Quotes About Philanthropy

If it is so easy to help people in real need through no fault of their own, and yet we fail to do so, aren't we doing something wrong? At a minimum, I hope this book will persuade you that there is something deeply askew with our widely accepted views about what it is to live a good life.

Thomas Aquinas, the great medieval scholar whose ideas became the semi-official philosophy of the Roman Catholic church, wrote that whatever we have in "superabundance"—that is, above and beyond what will reasonably satisfy our own needs and those of our family, for the present and the foreseeable future—"is owed, of natural right, to the poor for their sustenance.

Ben West, one of the effective altruists mentioned in chapter 4, has shown that even if your goal were solely to slow down climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, you could do that more effectively by donating to organizations that are encouraging people to go vegetarian or vegan than by donating to leading carbon-offsetting organizations.

Charity begins at home, the saying goes, and for many people, charity also stops at home, or not very far from it.

Learn this moral: first establish your right to the good things of this world, grab the biggest share of prosperity possible less ten per cent for charity, then mouth pious nothings into a microphone in the comfort of your town or country house.

Ted is smart and good-looking, but he doesn't use it to good effect, like a rich person who never gives to charity.

Cuál es la utilidad de ser bueno con un pobre? Preguntó Cicerón.

We give anonymously because the sackfuls of thank-you letters break our hearts with their clumsy handwriting and hopeless phonetic spelling.

Not giving is no different than taking.

The guilt applies only to those things that are being given away for free.

Doing something nice for him was easy and immediate and didn't lead to the mountain of junk mail you're punished with whenever you give to an established charity.

Most of the money I made has gone back to Africa or is going back to Africa.

To give alms is nothing unless you give thought also.

There's no such thing as altruism.

Doing his own benefactions without hope of a celestial harvest, he thought himself on a nobler plane than religious men whom he always accused for making, as he called it, terms with God.

To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is Godlike.

Looking back on it today, I can see that Ice was giving

A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.

La codicia te daña: la generosidad te ayuda. Por eso se ha dicho: 'La codicia es la madre de la incapacidad'.

La codicia te daña: la generosidad te ayuda. Es por esto que se ha dicho: "La codicia es la madre de la incapacidad.

Si tienes dos camisas, vende una y con el dinero compra una flor".

La caridad ha sido convertida en una gran virtud sólo por el bajo nivel de decencia humana.

Teach us to give and not to count the cost.

Make a career of humanity. Make it a central part of your life.