David Plouffe Quotes

This is the United States of America. It means we respond to our fellow Americans in times of crisis and emergency and disaster.

The moral values, ethical codes and laws that guide our choices in normal times are, if anything, even more important to help us navigate the confusing and disorienting time of a disaster.

The hurricane complicates things in that what would have been purely a business decision becomes a decision of the heart.

When I was volunteering with Hurricane Katrina refugees in Houston in 2005, I first started thinking about the whole phenomenon of grace under pressure.

We need to have a purpose in this life. I'm pleading with you, I'm begging with you to do the right thing. And do it not for the sake of how it will impact your own lives, but only for the sake of doing the right thing.

How can you have a partnership when one of the partners doesn’t show up for 5 days…. The President said nothing while Americans watched people drown in New Orleans.

The blessed work of helping the world forward, happily, does not wait to be done by perfect men.

No one is too young to do the right thing.

It's actually more than 700 case studies that show that, especially in times of crisis, we show our best selves. And we get this explosion of altruism and cooperation. This happens again and again after natural disasters, after earthquakes and after floodings.

I don't do things to be rewarded. I help people because it's the right thing to do.

There is no country on earth that can touch us in charitable efforts, in disaster relief efforts, in doing everything to help. We do not live under a suicide pact in the name of compassion, because you see what's incorporated in all this is that we're guilty of something. And we're not. We lead the world in goodness.

Many things in life inspire philanthropy, such as your faith in humanity and your belief in the human spirit to overcome.

And I, unfortunately, have been to too many disasters as president.

We should be focused on the Haiti earthquake victims, not on what contracts your company should get, if you're a friend of Bill [Clinton].

Charity is indeed, a great thing, and a gift of God, and when it is rightly ordered likens us unto God himself, as far as that is possible; for it is charity which makes the man.

Acts 10:38 says, “See how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth who went about doing good.” He just got up every day and did good. Everywhere he went, even though he had a purpose and he was headed somewhere, he let himself be interrupted by the needs of people. So often we study the steps of Jesus. Maybe we need to study the stops of Jesus. The things that he stopped for, the things that interrupted his plan, where he would alter his plan and help somebody here and there.

The part of the philanthropist is indeed a dangerous one; and the man who would do his neighbour good must first study how not to do him evil, and must begin by pulling the beam out of his own eye.

We live in this world, not another one that we'd prefer, and sometimes it's necessary to follow painful paths if we hope to provide at least a little help for suffering people.

All the other pleasures of life seem to wear out, but the pleasure of helping others in distress never does.

Sarah Palin finally heard what happened in Japan and she's demanding that we invade 'Tsunami.'

Because I survived, I must do everything possible to help others.

In its sentimental mode, compassion is an exercise in moral indignation, in feeling good rather than doing good ... In its unsentimental mode, compassion seeks above all to do good.

We, who have so much, must do more to help those in need. And most of all, we must live simply, so that others may simply live.

Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy.

Helping people in need is a good and essential part of my life, a kind of destiny.