Generosity Quotes

“I am convinced that courage is the most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you cannot practice any other virtue consistently. You can be kind for a while; you can be generous for a while; you can be just for a while, or merciful for a while, even loving for a while. But it is only with courage that you can be persistently and insistently kind and generous and fair.”

“To enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it.”

“Happiness may be found only by helping others to find it.”

“Never, in the history of the world, has there been such abundant opportunity as there is now for the person who is willing to serve before trying to collect.”

“I do not think that I was brought up in a unique society with unique features about giving.”

“Benefits should be granted little by little, so that they may be better enjoyed.”

“Nature, even when she is scant and thin outwardly, satisfies us still by the assurance of a certain generosity at the roots.”

“We must also know that even before liberation in 1994 there [in South Africa] were people with resources who tried to share with those who were deprived.”

“True giving happens when we give from our heart.”

“Understand that the only way to get happiness is by giving it away to others.”

“There is little favorable to be said about poverty, but it was often an incubator of true friendship. Many people will appear to befriend you when you are wealthy, but precious few will do the same when you are poor. If wealth is a magnet, poverty is a kind of repellent. Yet, poverty often brings out the true generosity in others.”

“There are many people who have worked just because they love the community in which they are in, without expecting any financial consideration.”

“When we cast our bread upon the waters we can presume that someone downstream whose face we will never know will benefit from our action, as we who are downstream from another will profit from the grantor's gift.”

“If I could give you one thought, it would be to lift someone up. Lift a stranger up--lift her up. I would ask you, mother and father, brother and sister, lovers, mother and daughter, father and son, lift someone. The very idea of lifting someone up will lift you, as well.”

“I try not to speak about all the charities and people I help, because I believe we can only be truly generous when we expect nothing in return.”

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

“If you have, give. If you learn, teach.”

“The nice thing about HOPE is that you can give it to someone else, someone who needs it even more than you do, and you will find you have not given yours away at all.”

“When you learn, teach, when you get, give.”

“I want to be representative of my race-the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be.”

“We must not only control the weapons that can kill us, we must bridge the great disparities of wealth and opportunity among the peoples of the world, the vast majority of whom live in poverty without hope, opportunity or choices in life. These conditions are a breeding ground for division that can cause a desperate people to resort to nuclear weapons as a last resort. Our only hope lies in the power of our love, generosity, tolerance and understanding and our commitment to making the world a better place.”

“Our only hope lies in the power of our love, generosity, tolerance and understanding and our commitment to making the world a better place for all.”

“The richest persons are those who give most in service to others.”

“No one has ever become poor from giving.”

“We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace.”