Giving quotes
21.9K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside giving — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Our smile will bring happiness to us and to those around us. Even if we spend a lot of money on gifts for everyone in our family, nothing we buy could give them as much happiness as the gift of our awareness, our smile. And this precious gift costs nothing."
"Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense; benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more."
"This is our special duty, that if anyone specially needs our help, we should give him such help to the utmost of our power."
"In order that she may be able to give her hand with dignity, she must be able to stand alone."
"Our own distrust gives a fair pretence for the knavery of other people."
"We may give advice, but not the sense to use it."
"Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation. [However disappointment can always be removed if we remember it could have turned out worse.]"
"Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples."
"Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency."
"Whatever pretext we may give for our affections, often it is only interest and vanity which cause them."
"The extreme pleasure we take in speaking of ourselves should make us apprehensive that it gives hardly any to those who listen to us."
"I came to office with one deliberate intent: to change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society - from a give-it-to-me, to a do-it-yourself nation. A get-up-and-go, instead of a sit-back-and-wait-for-it Britain."
"Science is properly more scrupulous than dogma. Dogma gives a charter to mistake, but the very breath of science is a contest with mistake, and must keep the conscience alive."
"I give you the chameleon, whose ability to blend itself into the background tells you all you need to know about the roots of ecology and the foundations of a personal identity"
"Take young researchers, put them together in virtual seclusion, give them an unprecedented degree of freedom and turn up the pressure by fostering competitiveness."
"Give me simplicity, that I may live, So live and like, that I may know Thy ways, Know them and practise them: then shall I give For this poor wreath, give Thee a crown of praise."
"Only a sweet and virtuous soul, like seasoned timber, never gives."
"Make love, take love, but you should give love. And try to live love."
"Ideal Love, stepped down to the level of the practical, day-to-day life, must mean the service of each to all within his or her sphere, a delicate consideration of others, a control that gives rise to peace, and cessation from every thought of cruelty and lust."
"What each one of us fundamentally needs is that inner peace which is to be discovered solely within ourselves, which no-one else can give, which the world with all its resources, can never supply."
