Fred Rogers Quotes

Everyone we interact with is changed forever. The only questions are: How will they be different (and how different will they be), and how will we be different (and how different will we be) as a result?

The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.

If my life is of no value to my friends it is of none to myself.

I hope that, when I leave this planet, I will have touched a few people in a positive way. That's really what I hope I am remembered for the most.

In death, we are not defined by what we did or who we were but by what we meant to others. How well we loved and were loved in return.

What you leave behind is the people you loved. You leave yourself in them.

Whether we're a preschooler or a young teen, a graduating college senior or a retired person, we human beings all want to know that we're acceptable, that our being alive somehow makes a difference in the lives of others.

I have learned to imagine an invisible sign around each person's neck that says 'Make me feel important.

Your life is about everyone whose life you touch, and it is about the way in which you touch them.

You are not just here to fill space or be a background character in someone else's movie. Consider this: nothing would be the same if you did not exist. Every place you have ever been and everyone you have ever spoken to would be different without you. We are all connected, and we are all affected by the decisions and even the existence of those around us.

Interest in the lives of others, the high evaluation of these lives, what are they but the overflow of the interest a man finds in himself, the value he attributes to his own being?.

You may never have proof of your importance but you are more important than you think. There are always those who couldn’t do without you. The rub is that you don’t always know who.

At the end of our lives, we will not be judged by the highest public office we attained in our lifetime, if that were true the current president (George W. Bush) would hold as much esteem as Franklin Roosevelt in our country, and Nelson Mandela in his. That cannot be the case. Rather, we will each be judged by the mark we've left on others.

Don't ever allow yourself to feel trapped by your choices. Take a look at yourself. You are a unique person created for a specific purpose. Your gifts matter. Your story matters. Your dreams matter. You matter.

Every one on the earth should believe that he has something to give to the world which cannot otherwise be given.

When your sense of worth exceeds your conditions, conditions will shift to match your vision.

I feel like, like, how you matter is defined by the things that matter to you. You matter as much as the things that matter to you.

You say you're not special because the world doesn't know about you, but that's an insult to me. I know about you.

You must judge a man's greatness by how much he will be missed.

We reward people a lot for being rich, for being famous, for being cute, for being thin... one of the values I think we need to instill in our country, in our children, is a sense of 'usefulness', in other words, are we useful, are we making other peoples' lives a little bit better?

The fullness or emptiness of life will be measured by the extent to which a man feels that he has an impact on the lives of others.

I don't want to just be an athlete. I kind of obsess on that sometimes. I don't want my son to be reading, oh, 'disappointment, just a scorer, selfish, didn't win enough, never quite the best' -- whatever. I want to be bigger than that. I want to shape my own destiny instead of just having him read about whatever on the back page.

I would give more for the private esteem and love of one than for the public praise of ten thousand.

There is purpose and worth to each and every life.

Every person needs to feel significant. We want our lives to count. We yearn to believe that in some way we are important and that hunger for significance-a drive as intense as our need for oxygen-doesn't come from pride or ego. It comes from God because he wants each of us to understand how important we are. ... We must seek our roots, our origin, and our destiny so that we can know our present value. ..... ...We can help each other realize that we are persons of significance being made in the image of God.