Generosity Quotations | Page 4

On why I don't trust democracy without extremely powerful systems of accountability and recall What seems to be generosity is often only disguised ambition - which despises small interests to gain great ones.

Avarice is more directly opposed to thrift than generosity is.

God doesn't want your careful virtue, He wants your reckless generosity.

Proportion thy charity to the strength of thine estate, lest God proportion thine estate to the weakness of thy charity. Let the lips of the poor be the trumpet of thy gift, lest in seeking applause, thou lose thy reward. Nothing is more pleasing to God than an open hand and a closed mouth.

I don't think the kids know how loved they are. It's just overwhelming the generosity people have.

As a rule, only the poor are generous. Rich people can always find excellent reasons for not handing over twenty thousand francs to a relative.

As a rule, only the poor are generous.

A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.

It is through generous giving, that we affirm before the world, our nation's faith in the inalienable right of every man, to a life of freedom, justice and security.

(I)f we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we fear guilt or retribution.

I believe that lack of empathy is behind many problems, and I believe that it's disrupting our society. In Great Britain, there is a steady decline in the willingness to be truly generous, and by that I don't mean monetary generosity, but friendship and sympathy for others.

[T]he notion that a belief in self-reliance cannot coexist with a spirit of generosity is crap. In fact, one is far less likely to find a spirit of generosity among the advocates of governmentally-required "compassion".

The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.

In crucial things, unity. In important things, diversity. In ALL things, generosity.

[W]hat I used to respect was not really aristocracy, but a set of personal qualities which aristocracy then developed better than any other system . . . a set of qualities, however, whose merit lay only in a psychology of non-calculative, non-competitive disinterestedness, truthfulness, courage, and generosity fostered by good education, minimum economic stress, and assumed position, AND JUST AS ACHIEVABLE THROUGH SOCIALISM AS THROUGH ARISTOCRACY.

To give awkwardly is churlishness. The most difficult part is to give, then why not add a smile?

Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment.

It was like a life-line to a sinking man. It seemed to bring hope where there was none. The generosity of it was beyond our belief.

The sweetness and generosity and politeness and gentleness and humanity of the French had shown me how lovely life can be if one takes time to be friendly.

Lehman uses many conveyances—including the prose poem, the sestina, and curt rhymes—to travel across the writing life of a poet whose instinctive romanticism is always bracing and tough-minded, brimming with a rare generosity.

My main philosophy is that money is a loan from God. I'm in charge of it. I'm responsible for investin it, giving some of it away, providing for my family, and protecting it.

Our generosity never should exceed our abilities.

Generosity should never exceed ability.

The more we stretch the muscle called compassion and generosity, the stronger we get, the better we feel about ourselves, the more loving we become to the world around us.

Philanthropy is loving, and ameliorative, revolutionary; it wakens lofty desires, new possibilities, achievements, and energies; ... it touches thought to spiritual issues, systematizes action, and insures success.

The spirit of Christmas is - and hopefully always will be - about goodwill and generosity to others and peace on earth.

So often our sisters comfort others when their own needs are greater than those being comforted. That quality is like the generosity of Jesus on the cross. Empathy during agony is a portion of divinity!

Although goal setting can clearly be overdone, only a few people are overly involved with goals and goal setting; most people do far too little goal setting, including the reflecting that precedes the setting of such goals. Too many marriages have financial goals but not other explicit goals. Yet the gospel is certainly goal-oriented.

I find that goal setting, when done this way, leads to goal achieving. The chronic failure to achieve goals lowers self-esteem. Show me a failure to achieve a goal, and usually I can show you the violation of one or more of the above criteria. Imposed goals, vague goals, and unrealistic goals tend to produce only partial successes and outright failures.

Progress is measured by milestones. What many good people lack are markers that might tell them how they are actually doing. Goals can become a ritual or a fetish, but in the right measure they can give us some much needed reference points. No wonder some seem discouraged! Minus such milestones, we often feel minus in our lives

Our goals should stretch us bit by bit. So often when we think we have encountered a ceiling, it is really a psychological or experiential barrier that we have built ourselves. We built it and we can remove it.

When kindness comes at the expense of truth, it is not a kindness worth having. And when generosity leads to silence or abuse, it is not a generosity worth giving.

I respect generosity in people, and I respect it in companies too, I don't look at it as philanthropy; I see it as an investment in the community.

Generosity with strings is not generosity: it is a deal.

Few things linger longer or become more indwelling than that feeling of both completion and emptiness when a great book ends. That the book accompanies the reader forever from that day forward is part of literature's profligate generosity.

How much easier is it to be generous than just.

One can love any man that is generous.

A good relationship is a competition of generosity.

Generosity is a lovely attribute, and we only practice it when relationships are more important to us than our possessions.

I always thought of my work as being animated by a spirit of unhinged generosity.

Generosity is the only legitimate selfishness.

It takes great generosity to accept generosity.

Generosity knows how to count, but refrains.

Expressed gratitude encourages further giving; ingratitude drains vitality out of the spirit of generosity.

Seek out people to work with who are brimming with talent, energy, integrity, optimism, and generosity.

The poor never estimate as a virtue the generosity of the rich.

Generosity, to be perfect, should always be accompanied by a dash of humor.

What the Bible says is really true-it's better to give than to receive.

You can't get unless you give. And you have to give without wanting to get.

the psychological attitudes which are indispensable in the American market place are disastrous to family life. Family life ... requires yieldingness, generosity, sympathy, altruism, tenderness-all the qualities, in fact, which lead straight to bankruptcy. ... the American family is tragically out of gear with the profit structure which has mushroomed up around it.

The presumption of innocence is not just a legal concept. In commonplace terms, it rests on that generosity of spirit which assumes the best, not the worst, of the stranger.

Deep human connection is ... the purpose and the result of a meaningful life - and it will inspire the most amazing acts of love, generosity, and humanity.

Generosity toward the lower classes historically has never been an important part of upper-class awareness.

Once you have known the generosity of existence you will never feel miserable.

Energy always flows either toward hope, community, love, generosity, mutual recognition, and spiritual aliveness or it flows toward despair, cynicism, fear that there is not enough, paranoia about the intentions of others, and a desire to control.

Here's conventional wisdom: Success makes you happy. Happiness permits you to be generous. In fact, it actually works like this: Generosity makes you happy. Happy people are more likely to be successful.

Fans, true fans, are hard to find and precious. Just a few can change everything. What they demand, though, is generosity and bravery.

Art is the work of a human being – something a person does with generosity to touch someone else to make a change for the better.

If there's time for an emergency, why isn't there time for brilliance, generosity or learning?

We long to connect, all of us. We long to be noticed, to be cared for, to matter. Generosity is the invisible salve on our wound of loneliness, one that benefits both sides, over and over again.

Viewing the web as a platform for generosity is very different than seeing an opportunity to turn it into an ATM machine.

Your generosity is more important than your perfection.

Take the long way. Do the hard work, consistently and with generosity and transparency. And then you won't waste time doing it over.

You got to set your mind right and the rest will come to you naturally. No restrictions, no hang-ups, no stupid rules, no formalities, no forbidden fruit - just everyone getting and giving as much as he and she can.

The Sudanese have delighted me, not only in their generosity and simplicity, but also in their tendency to take tea with milk and not to hesitate to dunk biscuits in it. As an Englishman, you can imagine the feeling of fraternal closeness that this activity has generated.

We need to be just before we are generous, as we need shirts before ruffles.

The kingdom that Jesus preached and lived was all about a glorious, uproarious, absurd generosity.

The only safe investment one can make in life is what is given away.

The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others...

I cannot help leaving my books behind me whenever God calls me hence; but in every other respect, my own hands will be my executors.

[When I die] if I leave behind me ten pounds...you and all mankind [may] bear witness against me, that I have lived and died a thief and a robber.

The best investment with the least risk and the greatest dividend is giving.

We can all be stimulated to greater generosity by the known generosity of others.

A gift is acceptable according to what the giver has, not according to what he has not.

Out of the freedom from worry that God's generosity provides comes an impulse toward simplicity rather than accumulation.

In order to have the continued opportunity to express their "generosity" the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well.

True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity.

Some are unwisely liberal, and more delight to give presents than to pay debts.

I loved Chiara Mastroianni voice, her talent, her generosity. We rehearsed for two months...She's a workaholic and perfectionist, like Vincent [ Paronnaud] and myself.

When grace happens, generosity happens. Unsquashable, eyepopping bigheartedness happens.

Generosity is also an act of freedom, a casting off of the constraints of prudence and self-interest.

We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.

Let us forget with generosity those who cannot love us

I attribute that to the generosity of people that are in the entertainment business because they are all struggling. All roads seem to come to acting, for certain kinds of people that have a reason for being there. They want to be seen and heard, but there's more to it than that. There's a kindred spirit of struggling to find out, "What is this thing? What are we?" It's those eternal questions. But, in the meanwhile, I've met some wonderful people doing this.

The upper echelon of the movie industry is easier to deal with and the work is much easier to accomplish because of this generosity of spirit and confidence that they instill in the group around them.

Any one may do a casual act of good-nature; but a continuation of them shows it a part of the temperament.

Giving is the vital impulse and moral center of capitalism.

The generosity of the American public toward the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Tsunami has been reflected in the outpouring of support for the Pakistani earthquake victims.

Initiate giving. Don't wait for someone to ask. See what happens - especially to you. You may find that you gain a greater clarity about yourself and about your relationships, as well as more energy rather than less. You may find that, rather than exhausting yourself or your resources, you will replenish them. Such is the power of mindful, selfless generosity. At the deepest level, there is no giver, no gift, and no recipient . . . only the universe rearranging itself.

Magnanimity will not consider the prudence of its motives.

Generosity gives assistance, rather than advice.

It is not in everyone's power to secure wealth, office, or honors; but everyone may be good, generous, and wise.

All existing LIFT productions have been salvaged through the tireless work of homeless LIFT employees, generosity of our California partners and cooperation from countless entities across north Louisiana,

Commitment becomes hysterical when those who have nothing to give advocate generosity, and those who have nothing to give up preach renunciation.

We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression.

Capitalists have done more good for society through their charitable giving, philanthropy and generosity than all their critics combined.

Where position is felt to be a birthright, generosity is possible (though not guaranteed); flexibility is not inhibited by a commitment to perpetual success.

Good leaders have a generosity gene.

Every great leader has a generosity gene.

The event is awesome. It is the culmination of a year's worth of very hard work. It brings together the Peninsula's best volunteers, restaurants and wineries. Their generosity is greatly appreciated.