29 quotes about Generosity

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

Bruyere, Jean De La

The more he cast away the more he had.

Bunyan, John

I take as my guide the hope of a saint: in crucial things, unity... in important things, diversity... in all things, generosity.

Bush, George

Men of the noblest dispositions think themselves happiest when others share their happiness with them.

Duncan, Barry

It is always so pleasant to be generous, though very vexatious to pay debts.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

To generous souls every task is noble.

Euripides

Lavishness is not generosity.

Fuller, Thomas

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

Gibran, Kahlil

Giving is the business of the rich.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

A generous man places the benefits he confers beneath his feet; those he receives, nearest his heart.

Greville, Lord

People who think they're generous to a fault usually think that's their only fault.

Harris, Sidney J.

Generosity is the flower of justice.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

There is sublime thieving in all giving. Someone gives us all he has and we are his.

Hoffer, Eric

All my experience of the world teaches me that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the safe and just side of a question is the generous and merciful side.

Jameson, Anna

Sir, he throws away his money without thought and without merit. I do not call a tree generous that sheds its fruit at every breeze.

Johnson, Samuel

How much easier is it to be generous than just.

Junius

Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in gifts well-timed.

La Bruyere, Jean De

What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

Generosity during life is a very different thing from generosity in the hour of death; one proceeds from genuine liberality and benevolence, the other from pride or fear.

Mann, Horace

Many people are capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.

Pope, Alexander

What I gave I have, what I spent I had; and what I left I lost.

Robert of Doncaste

The poor don't know that their function in life is to exercise our generosity.

Sartre, Jean-Paul

Generosity is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it away. To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives.

Sartre, Jean-Paul

Is it not odd that the only generous person I ever knew, who had money to be generous with, should be a stockbroker.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe

He who gives what he would as readily throw away, gives without generosity; for the essence of generosity is in self sacrifice.

Taylor, Sir Henry

If you're a generous person you'll have no trouble admitting that somebody else is good. If you're a better person you'll find it's total impossibility.

Unknown, Source

Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore of nicely-calculated less or more.

Wordsworth, William

Generosity is another quality which, like patience, letting go, non-judging, and trust, provides a solid foundation for mindfulness practice. You might experiment with using the cultivation of generosity as a vehicle for deep self-observation and inquiry as well as an exercise in giving. A good place to start is with yourself. See if you can give yourself gifts that may be true blessings, such as self-acceptance, or some time each day with no purpose. Practice feeling deserving enough to accept these gifts without obligation-to simply receive from yourself, and from the universe.

Zinn, Jon Kabat