Peace Corps Quotes

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s peaceful, determined struggle for social justice, and Sargent Shriver, who launched the Peace Corps, were early heroes. A career of public service was the ultimate aspiration. ~ Queen Noor Of Jordan

I wanted the Peace Corps to be something very vague and unorganized, and to a large extent it was. It did not run smoothly. The consequence was that we were left alone. ~ Paul Theroux

The Peace Corps would give thousands of young Americans a chance to see at first hand the conditions in remote areas of the world. ~ Sargent Shriver

The Peace Corps is guilty of enthusiasm and a crusading spirit. But we're not apologetic about it. ~ Sargent Shriver

There were initiatives I have remained involved with in the U.S. and in the Middle East, like the Peace Corps, which might be summed up as, "Ask not that the world serve you, but ask what you can do to serve the world." ~ Queen Noor Of Jordan

Some taxpayers may object to a print journalism bailout on the grounds that it mostly benefits the liberal elite. And we can't blame taxpayers for being reluctant to subsidize the reportorial careers of J-school twerps who should have joined the Peace Corps and gone to Africa to 'speak truth to power' to Robert Mugabe. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Sometimes I thought of the Peace Corps as a reverse refugee organization, displacing all of us lost Midwesterners, and it was probably the only government entity that taught Americans to abandon key national characteristics. Pride, ambition, impatience, the instinct to control, the desire to accumulate, the missionary impulse - all of it slipped away. ~ Peter Hessler

Son, you can do more good at Yamacraw than you could ever do in the Peace Corps. And you would be helping Americans, Pat. And I, for one, think it's very important to help Americans. ~ Pat Conroy

And as John F. Kennedy described the ideals behind what would become the Peace Corps, he issued a challenge to the students who had assembled in Ann Arbor on that October night: "on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country," he said, will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can," he said. ~ Barack Obama

In the Peace Corps, the volunteer must be a fully developed, mature person. He must not join to run abroad or escape problems. ~ Sargent Shriver

Who does Bill Clinton think got off the boat and stepped on Plymouth Rock? Peace Corps volunteers? ~ P. J. O'Rourke

I had never imagined myself, nor aspired to be, a member of a royal family. I wanted to be in the Peace Corps, not a princess! ~ Queen Noor Of Jordan

I want to warn anyone who sees the Peace Corps as an alternative to the draft that life may well be easier at Fort Dix or at apost in Germany than it will be with us. ~ Sargent Shriver

Any idealist who tries to join the Peace Corps must realize he is not going to change the world overnight. ~ Sargent Shriver

The Peace Corps is a sort of Howard Johnson's on the main drag into maturity. ~ Paul Theroux

I wish the Peace Corps and its volunteers continued success and perseverance. We are grateful for their contributions to society and dedication to providing assistance where it is needed. May the Peace Corps continue its legacy of service, both at home and abroad. ~ Kenny Marchant

Catherine Lutz, an anthropologist who has been carrying out a project studying the archipelago of US overseas military bases. She made the fascinating observation that almost all of these bases organize outreach programs, in which soldiers venture out to repair schoolrooms or to perform free dental checkups in nearby towns and villages. The ostensible reason for the programs was to improve relations with local communities, but they rarely have much impact in that regard; still, even after the military discovered this, they kept the programs up because they had such an enormous psychological impact on the soldiers, many of whom would wax euphoric when describing them: for example, "This is why I joined the army," "This is what military service is really all about - not just defending your country, it's about helping people!" Soldiers allowed to perform public service duties, they found, were two or three times more likely to reenlist. I remember thinking, "Wait, so most of these people really want to be in the Peace Corps?" And I duly looked it up and discovered: sure enough, to be accepted into the Peace Corps, you need to already have a college degree. The US military is a haven for frustrated altruists. ~ David Graeber

I graduated from college in Ohio and bummed around for a while, and then I joined VISTA, which was a domestic Peace Corps kind of thing, and they sent me to Colorado. ~ Mojo Nixon

For a long time, I really struggled with the idea of being an actor because I really felt that I should be in the Peace Corps. ~ Camryn Manheim

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Peace Corps as it reached its 45th anniversary on March 1, 2006. ~ Solomon Ortiz

There's a tradition of public service in my family. I'm one of three boys that joined the military. My father was in the Peace Corps. ~ Phil Klay

My record was so bad that I was first rejected by the Peace Corps as a poor risk and possible troublemaker and was accepted as a volunteer only after a great deal of explaining and arguing. ~ Paul Theroux

The Peace Corps represents some, if not all, of the best virtues in this society. It stands for everything that America has ever stood for. It stands for everything we believe in and hope to achieve in the world. ~ Sargent Shriver

Walk your own path and be yourself ~ Joanne Nussbaum

When I was in the Peace Corps I never made a phone call. I was in Central Africa; I didn't make a phone call for two years. I was in Uganda for another four years and I didn't make a phone call. So for six years I didn't make a phone call, but I wrote letters, I wrote short stories, I wrote books. ~ Paul Theroux

I'm a conservative because I believe in peace - real peace, not just the peace of mind. I'm a conservative because we understand that real peace comes from the Marine Corps, not the Peace Corps. ~ Allen West

Lissa lowered her voice and added, "I might not even go to school anyway. I might defer and join the Peace Corps and go to Africa and shave my head and dig latrines."
"Shave your head?" I said, because, really, this was the most ludicrous part of the whole thing. "You? Do you have any idea how ugly most people's bare heads are? They've got all kinds of bumps, Lissa. And you won't know until it's too late and you're flat-out bald. ~ Sarah Dessen

We are in a time when the Peace Corps mission is more vital than ever, and the organization is at a 30-year high in the number of volunteers in the field. The Peace Corps is currently in 69 posts and serving 75 countries across the globe. ~ Kenny Marchant

For aiding and abetting drug cartels suspected in more than twenty thousand murders, groups famous for creating the world's most gruesome torture videos - the Sinaloa Cartel in particular, with its style of high-volume reprisal killings and public chainsawings and disembowelings, makes al-Qaeda look like the Peace Corps - HSBC got a walk. Tory Marone, for smoking their product and passing out on a park bench, got sent to jail. ~ Matt Taibbi

But my quarrel with the concept of maternal instinct isn't why I never had kids myself. I was never particularly opposed to the idea of having kids - let no one say that I don't love kids! It always seemed like an interesting future possibility, the same way that joining the Peace Corps someday seemed like an interesting future possibility. ~ Laura Kipnis

How do you think poetry helps people? he'd ask, wanting the whole thing quantified so he could compare it to digging wells in the Peace Corps. ~ Paul Monette

The peace corps looks like peace corpse, and death isn't a very peaceful thought to me. ~ Jarod Kintz

I think I am typical in believing that the Peace Corps trained us brilliantly and then did little more except send us into the bush. It was not a bad way of running things. ~ Paul Theroux

There are better ways we can transform this virulent hatred - by living our ideals, the Peace Corps, exchange students, teachers, exporting our music, poetry, blue jeans. ~ Helen Thomas

I have five flashlights and each performs its own trick. I have a raincoat with zippers and net material so I never get too hot in a downpour. I have a shelf crammed with books and a shortwave that speaks Arabic, Japanese, Dutch and Russian. They have mud huts with maybe a few chairs and faded pages of old magazines fastened to the wall. I ride my twenty-one speed Peace Corps-issue bike to Ferke not to save a dollar on transport but for the luxury of exercise. They ride in from their settlements on cranky old mopeds or bikes with a single cog because it's the only option. And they give me charity. I just stare at it - near tears. To refuse their offer would be pure insult. So I do the rounds again shaking hands with all the men in boubous saying over and over "An y che " Thank you. ~ Sarah Erdman

I am proud to represent these men and women who empower people in developing nations and promote the Peace Corps mission of peace and friendship. These volunteers are making major strides to improve the lives of people and communities around the world. ~ Kenny Marchant

We have started something called the Corporate Services Corps. Now, it was modeled after the Peace Corps from long ago, the 1960s. And the idea was in this modern day and age, how do you get IBM'ers around the world to be global citizens? You know, globally aware, contribute, understand how to work in that environment, but do it on scale. ~ Ginni Rometty

As I took in a deep breath, I felt renewed. As I released each breath, I let go of negative thoughts and energy. ~ Charlena E. Jackson

Wyatt." She tore it open and stood there, drinking him in.Just the sight of him had her heart doing a happy dance in her chest.
"Don't throw me out." He lifted a hand. "I come in peace.With food."
When she didn't say a word he added, "Pizza.With all your favorite toppings.Sausage, mushrooms, green..."
"Well,then." To hide the unexpected tears that sprang to her eyes,she turned away quickly. "Since you went to so much trouble,you may as well come in."
"It was no trouble.I just rode a hundred miles on my Harley,fought my way through the smoke screen at the Fortune Saloon,had to fend off Daffy's attempts to have her way with me, and discovered that I'd left my wallet back at the ranch,which meant I had to sign away my life before Vi would turn over this pizza,wine,and dessert. But hey, no trouble at all.It's the sort of thing I do nearly every day."
He followed her to the kitchen, where he set down the pizza box and a brown bag.
He glanced over at the stove. "Are you going to lift that kettle, or did I interrupt you making a recording of you whistling along with it in harmony?"
Despite her tears,she found herself laughing hysterically at his silly banter.
Oh,how she'd missed it.
He set the kettle aside.The sudden silence was shocking.
Because she had her back to him, he fought the urge to touch her.Instead he studied the way her shoulders were shaking. Troubled,he realized he'd made her cry.
"Sorry." Deflated,his tone lowere ~ R.C. Ryan

I am hopeful that Antarctica in its symbolic robe of white will shine forth as a continent of peace as nations working together there in the cause of science set an example of international cooperation. ~ Richard E. Byrd

Fountain of Love my source is in thee - Loving thy will my spirit is free - Beautiful day when all of us see - The hope of the world is Love! ~ Peace Pilgrim

You will not able to find peace if you are the source of unhappiness for others. ~ Debasish Mridha

Care of the mouth. - Technique of coughing and of spitting. Here is a personal observation.
A little girl did not know how to spit and each of her colds was aggravated as a result. I gathered this information. In her father's village and in his family in particular, au Berry, no one knows how to spit. I taught her how to spit. I gave her four sous per spit. As she wanted to have a bicycle, she learned how to spit. She was the first in the family to know how to spit.


(Marcel Mauss, "Les techniques du corps," in Anthropologze et Sociologze. [Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1935, p. 383.) ~ Marcel Mauss

Beckett wrapped his arm around the one Cole offered him. "Bro, go to Kyle. Stay out of this next fight. I won't be able to deal with you behind me and Blake in front of me. You can't ask me to decide which one of you to defend first. Please, Cole. Give me peace of mind. ~ Debra Anastasia

Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. ~ James Allen

Peace is not just the absence of war. True peace depends upon creating the opportunity that makes life worth living. And to do that, we must confront the common enemies of human beings: nuclear weapons and poverty; ignorance and disease. ~ Barack Obama

Today, may you be filled with an immense sense of inner peace, unity, joy & happiness. ~ Eleesha

By a garden is meant mystically a place of spiritual repose, stillness, peace, refreshment, delight. ~ John Henry Newman

I was a sports fan, but I also went to peace marches. ~ Tim Robbins

Sometimes, we're so... we're so bloody concerned with doing the things everyone expects us to do, we forget that in the end we need to show each other a bit of mercy, pity and peace. And love. Love more than all. ~ M.J. Lawless

When we ourselves are not truly in a place of peace and we go out and try to create peace in the world, it becomes a fragmented and sometimes even corrupt form of peace. This happens because only peace can create peace, and unless we are the embodiment of it, we are projecting our bias of what peace should look like onto other people's lives. To be at peace means to accept reality as is. Embodying peace is, in fact, the very essence of what it means to be free, as well as offering this freedom to others. ~ Alaric Hutchinson

Gentleness is not weakness. Just the opposite. Preserving a gentle spirit in a heartless world takes extraordinary courage, determination, and resilience. Do not underestimate the power of gentleness because gentleness is strength wrapped in peace, and therein lies the power to change the world. ~ L.R. Knost

It is music and dancing that make me at peace with the world. ~ Nelson Mandela

Think of the fire-fighting dragon, Yato-san. Even if nobody ever really pays attention to it, they all feel safer just because it's there. I think that's all we gods are. But if that's enough to give people peace of mind... then maybe we can make the world a slightly better place. Because the one who truly save people... are people. ~ Adachitoka

A child's reading is guided by pleasure, but his pleasure is undifferentiated; he cannot distinguish, for example, between aesthetic pleasure and the pleasures of learning or daydreaming. In adolescence we realize that there are different kinds of pleasure, some of which cannot be enjoyed simultaneously, but we need help from others in defining them. Whether it be a matter of taste in food or taste in literature, the adolescent looks for a mentor in whose authority he can believe. He eats or reads what his mentor recommends and, inevitably, there are occasions when he has to deceive himself a little; he has to pretend that he enjoys olives or War and Peace a little more than he actually does. Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the difference between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity. Few of us can learn this without making mistakes, without trying to become a little more of a universal man than we are permitted to be. It is during this period that a writer can most easily be led astray by another writer or by some ideology. When someone between twenty and forty says, apropos of a work of art, 'I know what I like,'he is really saying 'I have no taste of my own but accept the taste of my cultural milieu', because, between twenty and forty, the surest sign that a man has a genuine taste o ~ W.H. Auden

If we are at peace with this world, it may be because we have sold out to it and compromised with it. ~ Billy Graham

O Heavenly Children, you chant God's name but you have forgotten him. He does not want your verses, or the coins from your purses, but for you to love and embrace each other. To uphold truth, justice and peace - and to respect your father and mother, fellow sisters and brothers. ~ Suzy Kassem

Pax? That's his name? It means 'peace,' you know." Peter knew that - lots of people had told him. "But ~ Sara Pennypacker

It just seems clear to me that as long as we are all here, it's pretty clear that the struggle is to share the planet, rather than divide it. ~ Alice Walker

We have become sons of peace for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader. ~ Origen

The way we live our daily lives is what most effects the situation of the world. If we can change our daily lives, then we can change our governments and can change the world. Our president and governments are us. They reflect our lifestyle and our way of thinking. The way we hold a cup of tea, pick up the newspaper or even use toilet paper are directly related to peace. ~ Nhat Hanh

The example of America must be the example not merely of peace because it will not fight, but of peace because peace is the healing and elevating influence of the world, and strife is not. There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right. ~ Woodrow Wilson

What you mean by 'peace' is nothing more than the endless repetition of human folly. ~ Hayao Miyazaki

Many people are concerned with children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is the greatest destroyer of peace today- abortion which brings people to such blindness. ~ Mother Teresa

The peace conference must not adjourn without the establishment of some ordered system of international government, backed by power enough to give authority to its decrees.Unless a league something like this results at our peace conference, we shall merely drop back into armed hostility and international anarchy. The war will have been fought in vain ... ~ Virginia Gildersleeve

There's no profit in peace. ~ Brandon Sanderson

Happiness was not a word that seemed to apply anymore, when she had lost so many close to her. There was a contentment that felt deeper, that acknowledged and accepted the quieter offerings of small joys-- of love and occasional peace in a life that was full of pain. ~ Peter Heller

But one thing is certain, he is the master criminal of this age. He controls a marvellous organization. Most of the Peace propaganda during the war was originated and financed by him. ~ Agatha Christie

The foundation of the Christian's peace is everlasting; it is what no time, no change can destroy. It will remain when the body dies; it will remain when the mountains depart and the hills shall be removed, and when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll. The fountain of His comfort shall never be diminished, and the stream shall never be dried. His comfort and joy is a living spring in the soul, a well of water springing up to everlasting life. ~ Jonathan Edwards