Be
a Hero for a Better World ... Every Act of Kindness Makes
a Difference!
FAMILY
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
*
“The
family is the school of duties - founded on love”
-- Felix
Adler
*
If
tolerance, respect and equity permeate family life,
they will translate into values that shape societies,
nations and the world.
-– Kofi
Annan
"Poverty
devastates families, communities and nations. It causes
instability and political unrest and fuels conflict."
-– Kofi
Annan
let
us all reaffirm our commitment to improving the well- being
of families throughout the world.
-– Kofi
Annan
The
global work of the United Nations is not without reason
compared to that of a family -- striving for a common goal
in concert with all members for a better future.
-– Kofi
Annan
The
future of peace and prosperity that we seek for all the
world's peoples needs a foundation of tolerance, security,
equality and justice. That foundation is the family. It
is only by protecting families, from famine as well as from
fragmentation, that they can prosper and contribute to the
family of nations that is the United Nations.
-– Kofi
Annan
We must
restore the sacredness of the family as a bedrock of humane
values everywhere, in peace as well as in war.
-– Kofi
Annan
The
ways in which families are formed, function and evolve vary
greatly from country to country, as do perceptions of the
family's role in society. But in any culture, the family
provides the natural framework in which individuals -- especially
children - receive the emotional, financial and material
support indispensable to their development. It is within
the family that children learn the values that will guide
them for the rest of their lives. It is within the family
that they form their earliest relationships, learn to communicate
with others and interact with the world around them. It
is within the family that the notion of human rights becomes
a reality lived on a daily basis. If tolerance, respect
and equity permeate family life, they will translate into
values that shape societies, nations and the world.
-– Kofi
Annan
the
happiness of any society begins with the well being of the
families that live in it.
-– Kofi
Annan
"Peace
in society depends upon peace in the family."
-- Augustine
The
bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but
of respect and joy in each other's life.
-- Richard Bach
We never know the love of our parents for us till we
have become parents.”
-- Henry
Ward Beecher
Peace
is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile
of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father,
the togetherness of a family. It is the advancement
of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of
truth. Peace is all of these and more and more.
-- Menachem
Begin
*
Most
families need both parents to work. Moms need to be
able to work and earn fair pay and have the flexibility
in their jobs to also be primary caretakers.
-- Joan
Blades
The
family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging
through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one
another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking
each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing
to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending,
and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us
all together.
--Erma Bombeck
When
you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family
happinesses.
~ Joyce Brothers
You would think that those who are always talking
about family values would want to create an environment
of permanent relationships for people of the same
sex. But they're not advocating family values. They're
advocating their values.
- Willie
Brown
*
More
than ever before, there is a global understanding
that long-term social, economic, and environmental
development would be impossible without healthy families,
communities, and countries.
-- Gro
Brundtland
*
The
lack of emotional security of our American young people
is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger
family unit. No two people - no mere father and mother
- as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional
security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in
a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament,
and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which
he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him
into it before he was born.
~ Pearl
S. Buck
"In
family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement
that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony."
-- Eva Burrows
*
There
is nothing more important than a good, safe, secure
home.
-- Rosalynn
Carter
Family
is the first social unit for developing the qualities of
the heart. A true family grows and moves through life together,
inseparable in the heart. Whether a biological family or
an extended family of people attracted to each other based
on heart resonance and mutual support, the word "family"
implies warmth, a place where the core feelings of the heart
are nurtured. Family values represent the core values and
guidelines that parents and family members hold in high
regard for the well-being of the family. Sincere family
feelings are core heart feelings. They are the basis for
true family values. While we have differences, we remain
"family" by virtue of our heart connection. Family provides
necessary security and support, and acts as a buffer against
external problems. A family made up of secure people generates
a magnetic power that can get things done. They are the
hope for real security in a stressful world.
-- Doc Childre and Howard Martin, The HeartMath Solution
To understand
your parents' love, you must raise children yourself.
-- Chinese proverb
To put
the world right in order, we must first put the nation in
order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the
family in order; to put the family in order, we must first
cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts
right.
-- Confucius
*
We all have families who are longing for peace in
the world and an end to the suffering caused by poverty,
disease, and hunger. Untold numbers of our friends,
our neighbors, our parents, and our children, are
hoping that there is more understanding, more generosity,
more genuine friendship, and more caring among people
of all faiths and cultures.
-- John
Conyers
Global
Family Day provides a way in which every man, woman, and
child in the United States can help to reduce suffering
at home, repair our damaged image abroad, and help us remember
that in the end, all people belong to the same human family.
-- John
Conyers
*
I
draw from my family and my friends and I feel like that
small-town person. The achievements, the materialistic
possessions have really become to mean less. They mean
nothing.
--
Sheryl
Crow
*
What
else do we all want, each one of us, except to love
and be loved, in our families, in our work, in all our
relationships?
-- Dorothy
Day
*
"The
greatest gift we can give to our children is to raise
them in a culture of peace."
-- Louise
Diamond
*
Family
is the most important thing in the world.
-- Princess
Diana
"A man
should never neglect his family for business."
-- Walt Disney
No success
in public life can compensate for failure in the home.
-- Benjamin Disraeli
The
family is the nucleus of civilization.
-- Ariel and Will Durant
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.
-- Marian
Wright Edelman
*
Family
is not an important thing, it's everything.
~Michael
J. Fox
*
He
that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives
to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow; but
then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too
-- Benjamin
Franklin
To nourish
children and raise them against odds is in any time, any
place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design
nuclear weapons.
-- Marilyn French
*
Women
will only have true equality when men share with them
the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.
-- Ruth
Bader Ginsburg
Families
are about love overcoming emotional torture.
-- Matt Groening
The
best inheritance a parent can give to his children is a
few minutes of their time each day."
-- M. Grundler
If
we are too busy, if we are carried away every day by
our projects, our uncertainty, our craving, how can
we have the time to stop and look deeply into the situation-our
own situation, the situation of our beloved one, the
situation of our family and of our community, and the
situation of our nation and of the other nations?
-- Thich
Nhat Hanh
The
most important thing a father can do for his children
is to love their mother.
-- Theodore
Hesburgh
Call
it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a
family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need
one.
-- Jane Howard (1935-1996) US journalist, writer
No
matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if
you can't look back on having given love and attention to
your own family, what have you really accomplished?
-- Lee Iacocca
One laugh of a child will make the holiest day more
sacred still.
~ Robert
G. Ingersoll
*
Your
children need your presence more than your presents.
-- Jesse
Jackson
*
The
happiest moments of my life have been the few which
I have passed at home in the bosom of my family. ~Thomas
Jefferson
The
happiness of the domestic fireside is the first boon of
Heaven; and it is well it is so, since it is that which
is the lot of the mass of mankind.
~Thomas
Jefferson, 1813
The
family is the corner stone of our society. More than any
other force it shapes the attitude, the hopes, the ambitions,
and the values of the child. And when the family collapses
it is the children that are usually damaged. When it happens
on a massive scale the community itself is crippled. So,
unless we work to strengthen the family, to create conditions
under which most parents will stay together, all the rest
— schools, playgrounds, and public assitance, and private
concern — will never be enough.
-- Lyndon Johnson
The
goals of our public welfare program must be positive
and constructive. [The welfare program] must stress
the integrity and preservation of the family unit. It
must contribute to the attack on dependency, juvenile
delinquency, family breakdown, illegitimacy, ill health,
and disability. It must reduce the incidence of these
problems, prevent their occurrence and recurrence, and
strengthen and protect the vulnerable in a highly competitive
world.
-- John
F. Kennedy
"We
want simply to live in peace
We want to raise up our children
And save our brothers and sisters...
We want our families to remain whole.
Let us walk out of our isolation and join one another.
Let us walk out of our tears and screams of pain." -- Imane
Khalifeh
*
We
teach academic subjects and we assume life skills
will somehow be acquired along the way. Not a safe
assumption! The curriculum has to include things like
communication, conflict resolution, parenting, family
dynamics, critical thinking, values, ethics.
-- Azim
Khamisa
*
Families
survive, one way or another. You have a tie, a connection
that exists long after death, through many lifetimes.
-- Jessica
Lange
Becoming
responsible adults is no longer a matter of whether children
hang up there pajamas or put dirty towels in the hamper,
but whether they care about themselves and others -- and
whether they see everyday chores as related to how we treat
this planet.
-- Eda Leshan
*
Love
is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents.
-- Abraham
Lincoln
*
We
can still alter our course. It is NOT too late. We still
have options. We need the courage to change our values
to the regeneration of our families, the life that surrounds
us.
~ Chief
Oren Lyons
*
"Family
is everything. Family comes first. It's not what I
expected it to be, but nothing ever is." --
Madonna
*
"...
plain, old, simple kindness: to other people, to your
family. Love for other people. I think that’s another
very important part of morality, being genuinely compassionate
and concerned about the feelings and well being of
other people, especially those that depend on you
directly."
-- George
McGovern
*
Nobody
has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all
by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives,
no support, we've put it in an impossible situation.
-- Margaret
Mead
"It
takes ONE FAMILY to make a difference in this COMMUNITY.
It takes ONE PERSON to make a difference in this FAMILY."
-- Nisandeh Neta
Children
are the seed for peace or violence in the future, depending
on how they are cared for and stimulated. Thus, their
family and community environment must be sown to grow
a fairer and more fraternal world, a world to serve
life and hope.
-- Zilda
Arns Neumann
If
you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will
see your parents and all generations of your ancestors.
All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present
in your body. You are the continuation of each of
these people.”
-- Thich
Nhat Hanh
*
"If
we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and
blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family,
our entire society, will benefit from our peace."
-- Thich
Nhat Hanh
Family
is just accident.... They don't mean to get on your nerves.
They don't even mean to be your family, they just are.
~Marsha Norman
*
Of
all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are
reminded today that family is the most important.
-- Barack
Obama
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
"The
family unit plays a critical role in our society and in
the training of the generation to come."
-- Sandra Day O'Connor
We
are all part of the human family and we should be
about doing what all good families do - caring for
our less fortunate brothers and sisters.
- Dan
O'Neill,
Founder, Mercy Corps
We are
one big family of people, trying to make our way through
the unfolding puzzle of life. We are all connected to one
another in the heart. Connecting with the ultimate source
of love is possible through discovering the hidden power
in your heart.
-- Sara Paddison, Hidden Power of the Heart
Family
isn't about whose blood you have. It's about who you care
about.
-- Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park, Ike's Wee Wee,
1998
Our
most basic instinct is not for survival but for family.
Most of us would give our own life for the survival of a
family member, yet we lead our daily life too often as if
we take our family for granted.
~Paul Pearshall
*
I
think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the
strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming
obstacles. They are the real heroes, and so are the
families and friends who have stood by them.
-- Christopher
Reeve
Your
family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time,
effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep
any relationship flourishing and growing.
-- Jim Rohn
There
can be hope only for a society which acts as one big
family, not as many separate ones.
-- Anwar
Sadat
*
"Good
parents give their children Roots and Wings. Roots
to know where home is, wings to fly away and exercise
what's been taught them."
-- Jonas
Salk
*
"I
want my child to walk in a world guided by love. This
means that everybody will have a job, or the resources
to take care of basic needs. A world where families
are not oppressed and are connected to their neighbors
and their communities, where the best in humanity
is honored. That's when we will truly be at peace."
-- Malika
Sanders
*
"I
feel my family's needs are a priority. I'm not comfortable
with the idea of serving the many and ignoring my
family."
-- Susan
Sarandon
Feelings
of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual
differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication
is open, and rules are flexible -- the kind of atmosphere
that is found in a nurturing family.
-- Virginia Satir
“I
know that the purpose of life is to understand and be in
the present moment with the people you love. It’s just that
simple.” - Jane Seymour
*
Perhaps
the greatest social service that can be rendered by
anybody to this country and to mankind is to bring
up a family.
-- George
Bernard Shaw
American
families have always shown remarkable resiliency, or flexible
adjustment to natural, economic, and social challenges.
Their strengths resemble the elasticity of a spider web,
a gull's skillful flow with the wind, the regenerating power
of perennial grasses, the cooperation of an ant colony,
and the persistence of a stream carving canyon rocks. These
are not the strengths of fixed monuments but living organisms.
This resilience is not measured by wealth, muscle or efficiency
but by creativity, unity, and hope. Cultivating these family
strengths is critical to a thriving human community.
-- Ben Silliman
However
sugarcoated and ambiguous, every form of authoritarianism
must start with a belief in some group's greater right
to power, whether that right is justified by sex, race,
class, religion, or all four. However far it may expand,
the progression inevitably rests on unequal power and
airtight roles within the family.
-- Gloria
Steinem
"The
whole world is one family."
-- Sun Yat-sen
"A family
is a place where principles are hammered and honed on the
anvil of everyday living."
-- Charles Swindoll
*
Smile
at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband,
smile at your children, smile at each other - it doesn't
matter who it is and that will help you to grow up
in greater love for each other.
~ Mother
Teresa
*
Every
child deserves a chance at a life
filled with love, laughter, friends and family.
--
Marlo
Thomas
Every
child deserves a chance
at a life filled with love,
laughter, friends and family.
--
Marlo
Thomas
Happy
families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy
in its own way
-- Leo
Tolstoy
*
You
don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you,
as you are to them.
~Desmond
Tutu
Acting
is just a way of making a living; the family is life.
-- Denzel Washington
“When
I see brokenness, poverty and crime in inner cities,
I also see the enormous potential and readiness for
transformation and rebirth. We are creating an art
form that comes from the heart and reflects the pain
and sorrow of people's lives. It also expresses joy,
beauty, and love. This process lays the foundation
of building a genuine community in which people are
reconnected with their families, sustained by meaningful
work, nurtured by the care of each other and will
together raise and educate their children. Then we
witness social change in action.”
-- Lily
Yeh
