Put yourself in someone's shoes" is a common phrase. But it is not a common thing that we do everyday. We are, most of the time, self-centred. Especially in this modern, fast-paced life. It is only when we stop for a moment and give our time to others, that we realise the true meaning of empathy.
--UnknownSubmitted by Abdul Manan Bin Hassan, ASP, PRIS DEPT, Changi, Singapore
Most of us in volunteer programs now realize that those 1000 points of light of George Bush #1 are really 500 candles burning at both ends and the only thing to trickle down from Reganomics was budget cuts.
--UnknownSubmitted by Nita Moser, Volunteer Coordinator, Battered Women's Project
A verse to start community meetings:
"A healthy social life is found only, when in the mirror of each soul the whole community finds its reflection, and when in the whole community the virtue of each one is living."
--Rudolf Steiner, Austrian Philosopher and ScientistSubmitted by Sybille B. Hahn, Executive Director, CANES Home Support Services
The mode in which the inevitable comes to pass is through effort.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes Submitted by Mike Corbin, Membership Chair, Metropolitan Detroit Volunteer Administration Network
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
--Horace Mann Submitted by Mike Corbin, Membership Chair, Metropolitan Detroit Volunteer Administration Network
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
--Epictetus Submitted by Mike Corbin, Membership Chair, Metropolitan Detroit Volunteer Administration Network
I'm in the business of loving the hell out of people
--Mother Waddles Submitted by Mike Corbin, Membership Chair, Metropolitan Detroit Volunteer Administration Network
They don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.
--UnknownSubmitted by Desire'e Larson, Women's Way, North Dakota Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program
You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.
--UnknownSubmitted by Lisa Clegg, Coordinator, M.O.V.R.C. Foster Grandparents Program
Unless someone like you cares a whole, awful lot. Things aren't going to get better, they're NOT!
--Dr. Seuss, The Lorax Submitted by Sue Nelson, Agency Relations Director, Volunteer Jacksonville, Inc.
The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today.
--Saint Francis of AssisiSubmitted by Mike Corbin, Membership Chair, Metropolitan Detroit Volunteer Administration Network
Better one friend with a dish of food than a hundred with a sigh.
--Yiddish ProverbSubmitted by Mike Corbin, Membership Chair, Metropolitan Detroit Volunteer Administration Network
Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
--I John 3:18Submitted by Mike Corbin, Membership Chair, Metropolitan Detroit Volunteer Administration Network
If you can't go where people are happier, try to make people happier where you are.
--Ashleigh BrilliantSubmitted by Mike Corbin, Membership Chair, Metropolitan Detroit Volunteer Administration Network
I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
--Mahatma GandhiSubmitted by Mike Corbin, Membership Chair, Metropolitan Detroit Volunteer Administration Network
Let ... individuals make the most of what God has given them, have their neighbors do the same, and then do all they can to serve each other. There is no use in one man, or one nation, to try to do or be everything. It is a good thing to be dependent on each other for something, it makes us civil and peaceable.
--Sojourner Truth (c. 17971883), African American suffragist and abolitionist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, appendix—ch. 19, by Elizabeth Cady StantonSubmitted by Lois Gaetz, Director, St Cloud Area Faith in Action, MN/USA
To the world you may be one person, But to one person you may be the world.
--UnknownSubmitted by Anonymous
It is one of the beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely help another without helping himself.
--Ralph Waldo EmersonSubmitted by Dominica Larkin, Volunteer Coordinator, The Duke of Edinburgh's Award, Canada
We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.
--Mother TheresaSubmitted by Jenni
The broadest, and maybe the most meaningful definition of volunteering: Doing more than you have to because you want to, in a cause you consider good.
--van Scheier (from Building Staff/Volunteer Relations)Submitted by Claudia Collier, Director, Volunteer Center of the YMCA
Throughout your life, there is a voice only you can hear. A voice which mythologists label "the call." A call to the value of your life. The choice of risk and individual bliss over the known and secure.
You may choose not to hear your spirit. You may prefer to build a life within the compound, to avoid risk. It is possible to find happiness within a familiar box, a life of comfort and control.
Or, you may choose to be open to new experiences, to leave the limits of your conditioning, to hear the call. Then you must act.
If you never hear it, perhaps nothing is lost. If you hear it and ignore it, your life is lost.
--Jennifer JamesSubmitted by Debra English, Volunteer Coordinator, HealthPartners
The heart of a volunteer is not measured in size, but by the depth of the commitment to make a difference in the lives of others.
--UnknownSubmitted by DeAnn Hollis
Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.
--Chinese ProverbSubmitted by Alane Hill, Project Director, Friends Foster Grandparent Program
The winds of change shall not discourage the volunteer.
--UnknownSubmitted by Lorna Wilson
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson Submitted by Fiona Dawe, Executive Director, YouthNet, London, England
Which is more subversive—and corrosive—to believe in altruism or to see it simply as a cloak of self interest? Even if altruism did not exist, it would be necessary to believe in it. Pessimists in power are prone to despotism.
--Frank Prochaska in Schools of Citizenship: Charity and Civic Virtue, Civitas: Institute for the Study of Civil Society, London, 2002Submitted by Susan Ellis
It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.
--Tom BrokawSubmitted by Cathie Waugh, Volunteer Coordinator, Habitat for Humanity, Colorado
Being a man or a woman is a matter of birth. Being a man or a woman who makes a difference is a matter of choice.
--Byron Garrett, staff member of Arizona's Governor Submitted by Nicolette Ryan, Volunteer Coordinator, Central Arizona Shelter Services
It is only through the eyes of others do you see yourself. It is only through the work of your own do you find the difference in others.
--UnknownSubmitted by Foo Ji-Wei, Volunteerism Through Oneself, Nanyang Technological University, Welfare Services Club, Singapore
If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is tied up with mine, then let us work together.
--Lill Watson, aboriginal activistSubmitted by Keith Goheen, Volunteer Coordinator, First State Community Action Agency, Delaware USA
You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.
--Winston ChurchillSubmitted by Elise Slobodin, Planning Executive, UJA-Federation, New York USA
No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor is given by what he gave.
--Calvin CoolidgeSubmitted by Joe Hammontree, 4-H AmeriCorps VISTA, Shiawassee MSU Extension, Michigan, USA
Too often we under-estimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
--Dr. Felice Leonardo BuscagliaSubmitted by several colleagues
To serve, not to be served.
--The charge to service for AARP members from Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, AARP founderSubmitted by Carolyn Hunter, ASD, AARP Utah, USA
Don't ever question the value of volunteers. Noah's Ark was built by volunteers; the Titanic was built by professionals.
--UnknownSubmitted by Dave Gynn, Coleman Professional Services, Ohio, USA
Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in.
--Sue Premo, WISubmitted by Marjorie Moore, Minds Eye Information Service
There are many wonderful things that will never be done if you don't do them.
--Charles D. GillSubmitted by Caitlin Rohrer, Girl Scouts - Trillium Council, Pennsylvania
The highest reward for a person's work is not what they get for it, but what they become because of it.
--John RuskinSubmitted by Caitlin Rohrer, Girl Scouts, Trillium Council, Pennsylvania
If you insist on measuring yourself, place the tape around your heart rather than your head.
--Carol TrabelleSubmitted by Caitlin Rohrer, Girl Scouts, Trillium Council, Pennsylvania
At the end of our life our questions are simple: Did I live fully? Did I love well?
--Jack KornfieldSubmitted by Caitlin Rohrer, Girl Scouts, Trillium Council, Pennsylvania
Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others.
--Danny ThomasSubmitted by Jack Gomez, Girl Scounts of Shagbark Council, Illinois
Paul Revere earned his living as a silversmith. But what do we remember him for? His volunteer work. All activism is volunteering in that it's done above and beyond earning a living and deals with what people really care passionately about. Remember, no one gets paid to rebel. All revolutions start with volunteers.
--Susan J. EllisSubmitted by Susan in response to a workshop participant who heard Susan say this and wanted it shared.
Silence equals nonexistence. If I don't raise my voice, it's like I never existed.
--Margaret Cho, Comedienne RevolutionSubmitted by Jennifer Smerud
When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.
--Mercy Mission KenyaSubmitted by Henri Nouwen
Help yourself. Volunteer.
So what's holding you back? Volunteer today.
Don't just stand there. Volunteer.
Do the right thing. Volunteer.
--UnknownSubmitted by Ahmed Amin
Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
--Margaret MeadSubmitted by Maureen Stenquist
Volunteering is not a choice, it's a responsibility.
--UnknownSubmitted by Ashley E. Hyder
Someone asked the anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978), "What is the first sign you look for, to tell you of an ancient civilization?" The interviewer had in mind a tool or article of clothing. Ms. Mead surprised him by answering, a "healed femur". When someone breaks a femur, they can't survive to hunt, fish or escape enemies unless they have help from someone else. Thus, a healed femur indicates that someone else helped that person, rather than abandoning them and saving themselves. Isn't that what we in philanthropy are all about? Healing femurs of one sort or another?
--UnknownSubmitted by Leslie Paige
Volunteers are seldom paid; not because they are worthless, but because they are PRICELESS!
--UnknownSubmitted by Jana Baker
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and help them become what they are capable of being.
