The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light.
-- Felix Adler

The ideal of "a family" is one of the most basic models of what a better world can be like. In a perfect family, the members are joined by bonds of love; they are a team, helping each other meet all of their physical and emotional needs. Of course no family is perfect, but a family that strives together to become a "family for a better world" can help each member to feel more fulfilled and better about themselves and the world. They also provide a real-life example of how the human family can work together to create a better world.
-- Robert Alan Silverstein

It may be that for a long time some nations will continue to fight each other, but the example of those nations who prefer arbitration to war, law courts to the battlefield, must sooner or later influence the belligerent powers and make war as unpopular as pugilism is now.
-- William Randal Cremer

* We must set an example now and move environmentalism from being the philosophy of a passionate minority ... to a way of life that automatically integrates ecology into governmental policy and normal living standards.
~ Leonardo DiCaprio

Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means.
-- Albert Einstein

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

* The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.”
-- Benjamin Franklin

"I criticize America because I love her. I want her to stand as a moral example to the world."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr

* It is hardly possible to overrate the value, for the improvement of human beings, of things which bring them into contact with persons dissimilar to themselves and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar... It is indispensable to be perpetually comparing [one's] own notions and customs with the experience and example of persons in different circumstances... There is no nation which does not need to borrow from others.
-- John Stuart Mill

Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation. They are teachers and coaches. They are mentors and role models. They are examples of success and the men who constantly push us toward it. But if we are honest with ourselves, we'll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing – missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.
-- Barack Obama

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.
-- Albert Schweitzer

Example is leadership.
-- Albert Schweitzer

You must show the world that you abhor fighting.
-- Desmond Tutu

I feel like we are at a time of great creativity if we choose to embrace it as such, if we choose to engage the will of our imaginations and imagine another way of being in the world. Democracy requires our participation. The land trust movement in this country is a beautiful example of how we can find hope within our own communities because it bypasses government and creates a diverse and truly bipartisan conversation on behalf of the land. We dare to define community to include all life—rocks, rivers, plants, and animals, alongside human beings. Whether it is the Castle Rock Collaboration in the red rock desert of southern Utah or the Blue Hill Heritage Trust in coastal Maine, these small groups made up of neighbors and friends from all walks of life are having an extraordinary influence on our creation of an ethic of place. I believe radical change occurs through the care of our relationships.
~ Terry Tempest Williams

Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then by my example, how dangerous is the pursuit of knowledge and how much happier is that man who believes his native town to be the world than he who aspires to be greater than his nature will allow.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

We Americans are world leaders and we must lead by example - particularly in times that require careful deliberation before any precipitous action - lest we fail to walk in the shoes of those we might injure.
-- Peter Yarrow