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Giving
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“One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!”
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“... you cannot give to people what they are incapable of receiving.”
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“Charity degrades those who receive it and hardens those who dispense it.”
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“... giving is a necessity sometimes ... more urgent, indeed, than having.”
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“... there is nothing more fatal than to give before asking has come from the deepest level of consciousness. Too many times I have rushed into this moment and killed it by my eagerness. Now I wait until I am sure.”
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“She was suffering acutely, for it was her instinct to give people what they wanted, and there was nothing that she could do for Evelyn.”
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“There is only one real deprivation, I decided this morning, and that is not to be able to give one's gifts to those one loves most.”
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“Being very rich as far as I am concerned is having a margin. The margin is being able to give.”
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“If you don't give something back when you get, you don't keep.”
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“It may be more blessed to give than to receive, but there is more grace in receiving than giving. When you receive, whom do you love and praise? The giver. When you give, the same holds true.”
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“Consider once before you give, twice before you receive, and a thousand times before you ask.”
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“It is better not to say lend. There is no lending in that house. There is only giving.”
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“... what is life worth if one has nothing to give away? This lack, it seems to me, must be the sharpest pang of poverty.”
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“I sometimes think there's two sides to the commandment; and that we may say, 'Let others do unto you, as you would do unto them,' for pride often prevents our giving others a great deal of pleasure, in not letting them be kind, when their hearts are longing to help ...”
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“My Heart is much larger than my purse.”
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“Give whatever you would like to receive, and you may be sure that it will come back to you in abundance. Withhold, and you will never have enough.”
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“I don't want you to give me your surplus. I want you to give with personal deprivation.”
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“... the less a person has to give, the more he needs to give it.”
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“What is called liberality is often no more than the vanity of giving, of which some persons are fonder than of what they give.”
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“Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.”
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“... just as you cannot receive without giving, so neither can you give without receiving ...”
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“Do not let the bread of the hungry mildew in your larder! Do not let moths eat the poor man's cloak. Do not store the shoes of the barefoot. Do not hoard the money of the needy. Things you possess in too great abundance belong to the poor and not to you. You are the thief who steals from God if you are able to help your neighbor and refuse to do it.”
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“... you remind me of people who bring along a little box of cakes and leave it in the hall, saying to themselves: 'There'll be plenty of time to produce these later,' and then pick them up again when they go.”
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“I am sending you two hundred ducats, which is less than you deserve and also less than I should like to give. But my own blushes will avenge you for the smallness of the sum. Say nothing about this to any one or I shall be mortally offended.”
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“The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.”
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“A cup that is already full cannot have more added to it. In order to receive the further good to which we are entitled, we must give of that which we have.”
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“... you have to be very careful when you give to others that you don't tell them how great you are rather than how much you value them.”
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“It can be much harder to be on the receiving end of a transaction than to be the one who gets to give. In fact, being given to can mean being taken from. There is a very strong connection between pride and giving, and those who do the giving get to feel that they are worthy, while those who are given to often feel that they are not.”
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“Giving opens the way for receiving.”
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“If the world seems cold to you, / Kindle fires to warm it!”
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“Ultimately, I have learned that there are three requirements for successful philanthropy: artful askers, joyful givers, and worthy recipients.”
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“He was popular with the party. He had plenty of money to contribute to campaign expenses, and he contributed with a lavish hand. ... eventually he just got tired of making an asset of himself.”
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“There is an invariable law that the only way to keep the real things of life is by sharing them or giving them away.”
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“All life is a boomerang. We receive what we give.”
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“I have come to believe that giving and receiving are really the same. Giving and receiving — not giving and taking.”
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“Let me give freely lest my giving take / With it freedom. Not the frailest strand / Of obligation must go with my gift ...”
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“The results of philanthropy are always beyond calculation.”
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“... one way to keep people close to you is by not giving them enough. ... with people who give a lot of themselves, you sometimes lean back — but with people who give little you often lean forward, as if they're a spigot in the desert and you're the empty cup. It is the tropism of deprivation: We lean toward those who do not give.”
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“There was no getting away from her hearty hospitality, no escaping her prodigality of presents. It was dangerous to praise or even to approve of any thing belonging to herself in her hearing; if it had been the carpet under her feet or the shawl on her shoulders, either would instantly have been stripped off to offer.”
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“We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse.”
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“I think it takes a larger nature to receive nobly than to give nobly.”
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“The world asks of us / only the strength we have and we give it. / Then it asks more, and we give it.”
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“For the love of a tree, / she went out on a limb. / For the love of the sea, / she rocked the boat. / For the love of the earth, / she dug deeper. / For the love of community, / she mended fences. / For the love of stars, / she let her light shine. / For the love of spirit, / she nurtured her soul. / For the love of a good time, / she sowed seeds of happiness. / For the love of the Goddess, she drew down the moon. / For the love of nature, / she made compost. / For the love of a good meal, / she gave thanks. / For the love of family, / she reconciled differences. / For the love of creativity, / she entertained new possibilities. / For the love of her enemies, / she suspended judgment. / For the love of herself, / she acknowledged her worth. / And the world was richer for her.”
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“To give! To give without hope of recompense, without question, without fear! That was the message of life.”
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“A cheerful giver does not count the cost of what he gives. His heart is set on pleasing and cheering him to whom the gift is given.”
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“Paradoxically, the shortest route to getting what you want is to give to others first.”
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“Women like us have to learn to give to those who appreciate it instead of to those who expect it.”