27 Deep Quotes on Unity, Interconnectedness, and How We Are One

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Excerpt: There are countless things that divide us. But, what divides us is secondary to what unites us. Read our 27 quotes on unity to learn more.

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Introduction: Ubuntu

Once, an anthropologist proposed a game to kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told them that whoever got there first would win the entire basket. When he gave them the signal to run, they all took each other’s hands and ran together.

Once they arrived at the tree, they sat in a circle and enjoyed the fruits together. When he asked them why they chose to run as a group when they could have raced against each other for the whole basket, one child spoke up and said, “UBUNTU—how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?”

“UBUNTU” in the Xhosa culture means, “I am because we are.” We are not rocks. We are not unaffected by what surrounds us. We are very sensitive creatures. If one of us happy, but the rest of us are sad—how long will that happiness last? We are sensitive to the sadness of the others and we will be affected. If one of us is sad, but the rest of us are happy—how long will that sadness last?

Joy is contagious and will likely boost our mood and raise our vibration (at least more so than being surrounded by a group of sad people will). This type of emotional exchange happens all of the time, every day. All of us influences the other and everybody influences us. In this way, we are all connected—we are one.

Imagine the kid from that African tribe who extended their hand out first towards one of the other kids’ hands? That gesture changed everything. Now, imagine if that same kid, who reached his hand out first, instead, decided to bolt forward towards the basket? The entire situation would have changed drastically.

What would you have done if you were in the same situation?

Do you think you would’ve reached out to hold another person’s hand? Or would you have bolted? If I’m being honest with myself, I’m not so sure if I would’ve extended my hand before my competitive side got the best of me. Upon reflection, however, I can’t help but think how much better extending my hand might’ve been.

At the Martial Arts school that I teach at, we have a tradition that follows a similar train of thought. Whenever a group of us are going to eat together, we encourage everybody to wait until each person has their food in front of them before anybody starts eating. In this way, we can all start together and eat as one group.

Maybe you’ve experienced something similar during a family dinner or on a special holiday occasion? It feels nice to be able to extend that thought to the people that surround you—that you don’t want to fill your mouth with food until they have their food in front of them, too—Ubuntu. Now, think about a time when you were eating with a group and before you got to take the first bite of your meal, another person was already asking for seconds?  It changes everything.

When you start to notice that how you feel is directly correlated to the environment that you’re in, you may start to pay closer attention. The people you surround yourself with? Matters. People’s energy is contagious—think carefully about who’s energy you want to catch. The energy you bring to a room? Will change the vibration.

Do you know of a person who can light up a whole room?  A person who can walk into a room filled with lame, stagnant energy and shake it up and vibe it up instantly? Why not be that person?

Finally, how you choose to respond to challenges, like the one described above, or how you handle stressful situations will undoubtedly affect how everybody feels. Control the space between stimulus and your response.  Become the master of your fate and try not to let your emotions determine your destiny. Act deliberately and thoughtfully—as often and as consistently as you can. And be the one who extends their hand out first.

Below, you will find our list of 27 deep quotes on unity, interconnectedness, and how we are one. If you don’t want to take it from me, then spend some time investigating the insights from the people quoted below. We hope this list finds you well and inspires you break down more barriers and build more bridges—we could certainly use more of that.  Sending strength and love to all.

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The List: 27 Deep Quotes on Unity, Interconnectedness, and How We Are One

“The point, which can hardly be repeated too often, is that differentiation is not separation. The head and the feet are different, but not separate, and though man is not connected to the universe by exactly the same physical relation as branch to tree or feet to head, he is nonetheless connected – and by physical relations of fascinating complexity.”

Alan Watts, The Book

“Wherever I meet people, I always have the feeling that I am encountering another human being, just like myself.  I find it is much easier to communicate with others on that level.  If we emphasize specific characteristics, like I am Tibetan or I am Buddhist, then there are differences.  But those things are secondary.  If we can leave the differences aside, I think we can easily communicate, exchange ideas, and share experiences.”

Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness

“No one else has had the same sequence of actions and reactions that have created your life and your realm of understanding.  No one right now is thinking exactly like you do.  You may, to the naked observer, appear to fit into a category, but that category most certainly does not define you.  The only quality you share with every other human in the world is your personal understanding that you are just unique enough to operate independently, and just similar enough to others to, in turn, recognize this uniqueness in them.”

Unknown, The Daily Zen

You’re not as strange as you think.

“It is impossible to really see the unity of the universe as long as one continues to see oneself as a discrete object, separate and distinguishable from the rest of the universe in any way, shape, or form.”

Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

“Whether one is rich or poor, educated or illiterate, religious or nonbelieving, man or woman, black, white, or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally, and mentally, we are all equal. We all share basic needs for food, shelter, safety, and love. We all aspire to happiness and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears, and dreams. Each of us wants the best for our family and loved ones. We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek. On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture, and language make no difference.”

Dalai Lama

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

We are more than “ticks” in silly, little boxes.

“We must recognize that the suffering of one person or one nation is the suffering of humanity. That the happiness of one person or nation is the happiness of humanity.”

Dalai Lama

Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion.  Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning, and purpose to our lives.”

Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection

“Every being on this Earth, every object on this Earth has a soul.  All souls flow into one, this is the Soul of the Universe.  You see, when you nourish your own mind and your own spirit, you are really feeding the Soul of the Universe.  When you improve yourself, you are improving the lives of all those around you.  And when you have the courage to advance confidently in the direction of your dreams, you begin to draw upon the power of the universe.”

Robin S. Sharma, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

What more evidence do you need?

“Everything you do has an impact. Who you are – that you are – actually matters. In an interconnected world (the only kind we have), our actions and the actions of others are inextricably linked- we are always and forever in a dance of mutual influence with those with whom we directly and indirectly participate.  It is the unavoidable reality of being social creatures, only magnified by an ever-increasingly complex and interwoven societal structure.  We matter to each other.”

Paul Greiner

“We’re here to connect. Love, time, death. Now these three things connect every single human being on earth. We long for love, we wish we had more time and we fear death.”

Howard Inlet (Will Smith), Collateral Beauty

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”

Maya Angelou

“We could learn a lot from crayons; some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, while others bright, some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box.”

Unknown

Can we get this straight, please?

“There is no such thing as a ‘self-made’ man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.”

George Burton Adams

“Consider how many people had to be involved for a particular thought to be formed. Every thought you have involves everyone you have ever known: your teachers, your siblings, your parents, your parents’ parents, your parents’ teachers, and on and on. Without this participation from the whole, the thought wouldn’t have come out the way it did. It wouldn’t have the ground from which to form. You wouldn’t even have the language to think with.  Everything happens more out of a ‘we’ than a ‘me.’ Everything in the universe is involved with everything that happens. If everything in the universe participates in scratching your nose or having a thought or having a feeling, can you really call these experiences ‘yours?’”

Nirmala

“Brotherhood starts the day we walk off the street and into the training hall. There, regardless of who we are, we are all the same. We leave our differences at the door and we unite for one purpose, to help ourselves and each other become the best we can be”

Master Karen Eden

“I learned that our deepest need is to overcome our aloneness and our separateness. We seek to escape from separateness in various ways. We seek conformity, mistaking it for union. This is a soul-crushing way to exist. Or we seek union through orgiastic states – drugs, alcoholism, overwork – or through creative activities. But the ultimate escape from separateness is through interpersonal union.”

Joseph Jaworski, Synchronicity

We are all one, yes.  But, know where you stand.

“This feeling of being lonely and very temporary visitors in the universe is in flat contradiction to everything known about man (and all other living organisms) in the sciences. We do not ‘come into’ this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean ‘waves,’ the universe ‘peoples.’ Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe.”

Alan Watts, The Book

“When you look at the surface of the ocean, you can see waves coming up and going down.  You can describe these waves in terms of high or low, big or small, more vigorous or less vigorous, more beautiful or less beautiful.  You can describe a wave in terms of beginning and end, birth and death.  That can be compared to the historical dimension.  In the historical dimension, we are concerned with birth and death, more powerful, less powerful, more beautiful, less beautiful, beginning and end and so on.  Looking deeply, we can also see that the waves are at the same time water.  A wave may like to seek its own true nature.  The wave might suffer from fear, from complexes.  A wave may say, ‘I am not as big as the other waves,’ ‘I am oppressed,’ ‘I am not as beautiful as the other waves,’ ‘I have been born and I have to die.’  The wave may suffer from these things, these ideas.  But if the wave bends down and touches her true nature she will realize that she is water.  Then her fear and complexes will disappear.”

Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

“At the end of the day, you can either focus on what’s tearing you apart, or what’s holding you together.”

Rob Dyer

“For in the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children’s futures, and we are all mortal.”

John F. Kennedy

In case you were wondering…