Service Quotes

“The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve. This is true even of the pious brethren who carry the gospel to foreign parts.”
― H.L. Mencken, Minority Report

“Perspective is as simple as answering this question: If I had 5 months to live would I experience this problem differently?”
― Shannon L. Alder

“I never wanted to be a God fearing person. I wanted to grow up and be a person that was fearless for God. There was a difference.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“I no longer follow the voices of the sane. I follow the ill because they see farther, feel much more and change what the sane will not. This is the paradox of philosophers---trying to understand mass delusion among great people that have faith and knowledge, yet they can’t graduate from their institutions of religious theology to apply the knowledge they have gained for the shifting of Zion---- from words to action; from comfort to uncomfortable; from self serving to self giving; from competition to supporting; to tradition to unity; from bias to acceptance; from me to us.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Truth changes with the season of our emotions. It is the shadow that moves with the phases of our inner sun. When the nights falls, only our perception can guess where it hides in the dark. Within every solar system of the soul lies a plan of what truth is--- the design God has created, in our own unique story. This is as varying as the constellations, and as turning as the tide. It is not one truth we live to, but many. If we ever hope to determine if there is such a thing as truth, apart from cultural and personal preferences, we must acknowledge that we are then aiming to discover something greater than ourselves, something that transcends culture and individual inclinations. Some say that we must look beyond ourselves and outside of ourselves. However, we don’t need to look farther than what is already in each other. If there was any great plan from a higher power it is a simplistic, repetitious theme found in all religions; the basic core importance to unity comes from shared theological and humanistic virtues. Beyond the synagogue, mosques, temples, churches, missionary work, church positions and religious rituals comes a simple “message of truth” found in all of us, that binds theology---holistic virtues combined with purpose is the foundation of spiritual evolution. The diversity among us all is not divided truth, but the opportunity for unity through these shared values. Truth is the framework and roadmap of positive virtues. It unifies diversity when we choose to see it and use it. It is simple message often lost among the rituals, cultural traditions and socializing that goes on behind the chapel doors of any religion or spiritual theology. As we fight among ourselves about what religion, culture or race is right, we often lose site of the simple message any great orator has whispered through time----a simplistic story explaining the importance of virtues, which magically reemphasizes the importance of loving one another through service.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“The goal for most people should not be to feel better, but to get better at feeling.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Truth is a tyrant-the only tyrant to whom we can give our allegiance. The service of truth is a matter of heroism.”
― John F. Kennedy

“Being a good example is the best form of service.”
― Sathya Sai Baba

“Let's be about leaving this world better than we find it each and every day. Our life is a testimony and through us divine loving is becoming more manifest. Greater good is calling upon us here in this world to be done this day. One of my rallying calls is let's go out and do some good. This is who we are. This is what we are about.”
― John Morton, The Blessings Already Are

“The capital ... shall form a fund, the interest of which shall be distributed annually as prizes to those persons who shall have rendered humanity the best services during the past year. ... One-fifth to the person having made the most important discovery or invention in the science of physics, one-fifth to the person who has made the most eminent discovery or improvement in chemistry, one-fifth to the one having made the most important discovery with regard to physiology or medicine, one-fifth to the person who has produced the most distinguished idealistic work of literature, and one-fifth to the person who has worked the most or best for advancing the fraternization of all nations and for abolishing or diminishing the standing armies as well as for the forming or propagation of committees of peace.”
― Alfred Bernhard Nobel

“The function of the educator is to discover in each individual child the gifts implanted in her by Almighty God and to develop and dedicate them to His service.”
― Elizabeth Goudge, Island Magic

“All work done with love is healing work.”
― Eric Micha'el Leventhal

“Communities are not built of friends, or of groups of people with similar
styles and tastes, or even of people who like and understand each other.
They are built of people who feel they are part of something that is
bigger than themselves: a shared goal or enterprise, like righting a wrong,
or building a road, or raising children, or living honorably, or worshipping
a god. To build community requires only the ability to see value in others:
to look at them and see a potential partner in one's enterprise.”
― Suzanne Goldsmith, A City Year: On the Streets and in the Neighbourhoods with Twelve Young Community Volunteers

“I wish to be buried in Ireland, the country of my adoption a country which I loved, which I have dutifully served, and for which I believe I have sacrificed my life.”
― Thomas Drummond

“We have no need to learn to think much of ourselves, to care for ourselves, to consider our own needs, wants, and desires. We already do that far too much. The problem is getting us to think of others, to have a lowliness of mind that springs from humility and love.”
― Nancy Wilson, Building Her House: Commonsensical Wisdom for Christian Women

“She resembled the swallow in the fable who once every thousand years transferred a grain of wheat, in the hope of rearing a mountain to reach the moon. Such persons are raised up in every age; they obstinately insist on transporting their grains of wheat and they derive a certain exhilaration from the sneers of the bystanders. “How queerly they dress!” we cry. “How queerly they dress!”
― Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey

“Live vertically, not horizontally.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Serving and attempting to inspire others is a responsibility, not a choice.”
― Bill Courtney, Against the Grain: A Coach's Wisdom on Character, Faith, Family, and Love

“Service is one of life's great joys. It's a privilege to be in service. It's a great relief, a gift, to be faced with a job that you know absolutely you must do for the benefit of someone else. As long as you give yourself to it. You don't need to worry about anything but doing that job well, and the satisfaction, when you do, is very beautiful.”
― Messud, Claire

“The quality of your life is directly proportional to the positive effect you have on others’ lives.”
― Chris Matakas

“The determination of the average man is not merely a matter of speculative curiosity; it may be of the most important service to the science of man and the social system. It ought necessarily to precede every other inquiry into social physics, since it is, as it were, the basis. The average man, indeed, is in a nation what the centre of gravity is in a body; it is by having that central point in view that we arrive at the apprehension of all the phenomena of equilibrium and motion.”
― Adolphe Quetelet, Treatise of Man and the Development of His Faculties

“To Stanley Ager, the gift of human "service" was no one-way loyalty. He clearly gave his all to the families he served but, though he was almost too polite to state this, his expectation of loyalty in return was implicit.”
― Stanley Ager, The Butler's Guide to Running the Home and Other Graces

“When leaders reframe customers into guests, and results into experiences, profits escalate.”
― Eric Schiffer, Emotionally Charged Learning: Secrets to Competitive Advantages for the Second Half of the Knowledge/Entertainment-Based Economy

“If you are benefiting more than those you serve, you are no longer serving.”
― A. Hudnall

“EYou reveal your character by what you do with what you have.”
― GE Paulus

“You reveal your character by what you do with what you have.”
― GE Paulus

“Has what you do for God become more important to you than the Lord Himself?”
― Colin S. Smith, The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life

“I believe the devil exists in those little, seemingly unnoticeable moments when we choose to value our own insecurities over the service of others.”
― Chris Matakas

“Somebody needs to be in charge! They may not always like what you’re doing,
but press on!” My late uncle, CSM, US Army (Ret) Harris L. Parker, Airborne Ranger, aka Hardcore”
― Deborah L. Parker, Hardcore Leadership: 11 Master Lessons from My Airborne Ranger Uncle's "Final Jump"

“you could wait to do something for God, but if He waited to do something for you, you couldn't finish reading this sentence...”
― Garrett McCoy