Quotes That Inspire: Spirit in Service
As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has - or ever will have - something inside that is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.
- From The World According to Mister Rogers by Fred Rogers
...the passion of doing what I considered to be the right thing captured me, and I’ve never looked back.
...I still, every single day of my life, get up with joy and excitement and wonder about what am I going to do today that’s going to make a difference. Nobody can define what makes a difference for you. You have to figure out what makes a difference for you.... What matters is that it gives you joy.
I firmly believe that people make the most important contribution in the world that they can make...if it brings them joy every day.... Have the courage to try to figure out what brings you joy so through your joy you can bring it to everybody else....
- 1997 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Jody Williams, in a speech at the University of Vermont on May 17, 1998.
In this changing world of new challenges we need, more than ever before, dedicated and talented individuals to enter public service....
You may think to yourself, what difference can one person make in the face of giant corporations, ecological threats, and organized conflict? Yet there have always been, and always will be, those who make a difference one by one. Look to Nelson Mandela, who went from prisoner to president because of his unbending integrity, bravery and beliefs. Look to Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains a lodestar of democratic values after years in house arrest in Burma.... Look to Raoul Wallenberg, who as a Swedish diplomat in Budapest saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews....
These individuals’ lives should be an inspiration for others to act; for all of us to act. As Edmund Burke wrote: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
...Courage does not mean lack of fear, for only the foolish are fearless; it means doing things in spite of your fear. Confront those fears, take risks for what you believe, for it is only then you will find what you are capable of; you will discover that if your intentions are good, the worst your opponents can do to you is really not that bad. Go out and make your difference in this world. And don’t forget to have fun along the way.
- From United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s talk at Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, on May 17, 1998.