quotations about charity
A charitable man is like an apple tree--he gives his fruit and is silent; the philanthropist is like the successful hen.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Some men mistake generosity for charity: these flatter themselves that they are giving gratuitously, whilst they are merely rewarding secret services offered their vanity.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
Charity is no solution to poverty. Charity only perpetuates poverty by taking the initiative away from the poor. Charity allows us to go ahead with our own lives without worrying about the lives of the poor. Charity appeases our consciences.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS
Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty
Charity is ... a universal remedy against discord, and an holy cement for mankind.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
I as little fear that God will damn a man that has charity, as I hope that the priests can save one who has not.
ALEXANDER POPE
"Thoughts on Various Subjects"
We are obligated to be more scrupulous in fulfilling the commandment of charity than any other positive commandment because charity is the sign of a righteous man.
MAIMONIDES
A Maimonides Reader
Charity, by which God and neighbor are loved, is the most perfect friendship.
THOMAS AQUINAS
Quaestiones disputatae: De caritate
Charity is the root of all good works.
ST. AUGUSTINE
Sermons
You're a few years overdue.
I spent them waiting here for you.
Now your charity's refused,
I can name a penance for abuse.
THE GET UP KIDS
"Overdue", On a Wire
The living need charity more than the dead.
GEORGE ARNOLD
The Jolly Old Pedagogue
The existence of poverty is the proof of an unjust and ill-organised society, and our public charities are but the first tardy awakening in the conscience of a robber.
SRI AUROBINDO
Thoughts and Aphorisms
He who hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none.
LANCELOT ANDREWES
The Private Devotions of Lancelot Andrewes
Charity . . . is the opium of the privileged.
CHINUA ACHEBE
Anthills of the Savannah
Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, when I give I give myself.
WALT WHITMAN
Leaves of Grass
In a word, charity and faith make one as essence and form do, for the essence of faith is charity, and the form of charity is faith ; from which it is evident that faith without charity is like form without essence, which is not anything, and that charity without faith is like essence without form, which is also not anything.
JOHN FAULKNER POTTS
The Swedenborg Concordance
When faith and hope fail, as they do sometimes, we must try charity, which is love in action.
DINAH CRAIK
Christian's Mistake
If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them.
C.S. LEWIS
Mere Christianity
Charity, we are told in the Bible, "covers a multitude of sins." By this, I believe, we understand that by our charity we will cover or hide, and not expose the faults of others. How many of us have this sort of charity? Very few, I fear; but how many of us might have it, if we tried more to do unto others as we'd have others do to us? Charity is a beautiful trait in the character of any individual; it shows love, meekness, purity, holiness, and more than the mere foundation of a Christian; it shows a heart that can feel for another, with love and sympathy dwelling therein, and one that will be ever ready to do its best to turn sadness into gladness, to rouse to new life the weary and desponding, to help to let light into the darkened soul of many a frail one, and to pilot many a disabled vessel across the troubled ocean they are on to a haven of rest and safety. Charity, in a word, is brotherly love.
T. AUGUSTUS FORBES LEITH
Short Essays
Aside from higher considerations, charity often operates as a vastly wise and prudent principle--a great safeguard to its possessor. Men have committed murder for jealousy's sake, and anger's sake, and hatred's sake, and selfishness' sake, and spiritual pride's sake; but no man that ever I heard of, ever committed a diabolical murder for sweet charity's sake. Mere self-interest, then, if no better motive can be enlisted, should, especially with high-tempered men, prompt all beings to charity and philanthropy.
HERMAN MELVILLE
Bartleby
Charity is really self-interest masquerading under the form of altruism.
ANTHONY DE MELLO
Awareness