Inspiring quotes UK

A - B - C - D - F - G - H - J - K - L - M - O - P - Q - R - S - T - W

A

“It’s not me that is ‘hard to reach’ it’s those people with the money & power that are”
anon person described as excluded [1]

"I am 80 now. It's not that I think, like any old man, that change is wrong. I recognise that the world has always changed, I know that. But the point is, it's changing more extremely and swiftly than at anytime in the past several million years and one of the things I don't want to do is look at my grandchildren and hear them say. "Grandfather, you knew it was happening and did nothing." / Climate action UK


"The last time the UK’s wildlife faced a challenge on this scale was at the end of the last ice age. We need to find ways to help our wildlife become more resilient to the trials it faces in the 21st century. We must now work on a landscape scale if we are to give wildlife a chance and allow future generations to enjoy nature as we have." / Biodiversity UK


"If we (humans) disappeared overnight, the world would probably be better off." [2]


David Attenborough W [3]




"To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment."
Jane Austen

B

"The tree, which moves some to tears of joy, is, in the eyes of others, only a green thing that stands in the way. As a man is, so he sees."
William Blake

"Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist."
Kenneth Boulding

"Complementary currencies can reveal to us that, even in the poorest places, there are vast living assets - ideas, skills, time, love even - that can turn our ideas of scarcity on their heads."
David Boyle / Community currencies activism


"Go with your gut instinct. Be innovative. Innovation is about challenge, challenging others, challenging yourself, your own perceptions. If its hasn't got a challenge in it let someone else do it - you go and do something that is unique."

Barbara Willis Brown of the Birmingham (UK) based organisation Scawdi - taken from a podcast on the Grassroots Channel [4]

C

"The energy descent is going to take a hell of a lot of energy dissent!"
The Camp for Climate Action [5] / Climate action UK

"The empires of the future are the empires of the mind."


"If we are together, nothing is impossible"


Winston Churchill



"Civic networks should be respected and promoted as sources of empowered citizenship."


"Civic networks emerge in the space beyond government or the market, serving citizens need for knowledge that can enable them to be more active, resourceful, creative and influential."


Professor Stephen Coleman, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford



"We see people-power-place in action when our neighbourhoods, villages, towns or cities become a focus of common interest. When people make their place a community of interest. When communities of place become communities of interest we begin to develop a set of in-common aims, objectives and intentions. Dreams and aspirations for neighbourhoods are discussed and opportunities to make it happen are pursued, in common. When things begin to change physically, behaviour change follows and, importantly, neighbourhood we-ness builds to oversee a reinvention of place and community.

Any enabling processes that support and encourage this regaining of place by its people will likely involve only light touch governance to enable the spirit of place to re-emerge. I anticipate that such initiatives will become the sustaining force behind flourishing communities."
Prof. Rhiannon Corcoran, Academic Lead, Community Wellbeing Evidence Programme. Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, University of Liverpool. [6]

D

"The power of the web fundamentally stems from joining things up and sharing, ..."
David De Roure, professor at the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, member of IW3C2 (the International World Wide Web Conference Committee)

"Networks are the language of our times, but our institutions are not programmed to understand them."


"Networked Citizens will participate in the creation of new decision-making capabilities as well as understanding their informal power and responsibilities."


"Good ideas are dependent on an environment that is supportive of collaboration."


Demos [7]

F

"A chasm is opening between people and mainstream politics. Britain needs a strong movement to campaign for democratic and constitutional reform and tackle some of the more difficult issues regarding engaging citizens in the political process."
Peter Facey

G

"Think Globally, Act Locally W"
Patrick Geddes

"If the rhetoric of community-led regeneration is to be translated into real change, then informal networks are crucial to the journey . . ."
Alison Gilchrist

H

"My passion isn’t for hydro, it’s for people taking control of their own futures." Ann Harding, Settle Hydro [8] / Community energy

"For sure, the days of neighbourhood online networks are not far off. Local nets will give you all this and better, more efficiently, less expensively, with genuine options for user-involvement and interaction - and by extension in my view, conversational democracy. But without the paper." [9] Kevin Harris / Communities online UK

"Permaculture inspires empowerment, cooperation and self-reliance. The greatest contribution you can make is to take responsibility for your own actions, to look after your children, and connect with the people around you in your community."
Andy Holdaway [10]


References

  1. ↑ Dave Press
  2. ↑ David Attenborough, The Daily Telegraph, London, 12 November 2005.
  3. ↑ David Attenborough on wikiquote
  4. ↑ podnosh.com
  5. ↑ The Camp for Climate Action
  6. ↑ whatworkswellbeing.org
  7. ↑ Demos
  8. ↑ Living with rats, March 18 2010
  9. ↑ Kevin Harris, May 5 2009
  10. ↑ www.permaculture.org.uk

J


"We are social creatures, our behaviours are shaped and constrained by social norms and expectations. Negotiating change is best pursued at the level of groups and communities. Social support is particularly vital in breaking habits, and in devising new social norms and more sustainable patterns of consumption. Government can play a vital role in nurturing and supporting community based social change."
Professor Tim Jackson, University of Surrey

K

"Most people participate in their communities not as part of organised groups, but in doing acts of kindness"
Professor Carolyn Kagan, Professor of Community Social Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University.

"The poetry of the earth is never dead."
John Keats

"The difficulty lies not in the new ideas but in the escaping the old ones"
John Maynard Keynes

L

"The challenge for public services is how to enlist users as co-producers and co-designers ...."


"Many of our biggest social challenges will only be met if we promote self-organising solutions."


Charles Leadbeater



"We have grown in numbers to the point where our presence is perceptibly disabling the planet like a disease. As in human diseases there are four possible outcomes: destruction of the invading disease organisms; chronic infection; destruction of the host; or symbiosis - a lasting relationship of mutual benefit to the host and invader.

I believe that we have the capacity to choose symbiosis over self-destruction. But we need a rapid, massive and global awakening at a personal level if we are not to go the way of any disease successfully thwarted by its host."
James Lovelock

Localisation has to be the way forward for a Europe that wants more jobs, better social conditions, AND an improved environment, and at the same time a non-exploitative relationship with Eastern Europe and the developing world."
Caroline Lucas, MEP for the South East of England / Localism

M

"There are striking variations in health across different areas of the UK and what is clear is that not only physical aspects of the area, like pollution, affect health, but also things like the level of trust, tolerance and the level of social cohesion."
Sir Michael Marmot

Localisation means finding a balance that has been lost between local, regional, national and international markets. It does not mean that there is no open trade, but that companies have less control and communities more over what is produced and how. It means that what is traded is done fairly, to mutual advantage" / Localism


"What we need is a system of work in which, instead of believing in a job, people can believe in themselves." / Sustainable livelihood


“There is a groundswell of support for an economy in which people have more power over the decisions that affect them, whether that’s housing, jobs or local high streets. Community economic development has the potential to be truly transformational, offering an effective tool to turn the inclusive growth agenda into practical action.
What we have learnt, though, is that for community economic development to be effective some fundamental changes are required. In particular, community-led economic plans need to have a legitimate and recognised place in the way that local authorities and other decision-making bodies approach economic development so that the community’s vision can form a key part of the strategy for the local economy.” / Towards sustainable economies UK


Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK



"It is no longer sufficient to develop passive lists or reports to ‘inform’ citizens of changes in our environment. We need to engage with citizens and ask how they can ‘inform’ us. Obtaining and using local knowledge will help us empower citizens, and it will also give us a better indication of what we need to do to be truly sustainable." [1] Jacqueline McGlade / Citizens data initiative

"Every great movement must
experience three stages:
ridicule, discussion and adoption."
John Stewart Mill

"No political challenge can be met by shopping." [2]


"Faced with a choice between the survival of the planet and a new set of matching tableware, most people would choose the tableware". [3]


"The denial of climate change, while out of tune with the science, is consistent with, even necessary for, the outlook of almost all the world's economists."


“Where democracy counts most it is nowhere to be seen…by the time we are asked for our opinion, there will be little left to discuss but the colour of the road signs”. [4]


"Bake them a cake, write them a poem, give them a kiss, tell them a joke, but for god’s sake stop thrashing the planet to tell someone you care. All it shows is that you don’t." / Buy Nothing Day


George Monbiot W [5]



"...the growing connectedness of the world is the most important social and economic fact of our times."
Geoff Mulgan


References

  1. ↑ Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, Global citizen observatory - The role of individuals in observing and understanding our changing world. Lecture by Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director, European Environment Agency. Annual Earthwatch lecture - Citizen Science, Oxford, 16th February 2009.
  2. ↑ Eco-junk (2007-07-24)
  3. ↑ Campaigning for Austerity (2005-02-03)
  4. ↑ The Guardian
  5. ↑ www.monbiot.com, George Monbiot on wikiquote

O

"The public gets what it asks for: ask for the "good stuff" and that's what they'll have to supply, Similarly, refuse to buy the "bad stuff" and the market for it will collapse. The power of the public is potentially enormous - let's use it."
Bill Oddie

P

"Government needs to be at least as good as any other sector in communication, and arguably should set new standards. It ought to be a sensitive and comprehensive listener. It must be an efficient and prompt disseminator of information. It has to answer questions accurately, honestly and completely. It must be accountable for what it does, prepared to explain and defend its decisions but also admit its mistakes."
The Phillis Report

Q

"...delivery involves citizens, it is not simply done to them."


"In the design of services to solve today’s problems and the anticipated issues for tomorrow public agencies need therefore to engage people from all communities. And to act as public guarantor of fairness and justice (a key purpose of state action) they specifically need to take full account of those people with least power and resources at their own disposal." / Social inclusion


Barry Quirk

R

"The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation."
Bertrand Russell


"you can never move faster than the speed of trust" when it comes to community engagement.
Cormac Russell [1]

S

"There are no environmental solutions to environmental problems, only social, economic and political ones"
Charles Secrett

"Action is eloquence."


"One Touch of nature makes the whole world kin." [2]


William Shakespeare (1564-1616)



"The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred."
George Bernard Shaw / Community involvement

"Unless we involve people in the definition of their problems and the choice of solutions, we will produce a thin governing system that produces public services that patch over problems rather than going to their heart."
Gerry Stoker, Chair of the New Local Government Network (NLGN) think-tank and Professor of Political Science at Manchester University. / Community involvement

T

"If I had to choose one word - it would be Generosity. It's about having the generosity of spirit to recognise that however fantastic you think your idea is there are loads and loads of other people out there who have also got great ideas and who have been working really hard...Realise that you are surrounded by people who are trying to do good, but haven't quite managed to crack it yet. If you've got a great idea go out and find them and say 'How can my idea help you?' rather than thinking about 'How can I start from scratch?'. It's about basic human generosity."
Matthew Taylor


"One day soon, our high streets, parks, libraries, housing hubs, train stations, and cafes will become spaces for us to meet, repair, make, borrow, lend, grow, bake, reflect, care, and eat together." Rebecca Trevalyan FRSA [3] / Community resources UK

W

"Everytime I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race."
H. G. Wells

"We need to map these networks in order to understand them, create an open culture, identify and support connectors." [4]


"We used to say other answers on a postcard … now there are rather more options." [5]


David Wilcox



"Good ecology is not an optional extra but a matter of justice."
Rowan Williams

"The closer we get to a virtuous circle, in which our work, our home life, our ethics and our spirituality are mutually reinforcing, the closer we will be to achieving genuine sustainability."
James Wilsdon


References

  1. ↑ @CormacRussell on twitter
  2. ↑ Troilus and Cressida
  3. ↑ RSA
  4. ↑ Designing for Civil Society
  5. ↑ David Wilcox February 7, 2009


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Wendell Berry · Buckminster Fuller · Gandhi · Carl Sagan · UK
Quotes about community action and the power of community


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