community4

You don't live in a world all alone.
Your brothers and sisters are here, too.

Albert Schweitzer

Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I
made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest
on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a
lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element,
I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Eugene V. Debs

Since you are an integral
part of a social system,
let every act of yours
contribute to the harmonization
of social life. Any action
that is not related directly
or remotely to this social aim
disturbs your life, and
destroys your unity.

Marcus Aurelius

Many people do not know that they can strengthen or diminish
the life around them. The way we live day to day simply may not
reflect back to us our power to influence life or the web of relationships
that connects us. Life responds to us anyway. We all have the power
to affect others. We may affect those we know and those we do not even
know at all. . . . Without our knowing, we may influence
the lives of others in very simple ways.

Rachel Naomi Remen

For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed;
the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea
does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born,
and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have.
The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us.
The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith
with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.

James Baldwin

Each person takes care that their neighbor shall not cheat them.
But a day comes when we begin to care that we do not cheat our neighbors.
Then all goes well. We have changed our market-cart into a chariot of the sun.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not until the creation and maintenance of decent conditions of life
for all people are recognized and accepted as a common obligation of all of us. . . shall we be able to speak of humankind as civilized.

Albert Einstein

The salvation of humankind lies only in making everything the concern of all.

Alexander Solzhenitsyen

Always follow these two rules: first, act only on what your reasoning mind proposes
for the good of humanity, and second, change your opinion if someone shows
you it’s wrong. This change of mind must proceed only from the conviction that it’s
both correct and for the common good, but not because it will give you
pleasure and make you popular.

Marcus Aurelius

The central purpose of each life should be to dilute the misery in the world.

Karl Menninger

An old rabbi once asked his pupils how they could tell when the night had ended and the day had begun.

"Could it be," asked one of the students, "when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it's a sheep or a dog?"

"No," answered the rabbi.

Another asked, "Is it when you can look at a tree in the distance and tell whether it's a fig tree or a peach tree?"

"No," answered the rabbi.

"Then when is it?" the pupils demanded.

"It is when you can look on the face of any man or woman and see that it is your sister or brother. Because if you cannot see this, it is still night."

Hasidic tale

Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things,
but just look at what they can do when they stick together.

Vesta M. Kelly

Treat people and live amongst them in such a way so that when you die they will
cry over you, and while you are alive they long for your company.

traditional Muslim saying

I am a creature of God and my neighbor is also a creature of God.
I work in the city and my neighbor lives in the country.
I rise early for my work and my neighbor rises early for work.
Just as my neighbor cannot excel in my work,
I cannot excel in my neighbor's work.
Will you say that I do great things and my neighbor does small things?
We have learned that it does not matter whether a person does
much or little as long as one directs one's heart to Heaven.

from the Babylonian Talmud

HOME - contents - Full Life Online
abundance - acceptance - achievement - action - adversity - aging - anticipation - appreciation - attitude - authenticity
awareness - balance - beauty - being yourself - beliefs - body - character - children - Christianity - coincidence
commitment - common sense - community - compassion - compliments - compromise - confidence - conscience
contentment - courage - creativity - death - determination - earth - ego - encouragement - enthusiasm - eternity
faith - family - flowers - forgiveness - freedom - friendship - fun - gardening - gentleness - giving - God - goodness
grace - gratitude -growing up - happiness - healing - helpfulness - home - hope - humility - imagination
integrity - joy - kindness - laughter - learning - letting go - life - listening - love - marriage - miracles - mystery
nature - now - open-mindedness - opportunity - optimism - patience - peace - perseverance - perspective
play - prayer - principle - purpose - religion - rest - role models - sadness - self - self-respect - serving others - silence
simplicity - spirit - success - time - today - truth - values - war - wisdom - wonder - work - worship
spring - summer - fall - winter - Christmas - Thanksgiving - New Year - zen sayings
obstacles to living life fully - e-zine archives - quotations contents