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
"We
have a responsibility to look after our planet. It is our only home." --
The Dalai Lama
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
"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.
" -- Eugene 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. -- Eugene
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
How
we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. -- Annie Dillard
A good plan implemented
today is better than a perfect plan that is put off. Do the best you can, but
do it today. -- John Di Frances
Time
is the most valuable thing a man can spend. -- Laertius Diogenes
Action may not always bring
happiness, but there is no happiness without action. -- Benjamin Disraeli
"Change starts
when someone sees the next step." -- William
Drayton
Unless
a man undertakes more than he possibly can do, he will never do all that he can.
-- Henry Drummond
“Now is the accepted
time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best
work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit
ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now
are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.” --
W. E. B. DuBois
"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
"The
world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but
because of the people who don't do anything about it." -- Albert
Einstein
"There
are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The
other is as though everything is a miracle." -- Albert
Einstein
Try
not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value. --
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)
*“...the
world is a giant community now. This excuse of distance, time, doesn’t work...We’re
all so connected. We can’t spend every second of our lives worrying about another
family miles away but we somehow have to factor it in where we can."
-- Ralph
Fiennes
*
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
As we must account
for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence. -- Benjamin
Franklin
*Doing
nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves. -- Benjamin
Franklin
Be
at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find
you a better man. -- Benjamin
Franklin
Be
civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.
-- Benjamin Franklin
Each year one vicious
habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good. -- Benjamin
Franklin
It
is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them. -- Benjamin
Franklin
Never
leave that till tomorrow which you can do today. -- Benjamin
Franklin
Washing one's hands of the
conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful,
not to be neutral. - --
Paulo Freire
Not
he who has much is rich, but he who gives much. -- Erich Fromm
*
"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
"You
have to do the right thing... You may never know what
results come from your action. But if you do nothing,
there will be no result."
-- Mohandas
K. Gandhi
Evil
(ignorance) is like a shadow. It has no real substance of its own, it is simply
a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it,
stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical
resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.
-- Shakti Gawain
"Tenderness
and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but manifestations of strength
and resolution." -- Kahil Gibran
A
little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is
idle. -- Kahlil 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
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 Hale
I look for what's
of value and extract that. I don't look to criticize. -- Herbie
Hancock
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)
*
“Give me love, give me peace on earth, give me light, give me life, keep me free
from birth, give me hope, help me cope, with this heavy load, trying to, touch
and reach you with, heart and soul” -- George
Harrison
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.
-- Vaclav Havel
"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
Life
isn't all about what you don't have, but yet, what you do with what you have been
given. -- Robert M. Hensel
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
Thou
shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt
not be a bystander. -- Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC
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
"This is my chosen
fast: to loosen all the bonds that bind humans unfairly, to let the oppressed
go free, to break every yoke. Share your bread with the hungry, take the homeless
into your homes, clothe the naked when you see him/her, do not turn away from
people in need. Then cleansing life shall break forth like the dawn, and your
wounds shall soon be healed. Your triumph shall go before you and your Lord’s
glory shall be your rearguard. Then you shall call and the Lord will answer. "
-- Isaiah 57