Community is a sign that love is possible in a materialistic world where people so often either ignore or fight each other. It is a sign that we don't need a lot of money to be happy--in fact, the opposite.
Jean VanierRead
When we love and respect people, revealing to them their value, they can begin to come out from behind the walls that protect them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Loving and respecting others helps them recognize their own worth and fosters openness.
This quote emphasizes the transformative power of love and respect in human relationships. When we treat others with kindness and acknowledge their intrinsic value, we create a safe space for them to lower their defenses and expose their true selves. This openness can lead to deeper connections and personal growth.
Themes
LoveRespectValueRelationshipsOpenness
In practice
Example use cases
A speaker at a community gathering sharing this quote to encourage compassion among members.
More from Jean Vanier
All quotes βOne of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.
Jean VanierRead
We all know well that we can do things for others and in the process crush them, making them feel that they are incapable of doing things by themselves. To love someone is to reveal to them their capacities for life, the light that is shining in them.
Jean VanierRead
True peace can rarely be imposed from the outside; it must be born within and between communities through meetings and dialogue and then carried outward.
Jean VanierRead
In any case, community is not about perfect people. It is about people who are bonded to each other, each of whom is a mixture of good and bad, darkness and light, love and hate.
Jean VanierRead
We have to remind ourselves constantly that we are not saviours. We are simply a tiny sign, among thousands of others, that love is possible, that the world is not condemned to a struggle between oppressors and oppressed, that class and racial warfare is not inevitable.
Jean VanierRead
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