Sargent Shriver Quotes

Peace requires the simple but powerful recognition that what we have in common as human beings is more important and crucial than what divides us.

What can change the world today is the same thing that has changed it in the past-an idea and the service of dedicated, committed individuals to that idea.

The Peace Corps represents some, if not all, of the best virtues in this society. It stands for everything that America has ever stood for. It stands for everything we believe in and hope to achieve in the world.

It is not what you get out of life that counts. It's what you give and what is given from the heart.

The most important thing that I know about living is love. Nothing surpasses the benefits received by a human being who makes compassion and love the objective of his or her life. For it is only by compassion and love that anyone fulfills successfully their own life’s journey. Nothing equals love.

Shatter the glass. In our society that is so self-absorbed, begin to look less at yourself and more at each other. Learn more about the face of your neighbor and less about your own.

It is well to be prepared for life as it is, but it is better to be prepared to make life better than it is.

The cure is care. Caring for others is the practice of peace. Caring becomes as important as curing. Caring produces the cure, not the reverse. Caring about nuclear war and its victims is the beginning of a cure for our obsession with war. Peace does not comes through strength. Quite the opposite: Strength comes through peace. The practices of peace strengthen us for every vicissitude. . . . The task is immense!

Serve, serve, serve. Because in the end, it will be the servants who save us all.

But as a philosopher said, one day after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, after all the scientific and technological achievements, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

The only genuine elite is the elite of those men and women who gave their lives to justice and charity.

Respect for another man's opinion is worthy. It is the realization that any opinion is valuable, for it is the sign of a rational being.

The Peace Corps is guilty of enthusiasm and a crusading spirit. But we're not apologetic about it.

Does politics have to be injected into everything?

In the Peace Corps, the volunteer must be a fully developed, mature person. He must not join to run abroad or escape problems.

Do we talk about the dignity of work? Do we give our students any reason for believing it is worthwhile to sacrifice for their work because such sacrifices improve the psychological and mental health of the person who makes them?

I believe strongly in the Constitutional principle of separating church and state. Our founders were right in fearing that religious freedom would be threatened in the long run by a departure from governmental neutrality in spiritual matters.

I never ride just to ride. I ride to catch a fox. I play baseball to make the team.

We must treat the disease of racism. This means we must understand the disease.

He who knows all things and believes nothing is damned.

Just to travel is rather boring, but to travel with a purpose is educational and exciting.

Being accused of enthusiasm is something I'll never live down.

Any idealist who tries to join the Peace Corps must realize he is not going to change the world overnight.

I don't think the Gallup Poll technique is going to be very helpful in determining the goals of our educational system.

It's the most rewarding thing to be a civil servant.