one really has a feeling of contribution, when will…
Page 236 one really has a feeling of contribution, when will no longer have any need for recognition from others. Because one will already have the real awareness that I am of used to someone without needing to go out of one’s way to be acknowledged by others . In other words, a person who is obsessed with the desire for recognition does not have any community feeling yet, and he has not managed to engage in self acceptance, confidence, and others contribute to others.
— from Friends, Community & Society (Relationships/Community/Society) · Courage to be Disliked
In the book
The bonds themselves grow the slow way, one small contact at a time. And you earn your own place in any of these circles not by being admired but by being useful — the deepest sense of belonging comes from feeling that you are of use to other people, and the truest mark of contribution is that it finally stops needing applause, because you carry its reward inside yourself. This is also where you graduate from being a good person to being a good citizen. In any complex modern society it is not enough merely to be a good neighbor and an honest individual; we each have to go further and take responsibility for the wider whole. — Friends, Community & Society (Relationships/Community/Society)