If you want to be important – that’s wonderful. If you want to be great – that’s wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s your new definition of greatness – it means that everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know the second law of thermodynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love…
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
The vicious count their years; virtuous, their acts.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.
—Jack London (1876–1916) American Novelist
Act as though what you do makes a difference. It does.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing because he could only do a little.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
The deed is everything, the glory naught.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Improvement begins with I.
—Arnold Glasow (1905–98) American Businessman
He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Don’t be afraid of outgiving God. It is impossible to do that.
—Chuck Swindoll (b.1934) American Evangelical Christian Pastor, Author
I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catchers mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
Love never reasons but profusely gives; gives, like a thoughtless prodigal, its all, and trembles lest it has done too little.
—Hannah More
If you have much, give of your wealth; if you have little, give of your heart.
—Arabic Proverb
Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one.
—Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948) Russian Christian Philosopher, Religious Leader
We cannot build our own future without helping others to build theirs.
—Bill Clinton (b.1946) American Head of State, Lawyer, Public Speaker
Look around the habitable world: how few know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
—Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self. So you have to begin there, not outside, not on other people. That comes afterward, when you’ve worked on your own corner.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
—Edward Everett Hale (1822–1909) American Unitarian Clergyman
To do more for the world than the world does for you—that is success.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots.
—Frank A. Clark
A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor’s.
—Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian
It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
When we are certain that the way to accomplish our own wishes is to help others, we have no regrets.
—Sakyong Mipham (b.1962) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Teacher, Lama
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth. It is obvious that man is himself a traveler; that the purpose of the world is not.
—Wilfred Grenfell (1865–1940) Canadian Humanitarian, Doctor
Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out of his conscience, thus helping to bring the collective conscience to life.
—Norman Cousins (1915–90) American Journalist, Author, Academic, Activist
When you give of your possessions, you give but little; it is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
—Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer not neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
—Unknown
If we could all hear one another’s prayers, God might be relieved of some of his burdens.
—Ashleigh Brilliant (b.1933) British Cartoonist, Author
It is one of the beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another, without helping himself.
—Gamaliel Bailey (1807–59) American Antislavery Journalist
Charity sees the need, not the cause.
—German Proverb
Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.
—Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu Monk, Mystic
Things of the spirit differ from things material in that the more you give the more you have.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.
—Albert Pike (1809–91) American Masonic Scholar, Orator, Jurist
Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
—Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) American Sportsperson
Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.
—Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The chief duty I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author