Seven Peace Pilgrim Quotes on Service

Peace Pilgrim was a remarkable woman who walked across America many times spreading a message of peace, beginning during the Korean War in 1953 and ending with her death in 1981. She vowed to keep walking until there was peace in the world, and she walked more than 25,000 miles before she stopped counting.

After her death, Peace Pilgrim’s friends compiled her writings and interviews into a book called Peace Pilgrim – Her Life and Work in Her Own Words. My copy of the book contains hundreds of underlined inspirational quotes, so I decided to pull some of them and curate them into lists that relate to our everyday lives.

This post contains seven quotes that relate to service.

We’ve all been told that it’s better to give than to receive. It is the same with service. Peace Pilgrim taught that the meaning of life was giving, not getting, and that we should all look at ourselves as a small part of a bigger picture. Here are seven quotes from Peace Pilgrim on service.

1. Service, of course. Service. Giving, not getting. Your motive must be good if your work is to have a good effect. The secret of life is being of service (16).
2. You have the endless energy only when you are working for the good of the whole—you have to stop working for you little selfish interests (44).
3. All right work and all right prayer has effect, all good effort bears good fruit, whether we see the results or not (99).
4. You have the endless energy only when you are working for the good of the whole—you have to stop working for your little selfish interests (44).
5. Know that we are all cells in the ocean of infinity, each contributing to the others’ welfare (85).
6. Every experience is what you make it and it serves a purpose. It might inspire you, it might educate you, or it might come to give you a chance to be of service in some way (34).
7. Retirement should mean not a cessation of activity, but a change of activity with a more complete giving of your life to service. It should therefore be the most wonderful time of your life; the time when you are most happily and meaningfully busy (160).

Peace Pilgrim’s friends believed that to charge money for a book would be at odds with her core values and decided to offer it for free. They receive enough money in donations to publish and fulfill every request. You can order copies and other materials for free directly from Friends of Peace Pilgrim.

More Peace Pilgrim Posts and Quotations by Subject

Seven Things to Know About Peace Pilgrim

“THIS IS THE WAY OF PEACE:

OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD, 

FALSEHOOD WITH TRUTH, 

AND HATRED WITH LOVE.”