A lot of presidential memoirs, they say, are dull and self-serving.
I hope mine is interesting and self-serving.
- William J. Clinton
Happiness... consists in giving, and in serving others.
- Henry Drummond
Any statement that is self-serving
is likely to contain untruths.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The signs of outstanding leadership
appear primarily among the followers.
Are the followers reaching their potential?
Are they learning? Serving?
Do they achieve the required results?
Do they change with grace? Manage conflict?
- Max De Pree
Books serve to show a man
that those original thoughts of his
aren't very new at all.
- Abraham Lincoln
Once you know yourself as a genuine seeker,
and when your own inner chamber is quite enlightened,
then comes the natural unfoldment of pure love and compassion
and a genuine desire to serve others.
- Rod Stryker
The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.
- Albert Einstein
The purpose of human life is to serve,
and to show compassion and the will to help others.
- Albert Schweitzer
I serve others by living happily,
and radiating happiness and joy to those around me.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know:
the only ones among you who will be really happy
are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
- Albert Schweitzer
They Also Serve Who Only Stand and Wait
- John Milton
I love this work I do.
It's a privilege to serve the poor.
- Bono
I do not concern myself with gods and spirits
either good or evil, nor do I serve any.
- Lao Tzu
Demand, and my answer is NO.
Ask gently, and I am honored to serve.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants,
and to serve them one's self?
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Go to the people
Live among them
Learn from them
Love them
Serve them
Plan with them
Start with what they know
Build on what they have.
- Jimmy Yen (Y. C. James Yen)
Men have a respect for scholarship and learning
greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.
- Henry David Thoreau
The only ones among you who will be really happy
are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
- Albert Schweitzer
Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory.
It can no longer serve to settle disputes...
can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.
- John F. Kennedy
One thing I know: the only ones among you
who will be really happy are those
who will have sought and found how to serve.
- Albert Schweitzer
In my own deepening understanding of myself
I find my capacity to serve others is deepened as well.
The better I am at self-care
the more genuinely nurturing of others I am able to be.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.
- Marianne Williamson
Property is intended to serve life,
and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect,
it has no personal being.
It is part of the earth man walks on.
It is not man.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure about you.
We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.
- Marianne Williamson
I offer gentle understanding to myself.
I position myself in love, not fear.
I look behind me with forgiveness.
I look forward with festive anticipation.
I embrace this holy moment and assert,
"Now. This moment is the moment to love,
the moment to serve, the moment to seize
the legacy instead of the small.
Now. Now I will live large, love boldly,
reach to the edges of my unfurled heart and fully enrolled hope.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Meddling:
Everything that happens in the world, or doesn't happen,
is NOT my responsibility.
There are more than enough things that are my responsibility.
I am responsible for my thoughts, my beliefs, and my actions -
and that is enough.
It does not serve me to mind anyone else's business.
I can only make myself unhappy by trying to second guess
what anyone else thinks or does.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
On His Blindness:
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.
- John Milton (1608-1674)
Living Into the Great Paradox,
I strive toward my vision,
while accepting gratefully whatever life serves up.
I work to bring about my vision of the future,
which is based on my value system of what is right,
just, noble, compassionate, generous, humane, peaceful, and loving.
Simultaneously, I accept that my vision
is based on only my opinions and prejudices,
and I honor all points of view and value systems,
no matter how different from my own.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
We all tend to measure our worth by what we DO -
the actions we take.
We also highly value what we SAY.
However, the greatest impact we have
on our family, our friends,
and our world is our kindness and love.
A bowl of soup served with love
is a greater gift than a steak dinner served brusquely.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Service which is rendered without joy
helps neither the servant nor the served.
But all other pleasures and possessions
pale into nothingness before service
which is rendered in a spirit of joy.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi
You want to do mankind a real service?
Tell funnier jokes.
- the Woody Allen movie Stardust Memories (1980)
If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
- Mother Teresa
The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson
Seek first to understand,
then to be understood.
- Stephen Covey
As we work to create light for others,
we naturally light our own way.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
The most important service rendered
by the press and the magazines
is that of educating people
to approach printed matter with distrust.
- Samuel Butler
One can not reflect in streaming water.
Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.
- Lao Tzu
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men
who walked through the huts comforting others,
giving away their last piece of bread...
They offer sufficient proof that everything
can be taken from a man but one thing:
to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one's own way.
- Viktor E. Frankl
To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children,
to leave the world a better place,
to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived,
this is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others
will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.
- Helen Keller
Service to others is the rent you pay
for your room here on earth.
- Muhammad Ali
The answer to circumstances is choosing a positive response,
and the most positive choice is to be of service.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Judgment and weariness are foes to service and generosity.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
The best cure for our own self-inflicted suffering
is often service to others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
I'm not on this trip as a tourist.
- Bono
A generous heart, kind speech,
and a life of service and compassion
are the things which renew humanity.
- The Buddha
A life is not important except in
the impact it has on other lives.
- Jackie Robinson (baseball player)
My greatest service to others is living happily,
and radiating happiness and joy to those around me.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly.
It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.
- Henry Ford
No person was ever honored for what he received.
Honor has been the reward for what he gave.
- Calvin Coolidge
I have found out that though the ways in which
I can make myself useful are few,
yet the work open to me is endless.
- Helen Keller
I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.
- Rabindranath Tagore
In service, there is clarity and compassion.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
To give up yourself without regret is the greatest charity.
- Bodhidharma
The path to your own happiness is usually found in service.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Life becomes harder for us when we live for others,
but it also becomes richer and happier.
- Albert Schweitzer
If a man is proud of his wealth,
he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.
- Socrates
What power there is in our service when our actions
line up with our mission, skills and joy.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
The best way to cheer yourself
is to try to cheer someone else up.
- Mark Twain
Whoever is happy will make others happy too.
- Anne Frank
The brightest stars are those who
shine for the benefit of others.
- Anonymous
For it is in giving that we receive.
- St. Francis of Assisi
Weariness comes, on some days, from lack of service to self.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Life's most urgent question is:
what are you doing for others?
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
We ourselves feel that what we are doing
is just a drop in the ocean.
But the ocean would be less
because of that missing drop.
- Mother Teresa
You can have anything you want in life if you
just help enough other people get what they want.
- Zig Ziglar
What do we live for, if it is not
to make life less difficult for each other?
- George Eliot
I have always held firmly to the thought
that each one of us can do a little
to bring some portion of misery to an end.
- Albert Schweitzer
The only gift is a portion of thyself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act
is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi
We are formed and molded by our thoughts.
Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts
give joy when they speak or act.
Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.
- The Buddha
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May the world be kind to you,
and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
All materials & writings are copyright © Jonathan Lockwood Huie, except for quotes and other specifically identified material which belong to their respective copyright holders if applicable.