Melinda Gates
Philanthropist, businesswoman
"Philanthropy is not about the money. It's about using whatever resources you have at your fingertips and applying them to improving the world."
Philanthropy quotes
Philanthropy
85 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Barbara Jordan
Politician, Lawyer
"It is a privilege to serve people, a privilege that must be earned, and once earned, there is an obligation to do something good with it."
James A. Baldwin
Writer
"We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it."
Denis Diderot
Philosopher, Writer
"Happiest are the people who give most happiness to others."
Chinua Achebe
Novelist, Poet
"Charity . . . is the opium of the privileged."
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside philanthropy — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Philanthropy quotes (page 1 of 5)
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"To have made even one person's life a little better, that is to succeed."
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"I urge you to celebrate the extraordinary courage and contributions of refugees past and present."
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"It is better to be part of a great whole than to be the whole of a small part."
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"I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all."
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"Philanthropy [has become] simply the refuge of people who wish to annoy their fellow creatures."
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"No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it."
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"Philanthropy is fun and fulfilling."
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"The imperative is to define what is right and do it."
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"I am convinced that music, like philanthropy, bridges hope."
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"Man is born a predestined idealist, for he is born to act. To act is to affirm the worth of an end, and to persist in affirming the worth of an end is to make an ideal."
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"I would rather have it said, 'He lived usefully,' than, 'He died rich.'"
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"By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent, and what to those we give, to Jove is lent."
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"I am lord of myself, accountable to none."
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"Philanthropy should be voluntary."
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"He who confers a benefit on anyone loves him better than he is beloved."
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"When kindness has left people, even for a few moments, we become afraid of them, as if their reason had left them."
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"Philanthropies and charities have a certain air of quackery."
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"Philanthropic people lose all sense of humanity. It is their distinguishing characteristic."
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"To steale the Hog, and give the feet for almes. [To steal the hog, and give the feet to alms.]"
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"It never was our guise to slight the poor, or aught humane despise."
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