Reflections

"To transform the world, we must begin with ourselves. However small may be the world we live in, if we can transform ourselves, bring about a radically different point of view in our daily existence, then perhaps we shall affect the world at large, the extended relationship with others." ~ Krishnamurti

"You can't hold a man down without staying down with him." - Booker T. Washington

"I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion, and elimination of ignorance, selfishness, and greed." ~ Dalai Lama, 1989 Nobel Peace-Prize speech

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." - Pierre Tielhard de Chardin

"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 frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God; your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God within us. It's not just in some of us. It's 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 fear, our presence automatically liberates others." - by M.A. Williams for Nelson Mandela, President, Republic of South Africa, from his 1994 inaugural speech.

Ubuntu: The spiritual foundation of African societies, ubuntu involves a belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all of humanity, a unifying world view best captured by the Zulu maxim 'umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu' - 'a person is a person through other persons'.

"Our true nationality is mankind." - H.G. Wells

"If I destroy you, I destroy myself. If I honor you, I honor myself." - Hunbatz Men, Mayan leader

"A human being is a part of the whole that we call the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical illusion of his consciousness. This illusion is a prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for only the few people nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living beings and all of nature." - Albert Einstein

"It is in the shelter of each other that the people live." - Irish Proverb

"Each of us must know in our minds and believe in our hearts that even though we are different, you are like me and I am like you." ~ Larry P. Aitken, Chippewa

The mind does not take its complexion from the skin." ~ Frederick Douglas

"Whoever kindles the flames of intolerance is lighting a fire underneath his own home." ~ Harrold Stassen

"Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box." ~ Italian Proverb

"The source of love is deep in us, and we can help others realize a lot of happiness. One word, one action, one thought can reduce another person's suffering and bring that person joy." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

"This unbreakable bond of relatedness that makes of the whole a universe becomes increasingly apparent to scientific observation, although this bond ultimately escapes scientific formulation or understanding. In virtue of this relatedness, everything is intimately present to everything else in the universe. Nothing is completely itself without everything else." ~ Thomas Berry

"We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers." ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

"It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for freedom of our own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity." ~ Nelson Mandela

"Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable." ~Kenyan Proverb

"The space under the sky is occupied by all things in their unity." ~ Chuang Tzu

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"On this shrunken globe, men can no longer live as strangers." ~ Adlai Stevenson

"There is the sky, which is all men's together..." ~ Euripides, 412 B.C.

"You cannot contribute anything to the ideal condition of mind and heart known as Brotherhood, however much you preach, posture, or agree, unless you live it." ~ Faith Baldwin

The moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out." ~ James Baldwin

There can be hope only for a society which acts as one big family, not as many separate ones." ~ Anwar al-Sadat

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" ~ Psalms 133:1

Let us work together for unity and love." ~ Mahatama Gandhi

"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert."
~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King., Jr.

"We are members of a vast cosmic orchestra,in which each living instrument is essential to the complementary and harmonious playing of the whole." ~ J. Allen Boone

"Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect." ~ Chief Seattle

"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"There is only one way by which the nations can be brought into unity and into peace and into brotherhood. This is not through guns, nor might, nor force, but through the power of God and the love of our fellowmen that is in the hearts of His people." ~ Melvin J. Ballard

"The opportunity for brotherhood presents itself
every time you meet a human being." ~ Jane Wyman

"We are members of one great body. Nature planted in us a mutual love, and fitted us for a social life. We must consider that we were born for the good of the whole." ~ Seneca

"To live is not to live for one's self alone;
let us help one another." ~ Menander

"Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

"Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation;
and this means we must develop a world perspective." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Only to the extent that men desire peace and brotherhood can the world be made better. No peace even though temporarily obtained, will be permanent, whether to individuals or nations, unless it is built upon the solid foundation of eternal principles." ~ David O. McKay

"We are all caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever effects one directly effects all indirectly." - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Strength to Love, 1963

Mitakuye-Oyasin: "We are all Related" ~ Lakota prayer

"If we have no peace - it is because we have forgotten we belong to each other."
Mother Theresa

"We are different so that we can know our need of one another, for no one is ultimately self - sufficient. A completely self - sufficient person would be sub-human."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"Many people with different backgrounds, cultures, languages, and creeds combine to make a nation. But that nation is greater than the sum total of the individual skills and talents of its people. Something more grows out of their unity than can be calculated by adding the assets of individual contributions. That intangible additional quantity is often due to the differences which make the texture of the nation rich." ~ Louis Nizer