Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Equip yourself for life, not solely for your own benefit, but for the benefit of the whole community

The self-bound individual always forgets that his self would be safeguarded better and automatically the more he prepares himself for the welfare of mankind, and that in this respect no limits are set for him.

We can work on inner peace and world peace at the same time. On one hand, people have found inner peace by losing themselves in a cause larger than themselves, like the cause of world peace, because finding inner peace means coming from the self-centered life into the life centered in the good of the whole. On the other hand, one of the ways of working for world peace is to work for more inner peace, because world peace will never be stable until enough of us find inner peace to stabilize it.

on the ground of both humanity and self-interest…. [There will be] a benefit done to our people by giving them something to think of which isn’t material gain..

Benefit to the community precedes benefit to the individual.

This state of mind, which subordinates the interests of the ego to the conservation of the community, is really the first premise for every truly human culture... The basic attitude from which such activity arises, we call-to distinguish it from egoism and selfishness-idealism. By this we understand only the individual's capacity to make sacrifices for the community, for his fellow men.

America's not just [about] looking out for yourself, it's not just about greed, it's not just about trying to climb to the very top and keep everybody else down. ... Hard work, that's a value. Looking out for one another, that's a value. The idea that we're all in it together and [that] I'm my brother's keeper and [my] sister's keeper, that's a value.

History calls those men the greatest who have ennobled themselves by working for the common good; experience acclaims as happiest the man who has made the greatest number of people happy.

To desire the common good and strive towards it is a requirement of justice and charity.

Believing that I was born for the service of mankind, and regarding the care of the commonwealth as a kind of common property which, like the air and the water, belongs to everybody, I set myself to consider in what way mankind might be best served, and what service I was myself best fitted by nature to perform.

A Universal Good should reflect the reality of the individual benefits that are collected under its name, not the other way around.

I must say that I have seen Americans make great and real sacrifices to the public welfare; and have noticed a hundred instances in which they hardly ever failed to lend faithful support to one another.

What I always wanted to do when I was a kid was to speak out and help people which I continue to do afterwards.

I try to persuade people to act in ways that are not only in their own interest, but in the interest of society at large.

Ants are good citizens, they place group interests first.

Believe in something larger than yourself... get involved in the big ideas of your time.

Without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life. It's important to the person who serves as well as the recipient. It's the way in which we ourselves grow and develop.

I always believe that every one of us is working hard not only for our own performance but also to give something significant back to the societies we live in.

I have exercises that lead participants to discover for themselves that their deepest fulfillment comes when what they're doing is of benefit to larger society in some way. This really knocks some for a loop - especially those schooled in the 'take no prisoners' approach.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

Social change isn't something you should do just to help pad a resume. Follow your passion.

I'm saying that you can create success for yourself but also understand that you have a responsibility to others.

How few aim at the good of the whole, without aiming too much at the prosperity of the parts!

We too often prefer the individual thrill to collective responsibility.

Seek a common good beyond your comfort.