Values

Who do you Value? Do you value people who are similar to you? Do you also value people who are different from you? Which quality makes people more important to you - similarity or difference? How do those qualities combine to make value for you? Can you imagine considering everyone as valuable to some degree in the big picture?

What do you Value? What areas of your life do you think are really most important? What qualities in yourself do you consider valuable? What do you miss first when things change? What are you afraid of losing when things change? What are the qualities in yourself that you spend time and effort to improve? How do you invest in yourself? What do you hope to achieve for yourself?

Can you imagine life without the ability to perceive your values? You would not know whether a relationship was good or bad, or whether you liked something or not. What would that be like? Would your life be worthwhile? How would you know if it were or not?

What do you think of Good and Evil? Do you eat meat? Have you eaten a chicken recently? Was it a good meal for you? Can you see it as evil for the chicken? Perhaps Good and Evil depend largely on one's perspective. If everyone agrees that something is good, then that probably makes a difference.

Consider that Bad describes situations that are unsustainable.
Liars don't want other people to lie to them,
Thieves don't want other people to steal from them,
and murderers don't want anyone to kill them.
So we can say that these actions are all unsustainable.
People who do these things are not welcomed by others.
They generate fear and people distrust and avoid them.

On the other hand, consider that Good describes situations that are sustainable.
Honest people like other honest people - they can speak together openly and trust each other.
People who enjoy sharing also like other people who share and trade honestly,
and creative protective people like other people who value life such as artists, gardeners, firemen and animal rescuers.
These actions are sustainable - they are welcomed from person to person throughout a society.
They create a cycle of trust and good feelings among people.

Quotes

On the wall at The Willows dining room in Syracuse, New York, is a poster that poignantly reflects the alcoholic’s struggle ~
“The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.”
Gloria Steinem adapted that to the activist's rallying cry ~
"The truth will set you free, but first it will really piss you off!"

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“Education without Values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.”
C.S. Lewis

“Compassion is the basis of all morality”
Arthur Schopenhauer

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”
Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“Don't waste your love on somebody who doesn't value it.”
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti

“Here is your country.
Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children.
Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.”
Theodore Roosevelt

“It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”
Roy Disney

“Men have looked away from themselves and at things so long that they have come to esteem the religious, learned and civil institutions as guards of property, and they deprecate assaults on these, because they feel them to be assaults on property.
They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

“The first principle of value that we need to rediscover is this: that all reality hinges on moral foundations.
In other words, that this is a moral universe, and that there are moral laws of the universe just as abiding as the physical laws.”
Martin Luther King Jr. ~ A Knock at Midnight ("Rediscovering Lost Values")

“Values aren't buses... They're not supposed to get you anywhere. They're supposed to define who you are.”
Jennifer Crusie

“Who is wise? One who learns from everyone.
Who is strong? One who controls his inclinations.
Who is rich? One who is satisfied with his lot.
Who is honorable? One who honors his fellows.”
Ben Zoma, Ethics of the Fathers

“Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.”
William Shakespeare, Othello

“August: You know, somethings don't matter that much...like the color of a house...But lifting a person's heart--now that matters. The whole problem with people--"
Lily: They don't know what matters and what doesn't...
August:...They know what matters, but they don't choose it...The hardest thing on earth is to choose what matters.”
Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“Here are the values that I stand for: honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values.”
Ellen DeGeneres

“If I am not for me, who is for me?
and if I am only for myself, what am I?
And if not now, when?”
Hillel, Ethics of the Fathers

“Knowledge rooted in experience shapes what we value and as a consequence how we know what we know as well as how we use what we know.”
Bell Hooks, Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom

“Do you think it is a vain hope that one day man will find joy in noble deeds of light and mercy, rather than in the coarse pleasures he indulges in today -- gluttony, fornication, ostentation, boasting, and envious vying with his neighbor?
I am certain this is not a vain hope and that the day will come soon.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“History is hereditary only in this way: we, all of us, inherit everything, and then we choose what to cherish, what to disavow, and what do do next, which is why it's worth trying to know where things come from.”
Jill Lepore

“Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent.”
Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation