Community Quotes

“If you decide on your own to quit smoking, and you say nothing to anybody, there are ninety-nine chances out of a hundred that you will smoke. Someone else decides taht he will not smoke, and he tells his friends. There is a ninety percent chance that he will still smoke. The third possibility is that he joins a society of nonsmokers where nobody smokes. Now there is a ninety-nine percent chance that he will not smoke.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 292)

“What does not benefit the hive does not benefit the bee either.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 57)

“The problem, Mitch, is that we don’t believe we are as much alike as we are. Whites and blacks, Catholics and Protestants, men and women. If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one big human family in this world, and to care about that family the way we care about our own. But, believe me, when you are dying, you see it is true. We all have the same beginning—birth—and we all have the same end—death. So how different can we be? Invest in the human family. Invest in people. Build a little community of those you love and who love you.”
Morrie Schwartz, via Tuesdays With Morrie (Page 157)

“Look, no matter where you live, the biggest defect we human beings have is our shortsightedness. We don’t see what we could be. We should be looking at our potential, stretching ourselves into everything we can become. But if you’re surrounded by people who say ‘I want mine now,’ you end up with a few people with everything and a military to keep the poor ones from rising up and stealing it.”
Morrie Schwartz, via Tuesdays With Morrie (Page 156)

“If you see that some aspect of your society is bad, and you want to improve it, there is only one way to do so: you have to improve people. And in order to improve people, you begin with only one thing: you can become better yourself.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 89)

“Social niceties are easy to do half-heartedly. But they’re not for us, they’re for the other person. When you show up begrudgingly, it’s not half-hearted, it’s cold hearted. A handshake, a greeting, the way we sit in a meeting or wear a mask–it’s a chance to connect and to make a difference for the person we’re with. All in, or not at all.”
Seth Godin, Blog

“If you can teach a person kindness and love, but you do not, you lose a brother.”
Chinese Proverb, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 29)

“Markets often persuade us that we don’t have enough. Communities remind us that we do.”
Seth Godin, Blog

“This is the true joy in life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no ‘brief candle’ for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
George Bernard Shaw, via Sunbeams (Page 140)

“Nobody is rooting for you to fail. You may succeed. You may fail. But, for the most part, nobody cares one way or the other. This is good. The world is big and you are small, which means you can chase your dreams with little worry for what people think.”
James Clear, Blog

“I’ve always felt that one of the things that we do badly in our educational process, especially working with so-called marginalized young people, is that we educate them to figure out how quickly they can get out of the darkness and get into some much more pleasant situation. When what is needed, again and again, are more and more people who will stand in that darkness, who will not run away from those deeply hurt communities, and will open up possibilities that other people can’t see in any other way except through human beings who care about them.”
Vincent Harding, via Becoming Wise (Page 235)

“The person who’s in love with their vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, via Becoming Wise (Page 224)

Will Smith Quote from Collateral Beauty on How We’re Here to Connect.

“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

Beyond the Quote (325/365)

If I take a piece of paper and I draw a line down the center of it, you might say that it’s divided. You might say there is a left side and a right side. But, a simple line doesn’t change the fact that the sides are still part of the paper. They are not suddenly separate entities unto themselves—they are still a part of a whole. If I rip the paper down that line, you might say that the paper is now divided for sure. But, even if you were to rip the paper 1,000 times, each piece is still united in its essence—that it’s paper. From one perspective, division; from the other perspective, unity—even in the face of division.

“To make life a little better for people less fortunate than you, that’s what I think a meaningful life is. One lives not just for oneself but for one’s community.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, CNN

“We’ve fast become a world of things. And most people are being buried in the profusion. What most people need, then, is a place of community that has purpose, order, and meaning. A place in which being human is a prerequisite, but acting human is essential. A place where the generally disorganized thinking that pervades our culture becomes organized and clearly focused on a specific worthwhile result. A place where discipline and will become prized for what they are: the backbone of enterprise and action, of being what you are intentionally instead of accidentally. A place that replaces the home most of us have lost.”
Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 207)

“Nothing sustains motivation better than belonging to the tribe. It transforms a personal quest into a shared one. Previously, you were on your own. Your identity was singular. You are a reader. You are a musician. You are an athlete. When you join a book club or a band or a cycling group, your identity becomes linked to those around you. Growth and change is no longer an individual pursuit. We are readers. We are musicians. We are cyclists. The shared identity begins to reinforce your personal identity. This is why remaining part of a group after achieving a goal is crucial to maintaining your habits. It’s friendship and community that embed a new identity and help behaviors last over the long run.” ~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

“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

“The inspiration of a noble cause involving human interests wide and far, enables men to do things they did not dream themselves capable of before, and which they were not capable of alone. The consciousness of belonging, vitally, to something beyond individuality; of being part of a personality that reaches we know not where, in space and time, greatens the heart to the limit of the souls ideal, and builds out the supreme character.” ~ Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

“People want to be recognized. They want to be celebrated in some way. They want to be made to feel as if they really do count for something. And they want a place where they can belong in the community that stands for something more than just an enterprise that makes money.” ~ Martin Coles, Starbucks International President