Benevolence Quotes

To be fond of learning is to draw close to wisdom. To practice with vigor is to draw close to benevolence. To know the sense of shame is to draw close to courage. He who knows these three things knows how to cultivate his own character. Knowing how to cultivate his own character, he knows how to govern other men. Knowing how to govern other men, he knows how to govern the world, its states, and its families.

The Master said, I set my heart on the Way, base myself on virtue, lean upon benevolence for support and take my recreation in the arts.

He who wished to secure the good of others, has already secured his own.

General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be.

He is great who confers the most benefits.

You great benefactors, sprinkle our society with thankfulness. For your own gifts, make yourselves praised.

Without love, benevolence becomes egotism.

They who say that we should love our fellow-citizens but not foreigners, destroy the universal brotherhood of mankind, with which benevolence and justice would perish forever.

[S]uppose the mind of [a] friend of humanity were clouded over with his own grief, extinguishing all sympathetic participation in the fate of others; he still has the resources to be beneficent to those suffering distress, but the distress of others does not touch him because he is sufficiently busy with his own; and now, where no inclination any longer stimulates him to it, he tears himself out of his deadly insensibility and does the action without any inclination, solely from duty.

Generosity should never exceed ability.

If the prince of a State love benevolence, he will have no opponent in all the empire.

What can a man do with music who is not benevolent?

Beneficence is a duty.

Do well by doing good.

We should be careful that our benevolence does not exceed our means.

The person of benevolence never worries.

The best way to live / is to be like water / For water benefits all things / and goes against none of them.

He who wishes to be benevolent will not be rich.

Beneficence is a duty; and he who frequently practices it, and sees his benevolent intentions realized comes, at length, really to love him to whom he has done good.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

Mankind was my business... charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business.

Benevolence is one of the distinguishing characters of man.

Of neighborhoods, benevolence is the most beautiful. How can the man be considered wise who when he had the choice does not settle in benevolence.

I think you may judge of a man’s character by the persons whose affection he seeks. If you find a man seeking only the affection of those who are great, depend upon it he is ambitious and self-seeking; but when you observe that a man seeks the affection of those who can do nothing for him, but for whom he must do everything, you know that he is not seeking himself, but that pure benevolence sways his heart.

Benefits should be conferred gradually; and in that way they will taste better.

The highest benevolence acts without purpose.

Benevolence is the characteristic element of humanity.

If a man sets his heart on benevolence he will be free from evil.

Both love of mankind, and respect for their rights are duties; the former however is only a conditional, the latter an unconditional, purely imperative duty, which he must be perfectly certain not to have transgressed who would give himself up to the secret emotions arising from benevolence.

Charity, like the sun, brightens every object on which it shines.

Be as beneficent as the sun or the sea, but if your rights as a rational being are trenched on, die on the first inch of your territory.

Test everything, try everything, and then believe it, and if you find it for the good of many, give it to all.

Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence

He who outrages benevolence is called a ruffian: he who outrages righteousness is called a villain. I have heard of the cutting off of the villain Chow, but I have not heard of the putting of a ruler to death.

Highest good is like water. Because water excels in benefiting the myriad creatures without contending with them and settles where none would like to be, it comes closest to the way.

We know who is benevolent, by quite other means than the amount of subscriptions to soup-societies. It is only low merits that canbe enumerated.

The noblest question in the world is: 'What good may I do in it?'

You must have a genius for charity as well as for anything else.

Giving to others selflesly and anonymously, radiating light throughout the world and illuminating your own darkness, your virtue becomes a sanctuary for yourself and all beings.

Supreme good is like water. Water greatly benefits all things, without conflict. It flows through places that people loathe. Thereby it is close to the Way.

A man of humanity is one who, in seeking to establish himself, finds a foothold for others and who, in desiring attaining himself, helps others to attain.

The administration of government lies in getting proper men. Such men are to be got by means of the ruler's own character. That character is to be cultivated by his treading in the ways of duty. And the treading those ways of duty is to be cultivated by the cherishing of benevolence.

Benevolence does not consist in those who are prosperous pitying and helping those who are not. It consists in fellow feeling that puts you upon actually the same level with the fellow who suffers.

What good shall I do this day?

The office of liberality consisteth in giving with judgment.

The man of wisdom is never of two minds; the man of benevolence never worries; the man of courage is never afraid.