Better World Quotes

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

WITNESS

“When the lives and the rights of children are at stake, there must be no silent witnesses.”
-- Carol Bellamy

* "The UN Declaration of Human Rights laid down what any person might reasonably expect, yet there are remarkably few people who enjoy these rights. With cameras in the hands of activists and meaningful distribution of those images, we will witness what really goes on in this world and hopefully want to change it." -- Peter Gabriel

"When we bear witness, when we become the situation — homelessness, poverty, illness, violence, death — the right action arises by itself. We don’t have to worry about what to do. We don't have to figure out solutions ahead of time. Peacemaking is the functioning of bearing witness. Once we listen with our entire body and mind, loving action arises.
-- Bernie Glassman

The mere fact of an American being present could help save the lives of innocent people. That's why I believe in the importance of bearing witness, to become a voice for the voiceless.
-- Bianca Jagger

"I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr

Perfect courage means doing unwitnessed what we would be capable of with the world looking on.
-- La Rochefoucauld

* "Witnessing the extreme poverty in remote parts of Affrica can make you feel sad and powerless until you realize how little it takes to change these people's lives fundamentally in sustainable ways."
-- John Legend

* "I've witnessed the total devastation of HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa... I've met too many brave and beautiful children who are struggling to care for their sick parents or their orphaned brothers and sisters. Many children infected with HIV will not live to see their fifth birthday... Children suffer not only from this virus but also the stigma, poverty and destruction that accompany it. As a UNICEF ambassador I hope to draw more attention and funding to this crisis. The tsunami in Asia revealed the deep compassion and generosity of people worldwide. By working together and applying that same focus and support, we can protect a new generation of children from suffering."
-- Lucy Liu

And this is the time. It is the time for this land to become again a witness to the world for what is noble and just in human affairs. It is the time to live more with faith and less with fear- with an abiding confidence that can sweep away the strongest barriers between us and teach us that we truly are brothers and sisters.
-- George McGovern

Because war and preparations for war have acquired legitimacy, and because of the tremendous proliferation of arms through production and export, so that they are now available more or less to all and sundry, right down to handguns and stilettos, the cult of violence has by now so permeated relations between people that we are compelled to witness as well an increase in everyday violence.
-- Alva Myrdal

“Public truth telling is a form of recovery, especially when combined with social action. Sharing traumatic experiences with others enables victims to reconstruct repressed memory, mourn loss, and master helplessness, which is trauma's essential insult. And, by facilitating reconnection to ordinary life, the public testimony helps survivors restore basic trust in a just world and overcome feelings of isolation. But the talking cure is predicated on the existence of a community willing to bear witness.
-- Lawrence N. Powell

Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the epithets they put on us, we know we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down.
-- Oscar Romero

"We want to bear witness today that we know the relation between corporate greed and what goes on too often in the Supreme Court decisions.
-- Cornel West

“for the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”
-- Elie Wiesel

Sometimes I see myself fine, sometimes I need a witness.
And I like the whole truth, but there are nights I only need forgiveness.
-- Dar Williams

“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