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.
Whatever You Do, Don't Panic
Don’t you hate it when people tell you to calm down? I don’t like it either. But having that steady demeanor can sometimes keep you from derailing your relationship, career, and life. This is a story of how a moment’s calm in the face of distress saved an important project that I had been leading for almost a year. What should have been a major setback turned into an inspiring moral victory for the team.
When the stakes are high, a steady head will keep the situation from spiraling into a catastrophe. This was my biggest lesson from this experience.
I surveyed the room. Tension, stress, desperation, and hopelessness wore themselves on people’s tired faces. We had spent the last 50 minutes discussing the final few points of an important document set for release in the upcoming weeks only to come to the realization that it might not pass muster; the light at the end of the tunnel was dim.
The room fell into an uncomfortable silence.
Sensing mental exhaustion and lack of possible progress, I closed the topic and the team careened out the door like drunken sailors, chuckling at the impossible situation we found ourselves in.
Somehow, I felt an unnatural calm wash over me. Shouldn’t I be frantically searching for answers? I asked myself. After all, I was the project lead, and this was a key deliverable after almost a year of work. My mind was racing but not in a frantic mode. I was formulating steps forward, planning for the next discussion, and finalizing potential proposals to get this important artifact out the door.
Stop and breathe
A few moments later I found my manager sipping on black coffee at our on-campus Tully’s. The smell of coffee gave me a jolt. I caught up with him and we walked back to our office together. I always found the walk to/from the coffee shop the most relaxing, mainly because it gave me an opportunity to clear my head, get some fresh air, and enjoy the cherry blossoms along the way.
“I think I know a path forward, and I think we can get this done as promised,” I told him in all seriousness.
A pause.
He looked at me in confusion as though saying through his eyes, “Were you not in that meeting?” It took a few moments for him to ask me, “You really think so?”
“Yes, I do. There’s a few key points brought up this morning, but I think I know a way for us to get consensus.”
He nodded. I don’t think he really believed me. We parted ways back to our respective desks. I went to work. I drafted a few proposals and after a healthy discussion with the project team soon after, we rescheduled a meeting with the same key stakeholders from the morning session for that afternoon.
We met in a small conference room and within an hour came up with a compromised solution to keep the project on track.
Victory.
I left the office that day exhausted, but there was a definitive pep in my step. Not only did we avert disaster, but we also turned the tides, and I truly believed we were on our way to producing a higher quality product because of it.
In retrospect, that successful turnaround was made possible by a few factors: one, the team had time to blow off steam and regroup mentally; two, we didn’t let the morning loss deflate us -- we got right back up and went to work that very afternoon to resolve the problem; and lastly and most importantly, my hand never wavered -- I stayed as steady and level-headed as needed to lead the team through the challenge. I truly believe that had I panicked, the project would have been derailed.
Eye on the horizon, and steady on
Staying steady is difficult at times, especially when turmoil or utter excitement surrounds you. But those times are exactly when you need to breathe, slow down, and quell your emotions lest you make regretful decisions. The story I told is work-related, but the lesson can be applied in all facets of life.
Don’t let a dip in the stock market drive you off the side of the cliff, and conversely, don’t let a sudden boost in your mutual funds convince you to buy that yacht you can’t afford. Don’t suddenly start drinking three glasses of red wine nightly because some study said red wine is the best for your health. Chances are, another study will come out within a few weeks to dispute that claim.
Life is an unexpected ride through the jungle, in a beat-up Jeep, with random stops along the way. There might be consecutive moments of terror as your car climbs out of a ditch. There might be long stretches of pure serenity and beauty as jungle creatures come out to greet you. But your survival depends on you, the driver, staying steady as you navigate the treacherous paths: don’t over steer, don’t slam your brakes at the slightest rustling of the leaves, don’t grow complacent and fall asleep during the long stretches of paved roads, don’t despair if you lose radio signal, and don’t grow so emboldened as to invite the mountain lion into your car because it’s so cool.
Steady your car, my friends, and I’ll see you at the oasis in the middle of the jungle.