The end of life is not to be happy, nor to achieve pleasure and avoid pain, but to do the will of God, come what may.
Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.
No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others.
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?”
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
I have decided to stick to love… Hate is too great a burden to bear.
Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service.
We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.
Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.
We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.
If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.
Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.
The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is that a dreamer has his eyes closed and a visionary has his eyes open.
Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.
We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
The day we see the truth and cease to speak is the day we begin to die.
True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
It is cheerful to God when you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart.
The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.
Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.