INSPIRATION

I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love. ~Mother Teresa

There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love. ~Mother Teresa

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. ~Oscar Wilde

Love is all you need. ~The Beatles

Down in their hearts, wise men know this truth: the only way to help yourself is to help others. ~Elbert Hubbard

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

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. ~Anne Frank

If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it. ~Lucy Larcom

The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. ~Morrie Schwartz

The only thing we never get enough of is love; and the only thing we never give enough of is love. ~Henry Miller

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. ~Mahatma Gandhi

Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit. ~Khalil Gibran

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world. ~Wayne Dyer

Our prayers for others flow more easily than those for ourselves. This shows we are made to live by charity. ~C.S. Lewis

See yourself always as cause, and perhaps a better world will be found among your effects. ~Robert Brault

The great use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it. ~William James

Go the extra mile. It's never crowded. ~Author Unknown

The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green. ~Thomas Carlyle

Wishing good, merely, is a lukewarm charity; but doing good is divine. ~James Lendall Basford

I've seen and met angels wearing the disguise of ordinary people living ordinary lives. ~Tracy Chapman

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. ~William James

We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses. ~C.G. Jung

To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right. ~Confucius

If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito. ~Betty Reese

Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. ~Mother Teresa

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. ~Dr. Seuss

It seems to me that any full grown, mature adult would have a desire to be responsible, to help where he can in a world that needs so very much, that threatens us so very much. ~Norman Lear

Being good is commendable, but only when it is combined with doing good is it useful. ~Author Unknown

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. ~Mother Teresa

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little — do what you can. ~Sydney Smith

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little. ~Edmund Burke

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. ~Mother Teresa

Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you. ~Mother Teresa

You know it’s love when all you want is that person to be happy, even if you’re not part of their happiness ~Julia Roberts

The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart. ~Helen Keller

Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him. ~Albert Schweitzer

He who gives when he is asked has waited too long. ~Sunshine Magazine

This is the true joy in life — being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. ~George Bernard Shaw

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. ~Nelson Henderson

In about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy. ~Karl Reiland

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
~William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, much later adapted to "So shines a good deed in a weary world" by David Seltzer for the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

If we could all hear one another's prayers, God might be relieved of some of his burdens. ~Ashleigh Brilliant

Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light. ~Norman B. Rice

I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. ~William Penn

Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee, and do not try to make the universe a blind alley. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings. ~Anaïs Nin

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. ~Martin Luther King Jr.

If you always give, you will always have. ~Chinese Proverb

You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give. ~Author Unknown

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth. ~Mohammed Ali

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

I wondered why somebody didn't do something. Then I realized, I am somebody. ~Author Unknown

The Lord loveth a cheerful giver. He also accepteth from a grouch. ~Catherine Hall

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 (Thanks, Carl)

Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile. ~Wilfred Grenfell

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference. ~Tom Brokaw

Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day. ~Sally Koch

God has not called us to see through each other, but to see each other through. ~Author Unknown

Seek to do good, and you will find that happiness will run after you. ~James Freeman Clarke

He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help. ~Abraham Lincoln

If you have no will to change it, you have no right to criticize it. ~Author Unknown

When you dig another out of their troubles, you find a place to bury your own. ~Author Unknown

Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who have need of a man's help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. For, remember, you don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too. ~Albert Schweitzer

The only gift is a portion of thyself. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

When you open your heart to giving, angels fly to your door. ~Author Unknown

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ~Buddha

Things of the spirit differ from things material in that the more you give the more you have. ~Christopher Morley

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. ~Khalil Gibran

No joy can equal the joy of serving others. ~Sai Baba

To fold the hands in prayer is well, to open them in charity is better. ~French Proverb

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope... and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. ~Robert F. Kennedy

What a person believes is not as important as how a person believes. ~Timothy Virkkala

If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ~Mahatma Gandhi

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. ~Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi

Plant flowers in others' gardens and your life becomes a bouquet! ~Author Unknown

There is no use whatever trying to help people who do not help themselves. You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb himself. ~Andrew Carnegie

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world. ~Author Unknown

A good example has twice the value of good advice. ~Author Unknown

Improvement begins with I. ~Arnold Glasow

Instead of counting your days, make your days count. ~Author Unknown

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. ~Mother Teresa

Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others. ~Saint Augustine

We are here to grow and to love. The rest doesn't really matter. ~ T. E. Breitenbach