60 Best Quotes About Helping Others To Inspire You To Make A Difference
There is power in helping and serving others.
Many people often say that in order to help yourself you must help someone else. This important message is often misinterpreted, which leads us o the question: Does serving others really make us happy?
This collection below of quotes about helping others below help prove that looking beyond yourself can not only improve your own happiness, but also make a real difference in the community around you, too.
The average person might assume that the only way to truly be happy is to serve your own needs and to take what you want no matter how it affects the people around you. But this mentality only creates an environment in which everyone around is unhappy, including yourself.
However, the act of selflessness — defined as “someone whose actions are to help those around them instead of themselves" — is the only true way to find happiness. At first glance, it may seem like selfless run the risk of allowing others to take advantage of them. Even though this is partly true, we have to understand two very important aspects of helping others: first, that selfless people do not “allow” other people to take advantage of them — people take advantage regardless of what the selfless person is doing. Secondly, the actions of others cannot be the standard we set for ourselves.
If your fear of others taking advantage of you prohibits you from being selfless, then you will end up following the same moral code as the person that takes advantage of others. The key is to follow your heart and not allow others to control how you treat the people around you.
Selfless people positively impact their environment and this energy is directed back to them in a myriad of ways. Because of the magnitude of their contribution to their environment, they gain attention and admiration from others. This is because people are observant of people who are always there if someone needs them and they recognize the importance of this individual.
Despite this, even when there is an environment where someone’s good deeds are not recognized, there's a special feeling we get when we serve others that outweighs that sense of validation we long for. It brings joy to our hearts when we see our communities impove because of our own contributions. It gives us a sense of importance and purpose.
Good people aren’t always treated as well as they should be — often we get stepped on, shamed, or ridiculed. Despite this, good deeds go a long way and they inspire others to do the same.
The secret to truly being happy is to stop looking for others to give you applause by validating your actions. The world gives us so much every day, and giving back any way you can, it helps you feel like you're a part of something bigger than yourself.
Take a look below at our collection of the best quotes about helping others to inspire you to make a difference in your own community:
1. Be mindful for what you have.
"Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others." ― Saint Augustine
2. Good deeds go both ways.
"Help others achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours." ― Les Brown
3. Improve your happiness by serving others.
"Through our willingness to help others we can learn to be happy rather than depressed." ― Gerald Jampolsky
4. Helping someone else is a way of giving back to your community.
"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."― Muhammad Ali
5. Kindness is a luxury everyone can afford.
"Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve…. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."― Martin Luther King, Jr.
6. Look after others who aren’t as fortunate.
"I feel that if you are blessed, or lucky enough, to be doing well, you should help others."― Laurell K. Hamilton
7. You have the ability to give back — no matter how much you have.
People with lower incomes tend to give a greater percentage of their incomes to help others and show greater empathy and compassion – perhaps because they know they might face the same circumstances.― Kavita Ramdas
8. Practice selflessness.
"If you have much, give of your wealth; if you have little, give of your heart."― Arabian Proverb
9. Spend time doing charity.
"To fold the hands in prayer is well, to open them in charity is better."― French Proverb
10. Doing good deeds is the only way to progress.
"Progress depends on our brain. The most important part of our brain, that which is neocortical, must be used to help others and not just to make discoveries."― Rita Levi-Montalcini
11. Use selflessness to grow your relationships.
"Plant flowers in others’ gardens and your life becomes a bouquet!"― Author Unknown
12. Helping others gives you personal satisfaction.
"Help others and give something back. I guarantee you will discover that while public service improves the lives and the world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new meaning it will bring your own life."― Arnold Schwarzenegger
13. Happiness is best shared.
"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."― Buddha
14. Good deeds are a way to live forever.
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."― Albert Pike
15. Make selflessness your life mission.
"My assignment is to take my situation and to use it to help others who feel hopeless and/or helpless because of loss."― Marvin Sapp
16. It’s the best thing to do.
"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own."― Benjamin Disraeli
17. Helping your community is also a way to empower yourself.
"I think to have the skill set and the ability to physically help others in matters of life and death must be incredibly empowering."― Karlie Kloss
18. Let your deed do the talking.
"The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green."— Thomas Carlyle
19. Serving others should be a main priority.
"My favorite six words in recovery are: trust God, clean house, and help others."― Matthew Perry
20. Helping your community makes the world stronger.
"The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes of each honest worker."― Helen Keller
21. Make it your dream.
"I’ve achieved ‘the American dream.’ I feel it’s my duty to help others achieve their vision, too – especially the youth."― Joe Frazier
22. Blessings come to those who help others.
"When you open your heart to giving, angels fly to your door."― Author Unknown
23. Don’t underestimate the power of good deeds.
"Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action."― James Russell Lowell
24. Happy is related to your level of selflessness.
"In about the same degree as you are helpful you will be happy."― Karl Reiland
25. Serving others is a good way to feel alive.
"You feel alive to the degree that you feel you can help others."― John Travolta
26. Helping others is a way to help yourself.
"Try to help others. Consult their weaknesses, relieve their maladies; strive to raise them up, and by so doing you will most effectually raise yourself up also."― Joseph Barber Lightfoot
27. Don’t fight the urge you have to help others.
"I have quite a strong sense of wanting to sort of, wanting to help others. I’m not claiming I’m a saint, but I have a genuine, genuine belief in trying to help others."― John Key
28. It’s your responsibility as a human being.
"My role model was my grandfather. He instilled in me the feeling that no matter how successful you are you have a responsibility to help others."― Kevin Johnson
29. It should be one of your purposes in life
"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them."― Dalai Lama
30. True happiness comes from being a blessing.
"It’s good to be blessed. It’s better to be a blessing."
31. Helping others is an important responsibility.
"With wealth, one is in a position of responsibility. You must try to help others. It is as simple as that."― Arpad Busson
32. It’s the only way to become truly successful.
"It’s not that successful people are givers; it is that givers are successful people."― Patti Thor
33. Understand the importance of generosity.
"Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do."― Khalil Gibran
34. It’s a small action with a big difference.
"It was the tiniest thing I ever decided to put my whole life into."― Terri Guillemets
35. Speak up for others who are suffering.
"Everyone suffers some injustice in life, and what better motivation than to help others not suffer in the same way."― Bella Thorne
36. Your good deeds will outlive you.
"Once I leave this earth, I know I’ve done something that will continue to help others."― Jackie Joyner-Kersee
37. Opportunities to help others are blessings.
"When my body gets to the point where I can no longer function or feel gratitude, then I’ll leave it and become grateful again. But until then, I will appreciate what I have and not whine about what I don’t have. I will feel blessed by life and the opportunity to help others see that they are blessed, too."― Bernie Siegel
38. Helping others is more precious than money.
"You may not have saved a lot of money in your life, but if you have saved a lot of heartaches for other folks, you are a pretty rich man."― Seth Parker
39. Look to help, not to gain.
"Charity sees the need not the cause."― German Proverb
40. There’s power in giving instead of receiving.
"Whatever God would want me to do… love each other and help others. I want to add, not take away."― Donna Douglas
41. Helping others is the best reward.
"Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one."― Nicholas Berdyaev
42. Love is the only way to heal the world.
"There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love."― Mother Teresa
43. Help yourself just enough to help others.
"Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it’s at the end of your arm, as you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others."― Audrey Hepburn
44. Do more help than harm.
"It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily lives. If we find we cannot help others, the least we can do is to desist from harming them."― Dalai Lama
45. Use your life to make a difference.
"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."― Ralph Waldo Emerson
46. Be the person who helps everyone around you.
"My piece of bread only belongs to me when I know that everyone else has a share, and that no one starves while I eat."― Leo Tolstoy
47. Take advantage of opportunities to help people.
"Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day."― Sally Koch
48. Help your neighbor with all your heart.
"The main rule to me is to honor God with your life. To life a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others. But that’s really the essence of the Christian faith."― Joel Osteen
49. Take the time to help someone else.
"Life is never so busy that there is no time to serve."― Author Unknown
50. We should go above and beyond for each other.
"I believe that in this new world that we live in, we often have a responsibility, you know, to actually go beyond the thou shalt nots – that is, the not harming others – and say we can help others and we should be helping others."― Peter Singer
51. Put in into the world.
"Love one another and help others to rise to the higher levels, simply by pouring out love. Love is infectious and the greatest healing energy."― Sai Baba
52. Start with the nearest person.
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you."― Mother Teresa
53. It doesn’t cost anything to be kind.
"No one has ever become poor by giving."— Anne Frank
54. Helping others does more good then you think.
"I love creativity, but I also love to help others. My mother was a hairstylist, and they listen to everyone’s problems – like a beauty therapist!"― Beyonce Knowles
55. It’s one of the only reasons to be alive.
"The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others."― Albert Schweitzer
56. Don’t be insensitive when helping others.
"A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog."― Jack London
57. Be kind without someone telling you to.
"Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person."― Mother Teresa
58. Use it to make the world a better place.
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."― Anne Frank
59. Everyone has the power to help.
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another."— Charles Dickens
60. Be a blessing to a stranger.
"It’s also selfish because it makes you feel good when you help others. I’ve been helped by acts of kindness from strangers. That’s why we’re here, after all, to help others."― Carol Burnett
Maatie Kalokoh is a writer who covers astrology, spirituality, love and relationship topics.