Quotes About Altruism

A good exercise for the heart is to bend down and help another up.

Don't underrate ordinary human decency," Josh said quietly. "There's more of heaven in a guy who hands a cold soda to a hot, tired panhandler than there is in fifty moral philosophers.

Are humans ever really capable of regarding others as ends in themselves?

Human beings are the unequivocal world champions of niceness. We act kindly not only toward people who belong to our own social groups or can reciprocate our generosity but also toward strangers thousands of miles away who will never know we helped them. All around the world, people sacrifice their resources, well-being, and even their lives in the service of others.

people judge people as less moral when they act altruistically and gain in the process than when they gain from clearly nonaltruistic behavior.

people view "tainted altruism" as worse than no altruism at all.

It is not a case we are treating; it is a living, palpitating, alas, too often suffering fellow creature.

He who bestows his goods upon the poor shall have as much again, and ten times more.

You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.

Scratch an altruist and watch a hypocrite bleed.

The proper use, then, of all the good gifts we have received is the free and generous sharing of those gifts with others.

The proper use, then, of all the good gifts we have received is the free and generous sharing of those gifts with others. No

WE WILL MEET many difficulties as we try to dutifully seek the good of our neighbors. We won't make any headway in this regard unless we lay aside concern for ourselves—indeed, unless we somehow lay aside our very self.

You cannot imagine a more certain rule or a more powerful suggestion than this, that all the blessings we enjoy are divine deposits which we have received on this condition that we distribute them to others.

We are not our own, therefore let us forget ourselves and our own interests as far as possible.

Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them.

If you have something to eat and notice your thought wanting to eat alone on account of desire and not of need, in this respect you do not regard him as yourself. Even if you only have enough for whatever you need, if you do not give him some of this, in this respect you do not regard him as yourself.

If someone goes to prison for you, you will want to thank that person exceedingly. How much more so for the one who dies for you?

Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity and let us put aside all selfishness in consideration of language, nationality, or religion.

Good will attract good to itself, and those involved will unite toward a common goal. Evil, in turn, draws evil men, but they will never truly act as one. They will always be distrustful, always jealous. Ultimately, they seek power for themselves alone, and for that reason they will always fall apart at the end.

I've started to believe that most people do what they think is right. The problems arise when what they do is right for themselves, but not what's right for others.

There would always be too few people in this world who cared enough to put themselves at risk for the sake of strangers, and too many who sought to inflict pain on the familiar and nameless alike.

The nature of compassion isn't coming to terms with your own suffering and applying it to others: It's knowing that other folks around you suffer and, no matter what happens to you, no matter how lucky or unlucky you are, they keep suffering. And if you can do something about that, then you do it, and you do it without whining or waving your own fuckin' cross for the world to see. You do it because it's the right thing to do.

For as we all know, real love is altruism. It is finding oneself through giving up oneself.