Significance
1. The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
– Albert Einstein
2. I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
– Helen Keller
3. Let no one be discouraged by the belief that there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills — against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence… Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation…
It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man (or a woman) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he (or she) sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
– Robert F. Kennedy, speech at Day of Affirmation, University of Capetown, South Africa
4. It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
– Theodore Roosevelt
5. The problem is not in not doing the big things. The problem is in not doing the little things.
– Unknown
6. Few of us will do the spectacular deeds of heroism that spread themselves across the pages of our newspapers in big black headlines. But we can all be heroic in the
little things of everyday life. We can do the helpful things, say the kind words, meet our difficulties with courage and high hearts, stand up for the right when the cost is high, keep our word even though it means sacrifice, be a giver instead of a destroyer. Often this quiet, humble heroism is the greatest heroism of all.
– Wilfred A. Peterson
7. Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.
– Holocaust Museum, Washington, D.C.
8. Too many people undervalue what they are and overvalue what they are not
– Unknown
9. Too often we underestimate 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 power to turn a life around.
– Leo Buscaglia
10. I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.
– Mother Teresa
11. Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
– William James
12. Do your little bit of good where you are. It’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
– Desmond Tutu
13. Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
14. I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.
– Pablo Casals
15. We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.
– Whoopi Goldberg
16. There are fine things which you mean to do some day, under what you think will be more favorable circumstances. But the only time that is surely yours is the present, hence this is the time to speak the word of appreciation and sympathy, to do the generous deed, to forgive the fault of a thoughtless friend, to sacrifice self a little more for others. Today is the day in which to express your noblest qualities of mind and heart, to do at least one worthy thing which you have long postponed, and to use your God-given abilities for the enrichment of someone less fortunate. Today you can make your life – significant and worthwhile. The present is yours to do with as you will.
– Grenville Kleiser
17. What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we have led.
– Nelson Mandela
18. The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success, but on significance and then even the little victories on your path will take on greater meaning.
– Oprah Winfrey
19. Let your lives speak.
– Quaker principle