Make A Difference Quotes

“It came to me that reform should begin at home, and since that day I have not had time to remake the world.”
Will Durant, via Sunbeams (Page 120)

“This really is my life’s work, to go where there is suffering. I suppose, like us all, I’m learning how to deal with the suffering of the world inside myself… to deal with my own pain and most importantly to still have the ability to be proactive.”
Kayla Mueller, via Becoming Wise (Page 263)

“The way to set moral change in motion, [Anthony Appiah] says, is not to go for the jugular, or even for dialogue—straight to the things that divide you. Talk about sports. Talk about the weather. Talk about your children. Make a human connection. Change comes about in part, as he describes it, by way of ‘conversation in the old-fashioned sense’—simple association, habits of coexistence, seeking familiarity around mundane human qualities of who we are.”
Krista Tippett, Becoming Wise (Page 135)

“People who have turned the world on its axis across history have called humanity to love. It’s time to dare this more bravely in our midst, and dare learning together how love can be practical, creative, and sustained as a social good, not merely a private good.”
Krista Tippett, Becoming Wise (Page 10)

“It is simply untrue that all our institutions are evil, that all adults are unsympathetic, that all politicians are mere opportunists, that all aspects of university life are corrupt. Having discovered an illness, it’s not terribly useful to prescribe death as a cure.”
George McGovern, via Sunbeams (Page 89)

Happy But Never Satisfied – Motivational or Misleading?

Excerpt: Many people love the phrase “Be happy, but never satisfied” and they find it motivational. But, what if it was actually misleading and dangerous for our mental framework?

“Idealistic reformers are dangerous because their idealism has no roots in love, but is simply a hysterical and unbalanced rage for order amidst their own chaos.”
William Irwin Thompson, via Sunbeams (Page 67)

“Do you change people first or do you change society? I believe this is a false dichotomy. You have to change both simultaneously. If you’re changing only yourself and have no concern for changing the society, something goes awry. If you’re changing only society but not changing yourself, something goes awry, as tended to happen in the late 1960s. Now, ‘simultaneously’ may be an overstatement, because I think there are periods when one has to concentrate on one or the other. And there are periods in a society, in a culture, when the emphasis is appropriate only on one or the other. What I’m trying to say is, never lose sight of either the internal world or the external world, the peace within and the peace based on justice on the outside.”
David Dellinger, via Sunbeams (Page 66)

A small, kind, loving reminder.

Sadhguru Quote on Transforming The World and Where To Focus Your Efforts First

“You cannot transform the world without transforming the individual.”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 262)

Beyond the Quote (300/365)

Just like you cannot transform a wall without transforming each individual brick. Or a football team without transforming each of the individual players. Or a relationship without transforming each of the individual actions. What most people miss, in my opinion, is the immediate opportunity in exchange for a grandiose vision. Our opportunity to change the world is right in front of our faces every day, but so many of us are too busy thinking about how we can change the whole world and are doing nothing instead.

“Never before has a generation of people known the comforts and conveniences we have today. And yet, we cannot claim to be the most joyful or loving generation in history. A vast number of people live in states of constant anxiety and depression. Some are suffering their failure, but ironically, many are suffering the consequences of their success. Some are suffering their limitations, but many are suffering their freedom. What is missing is human consciousness. Everything else is in place, but the human being is not in place. If human beings stopped obstructing the path to their own happiness, every other solution is at hand. You cannot transform the world without transforming the individual.”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 262)

“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, CNN

Quote from Modern Love About Recalibrating the Universe When Anything Bad Happens

“Whenever anything bad happens, you should try and recalibrate the universe or whatever you want to call it with its opposite.“
Yasmine, Modern Love

Beyond the Quote (255/365)

Spoilers ahead. In the final episode of Modern Love, Season 1, we are shown a scene of a young man, Rob, who gets stood up at a café. Disheartened and upset, he goes to leave the café and (appropriately enough) walks out into the rain. He slowly pulls back to shield under the café’s awning as an attractive blond women, Yasmine, runs to shield on the other side.

John C. Maxwell Quote on Greatness and How One Is Too Small A Number To Achieve It

“One is too small a number to achieve greatness. No accomplishment of real value has ever been achieved by a human being working alone.”
John C. Maxwell, Leadership Gold

Beyond the Quote (234/365)

Big accomplishments don’t just happen. They’re an accumulated result of many small happenings. This is true for most anything in life. Big accomplishments in health are a product of the accumulated effect of the daily meals and workouts. Big accomplishments in business are a product of the accumulated effect of the smaller component systems that are put into place. Big accomplishments in relationships are a product of the accumulated effect of the smaller conversations, actions, and efforts that went into them. If you want to accomplish something big, the focus should be on accumulating more and more of the small.

“We are an ‘out there’ society, accustomed to thinking in terms of them against us. We want to fix the world so that we can remain the same. And for an ‘out there’ society, coming ‘inside’ is a problem. But now is the time to learn how. Now is the time to change. Because unless we do, the chaos will remain. And we can’t afford this kind of chaos much longer. We’re simply running out of time.”
Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 261)

“We can’t change the world ‘out there.’ And fortunately, we don’t have to; we can begin much slower to home. We can begin ‘in here.’ In fact, if we’re to succeed, we must. Because the chaos isn’t ‘out there’ in everyone else. It’s not ‘out there’ in the world. The chaos is ‘in here’ in you and me. The world’s not the problem; you and I are. The world’s not in chaos; we are. The world’s apparent chaos is only a reflection of our own inner turmoil.”
Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 260)

“If you feel called upon to alleviate suffering in the world, that is a very noble thing to do, but remember not to focus exclusively on the outer; otherwise, you will encounter frustration and despair. Without a profound change in human consciousness, the world’s suffering is a bottomless pit. So don’t let your compassion become one-sided. Empathy with someone else’s pain or lack and a desire to help need to be balanced with a deeper realization of the eternal nature of all life and the ultimate illusion of all pain. Then let your peace flow into whatever you do and you will be working on the levels of effect and cause simultaneously.”
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (Page 203)

John C. Maxwell Quote on Leadership and How To Best Influence Other People

“Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. How do you gain influence from people? You invest in them. How do you invest in them? It starts with giving them time.”
John C. Maxwell, Leadership Gold

Beyond the Quote (162/365)

Investing time into another person is undoubtedly one of the most powerful ways to influence them. For, time is our most precious resource and when somebody shares their most precious resource with you, it is a clear showing that you are precious to them. If you had a very precious diamond, you wouldn’t just share that with anybody would you? You would only share that with someone precious—someone close.

“I have found that battling despair does not mean closing my eyes to the enormity of the tasks of effecting change, nor ignoring the strength and the barbarity of the forces aligned against us. It means teaching, surviving and fighting with the most important resource I have, myself, and taking joy in that battle. It means, for me, recognizing the enemy outside and the enemy within, and knowing that my work is part of our power, and knowing that this work did not begin with my birth nor will it end with my death. And it means knowing that within this continuum, my life and my love and my work has particular power and meaning relative to others.”
Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals

Beyond the Quote (153/365)

Even when the tasks set in front of us for affecting change are massive—we mustn’t waver. We mustn’t close our eyes. We mustn’t let the size of the task stop us from taking every possible step we can to keep moving forward as individuals and as a society. For, any big change can only ever happen effectively as a result of a collective series of small efforts. These small efforts collect one by one from each individual person and person by person as a collective group. There is no one person who is “big” enough to handle this task on their own and there is no one person who is “small” enough to contribute to the collective effort that unites us as a whole.