Quotes About Community

People are not just defined by their sexuality, their race, their gender, or their religion. These are just parts of who we are.

The truth was, most people craved connection.

Libraries are places where the damaged go to find friends

In my neighborhood, gossip is a competitive sport that's been raised to Olympic standard, and I never diss gossip; I revere it with all my heart.

Once you have mates who know you, right down under the this-and-that you decide people want to see today, then there's no room left for the someday person who'll magic you into being all your finest dreams. You've turned solid:you're the person your mates know, forever.

The thing about old neighborhoods: people still mind each other's business.

Nobody knows you like people you grew up with.

So far, you've only seen what bad luck can do to people. You're about to take your first good look at what people can do to each other. Believe me: not the same thing.

I'd rather see an apartment block any day, all charged up with people who go out to work every morning and keep this country buzzing and then come home to the nice little places they've earned, than a field doing bugger-all good to anyone except a couple of cows.

A handful of ten-year-olds with underprivileged hair and no eyebrows were slouched on a wall, scoping out the cars and thinking wire hangers.

Michel, the tight-jawed president of the Black Student Caucus, who called her "little sister" and would have had potential if he'd remembered to sprinkle in some fun between bouts of righteous indignation.

You are the sum total of the people you meet and interact with in the world. Whether it's your family, peers, or co-workers, the opportunities you have and the things that you learn all come through doors that other people open for you.

Many people in Nixon's camp had genuine faith in affirmative action. It wasn't designed to fail, but it wasn't designed to succeed, either; the intent behind it was not rooted in a desire to help black people attain equal standing in society. It was riot insurance. It was a financial incentive for blacks to stay in their own communities and out of the suburbs.

There's only one way America's neighborhoods will begin to integrate: people have to want it more than vested public and corporate interests are opposed to it. And more people should want it. Mixed-race, mixed-income housing is a product we need to market. It's the only real solution to segregated schools, for one.

On top of which: everyone in southern Louisiana is Catholic. It's like a humid Ireland with better food.

What do they do for a village idiot when you're here?

I want my funeral to be a pizza party with 500 pizzas and nobody is allowed to leave until all the pizzas are eaten

He started to realize his body wasn't defective; rather, his society was damaging.

As another general antidote for distress, the Dalai Lama recommends caring for others despite our own problems. "The space of awareness is small, so our personal distress looms large," as he puts it. "But the moment you think of helping others, the mind expands, and our own problems seem smaller.

When we see our lives as only a small part of a greater web, our perspective changes dramatically.

We yearn for an unquestioned experience of belonging, to feel at home with ourselves and others, at ease and fully accepted. But the trance of unworthiness keeps the sweetness of belonging out of reach.

Much of our spiritual healing and awakening happens with others. We are wounded in relationship, and we need to heal in relationship.

But even when habits of blaming or defensiveness arise, something profound can change if those involved bring a committed presence to what is happening. This is when community becomes a refuge—a place of true awakening.

The darker side of the City tried to emphasize the selfish parts of me by encouraging my sense of entitlement and my desire for personal space. But God seemed to whisper that the alternative existed: to let Him grow humility and concern for others in a way I had never experienced, to live out His peace amid whirling chaos. (p.67)