quotes about Commitment

Alfred Adler:
We only regard those unions as real examples of love and real marriages in which a fixed and unalterable decision has been taken. If men or women contemplate an escape, they do not collect all their powers for the task. In none of the serious and important tasks of life do we arrange such a “getaway.” We cannot love and be limited.
Anne Morriss:
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating — in work, in play, in love. (part of a quote from The Way I See It #76, Starbucks Coffee)
Barack Obama:
Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. it’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.
Carter Heyward:
Love, like truth and beauty, is concrete. Love is not fundamentally a sweet feeling; not, at heart, a matter of sentiment, attachment, or being “drawn toward.” Love is active, effective, a matter of making reciprocal and mutually beneficial relation with one’s friends and enemies.
This entry continued …
Edward Everett Hale:
I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
Edward Everett Hale:
To look forward and not back,
To look out and not in, and
To lend a hand.
Eugene V. Debs:
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.
Francis Bacon:
He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune.
Hannah Arendt:
Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible.
High Eagle:
In life, many thoughts are born in the course of a moment, an hour, a day. Some are dreams, some visions. Often, we are unable to distinguish between them. To some, they are the same; however, not all dreams are visions. Much energy is lost in fanciful dreams that never bear fruit. But visions are messages from the Great Spirit, each for a different purpose in life. Consequently, one person’s vision may not be that of another. To have a vision, one must be prepared to receive it, and when it comes, to accept it. Thus when these inner urges become reality, only then can visions be fulfilled. The spiritual side of life knows everyone’s heart and who to trust. How could a vision ever be given to someone to harbor if that person could not be trusted to carry it out. The message is simple: commitment precedes vision.
Leo Buscaglia:
What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.
Marian Wright Edelman:
I’m doing what I think I was put on this earth to do. And I’m really grateful to have something that I’m passionate about and that I think is profoundly important.
Marian Wright Edelman:
You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.
Marian Wright Edelman:
A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back — but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you.
Marian Wright Edelman:
Whoever said anybody has a right to give up?
Mary Kay Ash:
For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.
Michael A. Schuler:
Sustainability isn’t about the quick fix or the cheap solution. Generally it means making a commitment and trying, as best we can, to honor it. In any worthwhile enterprise, from protecting the environment to preserving a relationship, we are going to encounter difficulties. The good life is not a problem-free life. In point of fact, the process of overcoming adversity often produces some of the most rewarding experiences we will ever have. Human beings need to be challenged to ‘test their mettle,’ as it were. Throwing in the towel at the first sign of trouble or small inkling of distress may be the easy thing to do, but it doesn’t help our self-concept. Most of life’s troubles can be overcome if we are willing to work through them with patience.
Princess Diana:
Only do what your heart tells you.
Rollo May:
The relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt but in spite of doubt.
Sam Nunn:
You have to pay the price. You will find that everything in life exacts a price, and you will have to decide whether the price is worth the prize.
Stephen Covey:
Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.
Talmud (attributed):
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Thomas Jefferson:
We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour. Declaration of Independence
Vince Lombardi:
Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.