Quotes About Belonging

self-determination theory, which holds that human beings need three basic things in order to be content: they need to feel competent at what they do; they need to feel authentic in their lives; and they need to feel connected to others.

When an Indian child has been brought up among us, taught our language and habituated to our customs," Benjamin Franklin wrote to a friend in 1753, "[yet] if he goes to see his relations and make one Indian ramble with them, there is no persuading him ever to return.

Thousands of Europeans are Indians, and we have no examples of even one of those Aborigines having from choice become European," a French émigré named Hector de Crèvecoeur lamented in 1782. "There must be in their social bond something singularly captivating and far superior to anything to be boasted of among us.

We are not good to each other. Our tribalism is to an extremely narrow group of people: our children, our spouse, maybe our parents. Our society is alienating, technical, cold, and mystifying. Our fundamental desire, as human beings, is to be close to others, and our society does not allow for that." One

Robert Frost famously wrote that home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.

three basic things in order to be content: they need to feel competent at what they do; they need to feel authentic in their lives; and they need to feel connected to others.

If you can bring someone belonging, connection, peace of mind, status, or one of the other most desired emotions, you've done something worthwhile. The thing you sell is simply a road to achieve those emotions, and we let everyone down when we focus on the tactics, not the outcomes. Who's it for and what's it for are the two questions that guide all of our decisions.

When you are leading a tribe, a tribe that you belong to, the benefits increase, the work gets easier, and the results are more obvious. That's the best reason to overcome the fear.

We sell feelings, status, and connection, not tasks or stuff.

Everyone is lonely. Connect.

all tribes are made up of partisans, the more partisan the better. If you're a middle-of-the-roader, you don't bother joining a tribe.

We've gone from all of us being everyone to all of us being no one.

It should be called "a culture" or "this culture," because there is no universal culture, no "us" that defines all of us.

At the heart of the exclusive organization is a simple truth: every member is "people like us." Sign up for that and you gain status. Walk away and you lose it.

If you can bring someone belonging, connection, peace of mind, status, or one of the other most desired emotions, you've done something worthwhile. The thing you sell is simply a road to achieve those emotions, and we let everyone down when we focus on the tactics, not the outcomes.

Tribes, though, aren't about stuff. They're about connection.

This leads to an interesting thought: you get to choose the tribe you will lead. Through your actions as a leader, you attract a tribe that wants to follow you. That tribe has a worldview that matches the message you're sending.

When you are leading a tribe, a tribe that you belong to, the benefits increase, the work gets easier, and the results are more obvious.

I hate it here. I hate everyone here. I hate that I am so different. I love it here and I want to belong and I know that I never will.

It can be difficult sometimes for our families to accept us as people separate from who they are. As separate souls. When we're young, we're taught to behave as our parents do—to cherish what they cherish and believe what they believe. And for a while, that's as it should be. But as adults, sometimes we have our own desires, our own hopes, that are at odds with how our parents view the world.

every village in this place have a handful of people like you. And it is not easy to tell who is who.

Chandin found that a straight-back upholstered chair had come to be marked as his. Although it was only a physical place, the chair became an antidote to the chaos of his uprootedness.

Family is the most important thing in this life.

It was as if I were carrying around all the places I'd ever lived, and nothing I was seeing was just what it was - it was all of the places, all smooshed together. My bubble was fairly bursting by the time I got home, what with all that stuff crammed in there.