John Kendrick Bangs Quotes

When I was in grade school and we had to write papers about what we wanted to be when we grew up, I wanted to be a social worker or a missionary or a teacher... Then I got involved with tennis, and everything was just me, me, me. I was totally selfish and thought about myself and nobody else, because if you let up for one minute, someone was going to come along and beat you. I really wouldn't let anyone or any slice of happiness enter... I didn't like the characteristics that it took to become a champion.

We can't be useful to ourselves unless we're useful to others .... Anyone concerned only by his own well-being will suffer eventually. Anyone concerned with the well-being of others takes care of himself without even thinking about it. Even if we decide to remain selfish. let us be intelligently selfish - let us help others.

I like to help others and count it as my greatest pleasure in life to see a person free himself of the shadows which darken his days.

The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired.

We are all wise for other people, none for himself.

The greatest ability in the whole human race and all amongst the livingness, is the ability to help.

My mother taught that if anyone needs you, you should be available to them.

We are all so preoccupied with ourselves. How can I get happy, how can I find the job I love, how can I become a millionaire, how can lose weight. Yet, the reality is that fulfillment, success and all of these good things comes from trying to help those that we care about to achieve those things.

If you have enough strength to help yourself, you have enough strength to help those in need. Never pass up an opportunity.

Good character consists of recognizing the selfishness that inheres in each of us and trying to balance it against the altruism to which we should all aspire. It is a difficult balance to strike, but no definition of goodness can be complete without it.

Our God who created all of us is the God who calls all of us to care for one another. I think that's going to be one of the big, big challenges of the future, helping refocus on the needs of others.

I am a great motivator. I have struggles in my life, and the only way I can push through them is to motivate others. It really is quite selfish.

Whether I'm in a ball gown or a pair of jeans, it's not about me or what I'm wearing; it's about what I can be doing to support and empower others going forward.

That we are selfish gives us the opportunity to gain the power so that, in time, we might be selfless. To give back what we have learned. To teach what we know, and shorten the journey for those who will come after us.

Don't waste your pain; use it to help others.

Because in some men it is in them to give up everything personal at some time, before it ferments and poisons--throw it to some human being or some human idea. They have to.

We must want for others, not ourselves alone.

You will begin to succeed with your life when the pains and problems of others matter to you.

The key to overcoming aloneness and a feeling of uselessness for one who is physically able is to step outside yourself by helping others who are truly needy. We promise those who will render this kind of service that, in some measure, you will be healed of the loss of loved ones or the dread of being alone. The way to feel better about your own situation is to improve someone else's circumstances.

That was when I found out that the best way in the world to make yourself feel better when you have hit bottom is to try to get somebody else to feel better. There are certain things in life that are truly worth knowing, and that is one of the big ones.

Sometimes you have to put your own dreams on hold temporarily so you can help release a dream in somebody else. What you make happen for others, God will make happen for you.

We can be of little service to our fellows until we become disillusioned without being embittered.

I used to focus more on scoring. Now I take a lot of pride and pleasure in helping someone else do well.

If you help others with sincere motivation and sincere concern, that will bring you more fortune, more friends, more smiles, and more success. If you forget about others' rights and neglect others' welfare, ultimately you will be very lonely.

Why should my love be powerless to help another?