QUOTABLE QUOTES

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Joseph Addison, Poet

The earth is not ours; it is a treasure we hold in trust for future generations.
African Proverb

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. 
Aesop

Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our children. 
American Indian Proverb 
We sang songs that carried in their melodies all the sounds of nature—the running of waters, the signing of winds, and the calls of the animals. Teach your children...
American Indian, source unknown 

The human contribution is the essential ingredient. It is only in the giving of oneself to others that we truly live. 
Ethel Percy Andrus, founder AARP

To make a difference is not a matter of accident, a matter of 
casual occurrence of the tides. 
People choose to make a difference. 
Maya Angelou

When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young. 
Maya Angelou

The best part of life is not just surviving, but thriving -- with passion and compassion, and humor and style, and generosity and kindness. 
Maya Angelou

No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its lifeline. 
Kofi Annun, United Nations Secretary-General 

Educating the mind without educating the heart 
is no education at all. 
Aristotle

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, 
makes a life. 
Arthur Ashe, Athlete

Give light and people will find the way. 
Ella J. Baker, civil rights organizer

Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety. 
James Baldwin

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him reflect. 
John Barnhill, North Carolina Campus Compact

Circumstances determine our lives, but we shape our lives by what we make of our circumstances.
Sir John Wheeler Bennett, British historian


If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door. 
Milton Berle

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind. 
Emily P. Bissell

We must continue to do good throughout our lives. If we have corn and meat, and know of a family that have none, we divide with them.
Black Hawk, Sauk chief, 1830

EVERY clarification breeds new questions.
Arthur Bloch

It’s easy to make a buck. It’s tougher to make a difference.
Tom Brokaw 

Plant trees. They give us the two most crucial elements for our 
survival: oxygen and books. 
A. Whitney Brown, writer

When I got [my] library card, that was when my life began.
Rita Mae Brown, Author

The only queer people are those who don’t love anybody. 
Rita Mae Brown

Generosity is the first step toward peace.
Buddhist saying

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. 
John Cage

The job of an educator is to teach students to see the vitality in themselves. 
Joseph Campbell, author

“One can’t believe in impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” 
Lewis Carroll , Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland

It is better to wear out than to rust out. 
Mary Ann Shadd Cary, publisher and abolitionist

You should know that the education of the heart is very important. This will distinguish you from others. Educating oneself is easy, but educating ourselves to help other human beings to help the community is much more difficult.
César E. Chávez, social activist

¡Sí se puede! Yes, it can be done!
César E. Chávez, social activist

It is not enough to teach our young people to be successful...so they can accumulate the material things that this society bestows. ... Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves-and be free.
Cesar E. Chavez, social activist

The labor of immigrant women workers helped build this country. We must continue to speak up and demand our rights. 
Young Chin, community organizer

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.
Chinese Proverb

If we don’t change our direction, we’re likely to end up where we are going. 
Chinese proverb

Talk doesn't cook rice. 
Chinese Proverb

Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still. 
Chinese Proverb

Laws will not eliminate prejudices from the hearts of human beings. But that is not reason to allow prejudice to continue to be enshrined in our laws to perpetuate injustice through inaction. 
Shirley Chisolm

The only thing that is really worthwhile is change—and it’s coming.
Septima P. Clark, literacy activist

If you can't make a mistake, you can't make anything. 
Marva N. Collins, educator

Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out their conscience, thus helping bring the collective conscience to life.
Norman Cousins

The real object of education is to leave a person in the condition of continually asking questions.
Bishop Mandell Creighton

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man’s freedom. 
Clarence Darrow

One teaches only through being.
Ram Dass

The future belongs to those who can give the next generation reasons to hope.
Pierre Teilhard DeChardin, philosopher

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. 
John Dewey 

Love and care for the people who are less fortunate. But have the confidence for them to do the same.
Alec Dickson, service activist

It is better to be part of a great whole than to be the whole of a small part. 
Frederick Douglass, Abolitionist

Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. 
Will Durant 

If you don’t like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.
Marian Wright Edelman, Children’s Defense Fund



I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work.
Thomas Edison 
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas Edison 

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other. 
George Eliot, Author

The important thing is never to stop questioning. 
Albert Einstein

Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life. 
Albert Einstein


What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

When spider webs are woven together, they can tie up a lion. 
Ethiopian Proverb

Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, 
some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all.
Sam Ewig

CONDITIONS ARE NEVER JUST RIGHT.
William Feather

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.
Harvey Fierstein, actor

Chicken Little only has to be right once. 
Firestone's Law of Forecasting 

What we must decide is perhaps how we are valuable, rather than how valuable we are. 
F. Scott Fitzgerald 

How wonderful it is that no one need wait a single moment before starting to change the world.
Anne Frank

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle. 
Benjamin Franklin

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Ghandi

If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children. 
Mahatma Ghandi

Once very generation, history brings us to an important crossroad. Sometimes in life there is that moment when it’s possible to make a change for the better. This is one of those moments. 
Elizabeth Glaser, Pediatric AIDS Foundation

Read books. They are good for us. 
Natalie Goldberg, writer

Talents are best nurtured in solitude; character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world. 
Goethe

Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference. And we have a choice: What sort of difference do we want to make?
Jane Goodall


Education is the instrument not just for the individual to succeed, but for us as a community to succeed.
Ana Sol Gutiérrez, engineer

Peace, in the sense of absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where people are fed, and where, individuals and nations are free.
Trenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

Once a person steps into the circle of those who take responsibility for the happy operation of the community...the magic of community begins. 
Dorothy Haddock, activist

It’s never too late to do something great. 
Dorothy Haddock, activist

With every civic right there has to be a corresponding civil obligation. 
Edison Haines

I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. 
Fannie Lou Hamer, civil rights activist

In doing we learn. 
George Herbert, poet

Everyone is governed by the same laws; everyone is entitled to justice.
Antonia Hernández, civil rights lawyer

A mind that is stretched by a new idea can never go back to its original dimensions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Everybody has their ups and downs so I decided to have mine between good and great. 
DANIEL HOOGTERP

HONOR THE HANDS THAT HARVEST YOUR CROPS. 
DOLORES HUERTA, ACTIVIST

Not to know is bad. Not to want to know is worse. Not to hope is unthinkable. Not to care is unforgivable.
Ibo Proverb 

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. 
William James

Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. 
Japanese Proverb

If you can’t lower heaven, raise hell.
Mother Jones

Imagine what a harmonious world it could be if every single person, both young and old, shared a little of what he is good at doing.
Quincy Jones 

When do any of us do enough? 
Barbara Jordan

We have to reinvent the wheel every once in a awhile, not because we need a lot of wheels; but be we need a lot of inventors. 
Bruce Joyce, Educator

Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can. 
Danny Kaye

The highest result of education is tolerance. 
Helen Keller

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. 
Helen Keller

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. 
Helen Keller

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. ?
Helen Keller

Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other’s welfare, social justice can never be attained. 
Helen Keller

The only place where democracy comes before work is the dictionary.
Donald Kendall

The rights of every person are diminished when the rights of one are threatened.
John F. Kennedy

As young people, we have learned that knowledge is power. Child labor is a very complex issue but that is no excuse to ignore the problem. Who better than children to feel and understand the needs of other children?
Craig Kielburger, youth activist/author 

Just as a child is born without fear, so it is born without prejudice. Prejudice, like fear, is acquired.
Marie Killea

No social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. Every step towards the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. 
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Freedom is like life. It cannot be had in installments. Freedom is indivisible–we have it all, or we are not free.
Marin Luther King, Jr.

Every man must decide whether he will work in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life’s most persistent and urgent questions is what are you doing for others.
Rev. Martin L. King, Jr. 

Questions are the creative acts of intelligence. 
Frank Kingdon

I don’t think there will ever be a time when people will stop wanting to bring about change. 
Yuri Kochiyama, civil rights activist

Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. 
Jonathan Kozol, Author 

To be alive, to have freedom and to have opportunities to build communities are privileges not to be taken lightly.
Ngoan Le, Chicago Department of Human Services

the outrage of hunger amidst plenty will never be solved by “experts” somewhere. It will only be solved when people like you and me decide to act.
Frances Moore lappe, author

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.
James Russell Lowell 

Education is the true foundation of civil liberty.
James Madison

A different world cannot be built by indifferent people.
Horace Mann

I must say that I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a book. 
Groucho Marx

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. 
Margaret Mead 

First I thought I was fighting for the rubber tappers; then I thought I was fighting for the Amazon, then I realized I was fighting for humanity. 
Chico Mendez, Rainforest Activist

You have to listen! You must keep your ear on the heartbeat of the generations!
Muriel Miguel, actress

WORDS are the guide to act. The mouth makes the first move.
Leon de Modena, scholar

When one tugs art a single thing in nature, one finds it attached to the rest of the world. 
John Muir, author
The more people come out, the less it will be an issue. Of we are ashamed of ourselves, how the hell can we expect the rest of the world not to be ashamed of us? 
Martina Navratilova, athelete

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. 
Friedrich Nietzsche

It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome. Therefore the child must early learn the beauty of generosity.
Ohiyesa, Santee physician and author

When you put your hand to the plow, you can’t put it down until you get to the end of the row. 
Alice Paul, suffragette

Anything you can imagine is real. 
Picasso

Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.
Pablo Picasso, Artist

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. 
Pablo Picasso

Children are messages to a time we will never see. 
Neil Postman

It is not the easy or convenient life for which I search. It is the life full of possibility lived to the edge of all I can be. 
Mary Anne Radmacher-Hershey, poet

Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.
Hazel Rochman, Author

If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to sleep in a room with a mosquito. 
Anita Roddick, Businesswoman

Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. 
Will Rogers 
If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. 
Will Rogers

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.... You must do the thing you think you cannot do. 

Eleanor Roosevelt

It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than oppression 
and discrimination half a block from home. 
Carl T. Rowan

I cannot predict the wind but I can have my sail ready.
—E.F. Schumacher

Why not go out on a limb? Isn’t that where the fruit is?
Frank Scully, author

There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others.
George Shinn

The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives. 
Sioux proverb

As you go through life, act in such a way as not to deprive others of happiness. Avoid giving sorrow to your fellow man, but to the contrary, see that you give him joy as often as you can.
Sioux Proverb

Yesterday I was a dog. Today I’m a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There’s so little hope for advancement.
Snoopy

Who ever walked behind anyone to freedom? If we can’t go hand in hand, I don’t want to go. 
Hazel Scott, musician

If all of us and all living things on the planet are to continue, we, who still remember how we must live, must join together. 
Leslie Marmon Silko, Laguna Pueblo Author

The right is ours. Have it we must. Use it we will. 
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, activist

The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day. 
Gloria Steinem, writer


Wisdom, the opposite of foolishness, is the use of successful intelligence and experience toward the attainment of a common good. 
Robert Sternberg, educator
The elders were wise. They knew that man's heart, away from nature, becomes hard; they knew that lack of respect for growing, living things, soon led to lack of respect for humans, too.
Chief Luther Standing Bear, Lakota Sioux 

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. 
Henry David Thoreau, author

It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: 
What are we busy about?
Henry David Thoreau, author

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers. 
James Thurber

The trouble with being in the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.
Lily Tomlin

I am a human being only because you are a human being. There is no such thing as a solitary human being...if I can enhance your humanity, ipso facto, my humanity is enhanced.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu 

Get the facts first. You can distort them later. 
Mark Twain

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. 
Mark Twain 

My community is always at the center of what I do, as inspiration, reason, and hope.
Nydia Velázquez, congresswoman

When you hold on to what you have, that’s all you get.
Joe Vasquez

Always use the word impossible with the greatest caution. 
Werner Von Braun, space scientist

They always say that things change with time. But actually you have to change things yourself.
Andy Warhol

I couldn't wait for success . so I went ahead without it. 
Jonathan Winters 

If we have learned one thing from our past it is that to live through dramatic events is not enough; one has to share them and transform them into acts of conscience.
Elie Weisel, author

When I was young I used to volunteer in a soup kitchen and they thought I was wonderful. When I asked why there were soup kitchens, they thought I was a radical.
Senator Paul Wellstone

The future will not belong to those who are content with the present. The future will not belong to cynics and people who sit on the sidelines. The future will belong to people who have passion and are willing to work hard to make this country better. 
Senator Paul Wellstone

Let there be no distance between the words you say and the life you live. 
Senator Paul Wellstone

Sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; 
sow a character and you reap a destiny. 
Frances E. Willard, activist

If you need a helping hand you'll find one at the end of your arm. 
Yiddish proverb 

The man who has bread to eat does not appreciate the severity of a famine.
Yoruba proverb

We all want to live in the moment but there isn’t enough time. 
David Zasloff, musician

The best leader of all, the people know not they exist. They turn to each other and say we did it ourselves.
Zen Saying

Nothing is left to you at this moment but to have a good laugh. 
Zen Master

You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice 
because thorns have roses.
Ziggy, Comic Strip Character

Education is that which allows you to get into more intelligent trouble.

Some people dream of success, while others wake up and work hard at it.

If you not riding the wave of change, you will find yourself beneath it.

Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?