He said, She said…

One of the magazines to which I subscribe (there is actually an embarrassingly long list that includes things like Vogue and OK weekly but let's just talk about the educational/literary magazines or I might get embarrassed) called The Sun which I love. And all of you should subscribe but that's not the point. At the end of every magazine they have a whole page titled "Sunbeams" they're quotes that pertain to the topic of the magazine. I love that they call them Sunbeams, that somehow small things other people say can light our lives. I remember the sunbeams that they printed on September 11, 2001. I was living in Ecuador and my mother mailed it to me—it was longer than one page and I folded it up and carried it with me as I traveled around the country for the next year and a half. The folded paper has made it with me in all subsequent moves and I still think about some of the things that were said. The quotes weren't about patriotism or valor they were about forgiveness, about love and about inclusion. I still love that response to tragedy—love and forgiveness. In honor of a large meeting we're preparing for this week we've been making our own collections of sunbeams about development. But one thing that we've learned is that development quotes, just like those in response to tragedy, aren't just about building and teaching. They are also about love, forgiveness, culture, valor, a call to action, poverty, and all other kinds of things. So without further ado here are our sunbeams. It isn't a complete list and we'd love your additions.

 

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. - Mother Teresa

It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving. - Mother Teresa

We can do no great things-only small things with great love. - Mother Teresa

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die. - Eleanor Roosevelt

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they will never sit." - Greek proverb

"The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning." - Mitch Albom

"What we have done for ourselves dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains immortal." - Albert Pike

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." - Winston Churchill

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness." - Martin Luther King Jr.

"Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity." - Buddha

"Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time." - Marian Wright Edelman

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." - Anne Frank

"He who wishes to secure the good of others, has already secured his own." - Confucius

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." Mahatma Gandhi

"Blessed are those who give without remembering. And blessed are those who take without forgetting." Bernard Meltzer

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." - Edmund Burke

"The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose." - Robert Byrne

"Poverty is hunger, loneliness, no where to go when the days is over, deprivation, discrimination, abuse, and illiteracy." Tarawatti Sooklall, single mother of two, Guyana

"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat." - Mother Teresa

"Nine tenths of education is encouragement." - Anatole France

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." - George Santayana

"Much learning does not teach understanding." - Heraclitus

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed souls can change the world, indeed that is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

"The worst thing is apathy - to sit idly by in the face of injustice and to do nothing about it. There is a real responsibility to challenge things that are wrong." - Martin O'Brien

"It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it." - Albert Einstein

"No one has ever become poor by giving." - Anne Frank

"The poor of the world are crying out for schools and doctors, not guns and generals." - Oscar Arias Sanchez

"One works for justice not just for the big victories, but simply because engaging in the struggle is worth doing." - Oscar Arias Sanchez

"If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children." - Mahatma Ghandi