Be
a Hero for a Better World ... Every Act of Kindness Makes
a Difference!
YOUTH
QUOTES
*
Guard
your light and protect it. Move it forward into the
world and be fully confident that if we connect light
to light to light, and join the lights together of
the one billion young people in our world today, we
will be enough to set our whole planet aglow.
-- Hafsat
Abiola
If I
am young and wrong, then you are right [to look down on
my youthful ignorance.] But if I am young and right, what
does my age matter?
-- Antigone Aesculus
*
In
this society the young people from the cities and
from the countryside, professionals or not, often
unemployed, have all means to join and reinforce our
efforts to raise the brave torch of Human Rights that
illuminates the way in which the future of us all
is decided.
-- Martin
Almada
*
"Young
people should be at the forefront of global change
and innovation. Empowered, they can be key agents
for development and peace. If, however, they are
left on society's margins, all of us will be impoverished.
Let us ensure that all young people have every opportunity
to participate fully in the lives of their societies."
--
Kofi
Annan
"No
one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a
democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue
to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be
included from birth. A society that cuts off from
its youth severs its lifeline."
-- Kofi
Annan
Young
people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution
than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for
settled business.
-- Francis Bacon
"We
should take care, in inculcating patriotism into our boys
and girls, that is a patriotism above the narrow sentiment
which usually stops at one's country, and thus inspires
jealousy and enmity in dealing with others... Our patriotism
should be of the wider, nobler kind which recognises justice
and reasonableness in the claims of others and which lead
our country into comradeship with...the other nations of
the world. The first step to this end is to develop peace
and goodwill within our borders, by training our youth of
both sexes to its practice as their habit of life, so that
the jealousies of town against town, class against class
and sect against sect no longer exist; and then to extend
this good feeling beyond our frontiers towards our neighbours."
-- Lord Baden-Powell
*
If
you want to address racial disparity in the juvenile
justice system, everybody has to have a role in it.
Everybody has some responsibility."
-- James
Bell
We
live in a country that is addicted to incarceration
as a tool for social control. As it stands now justice
systems are extremely expensive, do not rehabilitate
but in fact make the people that experience them worse
and have no evidence based correlatives to reducing
crime. Yet with that track record they continue to
thrive, prosper and are seen as an appropriate response
to children in trouble with the law. Only an addict
would see that as an okay result.
-- James
Bell
“Society
has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where
there are throw-away people.”
-- James
Bell
*
“What
is needed now are increased efforts to promote youth
participation and commitment; more services aimed
at youth; more parental involvement; more education
and information, using schools and other sites;
more protection for girls, orphaned children and
young women;and more partnerships with people with
HIV and AIDS.“
-- Carol
Bellamy
*
Under
your shoulders. Dear young people of the entire world,
weigh the responsibility to transform tomorrow's world
into a society where peace, harmony and fraternity
reign.
-- Bishop
Carlos Belo
"We
all benefit by having young people exposed to the 'way things
are done' in a democratic society. Isn’t it time... to 'tap
the power of youth?"
-- Hans Bernard
*
"We
have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must
have the courage to change old ideas and practices
so that we may direct their power toward good ends."
-- Mary
McLeod Bethune
I
believe that we are at the point now, in the United
States, where a movement is beginning to emerge. I
think that the calamity, the quagmire of the Iraq
war, the outsourcing of jobs, the drop-out of young
people from the education system, the monstrous growth
of the prison-industrial complex, the planetary emergency,
which we are engulfed at the present moment, is demanding
that instead of just complaining about these things,
instead of just protesting about these things, we
begin to look for, and hope for, another way of living.
And I think that-- that's where the movement-- I--
I see a movement beginning to emerge, 'cause I see
hope beginning to trump despair.
-- Grace
Lee Boggs
*
“This
is a time for bold measures. This is the country,
and you are the generation.”
-- Bono
*
The
young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore
they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation
after generation.
-- Pearl
S. Buck
*
People
don't see hunger in front of them so they are not directly
affected. What I am doing is connecting young people
to the issue
-- Lauren
Bush
"This
is not class warfare, this is generational warfare. This
administration and old wealthy people have declared war
on young people. That is the real war that is going on
here. And that is the war we've got to talk about."
-- James Carville
*
Every
night on the stop global warming college tour, Laurie
and I would tell these great young people that they
have the power to do anything they want. That we all
have the power to create a movement for change. That
the best part of ourselves is the part that rises
up instinctively from compassion.
--
Sheryl
Crow
Every
night on the stop global warming college tour, Laurie
and I would tell these great young people that they have
the power to do anything they want. That we all have the
power to create a movement for change. That the best part
of ourselves is the part that rises up instinctively from
compassion. I believe this to be true. I believe that
divinity exists in all of us and that if we eliminate
some of the chatter in our lives, the voice of compassion
will have a chance to be heard. And, if we were to act
from a place of compassion in every act of our lives,
would we be arguing about whether global warming exists?
Or would we simply be living our lives peacefully knowing
that how we live will affect the planet we leave for our
children and for their children. If compassion was the
motivating factor behind all of our decisions, would our
world not be a completely different place? Food for thought.
--
Sheryl
Crow
*
You
can never stop and as older people, we have to learn
how to take leadership from the youth and I guess
I would say that this is what I'm attempting to
do right now.
-- Angela
Davis
*
Older,
younger, anyone can help. We've learned that our legislators
listen, and people with passionate and thoughtful
concerns make a difference every day. We've had constituents
initiate legislation, lobby for it, organize meetings
and events, and, of course, call, mail, e-mail and
visit legislators to express their views. It's really
great to see how much difference that individuals
can make.
-- Doris
Day
"I
would so much like young people to have a sense
of the gift that they are. Not many of them feel
like that."
~ John
Denver
*
"I
think the biggest problem in the world is that we
have a generation of young people, and maybe two,
who don't think it's going to get any better."
~ John
Denver
*
When
I was very young, biology, the diversity of life,
was one of my main interests. I know there's this
image people have that I'm this spoiled, cocky punk
of an actor. Honestly, that's not who I am. I really
care that so many species have been wiped out, like
genocide of entire races. I believe in the divine
right of all species to survive on this planet.
So I decided I want to be active as an environmentalist.
I learned. I asked experts. I got active.
~ Leonardo
DiCaprio
Too
many people grow up. That's the real trouble with the
world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't
remember what it's like to be 12 years old. They patronize,
they treat children as inferiors.
-- Walt Disney
We
live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent
can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming
hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering
millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of
Posterity.
-- Benjamin Disraeli
*
"Don't
criticize what you can't understand, your sons and
your daughters are beyond your command."
-- Bob
Dylan
I
live in that solitude which is painful in youth,
but delicious in the years of maturity.
-- Albert
Einstein
"Children
organizing for political rights will probably be treated
initially with ridicule and derision, and then with misunderstanding
and perhaps eventually violence if the experience of the
struggle for women's suffrage is any precedent. Undoubtedly
the greatest obstacle to be overcome is the adult refusal
to acknowledge that children suffer political discrimination
and exclusion. Adults do not perceive children as a minority
group but as helpless, inexperienced, defenseless young
people who need protection. Adult paternalism seeks to
protect and if in this process it curtails freedom, truncates
potential and destroys civil liberties this is taken to
be incidental. The belief in the legitimacy of paternalism
justifies and cements the existing power relationships
between adults and young people. This attitude must be
confronted, challenged and refuted if young people are
to secure their political rights..."
-- Bob Franklin "The Rights of Children"
*
It's
easy to become hopeless. So people must have hope:
the human brain, the resilience of nature, the energy
of young people and the sort of inspiration that
you see from so many hundreds of people who tackle
tasks that are impossible and never give up and
succeed.
~ Jane
Goodall
Age
is not an accomplishment, and youth is not a sin.
-- Robert Heinlein
*
“I've
always been a big believer in equality. No one has
ever been able to tell me I couldn't do something
because I was a girl.”
-- Anne
Hathaway
*
What
greater cause and what more splendid adventure can
be set before the youth of the world than the endeavor
to bring into being that age-old dream of saints
and sages - the great Commonwealth of the World
as the visible embodiment of the brotherhood of
man?
-- Arthur
Henderson
Through
our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched
with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that
life is a profound and passionate thing.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Blessed
are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.
-- Herbert Clark Hoover
*
"The
songs that I've written about Africa, and AIDS
and HIV and about the power of humanitarian love,
those songs, I'm gonna sing them because I know
that it's real."
-- India.Arie
"Our
youth are not failing the system; the system is failing
our youth. Ironically, the very youth who are being treated
the worst are the young people who are going to lead us
out of this nightmare."
-- Rachel Jackson
Most
homeless kids are on the streets because they have
been forced by circumstances that cause them to
think that they are safer there than in any home
they once knew.
-- Jewel
*
We
must all work together to end youth homelessness
in America
-- Jewel
Life
in a shelter or on the streets puts homeless kids and
youth at a higher risk for physical and sexual assault
and abuse, physical illness, including HIV/AIDS
-- Jewel
Support
for shelters and transitional living and housing programs
is necessary if we are going to change the landscape for
homeless boys and girls in America.
-- Jewel
What
I know about street outreach is that it is essential to
dealing with the issue of youth homelessness.
-- Jewel
*
"Having
visited Oxfam-funded school programs in rural
communities has made me realise how vital education
is to developing countries in bringing people
out of poverty and giving them a sense of dignity,
self-worth and confidence."
-- Scarlett
Johansson
*
“There
is no obstacle in the path of young people who are
poor or members of minority groups that hard work
and preparation cannot cure.”
-- Barbara
Jordan
*
"...we
condemned them, our children, for seeking a different
future. We hated them for their flowers, for their
love, and for their unmistakeable rejection of every
hideous, mistaken compromise that we had made throughout
our hollow, money- bitten, frightened, adult lives
-- June
Jordan
*
You
have so much power to bring awareness, prevention
and change.
-- Ashley
Judd
*
As
a Goodwill Ambassador for YouthAIDS, I’ve learned
that the face of AIDS is increasingly young and
female. By educating young people and empowering
them to make the right choices we can stop the spread
of HIV/AIDS
*
"This
world demands the qualities of youth: not a time
of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will,
a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage
over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over
the love of ease."
-- Robert
F. Kennedy
"Few
will have the greatness to bend history itself,
but each of us can work to change a small portion
of events, and in the total of all those acts will
be written the history of this generation."
-- Robert
F. Kennedy
*
"Peace
is a culture that we create by putting it in the
curriculum for young people, through creating
this next generation where young people get a
chance to go across borders, across cultures,
to learn more about each other's life, to create
a global community, learn about opportunities
for helping others. It's investing in peace and
tolerance training, ending the gap between rich
and poor."
-- Craig
Kielburger
"If
we are to achieve true peace in this world, it
shall have to begin with the children."
-- Craig
Kielburger
*
Give young people a chance, our generation may just
surprise you!
-- Marc
Kielburger
*
If
we are to achieve a world free from nuclear weapons,
we need the involvement of young people. Youth have
energy, enthusiasm and many good ideas to share.
Most importantly, however, it is young people who
will be inheriting the problems which have been
left to them by the generations past.
--
Marc
Kielburger
*
Struggle
is a never ending process. Freedom is never really
won, you earn it and win it in every generation.
--
Coretta Scott King
*
Commit
yourself to the noble struggle for human rights.
You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater
nation of your country and a finer world to live
in." --
Martin
Luther King, Jr
Whatever
career you may choose for yourself - doctor, lawyer, teacher
- let me propose an avocation to be pursued along with
it. Become a dedicated fighter for civil rights. Make
it a central part of your life. It will make you a better
doctor, a better lawyer, a better teacher. It will enrich
your spirit as nothing else possibly can. It will give
you that rare sense of nobility that can only spring from
love and selflessly helping your fellow man. Make a career
of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for
human rights. You will make a greater person of yourself,
a greater nation of your country and a finer world to
live in." --
Martin
Luther King, Jr
"One
of the great liabilities of history is that all too many
people fail to remain awake through great periods of social
change. Every society has its protectors of status quo
and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious
for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival
depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new
ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of
change." -- Martin
Luther King, Jr
*
When
Nike says, just do it, that's a message of empowerment.
Why aren't the rest of us speaking to young people
in a voice of inspiration?
-- Naomi
Klein
*
I
was surprised by the response of young people because
there is a perception that those younger than the
1988 generation are not interested in politics.
-- Aung
San Suu Kyi
*
We
found out that the young people who had a substantial
number of lessons in the Resolving Conflict Creatively
Curriculum ... not only did better in terms of people
skills, that they managed their emotions, they were
less violent and more caring, but they actually did
better on their academic achievement tests.
~ Linda
Lantieri
Emotional
intelligence in the work that we do, in the Resolving Conflict
Creatively Program, is about equipping young people with
the kinds of skills they need to both identify and manage
their emotions, to communicate those emotions effectively,
and to resolve conflict nonviolently. So it's a whole set
of skills and competencies that, for us, fall under the
umbrella of emotional intelligence.
~ Linda
Lantieri
"Regardless
of what the law or your teachers have to say about this,
you are as human as anyone over the age of 18 or 21, yet,
'minors' are one of the most oppressed groups of people
in the world, and certainly the most discriminated against
legally."
-- Grace Llewellyn "The Teenage Liberation Handbook"
*
I
don't believe war is a way to solve problems. I think
it's wrong. I don't have respect for the people that
made the decisions to go on with war.
-- Avril
Lavigne
*
"The
young generation can influence their elders and can
make them understand the environmental problems that
are faced by us today. The youth can make them see that
our environment is deteriorating day by day."
~ Chief
Oren Lyons
*
Preventing
the conflicts of tomorrow means changing the mind-set
of youth today.
-- Graça
Machel-Mandela
*
Each
generation should be made to bear the burden of its
own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense
of other generations.
-- James
Madison
The attack
on youth is a national pathology, unwarranted by fact, smokescreen
for the failure of adulthood and its leadership to confront
larger predicaments. No rescue by the monied, governing,
institutional, or otherwise privileged is in sight. It's
up to the energy and inventiveness of the younger generation
to pull the gated minds of millennium America toward acceptance
of diversity, community, and fairness, and I hope they have
as much fun as I did in my adolescences achieving what we
Sixties kids only imagined.
-- Mike Males
Every
youth owes it to himself and to the world to make the most
possible out of the stuff that is in him...
Orison Swett Marden
“The
more we increase the active participation and partnership
with young people, the better we serve them. … And the more
comprehensively we work with them as service partners, the
more we increase our public value to the entire community.”
-- Carmen Martinez
"If
it is clear youth will be encouraged and listened to, and
preparations are well thought out, you are set up for success...
Having youth on boards and commissions has been a rewarding
experience for everyone involved. Youth feel their voice
is valued and that they have an impact on city decisions.
Adult members benefit from the fresh perspective, optimism,
and enthusiasm youth bring to the table."
-- Matt McCarte
*
I'm
fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for
young men to die in.
-- George
McGovern
*
'UNICEF
is successfully giving children and young people all
over the world opportunities and hope. Just like the
ones we met on the Long Way Down - protecting them
from exploitation and giving them chances in life.'
-- Ewan
McGregor
*
"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
*
One
world, one people, living together as a global family!
Young people will cross religious, ethnic and cultural
divides to recognize the universal human as family.
WE ARE ONE and the elders of tomorrow will carry this
torch.
-- Nina
Meyerhof
*
We
have the most prolonged adolescence in the history of
mankind. There is no other society that requires so
many years to pass before people are grown up ... Adolescence
is nurtured and prolonged by educational processes and
by industry that has found a bonanza in embracing the
adolescent population and fortifying 'adolescent values.'
This prolongation of adolescence robs the country of
the population group having the most risk takers, and
the highest ideals.
-- Ralph
Nader
*
In
less than a century we experienced great movement.
The youth movement! The labor movement! The civil
rights movement! The peace movement! The solidarity
movement! The women's movement! The disability movement!
The disarmament movement! The gay rights movement!
The environmental movement! Movement! Transformation!
Is there any reason to believe we are done?
-- Holly
Near
*
“Young
people were once considered relatively safe from HIV/AIDS.
“Today, their lives and futures are at risk throughout
the world because of this disease. I believe it is
young people throughout the world who offer us the
greatest hope for defeating this deadly pandemic.”
-- Liam
Neeson
We
have an obligation and a responsibility to be investing
in our students and our schools. We must make sure
that people who have the grades, the desire and the
will, but not the money, can still get the best education
possible.
-- Barack
Obama
young
people recognize the big challenges that are coming
up...
-- Barack
Obama
*
I
do think that you're starting to see young people
pay attention to some longterm issues that they feel
Washington has neglected.
-- Barack
Obama
*
A
social entrepreneur is somebody who knows how to make
an idea reality, and one of the great ideas of our
time is pluralism. Can people from different backgrounds
live together in mutual peace and loyalty? And what
we need is a generation of young social entrepreneurs
who know how to make that great idea reality in an
historical moment where religious extremists are,
frankly, making their idea reality.
-- Eboo
Patel
*
Our
generation has the ability and the responsibility
to make our ever-more connected world a more hopeful,
stable and peaceful place.
-- Natalie
Portman
*
Social networking is playing a huge role in creating
awareness and mobilizing support for all kinds of
common interests. What better way to use this remarkable
tool than to change the world?
-- Natalie
Portman
*
Our generation has the ability and the responsibility
to make our ever-more connected world a more hopeful,
stable and peaceful place.
-- Natalie
Portman
*
Our
goal is to establish a permanent Youth Assembly on
the global level that would serve to represent the
voices, ideas, concerns and solutions of youth to
the issues that directly affect their lives.
-- Benjamin
Quinto
If
a person would intervene on behalf of one child, shouldn't
we all be intervening for those thousands of children?
So we're asking young people to get involved. We want
young people especially to know what's going on and
to figure out what they can do about it."
-- Benjamin
Quinto
*
"Sometimes
older folks tell me: 'I was idealistic and thought
I could change the world once, too, but then I grew
up.' I'm trying to help us change our definition of
growing up, so that it ceases to mean giving up on
our ideals, and comes to mean learning how to live
our dreams, every day, on the Earth. I want to awaken
the passion and creativity of youth, combine it with
the wisdom, experience and insight of elders, and
transform our world."
~ Ocean
Robbins
Where,
after all, do universal human rights begin? In small
places, close to home - so close and so small that
they cannot be seen on any maps of the world ... Such
are the places where every man, woman and child seeks
equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without
discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there,
they have little meaning anywhere.
-- Eleanor
Roosevelt
*
We
cannot always build the future for our youth, but
we can build our youth for the future.
-- Franklin
D. Roosevelt
This
generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.
-- Franklin
D. Roosevelt
*
Education
is critical for people to become compassionate. If
you don't know the problem and you don't know the
reality, how can you help?
-- Marla
Ruzicka
“Youth
involvement has moved forward. It is no longer seen as a
rebellious act, the way it was a few decades ago.”
-- Maureen A. Sedonaen
*
Youth,
which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing:
age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven
nothing.
-- George
Bernard Shaw
*
...you
can make little choices that can change the world
to be a better, happier, lovelier place every day
-- Alicia
Silverstone
*
It's important to see what we can do to make a difference,
but it's more important to me to do it every single
day.
-- Alicia
Silverstone
*
I
live in a country where we put children in shackles
and in concrete cells. Working together, with righteousness
and hope, we can create a country that is about
reverence and reconciliation, not a world of shackles
and concrete cells.
-- Lateefah
Simon
*
I
am President of the UN created University for Peace,
which has a strong commitment to the relationship
between peace, security and the environment. I meet
with young people around the world and I always come
away enthused and encouraged.
--
Maurice
Strong
*
How
could youths better learn to live than by at once
trying the experiment of living?
-- Henry
David Thoreau
Don't
let anyone think little of you because you are young.
-- 1 Timothy 4:12
"The
secret message communicated to most young people today by
the society around them is that they are not needed, that
the society will run itself quite nicely until they - at
some distant point in the future - will take over the reigns.
Yet the fact is that the society is not running itself nicely...
because the rest of us need all the energy, brains,
imagination and talent that young people can bring to bear
down on our difficulties. For society to attempt to solve
its desperate problems without the full participation of
even very young people is imbecile."
-- Alvin Toffler
*
There
is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.
-- Mark
Twain
“What
should young people do with their lives today? Many things,
obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable
communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness
can be cured.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
*
"I
fervently believe that, as someone has said before,
"When you change the way you look at things,
the things you look at change." I want to help
change the way young people look at school, and hence,
the way they look at their futures."
-- Kanye
West
The
new generation has to hear what the older generation
refuses to tell it.
-- Simon
Wiesenthal
"Young
people need models, not critics"
-- John Wooden
The '60s was one of the first times the power of music
was used by a generation to bind them together.
-- Neil
Young
Youth
from across the globe use online games to connect with each
other and form friendships and communities that defy borders.
-- Jong-Yong Yun
