Personal relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancement, all success, all achievement in real life grows.
—Ben Stein (b.1944) American Lawyer, Writer, Economist, Humorist
There is nothing that puts a man more in your debt than that he owes you nothing.
—Mark Caine
No man has come to true greatness who has not felt in some degree that his life belongs to his race, and that what God gives him He gives him for mankind.
—Phillips Brooks (1835–93) American Episcopal Clergyman, Author
In spite of my great admiration for individual splendid talents I do not accept the star system. Collective creative effort is the root of our kind of art. That requires ensemble acting and whoever mars that ensemble is committing a crime not only against his comrades but also against the very art of which he is the servant.
—Constantin Stanislavski (1863–1938) Russian Actor, Theater Personality
Union gives strength.
—Aesop (620–564 BCE) Greek Fabulist
Men exist for the sake of one another. Either teach them or bear with them.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
For every one of us that succeeds, it’s because there’s somebody there to show you the way out.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
If we would just support each other—that’s ninety percent of the problem.
—Howard Gardner (b.1943) American Cognitive Psychologist
It is probably not love that makes the world go around, but rather those mutually supportive alliances through which partners recognize their dependence on each other for the achievement of shared and private goals.
—Fred Allen (1894–1956) American Humorist, Radio Personality
The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
We do not exist for ourselves…
—Thomas Merton (1915–68) American Trappist Monk
There is the sky, which is all men’s together.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
Put yourself in the other man’s place and then you will know why he thinks certain things and does certain deeds.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
If you want to be incrementally better: Be competitive. If you want to be exponentially better: Be cooperative.
—Unknown
Let everyone sweep in front of his own door and the whole world will be clean.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
There is nothing wrong in using people. The successful person never uses people except to their advantage.
—Mark Caine
We are not put on this earth to see through one another, but to see one another through.
—Unknown
Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men-above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Now join your hands, and with your hands your hearts.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
We all end up in a single bed sooner or later.
—Common Proverb
If we do not hang together, we will all hang separately.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Pleasure usually takes the form of me and now; joy is us and always.
—Marvin J. Ashton (1915–94) American Mormon Religious Leader
Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Everything in the world we want to do or get done, we must do with and through people.
—Earl Nightingale (1921–89) American Motivational Speaker, Author
No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.
—Brian Tracy (b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker
No employer today is independent of those about him. He cannot succeed alone, no matter how great his ability or capital. Business today is more than ever a question of cooperation.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
Affairs are easier of entrance than of exit; and it is but common prudence to see our way out before we venture in.
—Aesop (620–564 BCE) Greek Fabulist
He that does good to another, does good also to himself, not only in the consequences, but in the very act; for the consciousness of well doing is, in itself, ample reward.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
If everyone sweeps before his own front door, then the street is clean.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Take the trouble to stop and think of the other person’s feelings, his viewpoints, his desires and needs. Think more of what the other fellow wants, and how he must feel.
—Maxwell Maltz (1899–1975) American Surgeon, Motivational Writer
All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated…As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness….No man is an island, entire of itself; every man 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 promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were. Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
It is through cooperation, rather than conflict, that your greatest successes will be derived
—Ralph Charell
It is in the shelter of each other that the people live.
—Irish Proverb
If your imagination leads you to understand how quickly people grant your requests when those requests appeal to their self-interest, you can have practically anything you go after.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
Tell everyone what you want to do and someone will want to help you do it.
—W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) American Self-help Guru, Entrepreneur
Either men will learn to live like brothers, or they will die like beasts.
—Max Lerner (1902–92) Russian-born American Journalist
We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.
—Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American Inventor, Philosopher
Individuals score points, but teams win games.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another—until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.
—Richard Nixon (1913–94) American Head of State, Lawyer
In walking, the will and the muscles are so accustomed to working together and performing their task with so little expenditure of force that the intellect is left comparatively free.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Always try to do something for the other fellow and you will be agreeably surprised how things come your way—how many pleasing things are done for you.
—Claude M. Bristol (1891–1951) American Journalist, Self-Help Author
I love to hear a choir. I love the humanity to see the faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music. I like the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when I see them cooperating like that.
—Paul McCartney (b.1942) English Pop Singer, Songwriter
Share our similarities, celebrate our differences.
—M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) American Psychiatrist, Author
We are all of us, more or less, the slaves of opinion.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist