Giving quotes
21.9K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside giving — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"A person less fortunate than yourself deserves the best you can give. Because of duty, and honor, and service. You understand those words? You should do your job right, and you should do it well, simply because you can, without looking for notice or reward."
"Identity would seem to be the garment with which one covers the nakedness of the self: in which case, it is best that the garment be loose, a little like the robes of the desert, through which one's nakedness can always be felt, and, sometimes, discerned. This trust in one's nakedness is all that gives one the power to change one's robes."
"What Englishman will give his mind to politics as long as he can afford to keep a motor car?"
"It is good to be helpful and kindly, but don't give yourself to be melted into candle grease for the benefit of the tallow trade."
"Science can give us only the tools in the box, these mechanical miracles that it has already given us. But of what use to us are miraculous tools until we have mastered the humane, cultural use of them? We do not want to live in a world where the machine has mastered the man; we want to live in a world where man has mastered the machine."
"'Peace on earth, good will toward men' - democracy must cling to that message. For it is my deep conviction that democracy cannot live without that true religion which gives a nation a sense of justice and moral purpose."
"I want my work to create space where people can meet God, rather than give them something they can "apply" to their daily life."
"Be careful in dealing with a man who cares nothing for comfort or promotion, but is simply determined to do what he believes to be right. He is a dangerous uncomfortable enemy, because his body, which you can always conquer, gives you little purchase upon his soul."
"Money may not buy happiness, but it can damn well give it!"
"The scarcity of the music not only makes the music itself enjoyable but it also gives the collector a strange sense of superiority."
"Should not the giver be thankful that the receiver received? Is not giving a need? Is not receiving, mercy?"
"Beauty is that which attracts your soul, and that which loves to give and not to receive."
"The giving and receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy."
"Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping, For only the hand of God can contain your hearts."
"Knowing so many people like myself who are singers and in traveling bands, the people you're in a relationship with feel slighted because they feel you're giving all your energy to your fans, and there's a lot of truth to that."
"We start with gifts. Merit comes from what we make of them."
"What sex gives you momentarily is the total abandonment of yourself, then you are back again with your turmoil, so you want a repetition over and over again of that state in which there is no worry, no problem, no self."
"The Bible give us a list of human stories on both sides of the ledger. On list of human stories is used examples - do what these people did. Another list of human stories is used as warnings - don't do what these people did. So if your story ever gets in one of these books, make sure they use it as an example, not a warning."
"Nature is not benevolent; Nature is just, gives pound for pound, measure for measure, makes no exceptions, never tempers her decrees with mercy, or winks at any infringement of her laws."
"Belgium is modernizing itself and it gives me joy."
