No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. --Aesop

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. --Douglas Adams

There are...two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live. --James Truslow Adams

What is excellent becomes the permanent. --Jane Addams

Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. --African proverb

Observation more than books, experience rather than persons. --Amos Bronson Alcott

The human contribution is the essential ingredient. It is only in the giving of oneself to others that we truly live. --Ethel Percy Andrus

I speak to the black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition--about what we can endure, dream, fail at, and still survive. --Maya Angelou

We learn the inner secret of happiness when we learn to direct our inner drives, our interest and attention to something outside ourselves. --Ethel Percy Andrus

What affects everyone can best be solved by everyone.--Anonymous

The extent to which you are able to transform your "self-concern" into "other-concern" will determine your effectiveness in getting others to follow along. --Anonymous

The person with big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts. --Anonymous

We are questions for one another. And service is exploring and awakening through them. --Anonymous

"We have to act our way into a new way of thinking rather than think our way into a new way of acting." --Anonymous

Personal growth is, more than anything, a refining sense of truthfulness.--Anonymous

What we learn to do, we learn by doing. --Aristotle

Perfection consists not in doling extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. Neglect nothing; the most trivial action may be performed to God. --Angelique Arnauld

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life. --Arthur Ashe

The main dangers in this life are the people who want to change everything...or nothing. --Lady Nancy Astor

Real education should educate us out of self into something far finer; into a selflessness which links us with all humanity. --Lady Nancy Astor

No man has a right to lead such a life of contemplation as to forget in his own ease the service due to his neighbor. --Augustine

"I tell you one thing, if you learn it by yourself, if you have to get down and dig for it, it never leaves you. It stays there as long as you live because you had to dig it out of the mud before you learned what it was." --Aunt Adie

The desire for power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire for knowledge in excess caused man to fall; but in charity there is no excess; neither can angel or man come into danger by it. -- Francis Bacon

He that will not give some portion of his ease, his blood, his wealth, for others' good is a poor, frozen churl. --Joanna Baillie

When it comes to getting things done, we need fewer architects and more brick layers. --Colleen C. Barrett

You must learn day by day, year by year, to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens. --Ethel Barrymore

The aim [of education] should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think. --James Beattie

Great discoveries and achievements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. --Alexander Graham Bell

You need to get up in the morning and say, "Boy, I'm going to--in my own stupid way--save the world today. --Carol Bellamy

Life begets life. energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich. --Sarah Bernhardt

Universities are about universalizing the human spirit. --Samuel Betances

Justice is a concept. Muscle is the reality. --Linda Blandford

When I stand before god at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything you gave me." --Erma Bombeck

We have to earn our wings every day. --Frank Borman

Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. --Harriet Braiker

Men judge us by the success of our efforts. God looks at the efforts themselves. --Charlotte Bronte

A child's kiss / Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad; / A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich; / A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong; / Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense / Of service which thou renderest. --Elizabeth Barrett Browning

To do good things in the world, first you must know who you are and what gives meaning to your life. --Paula P. Brownlee

I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to earth. --Pearl S. Buck

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. --Edmund Burke

Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other. --Edmund Burke

There never was a bad man that had ability for good service. --Edmund Burke

I am an organization person, I believe in individuals banding together. I don't believe in unilateral actions. Some people don't like organizations. But it is always awesome to me when you can pool a lot of talent and a lot of people who have so many talents. That is when you really can make your program move. --Hortense Canady

Surplus wealth is a scared trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community. --Andrew Carnegie

I learned in my four decades in Washington that one person can make a difference. --Liz Carpenter

When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world. --George Washington Carver

Through charity to God we conceive virtues, and through charity toward our neighbors, they are brought to the birth. --St. Catherine of Siena

Service to a just cause regards the worker with more real happiness and satisfaction than ay other venture of life. --Carrie Chapman Catt

An effort made for the happiness of others lifts above ourselves. --Lydia M. Child

Talk doesn't cook rice. --Chinese Proverb

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. --Chinese Proverb

Leadership means not having to be completely in harmony with everyone else. --Winston Churchill

If someone needs our help, it is our special duty to provide it to the utmost of our power. --Cicero

Not only is there an art in knowing a thing, but also a certain art in teaching it. --Cicero

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely. --Karen Kaiser Clark

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. --Confucius

What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others. --Confucius

We are each of us angels with only one wing. And we can only fly embracing each other. --Luciano de Crescenzo

When we escaped from Cuba, al we could carry was our education. --Alicia Coro

It is better to wear out than to rust out. --Bishop Richard Cumberland

One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done. --Marie Curie

We teach what we learn, and the cycle goes on. --Joan L. Curcio

D

The process of empowerment cannot be simplistically defined in accordance with our own particular class interests. --Angela Davis

I think even lying on my bed I can still do something. --Dorothea Dix [attributed]

What you always do before you make a decision is consult. The best public policy is made when you are listening to people who are going to be impacted. Then, once policy is determined, you call on them to help you sell it. --Elizabeth Dole

It is better to be part of a great whole than to be the whole of a small part. --Frederick Douglass

I will work with anyone to do good, but with no one to do harm. --Frederick Douglass

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. --Peter Drucker

E

As others toil for me, I must toil for others. --Ecclesiates 2:20

You really can change the world if you care enough. --Marian Wright Edelman

Service is the rent you pay for being. --Marian Wright Edelman

Service is what life is all about. --Marian Wright Edelman

No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence. --George Eliot

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. --George Eliot

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other. --George Eliot

No living being is held by anything so strongly as its own needs. --Epictetus

In soloing--as in other activities--it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it. --Amelia Earhart

F

Conditions are never just right. --William Feather

God has no hands but our hands and no tongue but our tongue. --Annie Johnson Flint

Contrary to the cliche, genuinely nice guys most often finish first, or very near it. --Malcolm Forbes

Take your work seriously, but never yourself. --Dame Margot Fonteyn

It is not sin to attempt and fail. The only sin is not to make the attempt. --SuEllen Fried

Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training. --Anna Freud

If everyone is moving forward together, then the success takes care of itself. --Henry Ford

The highest use of capital is not to make money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life. --Henry Ford

G

From the pain comes the dream. From the dream comes the vision. From the vision comes the people. From the people comes the power. From the power comes the change. --Peter Gabriel

Think of the poorest person you have ever seen and ask if your next act will be of any use to him. --Inscribed over Gandhi's tomb

The highest of distinctions is service to others. --King George VI

Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells. --J. Paul Getty

The only real education comes from what goes counter to you. --Andre Gide

Creative thought requires and act of faith. --George Gilder

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 Girzartis

It is easier to act your way into new ways of feeling than to feel yourself into new ways of acting. --Susan Glaser

Whatever you do or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic to it. --Goethe

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of being. --Goethe

If you assign people duties without granting them rights, you must pay them well. --Goethe

If every American donated five hours a week, it would equal the labor of 20 million full time volunteers. --Whoopie Goldberg

I see something that has to be done and I organize it. --Elinor Guggenheimer

Much misconstruction and bitterness are spared to him who thinks naturally upon what he owes to others rather on what he ought to expect from them. --Elizabeth de Guizot

Nothing is work unless you'd rather be doing something else. --G. Halas

If you make a product good enough even tough you live in the depths of the forest, the public will make a path to your door, says the philosopher. But if you want the public in sufficient numbers, you would better construct a highway. --William Randolph Hearst

There is no such thing as too much recognition. There is no such thing as saying "Thank you" too many times. --Karla Henderson

No knowledge is so easily found as when it is needed. --Robert Henri

You can do anything you want to do. What is rare is this actual wanting to do a specific thing: wanting it so much that you are practically blind to all other things, that nothing else will satisfy you. --Robert Henri

Resting is often very fatiguing. --Robert Henri

In doing we learn. --George Herbert

The very essence of leadership is you have to have a vision. It's got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet. --Theadore Hesburgh

The master Mind principle: Two or more people actively engaged in pursuit of definite purpose with a positive mental attitude, constitute an unbeatable force. --Napoleon Hill

In a society based on the work ethic, work helps to define each one of us. To the extent that we do something useful to the society, we gain a feeling of belonging and contributing that sustains us even when the work we do is difficult or dull. Youth have been progressively denied the opportunity to be engaged in work that is important to others and, therefore, denied the reward such work produces. --Howard Howe

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. --Hubert H. Humphrey

The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives. --Robert Maynard Hutchins

Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happened to him. --Aldous Huxley

A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm. --Henrik Ibsen

J

To learn is to teach. --Japanese Proverb

It takes two wings for a bird to fly. --Jesse Jackson

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. --William James

The true purpose of education is to cherish and unfold the seed of immortality already sown within us; to develop, to their fullest extent, the capacities of every kind with which the God who made us has endowed us. --Anna Jameson

The care of human life and happiness is the first and only legitimate objective of good government. --Thomas Jefferson

It is the people who can do nothing who find nothing to do, and the secret of happiness in this world is not only to be useful, but to be forever elevating one's uses. --Sarah Orne Jewett

Education is a loan to be repaid with gift of self. --Lad Bird Johnson

Great works are performed not by strength, but by perserverance. --Samuel Johnson

We must remember that one determined person can make a significant difference, and that a small group of determined people can change the course of history. --Sonia Johnson

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. --F.P. Jones

When do any of us do enough? --Barbara Jordan

K

When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt. --Henry Kaiser

I am only one; but still am one. I cannot do everything, but I still can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do. --Helen Keller

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. --Helen Keller

I have served as spiritual leader to many people. They in turn have ministered to me. God's work is always reciprocal. --Bishop Leontine Kelly

Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practiced in our social intercourse, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talents and accomplishments. --Mary Ann Kelty

Don't agonize. Organize. --Florynce Kennedy

Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. --John F. Kennedy

We must get rid of the notion that human progress rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation. --Martin Luther King, Jr.

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. --Charles Kingsley

In the conquest which is service, / In the victory which is peace! --Frederic Lawrence Knowles

Some people think only intellect counts; knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the many functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy. We care. It is our curse. It is our blessing. --Dean R. Koontz

L

To be successful, the first thing to do is to fall in love with your work. --Sister Mary Lauretta

Use what ya got to get what ya want. --V.C. League

If you don't remember history accurately, how can you learn? --Maya Lin

To give without any reward, or any notice, has a special quality of its own. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I feel that we are all islands--in a common sea. --Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness, and a willingness to remain vulnerable. --Anne Morrow Linebergh

A professor can never better distinguish himself in his work than by encouraging a clever pupil, for the true discoverers are among them, as comets amongst the stars. --Carl Linnaeus

He who devotes sixteen hours a day to hard study may become as wise at sixty as he though himself to be at twenty. --Mary Wilson Little

No good dead goes unpunished. --Clare Boothe Luce

In great attempts it is glorious even to fail. --Vince Lombardi

When you send a message to the community in general, you often wind up speaking to no one in particular. --Rick Lynch

M

The only people with whom you should try to get even, are those who have helped you. --May Maloo

Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject--the actual enemy is the unknown. --Thomas Mann

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. --Margaret Mead

Knowledge of [another] culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own. --Margaret Mead

Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers. --Mignon Mclaughlin

I am still learning. --Michelangelo

Stud as if you are going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow. --Marion Mitchell

All races need to learn to communicate with each other and a good way to start is with a smile and a blessing. It is important to understand each other's customs so that neither are blamed mistakenly. --Princess Pale Moon

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. --Mother Teresa

Life's an open book and a education helps you write the success stories. --Joyce A. Myers

N

A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations. --Patricia Neal

I often hear people say, "I have to find myself." What they really mean is "I have to make myself." Life is an endlessly creative experience, and we are making ourselves every moment by every decision we make. --Kent Nerburn

Growth is the only evidence of life. --Cardinal Newman

If you wait, all that happens is that you get older. --Leonard Nimoy

O

It's not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy. The bee is praised; the mosquito is swatted. --Marie O'Connor

P

Leadership appears to be the act of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done. --Vance Packard

People are usually more convinced by reasons they discover themselves than by those found by others. --Blaise Pascal

If you tell people where to go but not how to get there, you'll be amazed at the results. --George S. Patton

I expect to pass this way but once. Therefore, if there be any knidness I can show or any good that I can do let me do it now. --William Penn

We are confronted by insurmountable opportunities. --Pogo

Q

R

I like to give my energy to activities that affirm the oneness of humankind. --Claire Randall

Make no small plans: they lack the power to move men's souls. --Cort Randall

All of us must become better informed. It is necessary for us to learn from others' mistakes. You will not live long enough to make them all yourself. --Admiral Hyman Rickover

A man who is ungrateful is often less to blame than his benefactor. --Francois duc de la Rochefoucauld

The success of each is dependent upon the success of the other. --John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

There are no problems--only opportunities to be creative. --Dorye Roettger

Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. --Will Rogers

I have always seen life personally; my interest or sympathy or indignation is not aroused by an abstract cause but by the plight of a single person...Out of my response to an individual develops an awareness of a problem to the community, then to the country, then to the world. --Eleanor Roosevelt

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die. --Eleanor Roosevelt

If you approach each new person you meet in a spirit of adventure, you will find yourself endlessly fascinated by the new channels of thought and experience and personality that you encounter. do not mean simply the famous people of the world, but people from every walk and condition of life. --Eleanor Roosevelt

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. --Theodore Roosevelt

In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert's there are few. --Suzuki Roshi

As soon as public service ceases to be the chief business of the citizens, and they would rather serve with their money than with their persons, the State is not far from its fall. --Jean Jacques Rousseau

If we want students to be capable of commitment to an idea, we also want them to have the courage and ability to act on that commitment. --Sharon G. Rubin

No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helps you. --Wilma Rudolph

The universe is made of stories, not of atoms. --Muriel Rukeyser

Every great person is always being helped by everybody; for their gift is to get good out of all things and all persons. -- John Ruskin

In order for people to be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it. They must not do too much of it. and they must have a sense of success in it. --John Ruskin

Giving whether it be of time, labor, affection, advice, gifts, or whatever, is one of life's greatest pleasures. --Rebecca Russell

S

The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas. --George Santayana

I can do anything I think i can--but I can't do anything alone. No one can go it alone. Create your team! --Robert Schuller

He who considers too much will perform little. --Robert Schuller

Three people were at work on a construction site. All were doing the same job, but when each was asked what his job was, the answers were varied. "breaking rocks," the first replied. "Earning my living," the second said. "Helping to build a cathedral," said the third. --Peter Schultz

Only she who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible. --Sharon Schuster

No one ever volunteered to experience failure. --Trudy Seita

It is not necessary to light a candle in the sun. --Algeron Sidney

Whatever you would have your children become, strive to exhibit in your lives and conversation. --Lydia H. Sigourney

You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your money, unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you. --Ruth Smeltzer

The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing a thing exactly right. --Edward Simmons

Begin somewhere. You cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do. --Liz Smith

It's a weird world. Knowledge is power. --Stephen J. Spignesi

Are we willing to give up some things we like to do, to move on to those things we we must do? --Satenig St. Marie

You are the product of your own brainstorm. --Rosemary Konner Steinbaum

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. --Gladys Browyn Stern

A person educated in mind and not in morals is a menace to society. --Juanita Kidd Stout

I would not attack the faith of a heathen without being sure I had a better one to put in its place. --Harriet Beecher Stowe

After the verb "To Love," "To Help" is the most beautiful verb in the world! --Baroness Bertha von Suttner

Shared joy is double joy, and shared sorrow is half-sorrow. --Swedish Proverb

We are the leaders we have been waiting for. --Sweet Honey and The Rock

T

The real problem is what to do with the problem solvers after the problems have been solved. --Gay Talese

[Education is] Something said in private conversation one day in the street, a remark by a teacher in the middle of a discussion, a book picked up in someone's room. --Harold Taylor

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. --Mother Teresa

The urge to form partnerships, to link up in collaborative arrangements, is perhaps the oldest, strongest, and most fundamental force in nature. There are no solitary, free-living creatures: every form of life is dependent on other forms. --Lewis Thomas

If you don't want to get tackled, don't carry the ball. --Ann McKay Thompson

If you face a delicate situation, don't go into it wearing your spurs or you'll rip it apart. Instead, dress for the occasion. Cloak yourself in diplomacy. Vest yourself with wisdom, and wear a smile. --Ann McKay Thompson

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers. --James Thurber

The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens. --Alexis de Tocqueville

You've got to think about "big things" while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction. --Alvin Toffler

The first step in the risk management process is to acknowledge the reality of risk. Denial is a common tactic that substitutes deliberate ignorance for thoughtful planning. --Charles Tremper

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. --Mark Twain

To lead the people, walk behind them. --Lao Tzu

A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step. --Lao Tzu

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. --Loa Tzu

U

I learned...that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness. --Brenda Ueland

V

It's exciting that we don't have all of the answers. When you're looking at living things, there is so much left to be revealed. The subject matter is constantly evolving. --Vincente D. Villa

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it. --Voltaire

W

A worker is, first of all, a person who must fit into the social community in which he works. --Guy Wadsworth

My satisfaction comes from my commitment to advancing a better world. --Faye Wattleton

When you go to school, you're supposed to learn how to listen. --Annie Dodge Wauneka

Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens. --Daniel Webster

Men can do jointly what they cannot do singly; and the union of minds and hands, the concentration of their power, becomes almost omnipotent. --Daniel Webster

There are two ways of spreading light--to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. --Edith Wharton

Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them. --Alfred North Whitehead

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. --Oscar Wilde

The way to build self-confidence is to start doing things you're not sure you can do. --Paul Williams

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well--if one has not dined well. --Virginia Woolf

Small service is true service while it lasts. / Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one: / The daisy, by the shadow that it casts, / Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun. --William Wordsworth