Quotes About Altruism

You could stamp on this natural shoot of compassion, Mencius argued, just as you can cripple or deform your body, but if you cultivate this altruistic tendency assiduously, it will acquire a dynamic power of its own.23 The

advocates of evolutionary theory since Thomas H. Huxley (1825–95) have found altruism problematic.

Compassion has dropped so far out of sight these days that many are confused about what is required. It even inspires overt hostility.

When these impoverished, indebted folk asked him what they should do, he told them to share what little they had with those who were even worse off—an ethic that would become central to Jesus's movement: "Whoever has two shirts must share with him who has none, and whoever has food must do the same."12

All the great spiritual traditions have insisted that what holds us back from enlightenment is selfishness and egotism; they have also said that a practical concern for everybody (not simply those who belong to your own class or those you find congenial) was the test of true spirituality.

what Tibetan Buddhists call "the inability to bear the sight of another's sorrow," so that we feel it almost as intensely as we feel our own. We

Compassion can be defined, therefore, as an attitude of principled, consistent altruism. The

When we share love with the lonely, the boomerang of blessing lands right back in our lap.

Doing the right thing even if there's nothing in it for you is the difference between civilisation and the cesspit we're in today.

Sacrifice, by its nature, was predicated on giving, not receiving.

Sacrifice, by its nature, was predicated on giving, not receiving. " 'Sacrifice,' " he remembered

What do I owe to my times, to my country, to my neighbors, to my friends? Such are the questions which a virtuous man ought often to ask himself.

He makes a beggar first that first relieves him; Not us'rers make more beggars where they live Than charitable men that use to give.

A contemplation of God's works, a generous concern for the good of mankind, and the unfeigned exercise of humility only, denominate men great and glorious.

Most men have always wanted as much as they could get; and possession has always blunted the fine edge of their altruism.

Man is born for deeds of kindness.

It is man's peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him.

Men in no way approach so nearly to the gods as in doing good to men. [Lat., Homines ad deos nulla re propius accedunt, quam salutem hominibus dando.]

Men resemble the gods in nothing so much as in doing good to their fellow creatures.

I would have a man generous to his country, his neighbors, his kindred, his friends, and most of all his poor friends. Not like some who are most lavish with those who are able to give most of them.

The greatest object in the universe, says a certain philosopher, is a good man struggling with adversity; yet there is still a greater, which is the good man who comes to relieve it.

What a man does for himself, dies with him. What a man does for his community lives long after he's gone.

Men's hearts ought not to be set against one another, but set with one another and all against evil only.

No one has learned the meaning of living until he has surrendered his ego to the service of his fellow man. Service to others is akin to duty, the fulfillment of which brings true joy.