Importance of Serving

"Most lectures about public service … quote Mother Theresa and urge people to join the Peace Corps, that personally ambitious people need not apply," she said. "My message to you this afternoon is a little bit different. I urge you to see public service as a means of self-fulfillment and not self-denial."

– Madeline Albright
Former Secretary of State
From a speech made at Yale University

"The competence, integrity, and sensitivity of those who work in public service will determine the quality of life for all of us."

–Bill Bradley
Former U.S. Senator

“Public service in America today is not just another job. It is an important act of citizenship.”

– George W. Bush
43rd President of the United States

“You know, college students today are a generation looking to make a difference. It’s important that we remind them that with public service they can do so much to help improve our environment, our public health system and our national security. There’s a job for every interest in the government, from accounting to zoology. If you want to develop business skills, you could be an accountant for the Environmental Protection Agency. If you have an interest in psychology, you could do research on children’s development for the National Institutes of Health. If you’re looking for a career in communications, you can be a public affairs director for the Department of Education.”

– Hillary Rodham Clinton
United States Senator

“There is so much more to be discovered.”

–Eileen Collins
NASA Astronaut

“There is nothing - nothing - more rewarding than serving a cause greater than yourself.”

–John McCain
U.S. Senator

“But from the first day that you go out to your first mission, you are carrying the values of the American people. You are saying to the rest of the world that we are a nation driven by values, resting on values, a belief in democracy, a belief in the free enterprise system, a belief in the individual rights of men and women.

“Every day, as you do your jobs, people will be watching you. And it isn't so much how efficiently you do your job as it is how well you communicate those values. Do you represent openness? Do you represent a caring hand and a caring eye and a caring heart and a caring mind? Do you say to people, ‘We Americans are a generous people, an open people’? I represent a country that is a country of all countries touched by every country and, in turn, touching every country. Do you communicate by your actions, by your voice, by your way of going about your business, that openness that is so characteristic of the American way?”

– Colin Powell
Former Secretary of State
Swearing-In Ceremony for
65th Specialist Class and 105th Junior Officer Class,
U.S. Department of State

“Freedom is a universal value. The desire for liberty is a universal value. And those of us who are fortunate enough to be born into societies that respect it have an obligation to speak up for those who do not.”

–Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State

“When I talk to my students, I tell them that what you do in government at any given level matters more than what business people at a comparable level do. What [business people] do is good for the management and the stockholders, and sometimes, if they’re lucky, for all the customers as well. What [federal workers] do affects the well-being — the survival, even — of millions.”

– Elliot L. Richardson
Former Attorney General and Secretary of Commerce,
Defense, and Health, Education and Welfare

“In order for America to fulfill her moral purpose, each sector of our society—from the private sector to the public, from Church to State, must re-energize itself, and find novel ways to collaborate. In order for Government to lead within our democracy, all of us—from every corner of our society—must do what we can to ensure that the best and brightest among us see civil service as a calling of high esteem and prestige. Anything we in the private sector can do to help our Government attract and retain leaders we can and must do...”

–Jeffrey Swartz
President & Chief Executive Officer
Timberland Company

"Public Service is a very high calling.  Keep in mind that the U.S. government is the largest, most complex, the most diverse and arguably the most important entity on the face of the earth.  We need nothing less than the best and brightest."

–David Walker
U.S. Comptroller General
Government Accountability Office

For more about the importance of serving, check out the Call to Serve Agency Profile Page

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