Famous Quotes on Volunteering
Compiled from the Points of Light Foundation and ASAE & The Center’s Executive Listserve
12-2007
Citizen service is the very American idea that we meet our challenges not as isolated individuals but as members of a true community, with all of us working together. Our mission is nothing less than to spark a renewed sense of obligation, a new sense of duty, a new season of service…— former President Bill Clinton
The magnitude of our social problems will require that all citizens and institutions make a commitment to volunteering as a way of life and as a primary opportunity create needed change.— George Romney, former Michigan governor
We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give. —
Winston Churchill
How can we expect our children to know and experience the joy of giving unless we teach them that the greater pleasure in life lies in the art of giving rather than receiving. — James Cash Penny
If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. — Booker T. Washington
A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.—Henrik Ibsen, poet and playwright
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. — Aesop
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfull, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. — Margaret Mead, anthropologist
Everyone can be great because anyone can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t even have to make your subject and and your verb agree to serve… You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
You cannot help someone get up a hill without getting closer to the top yourself. — General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. — Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl
There is no better investment of time and money that in the life of a child. They are the future. — Alma Powell
Seek to do good, and you will find that happiness will run after you. — James Freeman Clarke
No man can become rich without himself enriching others. — Andrew Carnegie
The moral test of a society is how that society treats those who are in the dawn of life- the children; those who are in the twilight of life- the elderly; and those who are in the shadow of life-the sick, the needy and the handicapped. —
Hubert Humphrey
We can do no great things, only small things with great love. — Mother Theresa
There is a tremendous strength that is growing in the world through sharing together, praying together, suffering together and working together. — Mother Theresa
Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation's compassion, unselfish caring, patience, and just plain love for one another. —Erma Bombeck
The miracle is this - the more we share, the more we have. — Leonard Nimoy
It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Volunteering creates a national character in which the community and the nation take on a spirit of compassion, comradeship and confidence. — Brian O'Connell
Never before has man had such a great capacity to control his own environment, to end hunger, poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and human misery. We have the power to make the best generation of mankind in the history of the world. — President John F. Kennedy
"No man has a right to withhold his support from an organization working on his behalf; every man owe a part of his time and money to the business or industry in which he is engaged?"
Teddy Roosevelt
For more "seasoned" prospects: "Individual commitment to a group effort:
that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work." ~ Vincent Lombardi (1913-1970)
For the younger folks: "The purpose of an organization is to enable common men to do uncommon things." ~ Peter F. Drucker (and then I go into how we can help them do just that!)
"Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the
world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead.
"There's no limit to the number of people who won't come to a bad show."
Oscar Hammerstein
"It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit."
Vision is perhaps our greatest strength. It has kept us alive to the power and continuity of thought through the centuries; it makes us peer into the future and lends shape to the unknown.
Li Ka Shing
"Vision without execution is hallucination." Thomas Edison
"It is only through the power of association that those of any calling exercise due influence in their communities." Elihu Root
"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." -- - Elie Wiesel
Many hands make light work."
"I will not join an organization that will have me as a member." Groucho Marx
"America's strength is in its groups."
Alexis de Tocqueville
The individual who wants to make an invaluable contribution to his industry, through the association which represents it, will continually remind himself that successful organizations are created be self-motivated men out of human adore and conviction to the association's mission and the industry's continual success.
The solutions to today's problem will be obsolete tomorrow. Our present equilibrium will be the imbalance of days to come.
"So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work." Peter Drucker
"First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Ghandi
"I am a strong believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." Benjamin Franklin
"I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness." Mother Teresa of Calcutta
"You must never so much as think whether you like it or not, whether it is bearable or not; you must never think of anything except the need, and how to meet it." Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross
"To serve, not to be served." motto of Ethel Percy Andrus, founder of AARP
"Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip." Will Rogers
"Always keep a volunteer between you and trouble." (or between you and a problem – our own Gerald Wade-ism from GSAE)
"There is nothing as past as a Past President."
"Always know how your Board is going to vote before you bring up a controversial topic."
What Is Success by Ralph Waldo Emerson
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; This is to have succeeded.
"I can't control the actions of other people, but I can control my reaction to their actions."
Committee's are cul-de-sacs where ideas go to die!!
Never leave the room
I can't figure out where I leave off and everyone else begins.
George McCabee