Man working his way up 
Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
A community is so much more than people sharing a space. It's a living, breathing network of connections and shared experiences. While it's usually defined as “a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common,” true community runs much deeper than that.
Diversity
It doesn’t matter how different we are. What matters in building a community is the desire to live in a peaceful and caring environment, despite all our differences.Good Neighbors
Good Neighbors
When searching for a new place to call home, we hope to stumble upon neighbors who can transform a neighborhood into something meaningful. We all need to be surrounded by people who genuinely care for the well-being of others. Only this type of people can create a community that is more than just a bunch of individuals living next to each other.
It Starts with One
Building a strong community starts with individual contributions, no matter how small. As long as you are kind and willing to help others in need, you’ll be a great community member. In exchange, your community will give you a sense of belonging and the feeling that you are never alone.
Here are 35 quotes on what makes communities special — community service, coming together, engagement, involvement, and support
Quotes about community coming together
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.
JEAN VANIER
There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.
MARGARET J. WHEATLEY
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.
HERMAN MELVILLE
There is immense power when a group of people with similar interests gets together to work toward the same goals.
IDOWU KOYENIKAN
Our generation has the ability and the responsibility to make our ever-more connected world a more hopeful, stable and peaceful place.
NATALIE PORTMAN
Quotes about building community
We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race.
CICERO
Some people think they are in community, but they are only in proximity. True community requires commitment and openness. It is a willingness to extend yourself to encounter and know the other.
DAVID SPANGLER
What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.
KURT VONNEGUT
We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.
DOROTHY DAY
The minute we become an integrated whole, we look through the same eyes and we see a whole different world together.
AZIZAH AL-HIBRI
This world of ours… must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Every person is defined by the communities she belongs to.
ORSON SCOTT CARD
Quotes about community service, engagement, and involvement
Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.
MUHAMMAD ALI
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
MAHATMA GANDHI
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Teaching kids how to feed themselves and how to live in a community responsibly is the center of an education.
ALICE WATERS
Volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they’re priceless.
SHERRY ANDERSON
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
LEO BUSCAGLIA
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
ANNE FRANK
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
DR. SEUSS
The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.
OSCAR WILDE
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
MAYA ANGELOU
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
Quotes about community support
In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON
The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.
CORETTA SCOTT KING
The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Diversity is about all of us, and about us having to figure out how to walk through this world together.
JACQUELINE WOODSON
One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.
SHANNON L. ALDER
No man can become rich without himself enriching others.
ANDREW CARNEGIE
Quotes about community health
The power of community to create health is far greater than any physician, clinic or hospital.
MARK HYMAN
For a community to be whole and healthy, it must be based on people’s love and concern for each other.
MILLARD FULLER
Communities and countries and ultimately the world are only as strong as the health of their women.
MICHELLE OBAMA
When elected officials abandon our environment and ruin our natural resources, public health is endangered. I know the importance of providing a clean environment for our children.
GWEN MOORE
And I believe that the best buy in public health today must be a combination of regular physical exercise and a healthy diet.
JULIE BISHOP
These quotes remind us of the joy of being part of something bigger than ourselves.
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The Circles of Life: Why You Must Travel to Challenge Your Prejudices
Some people think travel is a luxury. That isn’t necessarily true. While there is a definite cost to being on the road, I believe the reward far outweighs it. To me, travel is a necessity. Not because I’m looking for a high. I travel because I need to dispel my prejudice and come to a fuller understanding of humanity.
Why You Must Travel to Challenge Your Prejudices
Let’s say that your home is the center of an imaginary circle, the radius of which is the furthest distance you’ve been from home. Now imagine, for simplicity’s sake, that every time you stayed at a new place for more than seven nights, you formed a new circle, the radius of which is the furthest distance you’ve been from the center of that circle. We’re using seven nights in this instance because it’s the amount of time it takes before you consider something you do a “habit” (though others suggest it can be longer). For example, if you brushed your teeth seven nights in a row, you’ve formed a habit -- at which point not brushing your teeth makes you feel incomplete. The point is that after staying at a new place for a certain number of nights, it would have become a new “home.”
Within these circles, stories of people’s lives, their culture, experiences, emotions, food and way of living become a part of your story. The longer you stay in these circles, the more you understand about the intrinsic values of the community and how they perceive the world. The more you understand, the clearer the circle becomes.
It is possible that while learning about the people within a particular circle, you will also learn of intriguing places far away, of bizarre traditions and strange customs. Because of this exposure, you start to form fuzzy circles of understanding about the places you’ve heard about secondhand. You might even form opinions and prejudices about those places based on these external accounts.
Finding our common bond
The problem is that for some people, these fuzzy circles are all they know. By not going to these places themselves, they can only imagine what life must be like there based on stories they've heard in the media or from their friends.
For some, their curiosity will take them to these places. By going there and immersing themselves in that place’s culture, they learn about that locale’s story, and a connection is established. The veil of mystery is lifted and these curious individuals develop a clearer picture.
The more you travel, the more of these circles become clearer to you. Then, magic occurs when these circles intersect. Because within these intersections, the common bond of all the individual circles begins to surface. It might even become apparent that the differentiation between “your story,” “my story,” and “their story” loses its hold: “my story,” “your story,” and “their story” become “our story.”
We all dream the same dreams
It is within these intersections that humanity’s story steps into the spotlight. Perhaps one would even realize that we’re not so different after all; that we all wake up hoping, wishing, and striving to find our own happiness; that the tears that fall from your eyes are the same that fall from mine; that pain, sadness, pleasure, happiness, excitement, and the spectrum of human emotions are shared between us; that at the end of the day, we wish for nothing more than to share a few peaceful moments of life with our friends and loved ones.
It is within these intersections that myths are dispelled and prejudice gives way to understanding. It’s where love and respect are nurtured.
If you are able, take that trip you’ve been thinking about. First-hand experience of different cultures is the remedy to fear. Form your own circles of understanding, and perhaps you might come to the same intersecting conclusion that I’ve laid bare.
I travel for the taste, the sight, and the vibrant sound of a peculiar culture -- but for all my might, I haven’t been to a place that I haven’t felt at home. Imaginary borders and walls may separate people, but our shared humanity will bring us together. This is why I travel. Shall we go together?