Quotes for Changemakers

From SocialEarth, 3 September 2009

Social Entrepreneurs

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” -Winston Churchill

“Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.” - Bill Drayton (Ashoka Founder)

“Social entrepreneurs have existed throughout history. St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan Order, would qualify as a social entrepreneur — having built multiple organizations that advanced pattern changes in his “field.” Similarly, Florence Nightingale created the first professional school for nurses and established standards for hygiene and hospital care that have shaped norms worldwide. What is different today is that social entrepreneurship is developing into a mainstream vocation, not only in the United States, Canada, and Europe, but increasingly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In fact, the rise of social entrepreneurship represents the leading edge of a remarkable development that has occurred across the world over the past three decades: the emergence of millions of new citizen organizations.” - David Bornstein (How to Change the World : Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas)

“I’m encouraging young people to become social business entrepreneurs and contribute to the world, rather than just making money. Making money is no fun. Contributing to and changing the world is a lot more fun.” - Muhammad Yunus

Inspiration

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt

“Each time someone stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.” - Robert F. Kennedy

Perseverance

“Slaying the dragon of delay is no sport for the short-winded.” - Sandra Day O’Connor

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristotle

Taking Action

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” - Albert Einstein

“Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all — the apathy of human beings.” - Helen Keller

“Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” - Ann Landers

Challenges

“My greatest challenge has been to change the mindset of people. Mindsets play strange tricks on us. We see things the way our minds have instructed our eyes to see.” - Muhammad Yunus

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” - Albert Einstein