Better World Quotes

Be a Hero for a Better World ... Every Act of Kindness Makes a Difference!

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Exactly what brings happiness is a mystery for most people. Some try to find the answer by pursuing wealth, love, adventure and climbing the corporate ladder. Many who reach the goals that they've convinced themselves they need to reach to be happy, however, find themselves still searching for happiness. The conclusion that many heroes for a better world have discovered, is that helping others to be happy is the surest way to find happiness. -- Robert Alan Silverstein

Love is the way we show peace, love sets us free.
Love is the bond that joins us to our community.
Love is the answer that we've been searching for.
It lives inside all of us, just open up the door,
And Love to find Peace...
-- Robert Alan Silverstein

The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in a while and watch your answers change. ~Richard Bach

* It would be naïve to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems … However, with faith and perseverance, … complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace.
-- Jimmy Carter

"There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones: honest search for understanding, education, organization, action that raises the cost of state violence for its perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change -- and the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter future."
-- Noam Chomsky

* "I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies.”
-- Sheryl Crow

All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself. –Ralph Ellison

Nonviolence, therefore, can be described as an honest and diligent pursuit of truth. It could also mean the search for the meaning of life or the purpose of life, questions that have tormented humankind for centuries. The fact that we have not been able to find satisfactory answers to these questions does not mean there is no answer. It only means we have not searched with any degree of honesty. The search has to be both external and internal. We seek to ignore this crucial search because the sacrifices it demands are revolutionary. It means moving away from greed, selfishness, possessiveness, and dominance to love, compassion, understanding, and respect.
-- Arun Gandhi

* Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.
-- Mohandas Gandhi

A balance of interests rather than a balance of power, a search for compromise and concord rather than a search for advantages at other people's expense, and respect for equality rather than claims to leadership - such are the elements which can provide the groundwork for world progress…
~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.
-- Dag Hammarskjöld

I would like to appeal to all those in whose hands the future of mankind lies, to use their power not to destroy or kill, nor to create suffering in a grasping search for selfish objectives, but to help alleviate the plight of the needy; to aim at justice and freedom for the individual.
-- Poul Hartling

"Somebody said to me the other day, 'You know, it's really senseless, what you're doing. There's always been suffering, there will always be suffering, and you're just prolonging the suffering of these children [by rescuing them].' My answer is, 'Okay, then, let's start with your grandchild. Don't buy antibiotics if it gets pneumonia. Don't take it to the hospital of it has an accident. It's against life-against humanity-to think that way."
-- Audrey Hepburn

* Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace: respect for diversity.
-- John Hume

And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us, recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state, our success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions: First, were we truly men of courage... Second, were we truly men of judgment... Third, were we truly men of integrity... Finally, were we truly men of dedication?—
-- John F. Kennedy, 1961

* Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.
-- Robert F. Kennedy

I would always encourage people of any age not to be so quick to follow other people's truths but to search and follow your own moral code and live by your own integrity, and mostly just be brave.
-- Jewel Kilcher

* Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political moral questions of our time.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Honest hope has an edge. It's messy. It requires that we let go of all pat answers, all preconceived formulas, all confidence that our sailing will be smooth. It's not a resting point. Honest hope is movement.
-- Frances Moore Lappe

"The most revolutionary thing anybody can do is to raise good, honest and generous children who will question the answers of people who say the answer is violence. That's what the schools should be doing."
-- Colman McCarthy

* "The young, free to act on their initiative, can lead their elders in the direction of the unknown... The children, the young, must ask the questions that we would never think to ask, but enough trust must be re-established so that the elders will be permitted to work with them on the answers."
-- Margaret Mead

If we destroy their environments and communities, we will lose the answers they have to solving our problems, and to the protection of our common futures.
-- Raúl Montenegro

* The world’s major religions in the end all want the same thing, even though they were born in different places and circumstances on this planet. What the world needs today is a convergence of the different religions in the search for and definition of the cosmic or divine laws which ought to regulate our behavior on this planet.
-- Robert Muller

On every front there are clear answers out there that can make this country stronger, but we're going to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling. Our job is to make sure that even as we make progress, that we are also giving people a sense of hope and vision for the future. -- Barack Obama

One of the advantages of being born in an affluent society is that if one has any intelligence at all, one will realize that having more and more won't solve the problem, and happiness does not lie in possessions, or even relationships: The answer lies within ourselves. If we can't find peace and happiness there, it's not going to come from the outside.
-- Tenzin Palmo

Many folks have asked me, ‘How do you do it and why have you sacrificed so much to do this work? The answer comes easy. I look at my daughter and find hope in that she is living in a world of struggle, of social and political movement. She and the other five-year-olds will grow up in a more just, more equitable world. She motivates me.
-- Lateefah Simon

"I've seen miracles in post-war situations, in famines, in places of horrendous brutal subjugation and oppression, when women step forward and play their rightful role in co-equal partnership with men. It's not the answer all by itself, but it is a powerful and incredibly effective step to give women their rightful role and voice and the resources to back it up."
-- Lynne Twist

* "Nonviolence is the answer for the questions of our time. Love will conquer evil every time."
-- James Twyman

* In many parts of the world the people are searching for a solution which would link the two basic values: peace and justice. The two are like bread and salt for mankind.
-- Lech Walesa