Volunteerism Quotes

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”
― Barack Obama

“The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. One of the great ironies of life is this: He or she who serves almost always benefits more than he or she who is served.”
― Gordon B. Hinckley, Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes

“They have a Right to censure, that have a Heart to help: The rest is Cruelty, not Justice.

(Frequently misquoted as "He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.")”
― William Penn

“Doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves.”
― Horace Mann

“To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.”
― H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“My old man says when it's time to be counted, the important thing is to be man enough to stand up.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Between Planets

“I reached down and picked up a baseball bat at my feet and I flung it as hard as it could. It circled and arced high in the air until it slammed against the side of the dining hall with a crack and fell.
I sat down in the dirt. Then I lay down in the dirt.
Because not only was there no trail to follow, there was no evidence he’d ever been here.
There was no evidence any of them had been here.”
― Laura Anderson Kurk, Perfect Glass

“A noble leader answers not to the trumpet calls of self promotion, but to the hushed whispers of necessity.”
― Mollie Marti

“I interviewed my dad on video in his final weeks. When I asked about his work and finding meaning through helping others, he responded, "I don't think you can be focused on, 'Oh gee, I want to make a difference.' It has to be spontaneous. If it's not...there's some kind of egotistical thing going on. That's a red flag. You hope you impact people on the deepest level you are capable of at the time. Sometimes you hit it, sometimes you don't. You're trying.”
― Lisa Shannon, A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman

“There were many, many times thereafter that Don regretted having enlisted - but so has every man who ever volunteered for military service.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Between Planets

“Allow the way to your great work to be guided by your service to others.”
― Mollie Marti

“Service to humanity is service to God.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita, Think Great: Be Great!

“I find that the critics of voluntary service are all too often those who are prepared to accept such services when they require them but deride them with cynicism and scepticism when they see others helping and being helped.”
― Eva Hart

“Joyfully we undertake our daily work.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind

“We can find meaning and reward by serving some higher purpose than ourselves, a shining purpose, the illumination of a thousand points of light.”
― George H.W. Bush

“If you are ever really down on yourself, the best thing you can do is help someone else, and become outwardly focused.”
― Andrew Lutts, How to Live a Magnificent Life: Becoming the Living Expression of Higher Consciousness

“If you have the courage to connect with people from different races, nationalities, backgrounds, cultures, and regions, you have the power to bring about a change in the world.”
― Germany Kent

“God invents musical theatre. Satan voluntarily opts for Hell.”
― Brian Andreas, Theories of Everything

“What if an ordinary person cannot make a difference without talking about politics, without letting political concerns have their due, without feeling alarm, without figuring out some way to trust the power of words -- without, that is, becoming an extraordinary person?”
― Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding Politics: How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life

“Not everything must be done in exchange for money. Some of the greatest moments in our lives are generated from experiences with no monetary value.”
― Torron-Lee Dewar

“There are lots of reasons why people don't volunteer in their community, feeling useless shouldn't be one of them.”
― Germany Kent

“It is in the pursuits for the good of humanity and through purposeful deeds and endeavors that you own your power and soar to extraordinary levels of living.”
― Germany Kent

“As a professional-contributor™ consider 'Do I always need my voice to be heard or my way to be had, or can I move past some issues to move forward on others?”
― Suzanne F. Stevens, Make your contribution count for you, me , we: An evolutionary journey inspired by the wisdom of pioneering African women

“Let us labour diligently in love”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Volunteerism that is not rooted in relationship and understanding can be toxic.”
― David Docusen, Neighborliness: Finding the Beauty of God Across Dividing Lines

“We need less outreach and more relationships.”
― David Docusen, Neighborliness: Finding the Beauty of God Across Dividing Lines

“It is conceivable that the psychological and physical benefits of volunteering eventuate in longer life. Two recent studies found that among community-dwelling older adults, volunteering led to reduced risk of early death.”
― Christopher Peterson, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification

“Walk good. Live good and ensure that with each step you take, you forge a path that someone will walk in and that they will be better for having followed you there.”
― Phileman Adolphus Wynter

“Respect must be given voluntarily, no matter if you are an elder or a leader, you cannot take it by force.”
― Mwanandeke Kindembo