Quotes for the Journey: Giving To give and then not feel that one has given is the very best of all ways of giving. Max Beerbohm

generosity

The essential difference between the unhappy, neurotic type person and the happy, normal person is the difference between get and give.  The unhappy person is concerned with:  the world is against me, what's in it for me, what are people doing to me, and so forth.  When your central theme in life is getting, you usually do get headaches.  But the happy person is looking toward what he or she can do, what they can give, what they can accomplish.       -Joe D. Batten and Leonard C. Hudson     A handful of pine-seed will cover mountains with the green majesty of forest.  I too will set my face to the wind and throw my handful of seed on high.        -Fiona MacLeod     Sometimes it seems to me that in this absurdly random life there is some inherent justice in the outcome of personal relationships.  In the long run, we get no more than we have been willing to give.       -Sheldon Kopp     They serve best who give most of themselves.  Self is forgotten by the one who serves, for such a one rejoices to see success coming to others through his or her efforts.       -James Cash Penney     No person has ever been honored for what he or she received.  Honor is our reward when we give.       -Calvin Coolidge      You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.       -Amy Carmichael

Simply give others a bit of yourself; a thoughtful act, a helpful idea, a word of appreciation, a lift over a rough spot, a sense of understanding, a timely suggestion.  You take something out of your mind, garnished in kindness out of your heart, and put it into the other person's mind and heart.      -Charles H. Burr

Receiving and giving are opposite energies that are inextricably linked together in the natural flow of life, like inhaling and exhaling.  If one aspect of that cycle doesn't function, the entire cycle ceases to function and the life force cannot move freely.  If you can't inhale, you will soon have nothing to exhale, and before long, your body will be unable to continue living.       -Shakti Gawain

Fill yourselves first and then only will you be able to give to others.       -Augustine of Hippo

The measure of life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation.        -Peter Marshall

The Golden Ladder of Giving 1. To give reluctantly, the gift of the hand, but not of the heart. 2. To give cheerfully, but not in proportion to need. 3. To give cheerfully and proportionately, but not until solicited. 4. To give cheerfully, proportionately, and unsolicited, but to put the gift     into the poor person's hand, thus creating shame. 5. To give in such a way that the distressed may know their benefactor,     without being known to him or her. 6. To know the objects of our bounty, but remain unknown to them. 7. To give so that the benefactor may not know those whom he has relieved,     and they shall not know him. 8. To prevent poverty by teaching a trade, setting a person up in business,     or in some other way preventing the need of charity. -Maimonides

But what parent can tell when some . . . fragmentary gift of knowledge or wisdom will enrich her children's lives?  Or how a small seed of information passed from one generation to another may generate a new science, a new industry--a seed which neither the giver nor the receiver can truly evaluate at the time.        -Helena Rubinstein

Do not inflict your will.  Just give love.  The soul will take that love and put it where it can best be used.       -Emmanuel

Give what you have. To someone else it may be better than you dare to think. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Behold!  I do not give lectures on a little charity. When I give, I give myself. Walt Whitman

There are those who give little of the much they have--and they give it for recognition and their hidden    desire makes their gifts unwholesome. And there are those who have little and give it all. There are those believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty. There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward. And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism. And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue; They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space. Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth. -Khalil Gibran

As Coleridge said, "We receive but what we give."  The happy life is a life of continual generosity in which we go out to meet and acclaim the world.       -Gerald Brenan

If all my pain and all my tears, And all that I have learned throughout the years Could make one perfect song To lift some fallen head To light some darkened mind, I should feel that not in vain I served mankind. Marguerite Few

Of all the dear sights in the world, nothing is so beautiful as children when they are giving something.  Any small thing they give.  Children give the world to you.  They open the world to you as if it were a book you'd never been able to read.  But when a gift must be found, it is always some absurd little thing, passed on crooked. . . an angel looking like a clown.  Children have so little that they can give, because they never know they have given you everything.       -Margaret Lee Runbeck

I expect to pass through this world but once.  Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to a fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.        -Stephen Grellet  (also attributed to William Penn)

We all should give what we have decided in our hearts to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.        -Paul, in 2 Corinthians 9:7

Not what we give, but what we share,-- For the gift without the giver is bare; Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,-- Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me. James Russell Lowell

Cheerful givers do not count the cost of what they give.  Their hearts are set on pleasing and cheering the person to whom the gift is given.       -Julian of Norwich

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.       -Winston Churchill

Thou that has given so much to me, Give one thing more--a grateful heart; Not thankful when it pleaseth me, As if thy blessings had spare days; But such a heart, whose pulse may be Thy praise. George Herbert

One has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when one plants shade trees under which one knows full well one will never sit.       -Elton Trueblood

I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.        -Martin Luther

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.        -Elizabeth Bibesco

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.       -George Eliot

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.       -Khalil Gibran

Each of us, as we journey through life, has the opportunity to find and to give his or her unique gift.  Whether this gift is quiet or small in the eyes of the world does not matter at all--not at all; it is through the finding and the giving that we may come to know the joy that lies at the center of both the dark times and the light.        -Helen M. Luke

Giving is the secret of a healthy life. Not necessarily money, but whatever a person has of encouragement and sympathy and understanding.       -John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

You give but little when you give of your possessions.  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.       -Khalil Gibran

We must realize that we cannot give love unless we can receive love. . . . In order to give of ourselves, we must nurture ourselves.       -John Gray

We are possessed by the things we possess.  When I like an object, I always give it to someone.  It isn't generosity--it's only because I want others to be enslaved by objects, not me.       -Jean Paul Sartre

Sharing what you have is more important than what you have.       -Albert M. Wells, Jr.

You can never expect too much of yourself in the matter of giving yourself to others.       -Theodore C. Speers

There is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving.       -Henry Drummond

Give strength, give thought, give deeds, give wealth; Give love, give tears, and give thyself. Give, give, be always living. Who gives not is not living; The more you give, the more you live. unattributed

True religion. . . is giving and finding one's happiness by bringing happiness into the lives of others.       -William J.H. Boetcker

Those that will not permit their wealth to do any good for others. . . cut themselves off from the truest pleasure here and the highest happiness later.       -Charles Caleb Colton

I as little fear that God will damn a person who has charity as I hope that the priests can save one who has not.       -Alexander Pope

The more we have given to ourselves, the more we have to give to others.  When we find that place within ourselves that is giving, we begin to create an outward flow. Giving to others comes not from a sense of sacrifice, self-righteousness, or spirituality, but for the pure pleasure of it, because it's fun.  Giving can only come from a full, loving space.       -Shakti Gawain

When you cease to make a contribution you begin to die.        -Eleanor Roosevelt

It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.       -Eleanor Roosevelt

No people were ever honored for what they received.  Honor has been the reward for what they gave.        -Calvin Coolidge

It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome.  Its appeal is to the material part, and if allowed its way, it will in time disturb one's spiritual balance.  Therefore, children must early learn the beauty of generosity.  They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving.       -Ohiyesa, Santee Sioux

Most people think of success in terms of getting; success, however, begins in terms of giving.       -Henry Ford

Giving and receiving are opposite sides of the same coin.  Receiving entails trust in our own value and our having respect for the giver.  By receiving we reinforce the giver and are ourselves supported and affirmed by the gift.  In this way we participate in life’s goodness and assist in its flourishing.  There are times in our lives when the only way we can give back is to receive.       -Sallirae Henderson

Kindness in words creates confidence.  Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.  Kindness in giving creates love.       -Lao-Tzu

To receive a present handsomely and in a right spirit, even when you have none to give in return, is to give one in return.        -Leigh Hunt

God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with.        -Billy Graham

Giving is the highest expression of power.       -Vivian Greene

To give away money is an easy matter, and in any person's power.  But to decide to whom to give it, and how large and when, and for what purpose, is neither in every person's power nor an easy matter.  Hence it is, that such an excellence is rare, praiseworthy and noble.        -Aristotle

May every soul that touches mine— Be it the slightest contact— Get from there some good; Some little grace; one kindly thought; One aspiration yet unfelt; One bit of courage For the darkening sky; One gleam of faith To brave the thickening ills of life; One glimpse of brighter skies Beyond the gathering mists— To make this life worthwhile, And heaven a surer heritage. George Eliot

In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.        -Henry Ward Beecher

A generous action is its own reward.       - William Walsh

Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.       - Desiderius Erasmus

The hoarders, who are anxiously worried about losing something, are, psychologically speaking, the poor impoverished people, regardless of how much they have.  Whoever is capable of giving of themselves is rich.       -Erich Fromm

To receive more, we must give out what we receive. . . . For it is by giving that we set in operation the unfailing law of measure for measure.  With no thought of receiving, it is impossible to avoid receiving, for the abundance you have given is returned to you in fulfillment of the law.       -Baird Spalding

If you would take, you must first give.       -Lao Tzu

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.       -George Eliot

Others are my main concern.  When I notice something of mine, I steal it and give it to others.       -Shantideva

Take up giving-away as a hobby while you are young, and you will have a happy life.  What is more, because you do so many thoughtful things on impulse, you will develop a lively and interesting personality-- gracious, friendly, and likeable.       - David Dunn

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.       -Anne Frank

The more he cast away the more he had.        -John Bunyan

What I gave, I have; what I spent, I had; what I kept, I lost.       -Old Epitaph

All strangers and beggars are from Zeus, and a gift, though small, is precious.       -Homer

We'd all like a reputation for generosity, and we'd all like to buy it cheap.        -Mignon McLaughlin

When I think of giving as an art. . . I pour more of myself into giving.  I tune in to ways I can support others and give meaningful gifts that will delight the receiver.  Divine ideas come to mind as I shift my focus away from "things" to the art of true giving.  As I write a letter to a friend with whom I've lost contact or give an encouraging smile to a struggling stranger, I know that just what is needed is mine to give.  I am inspired to give more as new creative expressions of giving come to mind.  Knowing that the circle of giving is also receiving, I am grateful for all that I give and all that I receive.       -unattributed, The Daily Word

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