Quotes as Niblets of Sustenance to Support Us "Bringing It Back Home"
These quotes come from the Pacific Waves Issues from September 2000 to date. They are divided into several categories. Quotes were placed where they seemed to fit "best," though many could have fit in several categories.
If you have a favorite quote related to the themes of peace, non-violence, bringing it all back home, cultural understanding, volunteerism... share it with us and it could be added here.
| Acting on Your Belief | |
| Better than
a thousand hollow words, Is one word that brings peace. --Buddha |
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| "Do not
wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person." --Mother Teresa
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| “Even if
I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant
my apple tree.” --Martin Luther King Jr. |
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| If we do not
change our direction we are likely to end up where we are headed for.
--Chinese Proverb |
|
| "Live as
if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever."
--Mohandas Gandhi |
|
| “Only those
who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.”
--T.S. Elliot |
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| "The hottest
places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral
crisis, maintain their neutrality." --Dante |
|
| You see things
and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were,
and I say. "Why not?" --George Bernard Shaw |
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| Courage | |
| An act of love,
a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases
the courage and love and hope of all. --Dorothy Day |
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| Let no man say,
then, 'why don't "they" do something?' There is no 'they'.
There is just us - you and me - free men and women, responsible individuals.
--Dr. John Peters (1907 - 1992), founder of World Neighbors |
|
| “Nothing
could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left
one unexpended effort that might have saved the world.” --Jane
Addams |
|
| "The flaw
I have discovered in philosophical systems is that reality is always
lurking in the shadows and slipping through the brush. Reality has
never read philosophy." --W. Michael Gear, Coyote Summer |
|
| Work as though
you don't need the money. Love as though you've never been hurt. Dance
as though nobody's watching. --Author Unknown |
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| Cultural Understanding | |
| “As the
world shrinks and our population mix increases there will be a greater
need for inter-cultural understanding and acceptance.” --Australian
Volunteer, Samoa. |
|
| Every culture
enriches our lives with its own unique beauty and wisdom. Yet we all
share the same hopes and dreams, the same need for love and home and
kinship. These are the common threads that bind us together as one
family in one world. --Common Threads, Hallmark |
|
| Preservation
of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other
cultures. --Cesar Chavez |
|
| Until he extends
the circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself
find peace. --Albert Schweitzer |
|
| “When you're
finally up on the moon, looking back at the earth, all these differences
and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend and you're
going to get a concept that maybe this is really one world and why
the hell can't we learn to live together like decent people?”
--Frank Borman |
|
| Determination | |
| Always bear
in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than
any other one thing. --Abraham Lincoln |
|
| Any intelligent
fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes
a touch of genius--and a lot of courage--to move in the opposite direction.
--Albert Einstein |
|
| "For strong
souls live like fire-hearted suns, to spend their strength in furthest
striving actions." --Walt Whitman |
|
| "Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever does." --Margaret
Mead |
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| Insight | |
| Do not wrong
or hate your neighbor; for it is not he that you wrong; you wrong
yourself. --Shawnee Chant |
|
| Each one has
to find his peace from within. And peace, to be real, must be unaffected
by outside circumstances. --Mohandas Gandhi |
|
| If it's natural
to kill, how come men have to go into training to learn how? --Joan
Baez |
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| Our enemy is
our ultimate teacher. --The 14th Dalai Lama |
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| Peace begins
when the hungry are fed. --Anonymous |
|
| Teach this triple
truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service
and compassion are the things which renew humanity. --Buddha |
|
| The older I
grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
--H. L. Mencken |
|
| “War is
not healthy for children and other living things.” --Another
Mother for Peace |
|
| “We have
grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.
Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more
about war than we know about peace, more about killing that we know
about living.” --General Omar Bradley |
|
| When one door
of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the
closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
--Helen Keller. 1880-1968 |
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| Non-Violence | |
| "The world
cannot continue to wage war like physical giants and seek peace like
intellectual pygmies." --Dante |
|
| "Violence
just hurts those who are already hurt...Instead of exposing the brutality
of the opressor, it justifies it." --Cesar Chavez |
|
| "War may
sometimes be a necessary evil, but no matter how necessary, it is
still evil, never a good. We will not learn to live together in peace
by killing each other’s children." --Jimmy Carter, Nobel
Prize Acceptance Speech 12/10/02 |
|
| You can't shake
hands with a clenched fist. --Indira Gandhi |
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| Peacemaker | |
| "It may
seem presumptuous on my part, but I personally believe we need to
think seriously whether a violent action is the right thing to do
and in the greater interest of the nation and people in the long run.
I believe violence will only increase the cycle of violence. But how
do we deal with hatred and anger, which are often the root causes
of such senseless violence?" --The 14th Dalai Lama, in recent
letter to President Bush |
|
| Some people
strengthen the society just by being the kind of people they are.
--John W. Gardner |
|
| This is the
way of peace: Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred
with love. --Peace Pilgrim |
|
| Volunteerism | |
| “Although
it was but a drop in the huge ocean I feel better for it. Volunteering
strengthened me...it was an experience for life.” --Australian
Volunteer, Botswana. |
|
| “Through
the decades the value and importance of volunteering has not changed.
Volunteering is symbolic of human solidarity, of human equality.”
--Herb Feith (first international volunteer, 1951) |
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| Working Together | |
| And so, my fellow
Americans: ask not what your country can do for you-- ask what you
can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not
what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the
freedom of man. --John F Kennedy, from "Innaugural Address"
Jan 20, 1961 |
|
| Ask not what
your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country...
--John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 |
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| He who forgives
ends the quarrel. --African proverb |
|
| I will call
you my brother, I will call you my sister, on the basis of what you
do for justice, what you do for equality, what you do for freedom
and not on the basis of who you are. --June Jordan in Technical Difficulties
|
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| We cannot live
only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow-men;
and along those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as
causes, and they come back to us as effects. --Herman Melville |
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| When spider
webs are woven together, they can tie up a lion. --Ethiopian proverb |
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| When women have
a voice in national and international affairs, wars will cease forever.
--Augusta Stowe-Gullen |
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| "With every
true friendship, we build more firmly the foundation on which the
peace of the world rests." --Mohandas Gandhi |
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