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To desire and strive to be
of some
service to the world,
to aim at doing something
which
shall really increase the
happiness
and welfare and
virtue of humankind--this
is a choice which is possible
for
all of us; and surely
it is a good haven to sail for. -Henry Van Dyke
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We
cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect
us with
our fellow men and women;
and among those fibers,
as
sympathetic threads, our
actions run as causes,
and they
come back to us as effects. -Herman
Melville
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| What do we live for if it is not to
make life
less difficult to each other? -George Eliot |
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Whenever education and refinement carry us away
from the common people,
they are growing towards selfishness, which is the monster evil of the
world. That is true cultivation which gives us sympathy with every form of
human life,
and enables us to work most successfully for its advancement.
Refinement that carries us away from our fellow people is not God’s
refinement. -Henry Ward Beecher
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One exemplary act may affect one
life, or even millions of lives. All those who set standards for
themselves,
who strengthen the bonds of community,
who do their work
creditably and accept individual responsibility,
are building the
common future. -John W. Gardner |
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Brotherhood
is not just a Bible word. Out of comradeship can come and
will come the happy life for all. -Heywood
Broun
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It is probably a pity that every
citizen of each state cannot visit all the others,
to see
the differences, to learn what we have in common, and to
come back
with a richer, fuller understanding of America--in
all its beauty,
in all its dignity, in all its strength,
in support of moral principle. -Dwight D. Eisenhower
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| The
realization that our small planet is only one of many
worlds
gives humankind the perspective it needs to realize
sooner that
our own world belongs to all of its creatures,
that the moon landing
marks the end of our childhood as a
race and the beginning
of a newer and better civilization.
-Arthur C. Clarke |
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We
are all longing to go home to some place we have never been —
a
place half-remembered and half-envisioned we can only catch glimpses
of from time to time. Community. Somewhere, there are people to
whom
we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our
throats. Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us,
eyes will light up
as we enter, voices will celebrate with us whenever
we come into
our own power. Community means strength that joins
our strength
to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to hold
us when we falter. A circle of healing. A circle of
friends. Someplace where we can be free.
-Starhawk
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The American city
should be a collection of communities where every member
has a right
to belong. It should be a place where every person feels safe
on his or her streets and in the house of his or her friends.
It should be a place
where
each individual's dignity and self-respect is strengthened by the
respect
and affection of his or her 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 human beings. This is what people sought at the dawn
of civilization. It is what we seek today.
-Lyndon
B. Johnson |
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I sought my soul,
But my soul I could not see.
I sought my God,
But my God eluded me.
I sought my brother,
And I found all three.
Anon |
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| Anticipate
charity by preventing poverty; assist the reduced fellow human being,
either by a considerable gift, or a sum of
money, or by teaching him or her a trade,
or by putting him or her in
the way of business, so that he or she may earn an honest
livelihood, and not be forced to the dreadful alternative
of holding out his hand
for charity. This is the highest
step and the summit of charity's golden ladder.
-Maimonides |
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| When a mentally retarded child
is born, the religious question we often ask is, "Why
does God let this happen?" The better question
to pose is to ask, "What kind of community should we
be so that mental retardation isn't a barrier to the
enjoyment of one's full humanity?"
-Rabbi Harold Kushner |
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Increase,
O God, the spirit of neighborliness among us,
that in peril we may
uphold one another,
in calamity serve one another, in suffering tend
one another
and in homeliness and loneliness in exile befriend one
another. Grant us brave and enduring hearts that we may
strengthen one another,
till the disciplines and testing of these days
be ended. -Prayer
used in air-raid shelters, England, WWII
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Human beings are a part
of the whole, called by us "the universe," a
part limited
in
time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts
and
feelings,
as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical
delusion of our consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison
for us,
restricting us to our own 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.
-Albert
Einstein
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If
civilization is to survive, we
must cultivate the science
of human relationships--the ability of all peoples,
of
all kinds, to live together,
in the same world at peace. -Franklin D. Roosevelt |
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| It is a serious thing
to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses,
to
remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person
you can talk to
may one day be a creature which, if you
saw it now, you would be strongly tempted
to worship, or
else a horror and corruption such as you now meet, if at
all,
only in nightmare. All day long we are, in some
degree, helping each other
to one or the other of these
destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming
possibilities, it is in the awe and circumspection proper
to them that we should
conduct all our dealings with one
another, all friendships, all loves, all play,
all
politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never
talked to a mere mortal. -C.S.
Lewis |
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The
story of any one person's real experience finds its startling parallel in that of every one of us.
-James
Russell Lowell
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We are
responsible for one another. Collectively so.
The world is a joint effort. We might say it
is like a giant puzzle, and each one of us is a very
important
and unique part of it. Collectively, we
can unite and bring about a powerful change
in the world.
By working to raise our awareness to the highest
possible level of
spiritual understanding, we can begin
to heal ourselves, then each other and the world.
-Betty Eadie
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Very seldom will people give up on
themselves. They continue to have hope
because they know that they have the potential for change. They try
again--not just to exist, but to bring about those
changes in themselves that will make
their lives worth living. Yet people are very quick to give up on friends,
and
especially on spouses, to declare them hopeless, and to
either walk away
or do nothing more than resign
themselves to a bad situation.
-Hugh Prather |
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It is not written,
blessed are they that feedeth the poor,
but they that
considereth the poor. A little thought and a little
kindness are often worth
more than a great deal of money. -John
Ruskin |
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A lot of movement in today's life is away
from others. That's part of the American myth
of
individualism. We are lone wolves, us against the
world--individually,
or sometimes as a small, nuclear
family. But I think we've paid a high price for
that
in this country. There's tremendous solitude
and isolation. Perhaps this revival
of interest in
the soul is reflecting a slight turn away from the
isolation of individualism
back to the cohesion of the
community. Soulful life nudges us toward
reconnecting
ourselves to the neighborhood, toward
community action, political activity,
reattaching with
our family, our past, our ancestors, and revitalizing our
spiritual lives. -Phil Cousineau |
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And so
it's good that we remember
Just as soon as we've discovered
That the things we do in life
Will always end up touching others.
Paul
O'Neill
(from Trans-Siberian Orchestra's
Christmas Eve and Other Stories)
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Blessed are the servants who
love their brothers and sisters as much
when they are sick and useless as when
they are well and can be
of service
to them. And blessed are they who love their brothers
and sisters as well
when they are afar off as when they are by their side,
and who
would say nothing behind their back that they might not,
in love,
say before their face. -St. Francis of Assisi |
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We
are all citizens of one world, we are all of one blood. To hate people because they were born in another country,
because they speak a different language, or because
they take a different view on this subject or that, is a
great folly. Desist, I implore you, for we are all
equally human. . . .
Let us have but one end in view: the
welfare of humanity. -Johann
Amos Comenius |
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No
person is an island entire of itself.
Every person is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of
thy friends or of thine own were.
Any person's death
diminishes me, because I am involved in humankind.
Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls.
It
tolls for thee.
John Donne |
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Let us be
kinder to one another. -Aldous
Huxley's last words
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You cannot hope to build a better world
without improving the individuals. To that end each of us
must work for his or her
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 |
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My duty
towards my neighbors is to love them
as myself,
and to do all people as I would
they should do unto me. -Book of
Common Prayer |
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The race of
humankind would perish did
they cease to aid each other.
We cannot exist without
mutual help.
All therefore that need aid have a right to
ask it from their fellow human;
and no one who has the
power of granting can refuse it without guilt.
-Walter Scott |
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Entirely by yourself as an
individual
you can go to hell,
but alone you cannot
go to
heaven,
for to go to heaven we
need what one may call
the
natural grace
of the mutual dependence on
each other here
on earth. -Francis Devas |
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Whoever
is spared personal pain must feel themselves
called to help in diminishing the pain of others. We must all carry
our
share of the misery
which lies upon the world. -Albert
Schweitzer |
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Love is the doorway
through which the human soul passes
from selfishness to
service and from solitude to kinship
with all humankind. -Anonymous |
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What is
brotherhood? Brotherhood is giving to others the rights
you want
to keep for yourself. . . giving to the
individual in another group
the same dignity, the same
full appreciation that you want to have yourself.
-Everett R.
Clinchy |
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Make it a rule, and
pray to God
to help you to keep it, never,
if possible,
to lie down at night
without being able to say:
"I
have made one human being
at least a little wiser,
or a
little happier, or at least
a little better this day." -Charles Kingsley |
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Let us. . . touch
the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted
according to the graces we have received and let us not
be ashamed
or slow to do the humble work. -Mother
Teresa |
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We are born in relation, we live
in relation,
we die in relation. There is, literally,
no such human place as simply "inside myself."
Nor is any person, creed, ideology, or
movement entirely "outside myself."
-Carter Heyward |
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For
a person to argue, "I do not go to church; I pray alone,"
is no wiser than if he or she should say,
"I have no use
for symphonies; I believe only in solo music."
-George A. Buttrick |
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The
good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and
discerns those inner qualities
that make all people human
and,
therefore, brothers and sisters.
-Martin
Luther King, Jr. |
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No one may forsake
their
neighbors when they are in trouble. Everybody is under
obligation
to help and support their neighbors as
they would themselves like to be helped.
-Martin Luther |
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The
most eloquent prayer is the prayer through hands that
heal and bless.
The highest form of worship is the
worship of unselfish Christian service.
The greatest form
of praise is the sound of consecrated feet
seeking out
the lost and helpless. -Billy
Graham |
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The true
foundation of the brotherhood of humankind is belief in the
knowledge
that God is the Father of humankind. For us,
therefore, brotherhood is
not only a generous impulse but
also a divine command. -Harry S. Truman |
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The worst
sin towards our fellow creatures
is not to hate them, but to be indifferent
to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.
-George Bernard Shaw |
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When you ignore your
soul's destiny, when you get caught up in your own self-interests
and forget
to care for others, you will not feel "right."
Instead, you will feel empty and unfulfilled.
During these times, you are neglecting your soul--you
are depriving it of nourishment. . . .
seek something
outside your nine-to-five job as an additional source of
fulfillment
and as a way to feel the joy of helping
others. You can do any number of things
to fulfill
this goal--volunteer at a community hotline, coach a
Little League team,
donate your time to a public school,
visit the sick. Whatever you choose,
you will gain
a sense that you are giving of yourself, that you are
sharing yourself
with the world, that you are fulfilling
the destiny of your soul. -Rabbi Harold Kushner |
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It is the
individual who is not interested in his or her fellow people who
has
the greatest difficulties in life and and provides
the greatest injury to others.
It is from among such
individuals that all human failures spring.
-Alfred Adler |
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The entire population of the
universe,
with one trifling exception, is composed of
others. -John Andrew Holmes |
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A person is called selfish
not for pursuing
his or her own good, but for neglecting
his or her neighbor's.
-Richard Whately |
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Believe, when you are most
unhappy, that there is something for you to do in
the world. So long as you can sweeten another's
pain, life is not in vain.
-Helen Keller |
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A little
friendship, a little sympathy, a little sociability, a little human
toil. . .
is needed in every nook and corner. Therefore search and see
if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity.
-Albert
Schweitzer |
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Perhaps
the clearest and deepest meaning of brotherhood is the ability
to
imagine yourself in the other person's position,
and then treat that
person as if you were him or her.
This form of brotherhood takes
a lot of imagination,
a great deal of sympathy, and a tremendous
amount of understanding. -Obert C.
Tanner |
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A
woman once told me that she did not feel the need to reach out to
those
around her because she prayed every day.
Surely, this was enough.
But a prayer is about our relationship to God; a blessing is about our
relationship to the spark of God in one another.
God may not need our attention
as badly as the person next to us on the bus or behind us in line in
the supermarket.
Everyone in the world matters, and so do their blessings.
When we bless
others, we offer them refuge from an indifferent world.
-Rachel Naomi Remen |
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Treasure each other in the recognition that we do
not know
how long we shall have each other.
-Joshua Loth Liebman |
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I am
personally thankful that we live together in a large moral house
even if we do not drink at the same fountain of faith. The
world we
experience together is one world, God's world, and our world,
and the problems we share are common human problems.
So we can talk together, try to understand each other,
and help each other. -Lewis
B. Smedes |
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More
than ever we are aware of the ties that bind us as opposed to
the things that keep us separate. The interconnection of all
humanity
grows clearer each day as the effects of the international nature
of the world grow clearer. Charles Dickens calls us "fellow
passengers
to the grave," as we're all here to do our best while we are
alive
to make this world a better place. What
does this mean to us?
Our generations, more than any that preceded us, are learning about
our responsibilities to our fellow human beings, no matter where
they are, what their race, or what their beliefs. We are
learning
the necessity of being truly human, of holding life sacred and
treating others as if they truly matter, for they do.
-tom
walsh |
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The task that remains is to cope
with our interdependence--to see
ourselves reflected in every other human being,
and to respect and honor our differences.
-Melba Patillo Beals |
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