Sarah Orne Jewett Quotes

Will you be a spectator or a citizen? To make a difference in this world, you must be involved.

You can complain about problems, and you can suffer from the ramifications of issues that are social in nature and impact you, but the best thing you can do is get off your couch, get out of your home and go do something about it.

Be an active participant in your community and country. Every small gesture makes up the big gestures. Resist, rinse, repeat.

We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place--or not to bother

If this day means anything, it means that you are now in the contingent of the responsible. You must be kind, yes, but you must also look beyond your own house. We're depending on you for your efforts and your vision. We are depending on your eye and your imagination to identify what wrongs exist and persist, and on your hands, your backs, your efforts, to right them.

Art and activism seem to go together naturally, the idea being that if you're an entertainer, you can have a voice, and if you have a voice, you can make a difference. But if I were not an actress, I would still try to extend myself beyond my little micro-universe of my job, family and personal joy.

I realized that public affairs were also my affairs.

I'd have to say I've become more aware of my communal responsibility.

There's so much importance in honoring your everyday hero. It doesn't take money. It doesn't take connections. What matters is that people get involved. Whether your passion is gun control or food or whatever it may be, everybody needs to stop being so self-absorbed.

I try to focus moment to moment on being an aware, responsible, contributive member of society. You see trash on the ground, pick it up!

You need to remind people that you vote, you matter, and that they can't succeed without your help.

The first lesson in civics is that efficient government begins at home.

I don't want young people to think they can't make a difference because they don't have money.

In the nineties, everybody wants to talk about their rights and privileges. Twenty-five years ago, people talked about their obligations and responsibilities.

I feel a real responsibility to my community and so right now there has been this bizarre myth in our community how our vote doesn't count. I'm trying to get out there and re-educate on how the government works and break that myth and talk about the importance of being involved.

You have to feel more involved than just writing out a cheque. Charity is almost the wrong word - I think people are beginning to feel more responsible for the world.

The primary thing I should do, apart from being a good husband, brother, son, and friend, is to be a citizen activist. But I'm afraid it takes away from the writing. Not that anything depends on whether I put an essay in 'The Nation' or not. But you want to participate.

I do feel, in a sense, the rules of engagement for citizenship has changed, and we must encourage other people to speak up and to take action.

I was always brought up that if you can make a difference, you should, and if you don't it's a waste. So we'll see if I can make a difference.

I certainly feel a strong call of public service.

Being involved in the well-being and advancement of one's own community is a most natural thing to do.

It always feels good to be a part of something you think could actually impact human beings.

My theory is this: Rather than having commentaries from the cheap seats, get involved and see what you can do. What can you do around your own community, within your own family, to try to improve race relations in our country? I think this is a responsibility that we all have as citizens.

There is nothing that says you can't be active and love your community and fight for your community and still do your job.

Just like so many other people out there, I don't want to sit on the sidelines, I want to do the most that I can to help.