passages and quotations about contentment

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The fundamental law of human
beings is interdependence. A person
is a person through other persons.

Desmond Tutu

Our interdependence with others is the most encompassing fact of human reality-- our personalities are made by our contacts with others. There is, therefore, a duty which falls upon all of us-- to become free, loving, warm, cooperative, affirmative personalities. Joshua Loth Liebman

Humankind is interdependent, and the happiness of each depends upon the happiness of all, and it is this lesson that humanity has to learn today as the first and last lesson. Hazrat Inayat Khan

‎Interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Even tiny insects survive by mutual cooperation based on innate recognition of their interconnectedness. It is because our own human existence is so dependent on the help of others that our need for love lies at the very foundation of our existence. Therefore we need a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others. the Dalai Lama

As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy even if I just got a good checkup at Mayo Clinic. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made. No individual or nation can stand out boasting of being independent. We are interdependent. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life doesn't make any sense without interdependence. We need each other,
and the sooner we learn that, the better for us all.

Erik Erikson

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Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are
based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that
I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure
as I have received and am still receiving.

Albert Einstein

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of
the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all
part of one another, and all involved in one another.

Thomas Merton

The indigenous understanding has its basis of spirituality in a recognition
of the interconnectedness and interdependence of all living things, a
holistic and balanced view of the world. All things are bound together.
All things connect. What happens to the Earth happens to the children of
the earth. Humankind has not woven the web of life; we are but one thread.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.

Rebecca Adamson

There is no such thing as a "self-made" person. We are made up
of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed
for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered
nto the make-up of our character and of our thoughts,
as well as our success.

George Matthew Adams

Interdependence is a far more mature, more advanced concept. If I
am physically interdependent, I am self-reliant and capable, but I
also realize that you and I working together can accomplish far
more than, even at my best, I could accomplish alone.

Stephen R. Covey
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Interdependence and emptiness show us that there are no fixed starting
points. We can start from nothing. Whatever we have, wherever we
are — that is the place we can start from. Many people have the
idea that they lack what they need in order to start working toward
their dreams. They feel they do not have enough power, or they
do not have enough money. But they should know that any point
is the right starting point. This is the perspective that
emptiness opens up. We can start from zero. (17th Karmapa)

Ogyen Trinley Dorje
The Heart Is Noble

Interdependence remains the law, independence a rare and often
fatal exception. Better to place yourself in a position of mutual
dependence, then, and to follow this critical law rather than look
for its reversal. You will not have the unbearable pressure of being
on top, and the master above you will in essence be your slave,
for they will depend on you.

Robert Greene
The 48 Laws of Power

In an age of interdependence, global citizenship-- based on trust and a
sense of shared responsibility-- is a crucial pillar of progress. At a time
when more than one billion people are denied the very minimum
requirements of human dignity, business cannot afford to be
seen as the problem. Rather, it must work with governments and
all other actors in society to mobilize global science, technology and
knowledge to tackle the interlocking crises of hunger, disease,
environmental degradation and conflict that are
holding back the developing world.

Kofi Annan

Human beings are a part of the whole called by us 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 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

The further human society drifts
away from nature, the less we
understand interdependence.

Peter Senge

In the progress of personality, first comes a declaration of
independence, then a recognition of interdependence.

Henry Van Dyke

Collective wisdom is about our capacity to recognize interdependence
and to make decisions demonstrating that we have a stake in each
other, that we can indeed care for each other and
the physical planet we share.

Alan Briskin

We should be evolving into a new age of business with a worldview
that maintains one simple proposition--that all of nature:
humans, animals, earth, are interconnected and interdependent.

Anita Roddick

The spirit of interdependence will not cost us more than it's worth.
On the steep slope ahead, holding hands is necessary.
And it just might be that we can learn to enjoy it.

Paul Harvey

The idea of interdependence is central to Buddhism, which holds that
all things come into being through the mutual interactions
of various causes and conditions.

Daisaku Ikeda

Interdependence must be transformed into solidarity based upon
the principle that the goods of creation are meant for all.
That which human industry produces through the processing of raw
materials with the contribution of work must serve equally for the good of all.

Pope John Paul II

Ego's trick is to make us lose sight of our interdependence.
That kind of ego-thought gives us a perfect justification to
look out only for ourselves. But that is far from the truth. In
reality we all depend on each other and we have to help each
other. The husband has to help his wife, the wife has to help
the husband, the mother has to help her children, and the
children are supposed to help the parents, too,
whether they want to or not.

Gelek Rimpoche

However fragmented the world, however intense the national rivalries,
it is an inexorable fact that we become more interdependent every day.
I believe that national sovereignties will shrink in the face of universal
interdependence. The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now,
as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning:
We are all in the same boat.

Jacques Yves Cousteau

Over time, years of meditation gave me glimpses of the
interconnectedness and interdependence of all life.
I experienced that on one level we are alone, separate,
apart from everyone and everything; on another level,
we are the Self in different disguises, different names and
forms, a part of everyone and everything. This experience
of interconnectedness is part of spiritual traditions and the
perennial wisdom in virtually all religions and cultures.

Dean Ornish