Mary Travers Quotes

I think that human beings are often looking for a reason to relate.

To see yourself, and for others to see you, is a form of validation. I'm interested in that very mysterious and mystical way we relate to each other in the world.

When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That's one of the great feelings - to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue.

All those chemicals that create empathy only work when you are in a room together.

When the needs of one person are being met by the other, there is laughter.

It's very hard to get the dynamics where two people can stimulate each other and be happy.

One's friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.

There is enormous value in face to face interaction.

Family is just the people you care about. We can bond with people that we have nothing in common with, even if it's just for a moment.

I really like to vibe with people and to connect, and I know that I'm a stronger artist now than what I used to be.

I think every human being, born from mother, and at least the next few years, you see, received immense affection from our mother. So the child's first experience in this lifetime at the beginning, I think that immense affection from other is in our blood. So therefore, the whole rest of life, other people show you smile, genuine sort of closeness feeling. You feel happy. Even animals also like that.

I think it's important to relate to one another about issues that you're having, because the second you open up and someone else says, 'Oh, me too. I feel the same way,' then all of a sudden, you feel more at peace with yourself and you can feel more confident with who you are.

I don't think human affection and compassion are just religious concerns; they're indispensable factors in our day-to-day lives.

By making us stop for a moment, poetry gives us an opportunity to think about ourselves as human beings on this planet and what we mean to each other.

Similarity of opinion is not always—I think not often—needed for fullness and perfection of love.

I think you have to work with people, and when I talk about managing relationships, don't think the derogatory ''managed relationships''. It is a question of sharing emotion and feelings. The common denominator of everything can't be money, and it should not be money.

Human beings want to see each other. We want to be heard by each other.

I'm a great believer in the fact that as you get to know someone, it matters not what religious background they have, or what their nationality is, or where they came from. And I think that's how Americans really do relate to each other on a personal level.

I like feeling a sense of unity with the crowd even though everybody might be thinking something different.

I think the notion of understanding each other is a relief. It's not a thing you get with everyone you hang out with.

When a novelist manages to describe or evoke something you thought or felt, without realizing that other people also found themselves in the same situation and had the same feelings, it creates that same solidarity. Maybe it's better to think of humor not as a tool to express the solidarity, but a kind of by-product. Maybe the realization "I'm not on my own on this one" is always, or often, funny.

When I tell her what I’m thinking and she tells me what she’s thinking, our each ideas jumping into the other’s head, like coulouring blue crayon on top of yellow that makes green.

When we are young and again when we are old, we depend heavily on the affection of others. Between these stages we usually feel that we can do everything without help from others and that other people's affection is simply not important. But at this stage I think it is very important to keep deep human affection.

Over the years they both reached the same wise conclusion by different paths: it was not possible to live together in any other way, or love in any other way, and nothing in this world was more difficult than love.

I just think she was a wonderful woman. What I think of when I think of Nina [Simone] is someone that I could relate to, who didn't want anything from me, that could relate to me because I didn't want anything from her. It was nice.