QUOTES
Service
is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life and not something
you do in your spare time.
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.
You're
not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every
day.
You
really can change the world if you care enough.
Service
is what life is all about.
I
was taught that the world had a lot of problems, but I could struggle and change
them. That those of us with intellectual and immaterial gifts brought the privilege
and responsibility of sharing with others who are less fortunate...
When
I fight about what is going on in the neighborhood, or when I fight about what
is happening to other people's children, I'm doing that because I want to leave
a community and a world that is better than the one I found.
The
legacy I want to leave is a child-care system that says that no kid is going to
be left alone or left unsafe.
The
challenge of social justice is to evoke a sense of community that we need to make
our nation a better place, just as we make it a safer place .
If
we think we have ours and don't owe any time or money or effort to help those
left behind, then we are a part of the problem rather than the solution to the
fraying social fabric that threatens all Americans.
Never
work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep
at night.
If
you as parents cut corners, your children will too. If you lie, they will too.
If you spend all your money on yourselves and tithe no portion of it for charities,
colleges, churches, synagogues, and civic causes, your children won't either.
And if parents snicker at racial and gender jokes, another generation will pass
on the poison adults still have not had the courage to snuff out.
Being
considerate of others will take you and your children further in life than any
college or professional degree.
We
must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the
small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences
that we often cannot foresee.
We
are living in a time of unbearable dissonance between promise and performance;
between good politics and good policy; between professed and practiced family
values; between racial creed and racial deed; between calls for community and
rampant individualism and greed; and between our capacity to prevent and alleviate
human deprivation and disease and our political and spiritual will to do so.
Investing
in [children] is not a national luxury or a national choice. It's a national necessity.
If the foundation of your house is crumbling, you don't say you can't afford to
fix it while you're building astronomically expensive fences to protect it from
outside enemies. The issue is not are we going to pay -- it's are we going to
pay now, up front, or are we going to pay a whole lot more later on.
Education
is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world
better than you found it.
Education
is a precondition to survival in America today.
Speak
truth to power.
You
just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically
can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.
There
is no free lunch in life. Please don't feel entitled to anything you don't sweat
and struggle for.
Never
work just for money. Money alone won't save your soul or build a decent family
life or help you sleep at night. We're the richest nation on Earth, with the highest
number of imprisoned people in the world. Our drug addictions and child poverty
are among the highest in the industrialized world. So don't ever confuse wealth
or fame with character.
Don't
be afraid of taking risks or of being criticized. An anonymous saying is, "If
you don't want to be criticized, don't do anything, don't say anything and don't
be anything." Don't be afraid of failing; it is the way you learn to do things
right. Don't be afraid of falling down; just keep getting up. And don't wait for
everybody to come along to get something done. It's always a few people who get
things done and keep things going. Our country and our world desperately need
more wise and courageous shepherds and fewer sheep who do not borrow from integrity
to fund expediency.
Never
think life is not worth living or that you can't make a difference. Never give
up. I don't care how hard it gets, and it will get very hard sometimes.
