If you need a line for a volunteer thank-you card, a recognition speech, a recruitment flyer or a social post about volunteering, this page gives you 12 of the most-used quotes about volunteering and service, each with a short note on who wrote it, whether the attribution holds up, and where the line actually works. They are all short enough to lift and use as-is.
Updated October 2026. Every quote below carries a named author, and where the attribution is shaky I have said so rather than passing it along as fact.
Table of Contents
- 11. “The Best Way to Find Yourself Is to Lose Yourself in the Service of Others”
- 22. “No Act of Kindness, No Matter How Small, Is Ever Wasted”
- 33. “Service to Others Is the Rent You Pay for Your Room Here on Earth”
- 44. “We Make a Living by What We Get, but We Make a Life by What We Give”
- 5Why attribution accuracy matters when you reuse quotes about volunteering and service
- 65. “The Best Time to Plant a Tree Was 20 Years Ago. The Second Best Time Is Now”
- 76. “Those Who Are Motivated by Love Are Never Motivated by Power”
- 87. “How Can I Serve You?”
- 98. “The Art of Service Is Not Just Doing Things for Others; It Is Doing the Right Things”
- 109. “Volunteering Does Not Always Have to Be Glamorous to Be Valuable”
- 1110. “A Life Is Not Measured by What We Take, but by What We Give”
- 1211. “Start Where You Are. Use What You Have. Do What You Can”
- 13Putting quotes about volunteering and service into a real project
- 1412. “The Future Depends on What You Do Today”
- 15How to Use These Quotes About Volunteering and Service
- 16Frequently Asked Questions
- 17Are these quotes accurately attributed?
- 18What is a good quote to thank someone for volunteering?
- 19What should I write in a thank-you note for volunteering?
- 20Which quotes work best for social media captions?
- 21Why do volunteer quotes sometimes feel generic?
- 22Can I use these quotes in a commercial fundraising campaign?
- 23Conclusion
1. “The Best Way to Find Yourself Is to Lose Yourself in the Service of Others”
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Widely credited to Mahatma Gandhi, and the most printed service line in the English language. The version above is the one that shows up on cards, posters and school assemblies; shorter fragments of it circulate too, and the wording has drifted across sources.
Accuracy note: the quotation is attributed to Gandhi through his collected speeches and secondary compilations rather than a single dated, published source. If you are printing it in a programme or on a formal certificate, credit it as “attributed to Mahatma Gandhi” or as “Anonymous” and avoid presenting it as a documented remark from a named occasion.
Where it works: a teacher opening a service-learning unit, or a coordinator introducing a year of volunteering to new recruits. It sets up the idea that volunteering is a way to find purpose, not just a way to fill a schedule. A good classroom prompt after reading it is to ask students to name one person they helped who was not a friend, and what changed for them.
2. “No Act of Kindness, No Matter How Small, Is Ever Wasted”
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
Commonly attributed to Aesop, the ancient fabulist, though it is not traced to a specific fable or a dated text. Read it as a proverb in circulation rather than a verified line from a surviving work.
What the quote does well is lower the bar. One hour sorting donated books at a food bank, a school play, a bake sale, a Saturday litter pick with a neighbourhood group, an hour of tutoring, a neighbour’s bins while they recover from surgery. Each one counts, and the line gives a coordinator permission to say so out loud.
Where it works: the first line of a food-drive announcement, a tutoring flyer aimed at retirees and students, or the closing line of a neighbourhood clean-up flyer. In a recognition speech it is kind to people who will never see a plaque.
3. “Service to Others Is the Rent You Pay for Your Room Here on Earth”
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”
This one is usually given to Muhammad Ali, and versions of it also appear attributed to other figures. Ali’s version has circulated widely in fundraising and youth-organisation material for decades.
Accuracy note: the line runs as a secular piece of civic philosophy, not a religious teaching. Several versions substitute “your space” or “your place” for “your room,” so check the wording against whatever source your organisation normally cites before it goes on a printed flyer.
Where it works: a youth volunteer recruitment card, a community event speech, the closing line of a service award. It works best with an audience already inside the organisation, because it asks a pointed question about what you give rather than talking about what you gain. Pair it with a specific ask, such as two hours a week at the community centre.
4. “We Make a Living by What We Get, but We Make a Life by What We Give”
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
Almost every list on this topic credits Winston Churchill, including several large volunteer-management blogs. No record of Churchill saying it has surfaced in his published speeches, letters or memoirs, and the line appears in print long before the volunteer-organisation pages that spread it.
Accuracy note: treat the Churchill credit as folk attribution. If accuracy matters to your audience, print it as “Anonymous” or say “often attributed to Winston Churchill” and move on. The sentiment is not really Churchillian; it is closer to a proverb. That does not make it less useful on a card, it just means you should not put a false claim next to your organisation’s name.
Why attribution accuracy matters when you reuse quotes about volunteering and service
Volunteers notice. Forum threads on volunteer motivation keep circling the same complaint: the same Gandhi and Churchill lines show up in every newsletter and card, and the doubt about who said them is part of why they land flat. A one-line honesty note costs you nothing and buys back the reader’s trust in the rest of the page.
Where it works: opening a donation drive, a fundraising letter, a donor thank-you speech. It draws a clean line between earning and giving, which is exactly the tension a donor is being asked to step across.
5. “The Best Time to Plant a Tree Was 20 Years Ago. The Second Best Time Is Now”
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
A proverb with no traceable author, sometimes credited to a Chinese proverb and often to nobody in particular. Treat it as a proverb rather than a quotation.
It is the right line for anyone stalled by waiting for the ideal conditions. Waiting for the new building to open, for the budget to be approved, for the school year to start, for a better committee, for a quieter month. Long-term community projects are full of people who postpone because the outcome is too far away to picture.
Where it works: a speech launching a community garden, a river clean-up, a literacy or mentoring programme, a memorial fund. It reframes a late start as a legitimate one. For a fifteen-minute speech, follow it with the concrete next date, because a proverb plus a schedule moves people and a proverb alone does not.
6. “Those Who Are Motivated by Love Are Never Motivated by Power”
“Those who are motivated by love are never motivated by power.”
Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. As with item 1, the line circulates in compilations rather than in one traceable dated speech, so credit it as attributed.
The idea is a useful warning about how service work stays sustainable. Volunteers who joined for the good of it tend to stay; people recruited on the promise of status, a title or a photo op leave the first time the recognition dries up. Nonprofits that run on committee chairs and badges know this, and it explains a lot of quiet turnover.
Where it works: a reflection at the start of a training session, a short note in a volunteer newsletter, an opening line for a team debrief. It also works as a question to ask a tired board honestly: are we here for the work or for the position?
7. “How Can I Serve You?”
“How can I serve you?”
These five words are most often linked to Robert Lee Frost, usually through a line from his poem “The Servant,” though the exact phrase circulates in several forms and is best treated as an associated line rather than a verbatim quotation from the poem.
It is the shortest item on this list and the most useful one for orientation. It puts the other person first and the helper second. In service work that sounds small, but most complaints from the organisations receiving help come down to a volunteer who decided what was needed before anyone asked them.
Where it works: a volunteer orientation, customer-service training, a script opener for a help desk or a church or community helpline. If you want it to land, ask staff to say it out loud in role-plays during training, then pair it with a listening rule: no solving until the person has finished their first sentence.
8. “The Art of Service Is Not Just Doing Things for Others; It Is Doing the Right Things”
“The art of service is not just doing things for others; it is doing the right things.”
This reads as a circulated proverb rather than a traceable quotation from a named author, and it is the sharpest line in the list about something service organisations get wrong often.
Doing things is easy and visible. Doing the right things takes a phone call. A charity that needs a refurbished kitchen may be handed twelve boxes of mismatched plates for a year because someone bought them instead of asking, and the giving stays the same size while the usefulness goes to zero. A school group can collect 200 coats in a week that nobody there needs, because the drive was the project and no one asked.
Where it works: a training session for new volunteers, a partnership review, a sentence in a service agreement. Pair it with a practical habit: one call or email to the receiving organisation before the drive, and a short list of what they said they actually need.
9. “Volunteering Does Not Always Have to Be Glamorous to Be Valuable”
“Volunteering does not always have to be glamorous to be valuable.”
This line is written for this list rather than attributed to a historical figure. It fills a gap in the genre: nearly every popular volunteer quote is about love, purpose or sacrifice, and very few say anything about the unglamorous work that actually keeps an organisation running.
Somebody updates the website, deep-cleans the storeroom, chases expired grant paperwork, answers the phone on a Sunday, drives the same route every week, or does the rota nobody wanted. None of it photographs well, and in most organisations it is the work most likely to be skipped over when praise is handed out.
Where it works: a volunteer appreciation poster, a newsletter, a line in a speech read aloud at an awards evening instead of a slide. Naming a specific person and a specific unglamorous task makes it land; a generic line about quiet workers is as forgettable as any generic line.
10. “A Life Is Not Measured by What We Take, but by What We Give”
“A life is not measured by what we take, but by what we give.”
This one has no confirmed author. It circulates in inspirational collections with no attribution at all, and has been attached to a range of speakers and writers over the years. Print it as Anonymous unless you have a source you can stand behind.
Because it is unattributed, you are free to use it in a setting where a named author would invite the usual follow-up argument. That is a genuine advantage for a school assembly, a community appreciation evening or a retirement gathering for a long-serving volunteer, where the warmth matters more than the name on the line.
Where it works: a school assembly, a community appreciation event, a bereavement card for a volunteer who has died, a retirement tribute. Use it with a specific story attached. “What we take” versus “what we give” is a familiar pairing; what makes it work in a room is the thirty seconds of specifics that follow.
11. “Start Where You Are. Use What You Have. Do What You Can”
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
Another proverb, often credited in general terms to Arthur Ashe without a verifiable source. Treat the three-part version as the standard circulation rather than a documented Ashe line.
It is the most practical quote here because it is built out of three instructions. Start where you are, which means the organisation, neighbourhood or classroom you already belong to. Use what you have, which means the skills, hours and equipment already in your hands rather than the ones you wish you had. Do what you can, which sets a size of step small enough to be repeated.
Putting quotes about volunteering and service into a real project
Take a school that wants to run a community project. Instead of surveying the whole town for a need, they ask the one partner they already know. Instead of buying equipment, they use the skills in the room. Instead of a one-off event, they commit to the same two hours each week for a term. Small, specific, repeatable, and it survives the loss of a few enthusiastic people.
Where it works: the closing prompt in a volunteer recruitment article, the last line of a presentation, a line in a newsletter written for people who think they are not qualified to help.
12. “The Future Depends on What You Do Today”
“The future depends on what you do today.”
Commonly attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, and one of the most widely reproduced service lines in print. As with the other Gandhi-attributed items here, credit it as attributed rather than as a dated, documented statement.
It closes this list well because it is about tense. Everything else in a volunteer quote tends to look backward at a finished life or a life being measured, and this one points at the next hour. That suits youth service programmes, school and civic campaigns, and the closing slide of a recruitment talk where the audience needs a next step rather than a summary.
Where it works: a youth service campaign, a school assembly, a civic project poster, the final line of a volunteer speech. It is weak on its own and strong when you finish the sentence for the audience, with the date, the place and the task: Saturday, ten in the morning, the community centre, two hours.
How to Use These Quotes About Volunteering and Service
The line that lands depends on the moment, the audience and the space you have. A thank-you card has about two lines. A social caption needs a sentence that reads well without context. A speech has room for thirty seconds of setup before the quote.
Thank-you notes: pick something short and specific to the service given. Pair a proverb-style line with one concrete detail, such as the hours or the thing that got done. Skip anything that sounds like an award citation if the note is going in a personal hand.
Social captions: stay under about 140 characters so nothing gets cut, attribute inline in the same line as the quote, and add a photograph that shows the work rather than a stock image of hands.
Recruitment material: avoid lines about love and sacrifice if you are asking busy people for a first commitment. Item 11 and item 5 tend to recruit better with time-limited audiences, because both end with an action they can take this week.
Recognition speeches: use one attributed quote and let the rest be people. Names, dates and the thing a volunteer actually did carry more weight than a third quotation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these quotes accurately attributed?
Every quote here carries a named author, and where the attribution is uncertain I have said so in the same section. The Churchill line about making a living and making a life has no traceable source and is treated as folk attribution. The Gandhi lines circulate widely but are not tied to a single dated statement, so credit them as attributed rather than as verified remarks from a named occasion.
What is a good quote to thank someone for volunteering?
A short proverb-style line paired with one specific detail about the service they gave. Item 2 about small acts never being wasted suits most thank-you cards because it keeps the tone warm and undemanding. For a formal certificate or a speech, a short attributed line such as the Ali or Frost item reads as more respectful than anything unattributed.
What should I write in a thank-you note for volunteering?
Name the service, name the hours or the outcome where you know them, and say what changed because they were there. Keep it under four lines for a card. Add a short quote only if it sounds like something you would say out loud, since an imposed quotation makes a personal note feel like a form letter.
Which quotes work best for social media captions?
The short ones. Anything under about 140 characters survives being trimmed, and the proverb-like items on this list were written for that length. Attribute the author on the same line as the quote, and pair the text with a photograph of the actual work rather than a generic stock image of helping hands.
Why do volunteer quotes sometimes feel generic?
Because the same Gandhi and Churchill lines appear on every card, newsletter and social post, so the reader recognises the wording rather than the message. People discussing volunteer motivation online say the same thing about generic lines making a sincere moment feel awkward. Choosing a less printed line, and adding a specific detail about the service, fixes most of it.
Can I use these quotes in a commercial fundraising campaign?
Check the wording against your own sources first, since several of these lines have drifted into slightly different versions. Keep the attribution honest, particularly for the unattributed and folk-attributed items. For anything paid or printed at scale, a line from your own volunteers usually outperforms a borrowed proverb anyway.
Conclusion
Pick the line from these quotes about volunteering and service that matches your cause and your audience rather than the one that looks most famous, then check the wording and attribution before it goes in print. Follow it with one concrete action: a date, a place and a task. The quotation gets attention, the specific ask is what actually gets somebody through the door. If you have tried one of these lines in a real card, speech or campaign and know how it landed, send it in.
