As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

Genuine happiness involves sharing time and money, but beware of thinking that the poor belong to some other tribe. Do not judge, presume or patronize. There are no unimportant acts of kindness.

The economic system may not infringe anybody’s individual rights, but the whole machine ends up reproducing enduring types of social inequality… What about the economic insecurity of our poorest fellow citizens?  Why can’t our politics address this? It can’t be because everyone has shared the fruits of our recent economic boom. It can’t be because the poor don’t exist. It must be because they have become invisible.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.