Here are some fine words of wisdom, advice, encouragement, and inspiration that seem useful in these times. I hope that these words will help give you renewed hope, motivation, strength, and courage whenever you need a boost.
“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
– Andy Warhol
“I always wondered why somebody doesn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.”
– Lily Tomlin
“If you don’t like the news…go out and make some of your own.”
– Wes Nisker
— Eleanor Roosevelt
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”
– William James
“At the end of this day, the world will either be a more or less loving, compassionate, caring place because of your presence.”
– John Pavolvitz
— Jane Goodall
“The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.”
– Norman Cousins
“We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.”
— J.K. Rowling
— Amelia Earhart
“You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.”
– Edward O. Wilson
“Common sense is seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be.”
– Harriet Beecher Stowe
“The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world your best and it may not be enough. Give your best anyway.”
– Mother Teresa
– Mark Twain
“What after all has maintained the human race on this old globe, despite all the calamities of nature and all the tragic failings of mankind, if not the faith in new possibilities and the courage to advocate them.”
– Jane Addams
“There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.”
— Marshall McLuhan
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
– Margaret Mead
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
– Nelson Mandela
“Nobody made a bigger mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
– Edmund Burke
“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”
– Edward Everett Hale
“If you try, you risk failure. If you don’t, you ensure it.”
– source unknown
— Robert Louis Stevenson
“It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
– Jiddu Krishnamurti
“For every problem there is a solution that is simple, clean, and wrong.”
– Henry Louis Mencken
“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it matters most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
– Haile Selassie
— MLK, Jr.
“If we do not change direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.”
— Chinese proverb
On Priorities
“Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
– Henry David Thoreau
“Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.”
– Edward Abbey
“We spend more time developing means of escaping our troubles than we do solving the troubles we’re trying to escape from.”
– David Lloyd
“Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem, in my opinion, to characterize our age.”
– Albert Einstein
On Effective Approaches
“The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you can alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change the world.”
– James Baldwin
– Buckminster Fuller
“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
– Chinese proverb
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Also read this letter by E.B. White:
(Excerpts): “It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right.” “As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate.”
…and this letter by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, which begins:
“Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.”
Related posts:
- Words of the Wise: On Progress and Action
- Excerpts of Wisdom, from Hope in the Dark
- Great Quotations page
- Quotations posts index
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