"Rings and other jewels are not gifts,..." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Let a man behave in his own house as a guest.”

“Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls. The least admixture of a lie-for example, the taint of vanity, the least attempt to make a good impression, a favorable appearance-will instantly vitiate the effect.”

“Do not spill thy soul in running hither and yon, grieving over the mistakes and the vices of others. The one person whom it is most necessary to reform is yourself.”

“In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love and the ability to question. Which are, at the same time, the fires that warm us and the fires that scorch us.”

“He is a good man, who can receive a gift well. We are either glad or sorry at a gift, and both emotions are unbecoming.”

“For my sister's 50th birthday, I sent her a singing mammogram.”

“The charitable say in effect, 'I seem to have more than I need and you seem to have less than you need. I would like to share my excess with you.' Fine, if my excess is tangible, money or goods, and fine if not, for I learned that to be charitable with gestures and words can bring enormous joy and repair injured feelings.”

“Necessity does everything well. In our condition of universal dependence, it seems heroic to let the petitioner be the judge of his necessity, and to give all that is asked, though at great inconvenience.”

“To be generous, guiltless, and of a free disposition is to take those things for bird-bolts that you deem cannon-bullets.”