Parting Words Quotes

“One: something can be worth doing even if you’re not around to see the end result or reap the rewards. It is a noble goal to want to do something that other people will benefit from, and it should be natural to want that for our successors. I don’t just mean after you leave this life, I mean after you leave a job, or a governing body, or a school. Act in the interests of the people who will inherit what you’ve done. Two: no man is an island. You cannot do it all. Teams, communities, friends are key to our ongoing, and hopefully everlasting, successes. And three: don’t be distracted by speed. Remember the Tortoise and the Hare fable. Not everything good can be achieved quickly and being fast doesn’t guarantee success.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“Gratitude completes you in a different way to anything else.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“But you are either civilized, or you’re not. There are no ifs or buts when it comes to being humane.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“Don’t think easy versus difficult. If it’s a question of right versus wrong, then follow what’s right.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“Justly’ is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘morally right and fair’. Ask yourself if that is how you treat everyone you speak to or about, and make appropriate changes if you don’t.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“I’m very conscious of that, so I don’t complain about little things. I don’t make a big problem out of a small problem. Roll with the punches.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“Leaders and their peoples who say their country is the greatest, or who want their country to be the greatest, are small-minded. It’s a great world, where all can exist peaceably together, or it’s nothing. People who care only about making their nation great sound like kids fighting over their corner of a playground, and people who say a great unified world isn’t possible have no vision, or else they benefit from the status quo.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“Here’s a lesson: even if it means you have to admit you can’t do something, it’s better to turn back if you find yourself on the wrong road.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“My goal was to establish a rule of law which would protect everyone. It is a human thing to want vengeance, but we must struggle against it. Don’t become what you hate – if you do, you’ll become someone else’s enemy and the cycle will go on endlessly. The old adage to ‘rise above’ has value.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“The world is full of good people who do good deeds; sometimes just remembering that, and holding onto it, can be enough to rally us, inspire us and make us feel better about the history we are living through.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“There are things our brains weren’t made to compute, and at those times we must trust that they know the best way to protect us.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“It’s only by understanding another person’s way of thinking that you’ll be able to reason with them and perhaps change their mind.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“you don’t need to accept something is a truth just because a person in authority tells you it’s so.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“If you do a wrongful injury to someone, you have an obligation to compensate them and make good for the harm.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“Don’t reject the situation in front of you because it isn’t perfect, or your dream; try your hardest, do your best, and you might find it is more rewarding than you first thought.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“You will likely always have adversaries, and you won’t always get your just reward. Keep on trudging and try to let it go – don’t still be telling the story eighty years later.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“Don’t let anyone bully you twice. Stand up for yourself.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“The Ethics professor, Zechariah Chafee, taught me about tolerance and the need to treat all human beings justly. This doesn’t only mean the people who look and sound like you, your countrymen and neighbors, nor does it mean only law-abiding citizens – this means everyone.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“patience is a virtue, good things come to those who wait, and, despite the frustrations and resentments, you must take the laughs where you can.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of

“Some people like to say ‘think outside the box’, but that is a lot of pressure. The key, actually, is just to think – full stop.”
― Benjamin B. Ferencz, Parting Words: An extraordinary 100-year-old man’s 9 lessons for living a life to be proud of