The chief duty I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
Past the seeker as he prayed came the crippled and the beggar and the beaten. And seeing them… he cried, “Great God, how is it that a loving creator can see such things and yet do nothing about them?” God said, “I did do something. I made you”.
—Unknown
Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Find a need and fill it.
—Ruth Stafford Peale (1906–2008) American Self-Help Author, Speaker
A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.
—Jack London (1876–1916) American Novelist
Don’t be afraid of outgiving God. It is impossible to do that.
—Chuck Swindoll (b.1934) American Evangelical Christian Pastor, Author
If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
The destroyer of weeds, thistles and thorns is a benefactor, whether he soweth grain or not.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
When we are certain that the way to accomplish our own wishes is to help others, we have no regrets.
—Sakyong Mipham (b.1962) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Teacher, Lama
Being good is commendable, but only when it is combined with doing good is it useful.
—Unknown
Realize that if you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it.
—Anthony J. D’Angelo
Act as though what you do makes a difference. It does.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
There is no use whatever trying to help people who do not help themselves. You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he be willing to climb himself.
—Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) Scottish-American Industrialist
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self. So you have to begin there, not outside, not on other people. That comes afterward, when you’ve worked on your own corner.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers, of families: read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life: re-examine all you have been told at school or church, or in any books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
In this world we must help one another.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.
—John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American Activist
Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.
—Unknown
Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one.
—Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948) Russian Christian Philosopher, Religious Leader
To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
If you have no will to change it, you have no right to criticize it.
—Unknown
When you give of your possessions, you give but little; it is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
God has not called us to see through each other, but to see each other through.
—Unknown
In giving you are throwing a bridge across the chasm of your solitude.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
So, in the infinitely nobler battle in which you are engaged against error and wrong, if ever repulsed or stricken down, may you always be solaced and cheered by the exulting cry of triumph over some abuse in Church or State, some vice or folly in society, some false opinion or cruelty or guilt which you have overcome! And I beseech you to treasure up in your hearts these my parting words: Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer not neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
—Unknown
When you dig another out of their troubles, you find a place to bury your own.
—Unknown
Being generous, just helping one’s relatives and being blameless in one’s actions; this is the best good luck.
—Buddhist Teaching
Three helping one another bear the burden of six.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
The vicious count their years; virtuous, their acts.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.
—Leo Rosten (1908–97) Russian-born American Humorist, Teacher, Academic, Short Story Writer
Love never reasons but profusely gives; gives, like a thoughtless prodigal, its all, and trembles lest it has done too little.
—Hannah More
My life is my message.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
A good example has twice the value of good advice.
—Unknown
Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up.
—Jesse Jackson (b.1941) American Baptist Civil Rights Activist, Minister
He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm.
—Unknown
Look around the habitable world: how few know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
We live very close together. So, our prime purpose in life is to help others. And if we can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
To do more for the world than the world does for you—that is success.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
—Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American Novelist, Short-story Writer