75 Inspiring Quotes About Volunteering to Motivate Your Team

FrontStream focuses on helping fundraising teams of all shapes and sizes bolster the causes that mean the most to them, which also means supporting the teams of volunteers that work with them. To help motivate those dedicated volunteers, we’ve curated a list of the most inspiring volunteering quotes, including quotes about helping others, impact, growth and perseverance, and empowerment.

Quotes About Volunteering and Giving Back

“If every American donated five hours a week, it would equal the labor of twenty million full-time volunteers.” -Whoopi Goldberg
“Volunteering is an act of heroism on a grand scale. And it matters profoundly. It does more than help people beat the odds; it changes the odds.” -Bill Clinton
“Volunteerism is the voice of the people put into action. These actions shape and mold the present into a future of which we can all be proud.” -Helen Dyer
“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they have the heart.” -Elizabeth Andrew
“The heart of a volunteer is never measured in size, but by the depth of the commitment to make a difference in the lives of others.” -DeAnn Hollis
“Volunteering is at the very core of being a human. No one has made it through life without someone else’s help.” -Heather French Henry
“Volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they’re priceless.” -Sherry Anderson
“Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in.” -Author Unknown
“I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy.” -Rabindranath Tagore
“In giving you are throwing a bridge across the chasm of your solitude.” -Antoine de Sainte-Exupery
“How wonderful that no one need wait a single moment to improve the world.” -Anne Frank
“Volunteer activities can foster enormous leadership skills. The nonprofit professional volunteer world is a laboratory for self-realization.” -Madeleine Kunin
“How can we expect our children to know and experience the joy of giving unless we teach them that the greater pleasure in life lies in the art of giving rather than receiving.” -James Cash Penney
“Volunteers wear working boots but leave a trail of angel footprints.” -Terri Guillemets
“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.

Quotes About the Value of Helping Others

16. “What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.” -Aristotle

“I did not find the world desolate when I entered it. My fathers planted for me before I arrived, so I plant for those who come after me.” -Talmud
“A pessimist, they say, sees a glass as being half empty; an optimist sees the same glass as half full. But a giving person sees a glass of water and starts looking for someone who might be thirsty.” -G. Donald Gale
“Doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves.” -Horace Mann
“A true healer is not the one with magical powers, but the one who does everything in their power to help those in need.” -Abhijit Naskar
“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.” -Herman Melville
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
“We are all like one-winged angels. It is only when we help each other that we can fly.” -Luciano De Crescenzo
“An effort made for the happiness of others lifts us above ourselves.” -Lydia Maria Child
“Help one another. There’s no time like the present, and no present like the time.” -James Durst
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” -Gandhi
“To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.” -Abraham Lincoln
“A candle loses nothing of its light when lighting another.” -Kahlil Gibran
“Happiness is thinking of myself; joy is thinking of others.” -Author Unknown
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches but reveal to him his own.” -Benjamin Disraeli

Quotes About How to Make An Impact

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” -Helen Keller
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” -Lao Tzu
“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” -Winston Churchill
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” -Leo Buscaglia
“Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.” -Plato
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead
“A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives roses.” -Chinese Proverb
“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
“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” -Oscar Wilde
“If you don’t believe one person can make a difference, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.” -Anita Roddick
“You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
“With a sweet tongue and kindness, you can drag an elephant by a hair.” -Persian Proverb
“Unless someone like you cares a whole, awful lot. Things aren’t going to get better, they’re NOT!” -Dr. Seuss
“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” -Mother Theresa
“In proportion as one renders service, he becomes great.” -Booker T. Washington

Quotes About Growth and Perseverance

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” -Arthur Ashe
“It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others.” -14th Dalai Lama
“I learned to always take on things I’d never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist.” -Ginni Rometty
“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.” -Oprah Winfrey
“It’s okay to admit what you don’t know. It’s okay to ask for help. And it’s more than okay to listen to the people you lead – in fact, it’s essential.” -Mary Barra
“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.” -Rosa Parks
“Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.” -Sara Blakely
“Continuous learning leads to continuous improvement. Commit yourself to advancing your knowledge, skills, and expertise …. Be a lifelong student.” -Pamela Gill Alabaster
“You tell me, and I forget. You teach me, and I remember. You involve me, and I learn.” -Benjamin Franklin
“Not being able to do everything is no excuse for not doing everything you can.” -Ashleigh Brilliant
“Ain’t Nothin’ to It, But to Do it!” -Maya Angelou
"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." -Michael Altshuler
"You don't always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go and see what happens." -Mandy Hale
"All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination." -Earl Nightingale
"Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time." -Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Quotes About Personal Empowerment

“Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” -Steve Jobs
"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says 'I'm possible!'' -Audrey Hepburn
"There is nothing impossible to they who will try." -Alexander the Great
“There are three kinds of people: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who say, ‘what happened?’“ -Casey Stengel
“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” -Rosalynn Carter
“Success is an exception, so be exceptional.” -Malti Bhojwani
“I have broken many glass ceilings – so I know it can be done.” -Helen Clark
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” -Alice Walker
“If I can do no more, let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth’s sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.” -Louisa May Alcott
“When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.” -Ethiopian Proverb
"I'm not going to continue knocking that old door that doesn't open for me. I'm going to create my own door and walk through that." -Ava DuVernay
"We are not our best intentions. We are what we do." -Amy Dickinson
“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.” -J.K. Rowling
“The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” -Ayn Rand
“Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it, the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me.” -Arianna Huffington

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