“Random acts of kindness” became a nationwide movement some years ago. In Sausalito, Calif., a lady by the name of Anne Herbert scrawled on a place mat in a neighborhood café, “practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” The slogan spread to bumper stickers and the media picked up on it. Ultimately, a college professor gave his students an assignment to actually do acts of kindness which unleashed a flood of stories collected and contained in a little volume titled “Random Acts of Kindness…we can make a difference.”

We see acts of kindness all around us every day and they, too, would fill volumes: visiting the sick or the shut-in, encouraging a child, showing patience to the elderly, sharing a talent, appreciating the efforts of others, beautifying one’s surroundings, speaking well of others and giving without the thought of recompense.

Great minds and personalities of all walks of life have put their thoughts on the subject in these words:

“We realize that what we are accomplishing is a drop in the ocean. But if this drop were not in the ocean, it would be missed. Do not wait for others; do it alone, person to person.” — Mother Teresa

“What one does is what counts, not what one had the intention of doing.” — Pablo Picasso

“When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

“Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.” — Abraham Lincoln

“Too many people are ready to carry the stool when the piano needs to be moved.” — Anonymous

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.” — Helen Keller

“With every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest you may not see.” — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own.” — Confucius

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others ?” — Martin Luther King

“Only a life lived for others is worth living.” — Albert Einstein

“To give without any reward or any notice, has a special quality of its own.” — Ann Lindberg

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” — Ghandi

Each quote has a common thread — if one’s life is to have meaning, it is imperative to give to others wherever the need exists. Random acts of kindness can, in some instances, be life-changing.