A Quote by Horace Mann

Doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves.

Horace Mann

Quote Topics

Doing Doing Nothing Nothing Others Ourselves Undoing

Quote Author

Horace Mann
American - Educator
May 4, 1796 - August 2, 1859

Doing nothing for others is the undoing of one's self. We must be purposely kind and generous, or we miss the best part of existence. The heart that goes out of itself, gets large and full of joy. This is the great secret of the inner life. We do ourselves the most good doing something for others.

Horace Mann

The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.

Eric Hoffer

The older we get the more we realize that service to others is the only way to stay happy. If we do nothing to benefit others we will do nothing to benefit ourselves.

Carl Holmes

Friendship Never explain -- your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe it anyway. A real friend never gets in your way, unless you happen to be on the way down. A friend is someone you can do nothing with and enjoy it. However much we guard ourselves against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us. It is not so much the example of others we imitate, as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words.

Eric Hoffer

We live with the things that we do to ourselves and others in doing what we've done to ourselves.

Blake Judd

It may look like we're doing nothing when we sit zazen. But actually we are exposing ourselves to ourselves.

Brad Warner

All of our actions have in their doing the seed of their undoing.

Louise Erdrich

The second commandment that Jesus referred to was not to love others instead of ourselves, but to love them as ourselves. Before we can love and serve others, we must love ourselves, even in our imperfection. If we don't embrace our own defects, we can't love others with their shortcomings.

Jim Warner

Peace comes not from doing, but from undoing; not from getting, but from letting go.

Swami Satchidananda

There is no true and constant gentleness without humility. While we are so fond of ourselves, we are easily offended with others. Let us be persuaded that nothing is due to us, and then nothing will disturb us. Let us often think of our own infirmities, and we will become indulgent towards those of others.

Francois Fenelon

The undoing is almost always more difficult than the doing.

Kate DiCamillo

We should learn, by reflecting on the misfortunes which have attended others, that there is nothing singular in those which befall ourselves. [They have, are and will be experienced by others as well as worse.]

William Melmoth

None of us are bad people. We float around and we run across each other and we learn about ourselves, and we make mistakes and we do great things. We hurt others, we hurt ourselves, we make others happy and we please ourselves. We can and should forgive ourselves and each other for that.

Dan Harmon

There's only one of us here: What we give to others, we give to ourselves. What we withhold from others, we withhold from ourselves. In any moment, when we choose fear instead of love, we deny ourselves the experience of Paradise.