your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your
smallest acts. This is the secret of success."
-- Swami Sivanada
Let
be the future: mind the present need and leave the
rest to whom the rest concerns … present tasks claim
our care: the ordering of the future rests where it
should rest.
-- Sophocles (496-406BC)
The
only thing for a pacifist
to do is to find a substitute for war.
-- Freya Stark
|
It
is our duty as men and women to proceed as
though the limits of our abilities do not
exist.
-- Pierre
Teilhard De Chardin
The
most satisfying thing in life is to have been
able to give a large part of one's self to
others.
-- Pierre
Teilhard De Chardin
The
salvation of this human world lies nowhere
else than in the human heart, in the human
power to reflect, in human meekness and human
responsibility.
-- Pierre
Teilhard De Chardin
|
|
|
|
We
don't need bombs and guns to destroy, to bring
peace - just get together, love one another,
bring that peace, that joy, that strength
of presence of each other in the home. And
we will be able to overcome all the evil that
is in the world.
-- Mother
Teresa
Let
us always meet each other with a smile, for
the smile is the beginning of love and once
we begin to love each other naturally we want
to do something.
-- Mother
Teresa
|
“Life
is a place of service, and in that service one
has to suffer a great deal that is hard to bear,
but more often to experience a great deal of
joy. But that joy can be real only if people
look upon their lives as a service and have
a definite object in life outside themselves
and their personal happiness.”
-- Leo
Tolstoy |
|
"It
is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care
who gets the credit."
-- Harry Truman (1884-1972)
|
|
"If
you are neutral in situations of injustice,
you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
--Archbishop
Desmond Tutu |
"When
a blind man carries a lame man,
both go forward."
-- Swedish proverb.
Giving
to others selflesly and anonymously, radiating light
throughout the world and illuminating your own darkness,
your virtue becomes a sanctuary for yourself and all
beings.
-- Lao tzu (570-490 BC)
"Give
help rather than advice."
-- Luc de Vauvenargues
|
|
The
thing that lies at the foundation of positive
change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow
human being.
-- Lech
Walesa |
|
Activism
is the rent I pay for living on this planet.
-- Alice
Walker
|
|
|
"My
satisfaction comes from my commitment to advancing
a better world."
-- Faye
Wattleton
|
|
Simplicity
is making the journey of this life with just baggage
enough.
-- Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900)
"Observe
good faith
and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and
harmony with all."
-- George Washington
|
|
Re-examine
all you have been told... Dismiss what insults
your Soul
~ Walt
Whitman
|
"With
every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest
you may not see."
-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
|
|
Compassion
is more important than intellect in calling
forth the love that the work of peace needs,
and intuition can often be a far more powerful
searchlight than cold reason.
-- Betty
Williams
|
And
as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear, our presence
automatically liberates others.
-- Marianne
Williamson |
|
"As
we give of our time, talents and resources to tend
the needs of the sick, offer food to the hungry and
teach the dependent to stand on their own, we enrich
ourselves spiritually beyond our ability to comprehend."
-- Joseph B. Wirthlin (1924-)
"Little
kindnesses...will broaden your heart, and slowly you
will habituate yourself to helping your fellow man
in many ways."
--Zadik
