Service

The leader appears as master of the situation.
~ William Albig, Public Opinion (1939). Chapter VI: The Leader And Personal Symbolism

[P]ublic mindedness should be a prime test for civil service.
~ William Harvey Allen, Universal Training for Citizenship and Public Service (1917). Chapter IX. Training for Entrance to Civil Service

The business of the Civil Service is the orderly management of decline.
~ William Armstrong (1973), quoted in Whitehall (1990).

It has always been fairly safe to talk about God; it is when we start to talk about men that the trouble starts. And yet the fact remains that there is no conceivable way of proving that we love God other than by loving men. And there is no conceivable way of proving that we love men than by doing something for those who most need help.
~ William Barclay, Ethics in a Permissive Society (1971).

A little offering never ends.
~ William Patrick "Willie" Bermingham, ALONE (1977).

The besetting sin of civil servants is to mix too much with each other.
~ William Henry (W.H.) Beveridge, (1924).

Let our province be the Possible,
Our standard be the Just,
All that wisdom says we might do
Let stern Will declare we must!
~ William Billington, from Sheen And Shade: Lyrical Poems (1861). Poems for the People: Let Us Help Each Other Onward

I mean, you know, all of America has really advised the Red Cross on what would be the right direction, and we listened, and that's what we're doing.
~ Bill Blaul, The O'Reilly Factor (14 November 2001). Red Cross Turnaround

I think really the issue for us has been that we really have been overwhelmed. The Red Cross has been working so hard. All of our volunteers and all of our employees have been so focused on providing as much assistance as we can. There's just been so much money, and there's been such a great need. And, you know, we need some sleep. We need some rest.
~ Bill Blaul, The O'Reilly Factor (14 November 2001). Red Cross Turnaround

1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
3. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
4. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
5. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
6. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
7. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
8. You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
9. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.
10. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

~ William J.H. Boetcker, Lincoln on private property (1916 leaflet). Ten Cannots

A man's labor is not only his capital, but his life. When it passes it returns never more. To utilize it, to prevent its wasteful squandering, to enable the poor man to bank it up for use hereafter, this surely is one of the most urgent tasks before civilization.
~ William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out (October 1890). Part I. -- The Darkness. Chapter IV. The Out-of-Works

Go Straight For Souls, And Go For The Worst!
~ William Booth, in The War Cry (16 November 1889).

While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight -- I'll fight to the very end!
~ William Booth, Noble Words of Farewell at the Royal Albert Hall. London, England (9 May 1912).

[D]ebate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.
~ William Joseph Brennan, Jr. (majority opinion), New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964).

Service is the measure of greatness; it always has been true; it is true today, and it always will be true, that he is greatest who does the most of good.
~ William Jennings Bryan, The Prince of Peace (lecture delivered on the Chautauqua circuit, starting in 1900).

Maggotty mummies will not be served here.
~ William S. Burroughs, The Place of Dead Roads (1983).

Labor is a school of benevolence as well as justice. A man, to support himself, must serve others.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Address Introductory to the Franklin Lectures, Boston MA (September 1838). On Self-Culture

There are times when the assertion of great principles is the best service a man can render society.
~ William Ellery Channing (D.D.), Slavery (1835). Introduction

The measure of your quality as a public person, as a citizen, is the gap between what you do and what you say.
~ (William) Ramsey Clark, International Herald Tribune, Paris, France (18 June 1991).

Men who write minutes, who make professional assessments, who are never attacked face to face, who dwell in the Sargasso Sea of the Civil Service and who love the seaweed that conceals them.
~ Sir William Connor (Cassandra)

When we merely follow another, we take a potentially creative mind out of service -- our own.
~ William S. Coperthwaite, A Handmade Life: In Search of Simplicity (2003). Society by Design/Design by Society

Framed for the service of a freeborn will.
~ William Cowper, Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools (1784).

The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."
~ Will Allen Dromgoole, from Rare Old Chums (1898). The Bridge Builder

A good turn at need,
At first or last, shall be assur'd of meed.
~ Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, Divine Weekes and Workes (1578). First Week, Sixth Day

As a doctor, my first instincts are to help, and I was privileged to offer my assistance today at the scene of this horrible accident. My heart goes out to this family, which must face the start of the new year with this terrible tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with them.
~ Bill Frist, in The Associated Press (2 January 2003). Frist Helps Victims of Car Wreck Near Miami

When making choices, or setting policies about the economy, education or medicine, society is best served by electing people who are particularly hardworking, intelligent and interested in long-term thinking.
~ Bill Gates, Interview in Playboy Magazine (July 1994).

To try to advance in the field of politics, and in the attainment of office, by loose or false statements' is despicable. What we need is that our public men, instead of loosely crying out all sorts of evils, should put their finger exactly on the thing, and define it, and hold it up and show it, so that everyone of average intelligence may see it and understand it. Those who are not willing to do this should hold their peace.
~ William Jay Gaynor, in The Mayor Who Mastered New York: The Life and Opinions of William J. Gaynor (1969).

[T]he pain and strain of public duty is multiplied tenfold by the want of a clear and firm ground from which visibly to act.
~ William Ewart Gladstone, in The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Volume I (1903). Book IV. Chapter VII. Political Isolation

There is nothing which makes a being of a pure heart so happy, as to feel his importance to those he loves, and to be able at the close of each succeeding day to say, I have proved myself a "good and faithful" assistant.
~ William Godwin, Deloraine, Volume I (1833). Chapter XII

To wish to serve mankind; we should think well of them. To be able to serve them, they should think well of us.
~ William Hazlitt, from Political Essays, with Sketches of Public Characters (1819). On Court Influence (Concluded; 10 January 1818)

When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care about the outcome. Unclamp, in a word, your intellectual and practical machinery, and let it run free; and the service it will do you will be twice as good.
~ William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals (1899). The Gospel of Relaxation

I really believe my greatest service is in the many unwise steps I prevent.
~ William Lyon Mackenzie King, (26 September 1940)

A big corporation is more or less blamed for being big, but it is only big because it gives service. If it doesn't give service, it gets small faster than it grew big.
~ William S. Knudsen, (c. 1930s)

To learn is to do-well, to teach is to do-better, and to love your enemies is to do-best.
~ William Langland, A Vision of William Concerning Piers Plowman (or Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman; c. 1362).

As we observe this day of service in Indian country, I cannot help but think of the old Lakota saying, "We are all related."
~ Billy Mills, in Indian Country Today (16 January 2009). Mills: Honor Each Other Through Service And Action

The librarian of today, and it will be true still more of the librarians of tomorrow, are not fiery dragons interposed between the people and the books. They are useful public servants, who manage libraries in the interest of the public. ... Many still think that a great reader, or a writer of books, will make an excellent librarian. This is pure fallacy.
~ William Osler, in Library Association Record (August-September 1917). The Science Of Librarianship (an address at the opening of the Summer School of Library Service of the University of Wales; 31 July 1917)

Serve others, not because they are your friends, not because they are interesting, not because they are grateful. ... Serve them because they are the children of your Father, and therefore are all your brethren, and you will soon find that the fervent heart keeps time with the charitable hands.
~ William Bourne Oliver Peabody, in Sermons (1849). Sermon II. The Sisters of Charity

If we would amend the World, we should mend Our selves; and teach our Children to be, not what we are, but what they should be.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part I. Posterity

[T]he public must and will be served.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part I. A Public Life

The main end of our lives is to serve God in the serving of men in the works of our callings.
~ William Perkins, A Treatise of Vocations, or Callings of Men (1603).

The law of perfect service is simply and purely the law of self-sacrifice.
~ William Burt ("W.B.") Pope, from Sermons and Addresses on Various Occasions (1878). Law of Perfect Service

When one loves one's Art no service seems too hard.
~ William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), from The Four Million (1906). A Service of Love

The heart is a tough organ: a marvelous mechanism that, mostly without repairs, will give valiant service up to a hundred years.
~ Dr. Willis Potts, The Surgeon and the Child

Shrewdness in Public Life all over the World is always honored, while honesty in Public Men is generally attributed to Dumbness and is seldom rewarded.
~ Will Rogers, in The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949).

You owe the public the same thing it owes you. Nothing.
~ William Felton (Bill) Russell, in ESPN "Classic's SportsCentury" (2001). Russell was proud, fierce warrior

All these woes shall serve
For sweet discourses in our time to come.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act III, scene v

Every good servant does not all commands.
~ William Shakespeare, Cymbeline. Act V, scene i

Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my King, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry VIII

My heart is ever at your service.
~ William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens. Act I, scene ii

No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Service is no heritage.
~ William Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well

Things may serve long, but not serve ever.
~ William Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well

'Tis mad idolatry
To make the service greater than the god.
~ William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida. Act II, scene ii

'Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him after.
~ William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens. Act I, scene i

'Tis the curse of service,
Preferment goes by letter and affection,
And not by old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to the first.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello

You are one of those that will not serve God, if the devil bid you.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello

All the wild ideas of unbalanced agitators the world over in their ignorant and pitiable quest for happiness through revolution, confiscation of property and crime, cannot overthrow the eternal truth that the one route to happiness through property or government, is over the broad and open highway of service. And service always means industry, thrift, respect for authority, and recognition of the rights of others.
~ William Giddings (W.G.) Sibley, in the Chicago Journal of Commerce (1920).

Good service is prompt service.
~ William Gilmore Simms, Egeria: Or, Voices of Thought and Counsel for the Woods and Wayside (1853).

In this, at least, let us both agree, to make Vice and Folly the objects of our ridicule; and we cannot fail to be of some service to mankind.
~ William Somervile, Hobbinol, or the Rural Games. A Burlesque Poem (1740). Dedication to Mr. Hogarth

[I]t is taught that willing and voluntary service to others is the highest duty and glory in human life. The men of talent are constantly forced to serve the rest. They make the discoveries and inventions, order the battles, write the books, and produce the works of art. The benefit and enjoyment go to the whole. There are those who joyfully order their own lives so that they may serve the welfare of mankind.
~ William Graham Sumner, Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals (1906).

A man, in public affairs, is like one at sea; never in his own disposal, but in that of winds and tides.
~ Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, in The Works of Sir William Temple, Bart., Vol. I (1720). Miscellanea, Part III. Heads, Designed For An Essay Upon The Different Conditions Of Life And Fortune

The public be damned!
~ William Henry Vanderbilt, Interview in the Chicago Daily News (9 October 1882).

How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?
~ Vincent Willem van Gogh

Lose yourself in generous service and every day can be a most unusual day, a triumphant day, an abundantly rewarding day!
~ William Arthur Ward, It's A Most Unusual Day

Obedience to our Heavenly Father starts with our loving service to a needy brother.
~ William Arthur Ward

I know of nothing in the poor life of a man equal to that great delight of being of service to one beloved.
~ Mary E. Wilkins, The Heart's Highway (1900).

I was influenced a lot by my visits to hostels with my mother when I was younger. I learned a lot from it, more so now that I did at the time. My mother used her position very well to help other people, as does my father, and I hope to do the same.
~ Prince William, 21st birthday interview with the Press Association (PA), St James's Palace (21 June 2003).

[T]he only true, real, lasting happiness and contentment is produced by service, contributing to the other fellow's happiness. This is a rule without exception. If you desire happiness, you must produce the happiness.
~ Cliff Williams, in The Lumber Manufacturer and Dealer, Volume LXIV, Number 11 (17 March 1919). Workman and Boss Must Get Together

As a general rule, a modern biologist seeing an animal doing something to benefit another assumes either that it is being manipulated by the other individual or that it is being subtly selfish.
~ George C. Williams, (1989).

[N]o institution is too important or too independent to ignore the unwritten laws of courtesy.
~ George Gilbert Williams, in Modern Achievement, II. Business and Professional Life (1902). Business, Trade, and Industries. The Bank Clerk

I may have grown cynical from long service, but this is a tendency I do not like, and I sometimes think I'd rather be a dog and bay at the moon than stay in the Senate another six years and listen to it.
~ John Sharp Williams (referred to as the "mocking bird speech"), Farewell Address, Mississippi Society of Washington, DC (4 March 1923).

Behavior is genuinely reciprocated. If you help little old ladies across the street, let people pull in front of you when you are driving, chances are your social support network will grow. People with lots of social support live longer.
~ Dr. Redford Williams, The Associated Press (25 December 2001). Foundation Working to Expand Kindness

Nothing liberates our greatness like the desire to help, the desire to serve.
~ Marianne Williamson

Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.
~ Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles (1992).

Ministry of pain and evil.
~ William Wordsworth, The Borderers (1795-96).

Small service is true service while it lasts:
Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one.
~ William Wordsworth, Yarrow Revisited and Other Poems (1835). Sonnets. To a Child, Written in her Album

Something between a hindrance and a help.
~ William Wordsworth, from Lyrical Ballads with Other Poems, Vol. 2 (1800). Michael, a Pastoral

I give you an ability to respond and your response is to be free to love and serve in every situation, and therefore each moment is different and unique and wonderful.
~ William P. Young, The Shack (2007).

Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid the will to power is to choose to limit oneself -- to serve.
~ William P. Young, The Shack (2007).