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Helping Other People Quotes and Quotations
 Let everyone who has the grace of intelligence fear that, because of it, he will be judged more heavily if he is negligent.  Service to others is the rent you pay for living on this planet. To be a revolutionary you have to be a human being. You have to care about people who have no power. Never reach out your hand unless you're willing to extend an arm. It is not who you attend school with but who controls the school you attend. What is buried in the past of one generation falls to the next to claim. Everyone needs help from everyone. We've got to work to save our children and do it with full respect for the fact that if we do not, no one else is going to do it. The entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others. The woman who does not choose to love should cut the matter short at once, by holding out no hopes to her suitor. No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you. Much misconstruction and bitterness are spared to him who thinks naturally upon what he owes to others, rather than on what he ought to expect from them. No matter how lofty you are in your department, the responsibility for what your lowliest assistant is doing is yours. Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained. The oppressed never free themselves-they do not have the necessary strengths. I shall not pass this way again: Then let me now relieve some pain, Remove some barrier from the road, Or brighten some one's heavy load. I think if I were dying and I heard of an act of injustice, it would start me up to a moment's life again. If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters very much. My satisfaction comes from my commitment to advancing a better world. You don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here, too. What do we live for if not to make life less difficult for each other? It is human nature that rules the world, not governments and regimes. Injustice is a sixth sense, and rouses all the others. The service we render others is the rent we pay for our room on earth. A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor's. In this world we must help one another. Man absolutely cannot live by himself. We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men. We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. In the time we have it is surely our duty to do all the good we can to all the people we can in all the ways we can. There ain't nothing but one thing wrong with every one of us, and that's selfishness. He who lives only for himself is truly dead to others. Provision for others is a fundamental responsibility of human life. Everything that lives, lives not alone, nor for itself. A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle. Maturity begins to grow when you can sense your concern for others outweighing your concern for yourself. I see their souls, and I hold them in my hands, and because I love them they weigh nothing. Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind. I'm not a competitive person, and I think women like me because they don't think I'm competitive, just nice. As perfume to the flower, so is kindness to speech. To be told we are loved is not enough. We must feel loved. It's never what you say, but how you make it sound sincere. I never fight, except against difficulties. Nothing has happened today except kindness. In a great romance, each person plays a part the other really likes. Etiquette-a fancy word for simple kindness. 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. The legacy I want to leave is a child-care system that says no kid is going to be left alone or left unsafe. I think women need kindness more than love. When one human being is kind to another, it's a very deep matter. Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave-and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another along the way. I'm a competitive person, but I have never understood people's competitiveness at the expense of their colleagues. You know, we're all going in the same direction, or at least trying to. So we need to live together, get along together, and give each other enough space to be comfortable on that road. The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved. Good manners are the techniques of expressing consideration for the feelings of others Moments of kindness and reconciliation are worth having, even if the parting has to come sooner or later. A happy life is made up of little things-a gift sent, a letter written, a call made, a recommendation given, transportation provided, a cake made, a book lent, a check sent. If a man is pictured chopping off a woman's breast, it only gets an R rating, but if, God forbid, a man is pictured kissing a woman's breast, it gets an X rating. Why is violence more acceptable than tenderness? If I didn't start painting, I would have raised chickens. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. - Plato One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, and compassion. Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. - Lao-Tzu I'd like people to think of me as someone who cares about them. Tenderness is greater proof of love than the most passionate of vows. Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. One of the most valuable things we can do to heal one another is listen to each other's stories. It's a rare thing, graciousness. The shape of it can be acquired, but not, I think, the substance. Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness. Oh! may each youthful bosom, catch the sacred fire. Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together. The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back. To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons. Sympathy is the charm of human life. I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do for any fellow being, let me do it now ... as I shall not pass this way again. We bear the world and we make it. ... There was never a great man who had not a great mother-it is hardly an exaggeration. I wonder why it is that we are not all kinder to each other. ... How much the world needs it! How easily it is done! Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love. After the verb "to Love," "to Help" is the most beautiful verb in the world. We are made kind by being kind. Kindness causes us to learn, and to forget, many things. There is nothing in life but refraining from hurting others, and comforting those that are sad. Without kindness, there can be no true joy. Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away. A word of kindness is seldom spoken in vain, while witty sayings are as easily lost as the pearls slipping from a broken string. A kind word is like a Spring day. Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not. Kindness affects more than severity. - Aesop Always be a little kinder than necessary. Kindness is the ability to love people more than they deserve. The sense that someone else cares always helps because it is the sense of love. Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind that I am of what is true. Kindness, I've discovered, is everything in life. What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? Goodwill... is an immeasurable and tremendous energy, the atomic energy of the spirit. Goodwill is the mightiest practical force in the universe. Knowing sorrow well, I learn to succor the distressed. - Virgil Compassion is the basis of all morality. Success has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others. Right Now Is the Time to Be Kind You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. There's no use in doing a kindness if you do it a day too late. He who sees a need and waits to be asked for help is as unkind as if he had refused it. The golden rule is of no use whatsoever unless you realize that it is your move. He gives twice who gives promptly. Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves. Instead of getting hard ourselves and trying to compete, women should try to give their best qualities to men- bring them softness, teach them how to cry. Youth condemns; maturity condones. It is unfair to hold people responsible for our illusions of them. The deadliest feeling that can be offered to a woman is pity. People who won't help others in trouble "because they got into trouble through their own fault" would probably not throw a lifeline to a drowning man until they learned whether he fell in through his own fault or not. If you judge people, you have no time to love them. Justice and judgment lie often a world apart. With compassion, we see benevolently our own human condition and the condition of our fellow beings. We drop prejudice. We withhold judgment. A few observations and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to truth. Nobody who is somebody looks down on anybody. Really listening and suspending one's own judgment is necessary in order to understand other people on their own terms. As we have noted, this is a process that requires trust and builds trust. Reform is born of need, not pity. I am convinced that any feeling of exaltation because we have people under us should be conquered, for I am sure that if we enjoy being over people, there will be something in our manner which will make them dislike being under us. "Honesty" without compassion and understanding is not honesty, but subtle hostility. Theories and goals of education don't matter a whit if you do not consider your students to be human beings. It's compassion that makes gods of us. When God made up this world of ours, He made it long and wide, And meant that it should shelter all, And none should be denied. I've always thought that people need to feel good about themselves and I see my role as offering support to them, to provide some light along the way. The finest inheritance you can give a child is to allow it to make its own way, completely on its own feet. Let our girls feel that we expect something more of them than that they merely look pretty and appear well in society. Teach them that there is a race with special needs which they and only they can help; that the world needs and is already asking for their trained and efficient forces. A child is a temporarily disabled and stunted version of a larger person, whom you will someday know. Your job is to help them overcome the disabilities associated with their size and inexperience so that they get on with being that larger person. We have to improve life, not just for those who have the most skills and those who know how to manipulate the system. But also for and with those who often have so much to give but never get the opportunity. The most notable fact that culture imprints on women is the sense of our limits. The most important thing one woman can do for another is to illuminate and expand her sense of actual possibilities. First, teach a person to develop to the point of his limitations and then- pfft!-break the limitations. If you want a baby, have a new one. Don't baby the old one. When anything gets freed, a zest goes round the world. If we can't turn the world around we can at least bolster the victims. If a child is too keep alive his inborn sense of wonder ... he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in. We ought to be doing all we can to make it possible for every child to fulfill his or her God-given potential. You cannot create genius. All you can do is nurture it. Most convicted felons are just people who were not taken to museums or Broadway musicals as children. No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure. I'm not an American hero. I'm a person who loves children. When a person is down in the world, an ounce of help is better than a pound of preaching. The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination. A little help is worth a great deal of pity. Don't give advice unless you're asked. Generosity gives assistance, rather than advice. Our worth is determined by the good deeds we do, rather than by the fine emotions we feel. Nagging is the repetition of unpalatable truths. Orthodox criticism ... is a murderer of talent. And because the most modest and sensitive people are the most talented, having the most imagination and sympathy, these are the first ones to get killed off. With every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest you may not see. Giving kids clothes and food is one thing, but it's much more important to teach them that other people besides themselves are important and that the best thing they can do with their lives is to use them in the service of other people. What its children become, that will the community become. A child is fed with milk and praise. Children are forced to live very rapidly in order to live at all. They are given only a few years in which to learn hundreds of thousands of things about life and the planet and themselves. Live and let live is not enough; live and help live is not too much. To give pleasure to a single heart by a single kind act is better than a thousand head-bowings in prayer. - Sa'di Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war. Pity costs nothing and ain't worth nothing. The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth. From this almost mystic affirmation there comes what may seem a strange conclusion: that education must start from birth. To feel sorry for the needy is not the mark of a Christian-to help them is. What we remember from childhood we remember forever-permanent ghosts, stamped, imprinted, eternally seen. I don't believe civilization can do a lot more than educate a person's senses. 'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after. Where our bread is concerned, it is a material matter. Where our neighbor's bread is concerned, it is a spiritual matter. A good education is that which prepares us for our future sphere of action and makes us contented with that situation in life in which God, in his infinite mercy, has seen fit to place us, to be perfectly resigned to our lot in life, whatever it may be. Teaching was the hardest work I had ever done, and it remains the hardest work I have done to date. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul. To throw obstacles in the way of a complete education is like putting out the eyes. No other job in the world could possibly dispossess one so completely as this job of teaching. You could stand all day in a laundry, for instance, still in possession of your mind. But this teaching utterly obliterates you. It cuts right into your being: essentially, it takes over your spirit. Teaching is the royal road to learning. Teaching was the best way to learn. Teaching is the greatest act of optimism. I think education is power. I think that being able to communicate with people is power. One of my main goals on the planet is to encourage people to empower themselves. If you feed a man a meal, you only feed him for a day-but if you teach a man to grow food, you feed him for a lifetime. People will support that which they help to create. The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own. Listen long enough and the person will generally come up with an adequate solution. The truest help we can render an afflicted man is not to take his burden from him, but to call out his best energy, that he may be able to bear the burden. A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary. A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease. Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves is far better than mere giving. I don't give advice. I can't tell anybody what to do. Instead I say this is what we know about this problem at this time. And here are the consequences of these actions. Hold up to him his better self, his real self that can dare and do and win out. ... People radiate what is in their minds and in their hearts. The manager cannot share his power with division superintendent or foreman or workman, but he can give them opportunities for developing their power. Once you wake up thought in a man, you can never put it to sleep again. Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed. To know one's self is wisdom, but to know one's neighbor is genius. Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it; it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker. I know that everyone brings to the work his or her own experiences and background and may interpret the piece like a Rorschach, in their own way. There are no little events in life, those we think of no consequence may be full of fate, and it is at our own risk if we neglect the acquaintances and opportunities that seem to be casually offered, and of small importance. I believe every person has the ability to achieve something important, and with that in mind I regard everyone as special. The fact that we are human beings is infinitely more important than all the peculiarities that distinguish human beings from one another. The sexes in each species of beings . . . are always true equivalents-equals but not identicals. To understand another human being you must gain some insight into the conditions which made him what he is. Like snowflakes, the human pattern is never cast twice. We are uncommonly and marvelously intricate in thought and action. Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back. Every human being is trying to say something to others. Trying to cry out I am alive, notice me! Speak to me! Confirm that I am important, that I matter! The Christian tradition was passed on to me as a great rich mixture, a bouillabaisse of human imagination and wonder brewed from the richness of individual lives. Connected knowers do not measure other people's words by some impersonal standard. Their purpose is not to judge but to understand. Tyranny and anarchy are alike incompatible with freedom, security, and the enjoyment of opportunity. Unless one's philosophy is all-inclusive, nothing can be understood. Nature is just enough; but men and women must comprehend and accept her suggestions. The motto should not be: Forgive one another; rather understand one another. Someone has said that it requires less mental effort to condemn than to think. We cannot safely assume that other people's minds work on the same principles as our own. All too often, others with whom we come in contact do not reason as we reason, or do not value the things we value, or are not interested in what interests us. To have one's individuality completely ignored is like being pushed quite out of life. Like being blown out as one blows out a light. It's funny how your initial approach to a person can determine your feelings toward them, no matter what facts develop later on. Nobody really knows Indians who cheat them and treat them badly. [Tolerance] is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle. Africa has her mysteries, and even a wise man cannot understand them. But a wise man respects them. To argue over who is the more noble is nothing more than to dispute whether dirt is better for making bricks or for making mortar. What women want is what men want. They want respect. All sweeping assertions are erroneous. Truth has never been, can never be, contained in any one creed or system. Sons branch out, but one woman leads to another. It's really important that, as women, we tell our stories. That is what helps seed our imaginations. Female friendships that work are relationships in which women help each other belong to themselves. Women's propensity to share confidences is universal. We confirm our reality by sharing. Sharing is sometimes more demanding than giving. If my hands are fully occupied in holding on to something, I can neither give nor receive. We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse. Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others. [Our children] had the privilege of growing up where they'd raised a lot of food. They were never hungry. They could share their food with people. And so, you share your lives with people. For we must share, if we would keep, that blessing from above; Ceasing to give, we cease to have; such is the law of love. An unshared life is not living. He who shares does not lessen, but great-ens, his life. Sharing what you have is more important than what you have. You cannot always have happiness, but you can always give happiness. That's what I consider true generosity. You give your all and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing. A cup that is already full cannot have more added to it. In order to receive the further good to which we are entitled, we must give of that which we have. The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose. |