No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.
We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.
Most arts require long study and application, but the most useful art of all, that of pleasing, requires only the desire.
They might not need me; but they might. I'll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.
Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.
If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.
Often we can help each other most by leaving each other alone; at other times we need the hand-grasp and the word of cheer.
You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, ackowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.
Even if it is a little thing, do something for those who have need of help.
When a man has reverence for life, he will never do anything to harm, hinder or destroy life. Instead he bends every effort to help life to fulfill its highest destiny. He strives to maintain, enhance and assist life to make the most of itself.
The ego is often deeply involved in the desire to help others. If you do not want your ego to be involved in this way, do not be available for others unless you really want to be available. Do not feel that you should be available. Don't sacrifice yourself in any way. Don't go against your true feelings. Don't carry the cross for anyone else. Make sure that there's no sense that helping others makes you a better person or that it will gain you easy access into Heaven. Don't be a martyr.
If you really want to help, then help others to be more present. Help others to free themselves from the past. Help others to take responsibility for themselves. Help them to see how they are creating their own suffering. Every now and then, you will encounter innocent ones who are suffering through no fault of their own, particularly animals and children. Do not hesitate! Help them.
In this world we must help one another.
Studies of volunteers have shown there is a benefit to performing acts of love for other people. The irony is that it is actually in your best interest to be selfless. The things you do for the benefit of others not only make you feel fulfilled, they increase your chances of living a long and happy life. Remember that an act of love always benefits at least two people.
By helping yourself, you are helping humankind. By helping humankind, you are helping yourself. That's the law of all spiritual progress.
People who won't help others in trouble "because they got into trouble through their own fault" would probably not throw a lifeline to a drowning person until they learned whether that person fell in through his or her own fault or not.
As Aunt Naomi was listing all the things she was going to do to help this person, her friend stopped her in mid-sentence. "Naomi, girl," she said, "you need to resign as general manager of the universe. You need to learn that sometimes the best way to help a person is to let them help themselves. Otherwise, they never learn how. And they are always going to make their problems your problems."
As to the kindness you mention, I wish I could have been of more service to you than I have been, but if I had, the only thanks that I should desire are that you would always be ready to serve any other person that may need your assistance, and so let good offices go around, for humankind are all of a family. As for my own part, when I am employed in serving others I do not look upon myself as conferring favors but paying debts.
When I pray, I never pray for myself, always for others, or else I hold a silly, naive, or deadly serious dialogue with what is deepest inside me, which for the sake of convenience I call God. Praying to God for something for yourself strikes me as being too childish for words. To pray for another's well-being is something I find childish as well; one should only pray that another should have enough strength to shoulder his burden. If you do that, you lend him some of your own strength.
Small minds select narrow roads; expand your mental vision and take to the broad road of helpfulness, compassion and service.
or simply:
