John Dewey Quotes

There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community, and communication.

I just think that the only way we come to ourselves is through each other.

Because every single one of us has something to say to the others, something that deserves to be celebrated or forgiven by others

It is easier to speak to those who have had similar experiences than to those who are as yet ignorant.

There are those moments when you shake someone's hand, have a conversation with someone, and suddenly your all bound together because you share your humanity in one simple moment.

I think, really, that the only way a person can open their heart to someone who is so much another is really by knowing them... whether that's in a classroom, or a soccer team, or a food pantry, or any of those things. I mean, we're kind of more alike than we are different.

What differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can listen to other people's dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, desires and defeats - and they in turn can listen to ours.

Anyway, stories bring us together to find common ground, to find our way through life together, or just to entertain us, and I am just thrilled to be a part of that process.

I try to communicate in a way that allows people in on what's going on. What's better than references to popular culture?

And suddenly, like light in darkness, the real truth broke in upon me; the simple fact of Man, which I had forgotten, which had lain deep buried and out of sight; the idea of community, of unity.

People could empathize with other people who had gone through the same experience as they had.

I don't need to have my convictions confirmed by a show of numbers. However, being among people in front of a band leads me to believe that all is not lost, that humans, now and then, can communicate on a higher level than the political and the practical.

We're all connected, related, part of one another's lives through the stories we tell ourselves and each other. For good and for bad.

When you are in someone's home, in their bed, you see the world from their eyes. You understand 'the other' is not so other.

I want everyone to identify with my tracks and for all of us to be part of it in some way or another.

I'm trying to make connections. That's all we do as human beings on the planet, isn't it? We try to connect.

People who get together, regardless of other structures, will find something in common. They are bound to. That was the Pete Seeger let's-all-sing theory.

We hunger for connection to a larger community.

When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see one another.

Connect deeply with others. Our humanity is the one thing that we all have in common.

For communication to have meaning it must have a life. It must transcend "you and me" and become "us." If I truly communicate, I see in you a life that is not me and partake of it. And you see and partake of me. In a small way we then grow out of our old selves and become something new. To have this kind of sharing I cannot enter into a conversation clutching myself. I must enter into it with loose boundaries. I must give myself to the relationship, and be willing to be what grows out of it.

Soul grows in communion. Word by word, story by story, for better or worse, we build our world. From true conversation - speaking and listening - communication deepens into compassion and creates community.

I'm always astounded at the way we automatically look at what divides and separates us. We never look at what people have in common. If you see it, black and white people, both sides look to see the differences, they don't look at what they have together. Men and women, and old and young, and so on. And this is a disease of the mind, the way I see it. Because in actual fact, men and women have much more in common than they are separated.

You can't have people listen to you unless you come to their world and then bring them to yours.

The stories we tell about each other matter very much. The stories we tell ourselves about our own lives matter. And most of all, I think the way that we participate in each other's stories is of deep importance.