Orison Swett Marden Quotes

I know enough to know that no man is an island.

Coming to know one another based on a shared humanity through dialogue is the key to breaking down the walls of isolation and reversing the decline of life-to-life bonds among human beings.

No man is an island; but some are peninsulas.

Man was born to live with his fellow human beings. Separate him, isolate him, his character will go bad, a thousand ridiculous affects will invade his heart, extravagant thoughts will germinate in his brain, like thorns in an uncultivated land.

It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is fro+m among such individuals that all human failures spring.

Men exist for each other. Then either improve them, or put up with them.

We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger.

The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.

If you look at the literature of the 19th century, you get things like Kafka and Dostoevsky, who basically write about feeling bored and alienated. That's because we lost contact with the important things in life like work that you enjoy, or the garden, nature, your family and friends.

Most of my books have been about the complex ways an individual depends on community.

No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world.

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.

One of the most destructive things that's happening in modern society is that we are losing our sense of the bonds that bind people together - which can lead to nightmares of social collapse.

I believe we are all connected to other people. I am connected to people who are suffering. We all are.

It really does matter what my neighbor’s lot in life is.

Philanthropic work reminds you of everyone's common humanity, and that's really the common denominator for everyone.

Often we can help each other most by leaving each other alone; at other times we need the hand-grasp and the word of cheer.

We have to see that we're a part of each other, and we have to take care of each other. The reason why they have universal health care in Canada and Britain, these other places? Because they believe if one suffers, everybody suffers.

The more empathy you have and the more connected you are to society, the better off you'll be.

I think that a lot of times, we all want to help each other and be a part of each other's lives. It's just - we don't allow ourselves into each other's lives.

It is easier to treat people as objects to be manipulated if you have never learned any other way to see them.

This idea of shared humanity and the connections that we make with one another - that's what, in fact, makes life worth living.

Whatever the reason is, I am happiest when connecting with the human experience. It lets me know that I'm not alone in this world.

We all have some basic obligation to one another.

We urgently need to bring to our communities the limitless capacity to love, serve, and create for and with each other. We urgently need to bring the neighbor back into our hoods, not only in our inner cities but also in our suburbs, our gated communities, on Main Street and Wall Street, and on Ivy League campuses.