Quotes About Community

one's neighbors, and think about God—if these are the things one has decided are worth pursuing. But it is difficult to accomplish any of them unless one has earlier acquired the habit of using solitude

thoroughly socialized person is one who desires only the rewards that others around him have agreed he should long for—

The task is to learn how to enjoy everyday life without diminishing other people's chances to enjoy theirs.

As Freud and many others before and after him have noted, civilization is built on the repression of individual desires.

There are no strict formulas, however, for how much time people actually have to work. It seems, for instance, that the early hunter-gatherers, like their present-day descendants living in the inhospitable deserts of Africa and Australia, spent only three to five hours each day on what we would call working—providing for food, shelter, clothing, and tools. They spent the rest of the day in conversation, resting, or dancing.

creativity must, in the last analysis, be seen not as something happening within a person but in the relationships within a system.

In contemporary preliterate societies this knowledge is so deeply ingrained that a person who likes to be alone is assumed to be a witch, for a normal person would not choose to leave the company of others unless forced to do so.

Lack of true friends is often the main complaint of people confronting an emotional crisis in the second half of life.

In the United States and the other technologically advanced societies, individualism and materialism have almost completely prevailed over allegiance to the community and to spiritual values.

Edison's or Einstein's discoveries would be inconceivable without the prior knowledge, without the intellectual and social network that stimulated their thinking, and without the social mechanisms that recognized and spread their innovations.

Socializing is more positive than being alone, that's why meetings are so popular. People don't like being alone. That would be, however, an important skill to learn...

Det var en uppväxt av brist. Inte en materiell sådan, där hade vi så vi klarade oss, utan en identitetsmässig. Vi var inga. Våra föräldrar var inga. Våra förfäder hade betytt noll och intet för den svenska historien. [...] Vi bröt på finska utan att vara finnar, vi bröt på svenska utan att vara svenskar. Vi var ingenting.

Na pocz?tku cz?sto z Niil? dyskutowali?my, czy nasze granie mo?na uzna? za knapsu. S?owo jest tornedalsko-fi?skie i oznacza "babski", zatem co?, czym zajmuj? si? tylko kobiety. Mo?na by powiedzie?, ?e rola m??czyzn w Tornedalen ogranicza si? tylko do jednego: nie by? knapsu.

Is there a point at which every Sunday during the NFL season ceases to make a man feel like a kid on Christmas morning?

Always be a bridge, not a wall or a weapon.

Crazy people will always be present in our lives.

then asked why he didn't stay out longer and catch more fish. The Mexican replied that he had enough to meet his family's needs. The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your day?" The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, I fish a little, I play with my children, I take a siesta with my wife, I stroll into the village each evening where I sip some wine and play guitar with my amigos—so I have a full and busy life, Señor.

As Christians, we're not salespeople; we're just introducing mutual friends.

If you make disciples, you always get the church. But if you make a church, you rarely get disciples.

No amount of money or ideas can replace the value of being physically present, giving time and attention to people or projects.

We don't want people to understand forgiveness or prayer or mission or justice only intellectually. We want people who can forgive, who can hear and respond to God, who actually know Him. We want people who have hearts that break for our world and the people in it and do something about it. We want the kind of people in our communities who resemble the people we see in Scripture.

We are creating a culture, even if it's unintentional. The question is, do we like the culture we are creating?

life is richer when it is shared even with those who annoy us from time to time.

Our commission is to compassionately reach out to those around us, invite them to join us in community, share the story of the gospel, make disciples, and gather them into families to follow Jesus together.