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.
Is Religion to Blame for the Division Among Us?
I once heard that in the Mormon faith, people who are not Mormon are not permitted in the temple or church. Then I became friends with several people who were Mormons, attended a memorial service, at a Mormon Church, and an aunt of mine also joined the church. I had a similar experience the Church of Scientology.
I attended a memorial service for the father of a dear friend and not only found it to be warm, caring, and exceptionally loving, but I learned that more than one of my friends were ordained ministers. I’ve always thought of myself as open minded and I considered myself to be without actual judgment or opinion about either religion. I was a little surprised at the things I learned, so I wondered what other misconceptions I had about certain religions. Religion has always been the scapegoat for the lunacy of man. It was the case in Salem Massachusetts, where people were burned alive if they were suspected of being a witch.
It was the case when racists burned (or sometimes still do) crosses to display their disdain of blacks or other non-whites, and it is the excuse given by those who make it their business to show disrespect at funerals for fallen soldiers who have served our country and had been identified as gay. In this and other similar instances, the blame was Christianity. In an age where media is more prevalent than ever, where in instances, disturbed nut cases make it hard to distinguish truth from their purpose, and especially in the wake of the cowardice and horrible shooting in Orlando, Islam is perhaps the most common blame.
But Islam is no more to blame for the division among us than Christianity, or any other religion. We have to take responsibility for what we consume. We can’t always control what the media attempts to feed us but we have a say in what we choose to consume. Much of it starts with the perfection in which our spirits walk as we enter the world. We feel anything is possible and unless given or taught a reason to do otherwise, we treat people as they treat us.
The curiosity and innocence of a child can teach us much. If we would simply retain an honest desire to learn about and from each other, and to give in to the power of questions rather than statements. I recently learned that the great poet Rumi, was not just Muslim, but specifically from, a sect known as the Sufi. He was a practitioner of the art or prayer known as the whirling dervish.
The Sufis welcomed people of all faiths, including Christianity, to learn this form of prayer and art. I had heard of Rumi, but I had never heard this information before so my most common question was, ” what else don’t I know”? What other misconceptions may we have of others and more importantly about ourselves? When we attain a childlike, sincere thirst to learn about each other, good things happen. The world becomes smaller and a better place. In the case of Rumi and the dervish, I never knew any of this, though I heard the term whirling dervish, I would have never associated it with religion. Just under 24 hours after learning of this, part of me felt like I knew all along. But we have to be open. To be open, we need to just care, much like our children teach us.