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.
Do We Really Have Freedom?
By now, most people are familiar with the matter surrounding San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his choice to sit versus stand, during the national anthem. Kaepernick has explained that his protest was in response to the recent incidents of police brutality that have led to the deaths of black people in the U.S. One could ask the question: "Is the situation as bad as it is portrayed in the media?" We can clearly see that there is a division on both sides of the matter but what is undeniable, is that Colin Kaepernick has succeeded in bringing attention to the issue and getting people to actually talk about it.
We have to acknowledge that there is, in fact, an issue, and while Kaepernick’s star is not shining as brightly as it did when he led the 49rs to the Super Bowl in 2012, he is still an active player with many endorsements that could now be jeopardized. Just recently, he signed a massive contract with the 49ers that will pay him an estimated $12 million dollars this season, but he has certainly put his legacy on the line with his choice to sit during the anthem.
Many people, as to be expected, have voiced considerable offense to his decision to stay on the ground, while others have praised him for it. And while everyone is debating whether Colin should have stood during the anthem, we miss the point; How can we disagree with someone's right to protest, even if we might disagree with his opinion? The lack of desire to see other people’s points of view is tearing this world apart. For example, United States Gold medal winner Gabby Douglas was recently fed considerable vitriol for not placing her hand over her heart during the medal ceremony and was called unpatriotic.
Just days later when Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs, who are both white men, stood with their hands at their sides as the national anthem played during their silver medal ceremony, nobody even questioned their patriotism. When pole vaulter Sam Kendricks who is a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army reserves, stopped in mid-stride and to put down his pole and acknowledge the national anthem as it began to play (with his hands at his side), it was seen as patriotic, and rightfully so. He became an Internet sensation with nearly 17 million views on Youtube. Nobody questioned his patriotism.
Sam Kendricks stops pole vault mid-attempt when he hears national anthem:
I know of at least one occasion where United States President Barack Obama did not have his hand over his heart during the national anthem, and he too was called less the patriotic. There is a picture taken during one of this year’s Republican Presidential debates that show all candidates standing with their hands over their hearts with the obvious exception of party nominee Donald Trump. Not only has his patriotism not come into question, but if you were to ask his supporters, he is in their eyes, the very picture of patriotism. The point is that there is a double standard on how tolerant people are to "unpatriotic" signs.
When Muhammad Ali passed way this summer, there was an outpouring of love and respect that still remains. This was a man who at one point risked his career and tested the love of his fanbase to fight for political and humanitarian causes. I wonder just how those same people would receive Ali if he were born in 1987 like Colon Kaepernick, we need only look at the very response that Kaepernick has received. I would be interested to see how many people that are offended by Kaepernick, hold Ali in high esteem. It’s more than fine to disapprove of Kaepernick’s choice but to dislike, or boycott him, is to have lost sight of the very thing that this country was built on; Freedom.
We cannot continue to speak of freedom only when it suits our views or try to take away someone else's rights just because we don't agree with what that person has to say. We need to approach this situation with some semblance of curiosity and try to understand other people’s perspectives without necessarily having to agree with them. We don't need to bend other people's views to suit our own opinion. Accept that some people will just have a different viewpoint on the same matter. Isn't this what a democracy is all about? We need first to look inside ourselves and be honest; are we being biased in our views? Then we need to look at other people and try to understand where they come from and actually care, be curious and learn what they have to teach us, even if we do not agree.