400 inspirational quotes to enlighten your life

By Crossmap, blogs.crossmap.com Saturday, June 24, 2023

Volunteer labor is critical to keeping construction costs down at a Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity site. Volunteers are needed at all stages of construction, from framing, as shown here, to the finishing touches inside. | Thrivent Builds/Drew Gloede

Inspirational quotes about humanity and service from humanitarians

The work of humanitarians is often thankless, but they are driven by a passion to make a difference in the world.

Let their words be a reminder that even your small acts of kindness can make a big impact.

“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” - Malala Yousafzai
“It’s not about giving bread to orphans. It’s about building a bakery that can fit an orphanage and sell bread in the city.” - Chef José Andrés
“A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of.” - Nelson Mandela
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it is those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
“Every action, no matter how small, is like drips on a rock—over time, they can carve a canyon through even the thickest, most immovable layer of rock.” - Shannon Watts
“If you can’t feed a hundred people, feed just one.” - Mother Teresa
“Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
“Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'” - Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Art to me is a humanitarian act and I believe that there is a responsibility that art should somehow be able to effect mankind, to make the word a better place.” - Jeff Koons
“The most wonderful study of mankind is man. Relieving human suffering and diffusing universal knowledge is humanitarian.” - Daniel D. Palmer
“For me, humanitarian service, or rather service of all that lives, is religion. And I draw no distinction between such religion and politics.” Mahatma Gandhi
“A person who has sympathy for mankind in the lump, faith in its future progress, and desire to serve the great cause of this progress, should be called not a humanist, but a humanitarian, and his creed may be designated as humanitarianism.” - Irving Babbitt
“My religion is humanitarianism, which is the basis of every religion in the world.” - Abdul Sattar Edhi
“Since the world has existed, there has been injustice. But it is one world, the more so as it becomes smaller, more accessible. There is just no question that there is more obligation that those who have should give to those who have nothing.” - Audrey Hepburn
“Anyone who is speaking of a greater compassion, a greater humanitarian concern, is a leader paving the path we all need to follow.” - Marianne Williamson
“The humanitarian lays stress almost solely upon breadth of knowledge and sympathy.” - Irving Babbitt
“Being a humanitarian, supporting animal rights activists, human rights activists, it's all the same.” - Daryl Hannah
“Most wars, after all, present themselves as humanitarian endeavors to help people.” - Howard Zinn
“I gave a very dear friend of mine my humanitarian award. Because you don't need an award to be, or not be, a humanitarian.” - Elizabeth Taylor
“Rising sea levels, severe draughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.” - Leon Panetta
“Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations.” - Kofi Annan
“All people are endowed with the faculty of compassion, and for this reason can develop the humanitarian spirit.” - Albert Schweitzer
“From the strictest humanitarian viewpoint, any attempt to stop the processes by which over crowded cities purge themselves is not a kindness.” - Robert A. Heinlein
“The humanitarian wishes to be a prime mover in the lives of others. He cannot admit either the divine or the natural order, by which men have the power to help themselves. The humanitarian puts himself in the place of God.” - Isabel Paterson
“To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.” - Douglas Adams
“Help others and give something back. I guarantee you will discover that while public service improves the lives and the world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new meaning it will bring your own life.” - Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Earn your success based on service to others, not at the expense of others.” - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
“There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed.” - Woodrow Wilson
“Honor bespeaks worth. Confidence begets trust. Service brings satisfaction. Cooperation proves the quality of leadership.” - James Cash Penney
“The highest of distinctions is service to others.” - King George VI
“God spoke to me and called me to His Service. What form this service was to take the voice did not say.” - Florence Nightingale
“Being of service to others is what brings true happiness.” - Marie Osmond
“Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?” - Fulton J. Sheen
“If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?” - Abigail Adams
“It is always easier to require an injury than a service: gratitude is a burden, but revenge is found to pay.” – Tacitus
“Our own self-realization is the greatest service we can render the world.” - Ramana Maharshi
“I think journalism is a great way to do public service, to have an impact on your community.” - Bob Schieffer
“Social media is not about the exploitation of technology but service to community.” - Simon Mainwaring
“The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow human being.” - Lech Walesa
“Some of our finest work comes through service to others.” - Gordon B. Hinckley