Quotes About Altruism

My place in history will depend on what I can do for the people and not on what the people can do for me.

Your success in life is what your willingness is to do for others !

Our country is the world, our countrymen are all mankind. We love the land of our nativity, only as we love all other lands. The interests, rights, and liberties of American citizens are no more dear to us than are those of the whole human race. Hence we can allow no appeal to patriotism, to revenge any national insult or injury. (Declaration of Sentiments, Boston Peace Conference (28 September 1838))

Hell is paved with good Samaritans.

ALTRUISM WAS, from the very start, a problem for the Darwinian theory of evolution, if not something worse than a problem. As a result, Darwinians have always been under a certain temptation to "cut the knot," and deny the very existence of altruism. This

In that moment she learnt one of the greatest secrets of life: It is often easier to fight for others than it is for yourself.

If expecting something in return is your reason for giving, you are really not giving- you're swapping. If you receive something in return for your gift, what you receive is a bonus - not a repayment of a debt.

I have always tried to use humor to "help ever" and "hurt never," for I find that to laugh is like swallowing a secret that Santa Claus farted.

The secret of successfully giving yourself away lies not so much in calculated actions as in cultivating friendly, warm-hearted impulses. You have to train yourself to obey giving impulses on the instant -- before they get a chance to cool. When you give impulsively, something happens inside of you that makes you glow, sometimes for hours.

When love is involved no sacrifice is too great.

Would you rather have people be helpful or not? It turns out that having little nice things happen to them is a much better way of making them helpful than spending a huge amount of energy on improving their characters."5

Love always involves not just saying yes to someone but also saying no to self. The life of love is a life of death to the kingdom of self.

Giving is taking is giving.

For it is in giving that we receive. -St. Francis

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

It's not how much we give but how much we put into giving. -Mother Teresa

Lincoln seems to have had the unusual notion that a public servant's first duty is to help people

Lincoln seems to have had the unusual notion that a public servant's first duty is to help people, rather than to follow bureaucratic regulations.

self-preservation has one virtue, which is that it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. With altruism, there's almost always a hidden motive. The benefactor wants to be lionized or, worse, have the person he's helping at his mercy. Otherwise why would people who give money to universities want buildings named after them?

I have found that the only thing that does bring you happiness is doing something good for somebody who is incapable of doing it for themselves.

A natural man lives for himself; a lover lives for others.

A kid might help another kid who fell into a river, and a kid might help another kid search for a lost baseball, but there isn't a kid I've met who will help another kid out of a humiliating situation. We just aren't built that way.

You know what guys do? They stand up for people. You know why? Two reasons. It's right. And it feels good. Even if the person doesn't know what you did. Maybe especially then.

What you make happen for others, God will make happen for you.