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.
Leave 'Normal' Behind, Because You Were Meant for More
You still have it. Deep down. Inside you. Somewhere. It’s the dream of who you want to become, and what you want to do with your life.
And yet, that dream seems so wild and unrealistic that you need to let go of it to pursue 'normal' things, like 'normal' people do. Like money. Money buys everything, including happiness, doesn't it? Well then how come you still feel something tickling you inside? Aren’t you happy with all the money you have?
When you realize 'normal' is not what you want
People have been telling you how to live your life. They tell you what to do and which highly respected career path you should pursue. They tell you to never stop climbing higher in your career, to earn that bonus, to get that promotion. They draw a picture of happiness and tell you to try to make that picture come true.
They promise you that once you make a lot of money, then you'll be able to settle down and be happy. Like a 'normal' person.
But what if that is not true?
What if you don’t want to settle down? What if you don’t like the career they have chosen for you? What if you work so hard to get more money, only in an effort to fill the emptiness inside you? What happens if one day, the money cannot fill that hole?
That’s when you realize what they have taught you is not what you want. You don’t want to just be "okay" with a job you don’t enjoy. You don’t want to be miserable working for 30 years and then call it a life.
You don’t need to be like everyone else. You don’t have to be 'normal.'
The fear of going the other way
We are social creatures. We like the feeling of belonging. We don’t want people to judge us. We like playing it safe.
We also inherently want to be successful, to stand out and do something extraordinary. Yet the fear of failure, the fear of being different, can outweigh our desires.
What if we go left when everyone else goes right, and then it turns out we are wrong? What if we try so hard and then we fail? How can we be sure that it will all be worth our effort?
READ: Embrace Failure to Learn the Things Success Won't Teach
We let that fear get the best of us. We use fear as an excuse for not trying. But, what’s the worst that can happen? You get more experience, you learn more, you live more. If you fail, you will learn how to get back up. If you win, you get the life you want.
If you want to do something extraordinary, you need to be willing to do something that no one else is willing to do.
Let your dreams show you the way
Once you overcome your fear, you will face another problem. You don’t know how to start.
We live in a world where too many people tell you how to achieve your dreams, and yet you still don’t know what to do. Because the truth is they don't know you better than yourself. They don’t know your obstacles, your strengths, your weaknesses. They don’t know what you are afraid of, or what you are proud of.
So why listen to them?
You don’t need to read all the self-development books in the world to know what to do. You just need to let your dreams show you the right path.
READ: How to Follow Your Heart and Live Your Personal Legend
What do you want to do with your life? What do you want to achieve? What is it that really makes you happy and that you won’t regret when you're on your deathbed?
Close your eyes, and imagine that all of your dreams have come true. What will your future self tell your current self?
For the first time in your life, walk the way your gut tells you, and follow the path your heart shows you.
Your new life awaits
It’s never too late or too soon to start something new. You will never go wrong if you follow your heart. There will be some sacrifice, some sufferings, some stress, some fear. But that is unavoidable. And that is okay.
Indeed, those are the natural signals the universe is sending you that you are about to step into something extraordinary -- something that will lead you to a life worth talking about.
Your new life awaits. All you need is to start.
It’s your turn.