Philanthropist. A rich (and usually bald) old gentleman who has trained himself to grin while his conscience is picking his pocket.

— Bierce, Ambrose

To enjoy a good reputation give publicly, and steal privately.

— Billings, Josh

If the barricades went up in our streets and the poor became masters, I think the priests would escape, I fear the gentlemen would; but I believe the gutters would simply be running with the blood of philanthropists.

— Chesterton, Gilbert K.

The worst of charity is that the lives you are asked to preserve are not worth preserving.

— Emerson, Ralph Waldo

I love my fellow creatures -- I do all the good I can -- yet everybody says I'm such a disagreeable man!

— Gilbert, W. S.

He is one of those wise philanthropists who, in a time of famine, would vote for nothing, but a supply of toothpicks.

— Jerrold, Douglas William

Are there not thousands in the world who love their fellows even to the death, who feel the giant agony of the world, and more, like slaves to poor humanity, labor for mortal good?

— Keats, John

All philanthropy... is only a savory fumigation burning at the mouth of a sewer. This incense offering makes the air more endurable to passers-by, but it does not hinder the infection in the sewer from spreading.

— Key, Ellen

Those who give hoping to be rewarded with honor are not giving, they are bargaining.

— Philo

Philanthropic people lose all sense of humanity. It is their distinguishing characteristic.

— Wilde, Oscar

Boredom is the legitimate kingdom of the philanthropic.

— Woolf, Virginia