The magnitude of our social problems will require that all citizens and institutions make a commitment to volunteering as a way of life and as a primary opportunity create needed change.— George Romney, former Michigan governor

We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give. —Winston Churchill

How can we expect our children to know and experience the joy of giving unless we teach them that the greater pleasure in life lies in the art of giving rather than receiving. — James Cash Penny

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. — Booker T. Washington

A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm. — Henrik Ibsen, poet and playwright

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. — Aesop

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfull, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. — Margaret Mead, anthropologist

Everyone can be great because anyone can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t even have to make your subject and and your verb agree to serve… You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

You cannot help someone get up a hill without getting closer to the top yourself. — General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. — Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl

There is no better investment of time and money that in the life of a child. They are the future. — Alma Powell

Seek to do good, and you will find that happiness will run after you. — James Freeman Clarke

No man can become rich without himself enriching others. — Andrew Carnegie

The moral test of a society is how that society treats those who are in the dawn of life- the children; those who are in the twilight of life- the elderly; and those who are in the shadow of life-the sick, the needy and the handicapped. — Hubert Humphrey

We can do no great things, only small things with great love. — Mother Theresa

There is a tremendous strength that is growing in the world through sharing together, praying together, suffering together and working together. — Mother Theresa

Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation’s compassion, unselfish caring, patience, and just plain love for one another. —Erma Bombeck

The miracle is this – the more we share, the more we have. — Leonard Nimoy

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Volunteering creates a national character in which the community and the nation take on a spirit of compassion, comradeship and confidence. — Brian O’Connell Never before has man had such a great capacity to control his own environment, to end hunger, poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and human misery. We have the power to make the best generation of mankind in the history of the world. — President John F. Kennedy

Citizen service is the very American idea that we meet our challenges not as isolated individuals but as members of a true community, with all of us working together. Our mission is nothing less than to spark a renewed sense of obligation, a new sense of duty, a new season of service…— former President Bill Clinton

Originally posted 2009-07-03 01:43:31.