Borrowed Lines

Where I know who said it, the name is beside the line. Where a famous name is attached but the source is uncertain, I’ve written “often attributed to”. Lines with no name are ones whose author I don’t know.

• Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud. Maya Angelou
• Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will. Suzy Kassem
• In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks. John Muir
• Don’t stop until you’re proud.
• The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled. after Plutarch
• The power of imagination makes us infinite. often attributed to John Muir
• A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read. often attributed to Mark Twain
• The world is changed by your example, not your opinion. Paulo Coelho
• Be the change that you wish to see in the world. often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi

• We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. often attributed to Winston Churchill
• Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. Albert Einstein
• Life isn’t worth living if it isn’t lived for someone else.
• The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi
• We rise by lifting others. often attributed to Robert Ingersoll
• If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. often attributed to Mother Teresa
• If you are feeling helpless, help someone. Aung San Suu Kyi
• Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. John F. Kennedy
• The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time. The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next. Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time. The Chetwode motto, Indian Military Academy
• When duty calls, it is character that counts. William Safire
• If we don’t sacrifice for the nation, we sacrifice the nation.

• People’s participation is the essence of good governance.
• Good governance depends on the ability to take responsibility by both the administration and the people.
• The punishment suffered by the wise who refuse to take part in government is to suffer under the government of bad men. after Plato
• A democracy is not run by the majority; it is run by the majority that participates.
• No individual raindrop ever considers itself responsible for the flood.
• We are responsible not only for what we do, but also for what we do not do. often attributed to Molière
• He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. Friedrich Nietzsche
• Citizens themselves are the change they seek.
• If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. African proverb
• Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there. Virginia Burden
• None of us is as smart as all of us. Ken Blanchard
• Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. Helen Keller
• What divides us pales in comparison to what unites us. Ted Kennedy
• The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings. Albert Schweitzer
• Planetary health is human health.
• We are living on this planet as if we have another one to go to. Terri Swearingen
• The strength of a nation derives from the values of the home. often attributed to Confucius

• The glory of a good bureaucrat is that he never appears in history books.
• A successful government requires a symbiotic relationship between politicians and bureaucrats: one provides direction, the other, expertise.
• Bureaucracy is not an obstacle to democracy but a complement to it.
• Accountability breeds responsibility. often attributed to Stephen Covey
• Accountability focuses on what we have the right to do; responsibility focuses on what is the right thing to do.
• Only what gets measured gets managed. often attributed to Peter Drucker
• A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. Dwight D. Eisenhower

• The worst places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis. often attributed to Dante
• If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. Desmond Tutu
• Most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil. Hannah Arendt
• In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King Jr.
• The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything. often attributed to Albert Einstein
• An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi
• Hate the sin and not the sinner. Mahatma Gandhi
• It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help. Epicurus

• Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. often attributed to C. S. Lewis
• Ethics begins where the law ends.
• The means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. Martin Luther King Jr.
• The means are as important as the ends. If we take care of the means, we are bound to reach the end sooner or later. Mahatma Gandhi
• The end cannot justify the means, for the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced. Aldous Huxley
• An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Mahatma Gandhi
• The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. after Tacitus
• One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Martin Luther King Jr.
• There is a point beyond which even justice becomes unjust. Sophocles
• If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. Louis Brandeis
• Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny. Edmund Burke
• The law often permits what honour forbids. Bernard-Joseph Saurin
• Law is the floor of human behaviour, not the ceiling.
• The law is the public conscience. Thomas Hobbes
• Laws cannot make people moral, but they can prevent immorality from becoming rampant.
• An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law. Martin Luther King Jr.
• The law cannot make a wicked person virtuous, but it can prevent the virtuous from becoming wicked.
• Laws control the lesser man; right conduct controls the greater one. often attributed to Mark Twain
• Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. often attributed to Plato
• In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place. Mahatma Gandhi
• There is a higher court than the courts of justice, and that is the court of conscience. Mahatma Gandhi