Quotations about building, maintaining, and being in community. People are essentially social beings, and so people tend to build communities that share common interests, locations, or goals. Community also carries the connotation of a certain kind of group: one that meets the needs of all of those within the community.
I propose that there is another kind of power based not on resources, things, or attributes, but rooted in the social and cooperative relations in which people are enmeshed by virtue of group life.
You can survive on your own; you can grow strong on your own; you can prevail on your own; but you cannot become human on your own.
I accept relationship as my primary teacher about myself, other people, and the mysteries of the universe.
When they are alone they want to be with others, and when they are with others they want to be alone. After all, human beings are like that.
When they are alone they want to be with others, and when they are with others they want to be alone. After all, human beings are like that.
We are each other’s magnitude and bond.
It is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together.
A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.
Do not separate yourself from the community. Do not believe in yourself until the day you die. Do not judge your fellow until you have stood in his place. Do not say something that is not readily understood in the belief that it will ultimately be understood. And do not say ‘When I free myself of my concerns, I will study,’ for perhaps you will never free yourself.
I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
Teaching in a Settlement requires distinct methods, for it is true of people who have been allowed to remain undeveloped and whose facilities are inert and sterile, that they cannot take their learning heavily. It has to be diffused in a social atmosphere, information must be held in solution, in a medium of fellowship and good will…. It is needless to say that a Settlement is a protest against a restricted view of education.
The relationship of students and faculty to each other and to the residents was that of guest and hostess and at the close of each term the residents gave a reception to students and faculty which was one of the chief social events of the season. Upon this comfortable social basis some very good work was done.
One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn’t as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.
When I claim more than what I can handle, I limit the opportunities for another person in my community.
It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is in the interest of the individual.
In leadership writ large, mutually agreed upon purposes help people achieve consensus, assume responsibility, work for the common good, and build community.
We need to feel the cheer and inspiration of meeting each other, we need to gain the courage and fresh life that comes from the mingling of congenial souls, of those working for the same ends.
Be bold! Step out of your comfort zone, burn down the stereotypes, the labels, the categories, and build a community.
We come from an indigenous culture, which believes in Village. Being alone is actually something that white supremacy taught us. The way our families are structured is not the way our ancestors lived & thrived. Humans are pack animals, we need people. Surviving alone was never the indigenous way. We come from community and village life and we’ve been stripped from it. I’m sorry you’ve never had community or village. It’s a lie that humans don’t need people. We are in the position that we are in because foundational communities were desecrated due to colonialism and white supremacy. Living the way we live is not natural.
It’s not enough…
The phrase check on your strong friend is not enough.
We must figure out how to belong to each other again.
We must figure out how to heal with one another again.
We must figure out how to find home and one another again.
We have to heal into being safe for one another again.
Checking on your strong friend, is not enough we must be village again.
There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community.
[A]ll change, even very large and powerful change, begins when a few people start talking with one another about something they care about.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
My faith has been the driving thing of my life. I think it is important that people who are perceived as liberals not be afraid of talking about moral and community values.
First, we are challenged to rise above the narrow confines of our individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
[O]ne of the great tasks of ecological thinking will be to develop an ecological civicism that restores the organic bonds of community without reverting to the archaic blood-tie at one extreme or the totalitarian “folk philosophy” of fascism at the other.
Community is that place where the person you least want to live with always lives. And when that person moves away, someone else arises to take his or her place.
We can put the chairs in a circle, but as long as they are occupied by people who have an inner hierarchy, the circle itself will have a divided life, one more form of “living within the lie”: a false community.
Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it means never living apart from one’s self. It is not about the absence of other people-it is about being fully present to ourselves, whether or not we are with others. Community does not necessarily mean living face-to-face with others; rather, it means never losing the awareness that we are connected to each other. It is not about the presence of other people-it is about being fully open to the reality of relationship, whether or not we are alone.
