Cooperation

In leadership writ large, mutually agreed upon purposes help people achieve consensus, assume responsibility, work for the common good, and build community.

We are, all of us, angels with only one wing; and we can only fly by embracing one another.

Grant others the same rights as you claim for yourself.

The man of great wealth owes a particular obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government.

We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise . . . It is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.

Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but must always participate in the swell of the ocean, so we can never experience life by ourselves, but must always share the experience of life that takes place all around us.

In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another - or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state.

We struck down evil with the mighty sword of teamwork and the hammer of not bickering!

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

Women get married expecting to change their husbands, while men get married expecting their wives will never change.

Solidarity is not a matter of sentiment but a fact, cold and impassive as the granite foundations of a skyscraper. If the basic elements, identity of interest, clarity of vision, honesty of intent, and oneness of purpose, or any of these is lacking, all sentimental pleas for solidarity, and all other efforts to achieve it will be barren of results.

Yes, our greatness as a nation has depended on individual initiative, on a belief in the free market. But it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, of mutual responsibility. The idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we're all in it together and everybody's got a shot at opportunity. Americans know this. We know that government can't solve all our problems - and we don't want it to. But we also know that there are some things we can't do on our own. We know that there are some things we do better together.

In Africa, you often see that the difference between a village where everybody eats and a village where people starve is government. One has a functioning government, and the other does not. Which is why it bothers me when I hear people say that government is the enemy. They don't understand its fundamental role.

The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons. Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.

There are two kinds of people who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else.

No man is wise enough by himself.

Democracy cannot be answered by supermen, but only by the unswerving devotion and goodness of millions of little men.

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

True patriots measure themselves not by personal wealth or power but by the degree to which they contribute to the community. 

At the heart of our public morality is the idea that he who gives generously is most virtuous and morally praiseworthy; that there is no greater citizen than she who sacrifices; and that there is no greater measure of worth than contribution.  These are values we can be proud of.  After all, there is no moral system or religion on earth where the guiding ethic is "grab more for yourself."

None of us is as smart as all of us.

You can't be human alone.

Getting along with others is the essence of getting ahead, success being linked with cooperation.

Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity.

Humanists acknowledge human interdependence, the need for mutual respect and the kinship of all humanity.

The world basically and fundamentally is constituted on the basis of harmony. Everything works in co-operation with something else.

Union gives strength.

Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.

When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness.  
Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful
as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other.