Quotes About Philanthropy

I think the tradition of philanthropy is far better developed in the U.S. than in India, as is the whole notion of giving away 50% of your wealth while you are still living and not waiting till you're gone.

What do wealthy people do with their money? They can only buy so many cars, houses, and steak dinners. So we either give it away or invest it.

You are not going to lift everybody out of poverty through the kindness of wealthy people.

There is an unwritten social rule now that you can harangue the wealthy to give money away, but you mustn't ask how the money was made. There are no galas celebrating the money people knew better than to seek. Charity begins after profit.

Who can begrudge the generosity of the wealthy, you might say. Wherever you stand on the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a tiny global elite, surely such charity should be applauded? But philanthropy is a dangerous substitution for progressive taxation.

Inherently, I have a social conscience which my late father inculcated in me. He was not exactly a very wealthy man, but he was very concerned about the underprivileged, about the people who didn't have equal opportunities.

It's an irony that growing inequality could mean more money for philanthropy. In the U.S., quite a few of the ultra-rich have taken to heart the 19th century industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie's comment that it's a disgrace to die wealthy.

If you travel around America you see different sections of highways donated by this or that person, and that's a slow beginning of what may end up being a situation common in the Third World: some sections of highways in wealthy areas are beautifully maintained and other parts are just dirt-strewn potholes.

If you are wealthy enough, use part or all of your Social Security proceeds to invest in a favorite cause or two. Invest 10 percent or 100 percent of your monthly Social Security check in your favorite charity, foundation, think tank, church or synagogue, or other good cause.

It's always the big question in our lives if you have a lot of success. What do you do with it? Buy more houses, buy more cars, buy more stuff, be wealthy and distant and unengaged? Or do you take all that good fortune that has come towards you and spread the love, do something with it?

I have always given money away. I haven't always been wealthy - the opposite, in fact. But I have always felt that I wanted people to share it with me.

Wealthy people in Australia tend to give, and give very quietly.

If I died tomorrow, I would regret growing so wealthy and still running the business when there are so many more people I could have helped.

I'd be the last guy to tell a wealthy person what to do with their money. They're entitled to do whatever they want.

A lot of wealthy people, they don't realize they have the alternatives of spending the money for good.

In the United States, the wealthy have a tradition of charity. But in Germany, the rich say, 'We pay taxes. It's enough.'

I believe with great fortunes come great responsibility, so with our family's assets and many wealthy friends, we could help raise a lot of money to help others.

A lot of other wealthy people feel the responsibility to take some of the wealth they've been given and give back: to give a lot of money to a particular cancer charity or to a group researching some particular disease or their alma mater. We haven't really found anything like that with Trump.

It's a very ancient culture, British culture. You can't be seen to be too wealthy, and you certainly can't be seen to be giving away any of your wealth either because that's sort of vulgar, too. It's funny, that, because in New York, if you are wealthy, you have to be philanthropic to be successful.

In the ideal world, philanthropy should be redundant or at least it should be at the edges, as innovation or risk capital. But it's far from an ideal world; the wealthy are cornering more and more opportunities and resources from this planet. So, the big challenge for philanthropy is... can it engage with the distribution of wealth itself?

My family are big philanthropists, but not at putting big money into sport. Today sport is professional. It has to support itself or it won't exist. It cannot depend on a few wealthy people making donations.

I felt very uncomfortable when I became wealthy. One of my ways of dealing with it was to give it forward right away.

If wealthy people put both their money and their time into fixing issues, I think we'd have much better results than if the government tried to fix those same issues.

The Tao teaches us to let go of things. Use the 80/20 rule. If you take all your clothes, you'll find out that you only wear 20 percent of them. Take what you have and don't use and circulate it. Give stuff to people who truly need it. After all, we come into this world with nothing; we leave this world with nothing.