quotations and passages on community

If civilization is to survive, we
must cultivate the science
of human relationships--
the ability of all peoples,
of all kinds, to live together,
in the same world at peace.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

community 2 - community 3
community 4

The story of any one person's real experience finds its
startling parallel in that of every one of us.

James Russell Lowell

To desire and strive to be
of some service to the world,
to aim at doing something
which shall really increase the happiness and welfare and
virtue of humankind--this
is a choice which is possible
for all of us; and surely
it is a good haven to sail for.

Henry Van Dyke

Let us be kinder to one another.

Aldous Huxley's last words

A mystic bond of brotherhood
makes all people one.

Thomas Carlyle

It is not written, blessed are they that feedeth the poor,
but they that considereth the poor.
A little thought and a little kindness are often worth
more than a great deal of money.

John Ruskin

I sought my soul,
But my soul I could not see.
I sought my God,
But my God eluded me.
I sought my brother,
And I found all three.

Anon

Anticipate charity by preventing poverty; assist the reduced fellow human being,
either by a considerable gift, or a sum of money, or by teaching him or her a trade,
or by putting him or her in the way of business, so that he or she may earn an honest livelihood, and not be forced to the dreadful alternative of holding out his hand
for charity. This is the highest step and the summit of charity's golden ladder.

Maimonides

Arthur C. Clarke

The realization that our small planet is only one of many worlds
gives humankind the perspective it needs to realize sooner that
our own world belongs to all of its creatures, that the moon landing
marks the end of our childhood as a race and the beginning
of a newer and better civilization.

It is probably a pity that every citizen of each state cannot visit all the others,
to see the differences, to learn what we have in common, and to come back
with a richer, fuller understanding of America--in all its beauty,
in all its dignity, in all its strength, in support of moral principle.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Brotherhood is not just a Bible word.
Out of comradeship can come and
will come the happy life for all.

Heywood Broun

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses,
to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to
may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted
to worship, or else a horror and corruption such as you now meet, if at all,
only in nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other
to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is in the awe and circumspection proper to them that we should
conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play,
all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.

C.S. Lewis

We cannot live only for ourselves.
A thousand fibers connect us with
our fellow men and women;
and among those fibers,
as sympathetic threads, our
actions run as causes,
and they come back to us as effects.

Herman Melville

Hugh Prather

Very seldom will people give up on themselves. They continue to have hope
because they know that they have the potential for change. They try again--
not just to exist, but to bring about those changes in themselves that will make
their lives worth living. Yet people are very quick to give up on friends,
and especially on spouses, to declare them hopeless, and to either walk away
or do nothing more than resign themselves to a bad situation.

Blessed are the servants who love their brothers and sisters as much
when they are sick and useless as when they are well and can be
of service to them. And blessed are they who love their brothers
and sisters as well when they are afar off as when they are by their side,
and who would say nothing behind their back that they might not,
in love, say before their face.

St. Francis of Assisi

No person is an island entire of itself.
Every person is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were.
Any person's death diminishes me, because I am involved in humankind.
Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls.
It tolls for thee.

John Donne

Johann Amos Comenius

We are all citizens of one world, we are all of one blood.
To hate people because they were born in another country,
because they speak a different language, or because
they take a different view on this subject or that, is a great folly. Desist, I implore you, for we are all equally human. . . .
Let us have but one end in view: the welfare of humanity.

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When a mentally retarded child is born, the religious question we often ask is, "Why does God let this happen?" The better question to pose is to ask, "What kind of community should we be so that mental retardation isn't a barrier to the enjoyment of one's full humanity?"

Rabbi Harold Kushner

Phil Cousineau

A lot of movement in today's life is away from others. That's part of the American myth
of individualism. We are lone wolves, us against the world--individually,
or sometimes as a small, nuclear family. But I think we've paid a high price for that
in this country. There's tremendous solitude and isolation. Perhaps this revival
of interest in the soul is reflecting a slight turn away from the isolation of individualism
back to the cohesion of the community. Soulful life nudges us toward reconnecting
ourselves to the neighborhood, toward community action, political activity,
reattaching with our family, our past, our ancestors, and revitalizing our spiritual lives.

We are responsible for one another. Collectively so. The world is a joint effort.
We might say it is like a giant puzzle, and each one of us is a very important
and unique part of it. Collectively, we can unite and bring about a powerful change
in the world. By working to raise our awareness to the highest possible level of
spiritual understanding, we can begin to heal ourselves, then each other and the world.

Betty Eadie

What do we live for if it is not to make life
less difficult to each other?

George Eliot

And so it's good that we remember
Just as soon as we've discovered
That the things we do in life
Will always end up touching others

Paul O'Neill
(from Trans-Siberian Orchestra's
Christmas Eve and Other Stories)

Human beings are a part of the whole, called by us "the universe," a part limited
in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings,
as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our own personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Albert Einstein

One exemplary act may affect one life, or even millions of lives.
All those who set standards for themselves,
who strengthen the bonds of community,
who do their work creditably and accept individual responsibility,
are building the common future.

John W. Gardner

Increase, O God, the spirit of neighborliness among us,
that in peril we may uphold one another,
in calamity serve one another, in suffering tend one another
and in homeliness and loneliness in exile befriend one another.
Grant us brave and enduring hearts that we may strengthen one another,
till the disciplines and testing of these days be ended.

Prayer used in air-raid shelters, England, WWII

We are all longing to go home to some place we have never been —
a place half-remembered and half-envisioned we can only catch glimpses
of from time to time. Community. Somewhere, there are people to whom
we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throats.
Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us, eyes will light up
as we enter, voices will celebrate with us whenever we come into
our own power. Community means strength that joins our strength
to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter.
A circle of healing. A circle of friends. Someplace where we can be free.

Starhawk

The American city should be a collection of communities where every member
has a right to belong. It should be a place where every person feels safe
on his or her streets and in the house of his or her friends. It should be a place
where each individual's dignity and self-respect is strengthened by the respect
and affection of his or her neighbors. It should be a place where each of us
can find the satisfaction and warmth which comes from being a member of the community of human beings. This is what people sought at the dawn of civilization.
It is what we seek today.

Lyndon B. Johnson

Whenever education and refinement carry us away from the common people,
they are growing towards selfishness, which is the monster evil of the world.
That is true cultivation which gives us sympathy with every form of human life,
and enables us to work most successfully for its advancement.
Refinement that carries us away from our fellow people is not God’s refinement.

Henry Ward Beecher