It is more blessed to give than to receive.

—Acts of the Apostles, c. 80

Too many people have decided to do without generosity in order to practice charity.

—Albert Camus, 1956

Do not ask me to be kind; just ask me to act as though I were.

—Jules Renard, 1898

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

—Maya Angelou, 1993

Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.

—Alexander Pope, 1738

Without virtue, both riches and honor, to me, seem like the passing cloud.

—Confucius, c. 350 BC

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

—Mark Twain, 1894

Almsgiving tends to perpetuate poverty; aid does away with it once and for all.

—Eva Perón, 1949

If you would help another man, you must do so in minute particulars.

—William Blake, 1804

The deed is everything, the glory naught.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1832

Charity is murder and you know it.

—Dorothy Parker, 1956

I know what I have given you. I do not know what you have received.

—Antonio Porchia, 1943

A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity.

—Ralph Nader, 2000

The gratitude is greater than the gift.

—Pierre Corneille, 1641

They say that gifts persuade even the gods. 

—Euripides, 431 BC

Unfortunately, humanitarianism has been the mark of an inhuman time.

—G.K. Chesterton, 1932

Every gift has a personality—that of its giver.

—Nuruddin Farah, 1992

The friend of all humanity is no friend to me.

—Molière, 1666

I love everyone now that I have gray hair.

—Polatkin, c. 1855