Would you just take, along with me, 10 seconds, to think of the people who have helped you become who you are, those who have cared about you and wanted what was best for you in life. 10 seconds of silence. I’ll watch the time. Whomever you’ve been thinking about, how pleased they must be to know the difference you feel they’ve made. You know they’re the kind of people television does well to offer our world.
Fred Rogers, from his Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech at the 24th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards.
Happy Birthday, Mister Rogers.
(via happycap)
Best acceptance speech, ever.
(via thebronzemedal)
(via thebronzemedal)
Source: happycap
It is so rare in this world to meet a trustworthy person who truly wants to help you, and finding such a person can make you feel warm and safe, even if you are in the middle of a windy valley high up in the mountains.
Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid
It is not enough merely to seek greatness for ourselves, we must help others discover greatness within themselves. We need to reach down and reach out, and give back and lift others.
First Lady Michelle Obama
Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you — gently, with love, and hand your life back to you.
Tennessee Williams
‘Not my problem’ is not a philosophy. It’s a mental illness. Right up there with pessimism. Other people’s problems are our problems. If your neighbor is laid off, you may feel as if you’ve dodged the bullet, but you haven’t. The bullet hit you as well. You just don’t feel the pain yet. Or as Ruut Veenhoven told me: ‘The quality of a society is more important than your place in that society.’ In other words, better to be a small fish in a clean pond than a big fish in a polluted lake.
Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
When a friend is in trouble, don’t annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it.
E.W. Howe
I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.
Abraham Lincoln
You are never strong enough that you don’t need help.
Cesar Chavez
When the story of these times gets written, we want it to say that we did all we could, and it was more than anyone could have imagined.
Bono
There is clearly much left to be done, and whatever else we are going to do, we had better get on with it.
Rosalynn Carter
Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
Dr. Seuss (via affremblequotes)
First it is necessary to stand on your own two feet. But the minute a man finds himself in that position, the next thing he should do is reach out his arms.
Kristin Hunter
Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder.
Rumi
lines, lyrics and literary fragments that call for a pause