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“Freedom is the possibility of isolation. You are free if you can withdraw from people, not having to seek them out for the sake of money, company, love, glory or curiosity, none of which can thrive in silence and solitude. If you can't live alone, you were born a slave. You may have all the splendours of the mind and the soul, in which case you're a noble slave, or an intelligent servant, but you're not free. And you can't hold this up as your own tragedy, for your birth is a tragedy of Fate alone. Hapless you are, however, if life itself so oppresses you that you're forced to become a slave. Hapless you are if, having been born free, with the capacity to be isolated and self-sufficient, poverty should force you to live with others.”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

“The cold buried deep inside the bones of her hands, her feet, her head, her back…everywhere. Viola felt old, chilled, and exflunctified. She brushed away her snow-white hair and with gnarled fingers tried tucking it under the black, lacy, silk nightcap that her great niece Annie had sewn for her. Each day, her clothes consisted of a long, white, embroidered nightgown, and a soft, warm, lavender sontag with the hair brooch secured upon her left shoulder. The few pleasures she had since she could no longer see were those of having mail or newspaper stories read to her by relatives who took turns caring for her. She could not tolerate people or activity. Food and drink were tasteless. Although the family made many attempts at a tray of concoctions for her each day, she had just quit eating. She remained closed in her bedroom in this dizzy age, propped in bed, eyes shut with her memories. “Who knew I would live this long?”
― Sheridan Brown, The Viola Factor

“I am Thy servant to do Thy will, and that will is sweeter to me than position or riches or fame, and I choose it above all things on Earth or in Heaven.”
― A.W. Tozer

“Contrary to popular opinion, leadership is not a reserved position for a particular group of people who were elected or appointed, ordained or enthroned. Leadership is self-made, self-retained, self-inculcated and then exposed through a faithful, sincere and examplary life.”
― Israelmore Ayivor

“Self-leaders are still true leaders even if they have no known followers. True leaders inspire by the influence of their characters and general self-made brands. Leadership is defined by the virtues of one's behaviour.”
― Israelmore Ayivor

“A person who is another man's slave is better than one who is a slave to lust.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“Self-leaders do not look for followers because they are busily pursuing their influencial dreams that followers will trace and ask for. Followers look for influence and that can be obtained from self-leaders.”
― Israelmore Ayivor

“Power is meant to be shared with the goal of empowering others. Hoarded power weakens others and exalts oneself. Power, when grounded in biblical values, serves others by liberating them. It acknowledges that people bear the image of God and treats them in a way that will nurture the development of that image. In so doing, we honor their Creator.”
― Duane Elmer, Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility

“A young child is a leader to an elderly person once his purpose has a faithful, sincere and trustworthy influence on people. Leadership is not restricted to position and age; it is self-made and influencial. Everyone has this self-leadership quality.”
― Israelmore Ayivor

“Professor [John] Tyndall once said the finest inspiration he ever received was from an old man who could scarcely read. This man acted as his servant. Each morning the old man would knock on the door of the scientist and call, 'Arise, Sir: it is near seven o'clock and you have great work to do today.”
― Elbert Hubbard

“What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant?”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“Power is to be used in the service of others and only secondarily, if at all, for the benefit of oneself.”
― Duane Elmer, Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility

“Different languages, the same thoughts; servant to thoughts and their masters.”
― Dejan Stojanovic, The Sun Watches the Sun

“You can be in your room and lead people. Just develop your potentials and publicize them and you will see people looking for your product. That is influence; self-made leaders do not look for followers. Followers look for them.”
― Israelmore Ayivor

“A true leader is still a leader even when he takes up servants' duty, provided he maintains a human face and added integrity to his self-retained qualities.”
― Israelmore Ayivor

“The concept of leadership is abused by people who think a person becomes a leader when he grows grey hair, put into a position and expected to function. Everyone has a leadership potential carried within in a specific area of his or purpose. Leadership is universal and built on trust.”
― Israelmore Ayivor

“And after that until the end, there was no relief from being a girl with chores that she wasn’t being paid for, a girl with no new sandals and a friend who wasn’t a friend but a mistress, and a family that wasn’t but people who owned her and ordered her about, and nothing at all but her pretty breasts and her round bottom and her misbehaving hair to help her feel any different.”
― Ru Freeman, A Disobedient Girl

“‎The only way Jesus can be our King is if we allow Him to be our Servant”
― Stuart Greaves

“‎If we do not know the King that comes to your bedroom for the sole purpose of taking out your trash, then you have yet to know Jesus as the Servant of All.”
― Stuart Greaves

“SERVANT. Have mercy upon your servant, my queen!

QUEEN. The assembly is over and my servants are all gone. Why do you come at this late hour?

SERVANT. When you have finished with others, that is my time.
I come to ask what remains for your last servant to do.

QUEEN. What can you expect when it is too late?

SERVANT. Make me the gardener of your flower garden.

QUEEN. What folly is this?

SERVANT. I will give up my other work.
I will throw my swords and lances down in the dust. Do not send me to distant courts; do not bid me undertake new conquests.
But make me the gardener of your flower garden.

QUEEN. What will your duties be?

SERVANT. The service of your idle days.
I will keep fresh the grassy path where you walk in the morning, where your feet will be greeted with praise at every step by the flowers eager for death.
I will swing you in a swing among the branches of the saptaparna, where the early evening moon will struggle to kiss your skirt through the leaves.
I will replenish with scented oil the lamp that burns by your bedside, and decorate your footstool with sandal and saffron paste in wondrous designs.

QUEEN. What will you have for your reward?

SERVANT. To be allowed to hold your little fists like tender lotus-buds and slip flower chains over your wrists; to tinge the soles of your feet with the red juice of ashoka petals and kiss away the speck of dust that may chance to linger there.

QUEEN. Your prayers are granted, my servant, you will be the gardener of my flower garden.”
― Rabindranath Tagore, The Gardener

“To prefer to be the servant rather than the lord of the household is the path of downward mobility in an upwardly mobile culture. To taunt the idols of prestige, honor, and recognition, to refuse to take oneself seriously or to take seriously others who take themselves seriously, and to freely embrace the servant lifestyle—these are the attitudes that bear the stamp of authentic discipleship.”
― Brennan Manning, Reflections for Ragamuffins: Daily Devotions from the Writings of Brennan Manning

“according to the economists, the function of the state was not merely one of ruling the nation, but also that of recasting it in a given mold, of shaping the mentality of the population as a whole in accordance with a predetermined model and instilling the ideas and sentiments they thought desirable into the minds of all.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the French Revolution

“You are my faithful companion and I am your faithful servant.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“If I demand to be both the craftsman and the tool, I will be neither.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all. - Mark 9:35”
― Alex Seeley, The Opposite Life: Unlocking the Mysteries of God’s Upside-Down Kingdom

“Are you in a situation right now that looks opposite to the direction you thought God was leading you in? Ask God how you can best serve with excellence wherever He has you now, and allow Him to refine you from the inside out. Repent of any disappointment and choose to serve as unto God. Let go of thinking your season of serving should be over, because a true master will always be a servant.”
― Alex Seeley, The Opposite Life: Unlocking the Mysteries of God’s Upside-Down Kingdom

“GOD chooses according to your abilities and though he knows you and what you are capable of under certain circumstances, he protects you and provides provisions.”
― Niedria D. Kenny

“Power should only be wielded by those who would much prefer not to have it.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Quiet as it's kept, there is a certain type of "upper class" white folks who don't use "colored help" at all. In fact, household labor is a segregated occupation. A Lancashire-born (English) butler, asked if he had encountered many black men and women in his 20 years of service, said reflectively, "I can't think of one I worked with. On one job we had Italian cook, an Irish kitchen man, a French lady's maid, an English butler, and an English parlormaid." The upper echelon's household staff is 99-99/100% white.”
― Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap by Verta Mae

“Don’t think that there’s not a throne in your life, and don’t assume that you know what’s sitting on it.”
― Craig D Lounsbrough