“You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.”
Variant: You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.
Source: Women
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Charles Bukowski 555
American writer 1920–1994Related quotes

Women and Madness (2005), pp. 348–349, and Women and Madness (1972), p. 301.
Women and Madness (1972, 2005)

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

“You cannot save the world, but you might save the man in front of you, if you work fast enough.”
Source: Dragonfly in Amber

The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: Every man has his own circle composed of trees, animals, men, ideas, and he is in duty bound to save this circle. He, and no one else. If he does not save it, he cannot be saved.
These are the labors each man is given and is in duty bound to complete before he dies. He may not otherwise be saved. For his own soul is scattered and enslaved in these things about him, in trees, in animals, in men, in ideas, and it is his own soul he saves by completing these labors.

Source: The Power of Myth (book), p.183
Context: Moyers: Unlike heroes such as Prometheus or Jesus, we're not going on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves.
Campbell: But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes, there's no doubt about it. The world without spirit is a wasteland. People have the notion of saving the world by shifting things around, changing the rules, and who's on top, and so forth. No, no! Any world is a valid world if it's alive. The thing to do is to bring life to it, and the only way to do that is to find in your own case where the life is and become alive yourself.
Source: From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain (2007), Chapter 8 “Unrequited Hate” (p. 239)