William T. Vollmann Quotes

To have a meaningful life, you have to be of service …

If I can help one person in this world, then it's enough, and I've done my job.

I want to go where I can be of the most service to the general enterprise.

Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.

One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

For me, it has always been about using my platform to help others.

The most important thing is contribution because the secret to living is giving. If you catch on to that you start realizing that there's nothing you can get that comes close to what you can give. Life is calling all of us to be more than just about ourselves and that is when we get that spiritual hit.

If you devote yourself to more than yourself ... you will have more than yourself to show for yourself.

You cannot continue to succeed in the world or have a fulfilling life in the world unless you choose to use your life in the service somehow to others and give back what you have been given. That's how you keep it. That's how you get it. That's how you grow it.

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.

It's a really wonderful thing to focus your life on something other than your own personal career and ambition.

Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.

I've always felt I want to be of service to the world somehow. I haven't yet figured out how to do it, and I may never figure out how to do it.

Help others and give something back. I guarantee you will discover that while public service improves the lives and the world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new meaning it will bring your own life.

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.

The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

I think it's important for service to be a part of your life instead of an option. It's awesome to make it a point to do something that's gonna make the world slightly better than you left it.

I have such an extraordinary platform where I am able to help people. To me, that's the number one priority.

To be in the privileged position where I am able to give something back is, for me, perhaps the single most important measure of success.

I was sitting around, moping and feeling badly for myself. I went to the hospital to visit a child, and it hit me: helping people is what I'm meant to do.

All we can do is just think about what we can put into the world - not really kind of what we can get out of it.

We feel like if we can give back, that's what we are called to do. So we've been fortunate to do a lot of really cool things and touch a lot of people's lives.

Significance in life doesn’t come from status, because you can always find somebody who’s got more than you. It doesn’t come from sex. It doesn’t come from salary. It comes from serving.

Serving reconnects people to purpose. Serving someone else's dream empowers not just us, but them.

Remember, purpose is about giving...All you can do with your life is to give it away in the service of others.