Quotes About Community

How do you become an adult in a society that doesn't ask for sacrifice?

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

As modern society reduced the role of community, it simultaneously elevated the role of authority.

Recent studies of something called "social resilience" have identified resource sharing and egalitarian wealth distribution as major components of a society's ability to recover from hardship.

And as society modernized, people found themselves able to live independently from any communal group. A person living in a modern city or a suburb can, for the first time in history, go through an entire day—or an entire life—mostly encountering complete strangers. They can be surrounded by others and yet feel deeply, dangerously alone.

As modern society reduced the role of community, it simultaneously elevated the role of authority. The two are uneasy companions, and as one goes up

Subsistence-level hunters aren't necessarily more moral than other people; they just can't get away with selfish behavior because they live in small groups where almost everything is open to scrutiny.

Leaders lead when they take positions, when they connect with their tribes, and when they help the tribe connect to itself.

An individual artist needs only a thousand true fans in her tribe. It's enough.

We need librarians more than we ever did. What we don't need are mere clerks who guard dead paper. Librarians are too important to be a dwindling voice in our culture. For the right librarian, this is the chance of a lifetime.

Being surrounded by educated people makes democracy stronger, and it benefits our entire economy.

Group projects are the exception in school, but they should be the norm.

Successful heretics create their own religions....You can recognize the need for faith in your idea, you can find the tribe you need to support you, and yes, you can create a new religion around your faith. Steve Jobs did it on purpose at Apple and Phil Knight is famous for doing it at Nike.

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.

A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.

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

The first thing a leader can focus on is the act of tightening the tribe. It's tempting to make the tribe bigger, to get more members, to spread the word. This pales, however, when juxtaposed with the effects of a tighter tribe. A tribe that communicates more quickly, with alacrity and emotion, is a tribe that thrives.

Marketing used to be about advertising, and advertising is expensive. Today, marketing is about engaging with the tribe and delivering products and services with stories that spread.

there's a difference between telling people what to do and inciting a movement.

Some people are gift givers by nature. They love their tribe, or they respect their art, and so they give. Not for an ulterior motive, but because it gives them joy.

Yes, the Internet is a discovery tool, but no, you're not going to get discovered that way. Instead, you will make your impact by uniting those you seek to serve.

Tearing others down is never as helpful to a movement as building your followers up.

A movement is thrilling. It's the work of many people, all connected, all seeking something better.

Everyone is lonely. Connect.