Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal.
Lenore Hershey
Categories: giving

Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.
John Wesley
Categories: giving

If we have the opportunity to be generous with our hearts, ourselves, we have no idea of the depth and breadth of love's reach.
Margaret Cho weblog, 03-09-04
Categories: giving

There is no benefit in the gifts of a bad man.
Euripides Medea, 431 B.C.
Categories: giving

Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Categories: giving

If you want to see what children can do, you must stop giving them things.
Norman Douglas
Categories: giving

A compliment is a gift, not to be thrown away carelessly, unless you want to hurt the giver.
Eleanor Hamilton
Categories: giving

What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.
P. D. James Time to Be in Earnest
Categories: giving

A gift in season is a double favor to the needy.
Publilius Syrus Moral Sayings, 100 B.C.
Categories: giving

He doubly benefits the needy who gives quickly.
Publilius Syrus Maxims
Categories: giving

The spirit in which a thing is given determines that in which the debt is acknowledged; it's the intention, not the face-value of the gift, that's weighed.
Seneca Letters to Lucilius, 100 A.D.
Categories: giving

You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if it's a little thing, do something for others - something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it.
Albert Schweitzer
Categories: giving

The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value.
Charles Dudley Warner 'Eleventh Study,' Backlog Studies, 1873
Categories: giving

Purchase not friends by gifts; when thou ceasest to give, such will cease to love.
Thomas Fuller
Categories: giving

The great art of giving consists in this: the gift should cost very little and yet be greatly coveted, so that it may be the more highly appreciated.
Baltasar Gracian
Categories: giving

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
William Shakespeare Hamlet, 1600
Categories: giving

You try to give away what you want yourself.
Lois McMaster Bujold "Memory", 1996
Categories: giving

Purposeful giving is not as apt to deplete one's resources; it belongs to that natural order of giving that seems to renew itself even in the act of depletion.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh Gift from the Sea
Categories: giving sharing ministry

No matter how little you have, you can always give some of it away.
Catherine Marshall Quoted in "The Secret of Success" by Charles F. Stanley in InTouch Magazine
Categories: giving charity sharing

The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day
Categories: volunteer giving sharing

I know it sounds like a cliche, but the greatest gift that you can give yourself comes from helping someone else. We get so caught up in our own lives and in our unrealistic worlds. We're so busy achieving and competing and worrying about silly little minutiae that we lose sight of the larger picture.
Norma Kamali "Unit of One," Fast Company, December 1999
Categories: volunteerism sharing giving community

Nobody makes a greater mistake that he does nothing because he could only do a little.
Edmund Burke The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations
Categories: inaction service giving ability

Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it
Stephen Covey Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People: Living the Seven Habits
Categories: giving sharing volunteering commitment

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
Sir Winston Churchill
Categories: giving life give living

When you choose to give to others, your generosity must be unconditional.
John Gray Handbook for the Soul
Categories: giving serving volunteering helping

Happiness is the cheapest thing in the world... when we buy it for someone else.
Paul Flemming The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: joy happiness giving sharing relationships

We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.
Mary Dunbar Body, Mind and Spirit
Categories: gifts talents giving sharing

Love is... not a result; it is a cause...
Anne Morrow Lindbergh Love and Relationships: Inspirations for Meditation and Spiritual Growth
Categories: love power giving sharing relationships

There is no duty we so much underrated as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.
Robert Louis Stevenson Simple Abundance:
Categories: happiness joy giving sharing ministry service

A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses.
Chinese proverb The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: joy happiness kindness giving sharing beauty

To give without any reward, or any notice, has a special quality of its own.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: giving sharing service ministry motives

All who would win joy, must share it; happiness was born a twin.
Lord Byron The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: happiness joy relationships sharing caring giving

To be able to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue. They are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
Confucius Amen: A Gathering of Forty Prayers and Blessings from Around the World
Categories: virtue sincerity generosity giving sharing

Love is... Not a result; it is a cause... People talk about love as though it were something you could give, like an armful of flowers... Love is a force in you that enables you to give other things... It is a power like money, or steam, or electricity. It is valueless unless you can give something else by means of it.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh Love and Relationships: Inspirations for Meditation and Spiritual Growth
Categories: love power transformation giving sharing

When we serve with depth and sincerity, we get a glimpse of the essential quality of who we really can become.
Greg Anderson The 22 Non-Negotiable Laws of Wellness : Feel, Think, and Live Better Than You Ever Thought Possible
Categories: service volunteerism giving back sharing

Think that day lost whose descending sun,
views from they hand no noble action done.
Joseph Joubert The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: volunteerism giving sharing give share

One drop of water helps to swell the ocean; a spark of fire helps to give light to the world. None are too small, too feeble, too poor to be of service. Think of this and act.
Hannah More The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations
Categories: service volunteerism talents giving back

When you listen, you offer a package of the most valuable healing gifts you can give: compassion, consolation, and forgiveness.
James Kullander "The Best Gifts You Can Bring to," by James Kullander, Spirituality and Health , Spring 2001
Categories: listening communication empathy giving relationships

The only way to have a friend is to be one.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: friendship relationships love sharing giving

Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.
Samuel Johnson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: bounty charity giving sharing attitude

All are needed by each one. Nothing is fair or good alone.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: interdependence independence sharing giving relationship need

Suppose everybody cared enough, everybody shared enough? There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.
Frank Buchman The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations
Categories: needs wants desires greedy sharing giving moderation simplicity

That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had.
Robert Louis Stevenson The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations
Categories: success meaning fulfillment life service giving

No man can become rich without himself enriching others.
Andrew Carnegie Words for All Occasions
Categories: volunteerism help share success achievement giving back

Be useful where thou livest.
George Herbert Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: service volunteerism giving serving servant leadership

I've always operated on the principle that your first real dollar isn't the first dollar that you earn. Your first real dollar is the one that you give away.
Michael Roux Unit of One, Fast Company, December 1999
Categories: charity giving back sharing tithe tithing

Becoming generous, carrying someone else for a while, does amazing things for your self-esteem. Selfishness--even in the name of an injustice--lowers your self-respect and creates shame.
Barbara Sher I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was
Categories: generosity giving self-esteem selfishness self-respect shame

'Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him after.
William Shakespeare, from Timon of Athens Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: aid assistance help support ministry service donations giving

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
Kahlil Gibran Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: giving sharing volunteerism volunteering service ministry

Love is a verb.
Clare Boothe Luce Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: love action relationships friendships giving sharing

The million little things that drop into your hands
The small opportunities each day brings
He leaves us free to use or abuse
And goes unchanging along His silent way.
Helen Keller Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: service volunteerism giving sharing choice ministry

The only gift is a portion of thyself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: giving sharing relationships friendship love volunteer

One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
Albert Schweitzer The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: service ministry giving sharing serving volunteerism happiness joy

Such to me is the new image of aging: growth in self and service for all mankind.
Ethel Percy Audrus Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: aging age self-improvement self-knowledge volunteerism ministry sharing giving

Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.
Martin Luther King, Jr. The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: happiness joy fulfillment service ministry giving sharing volunteerism

Life's most persistant and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?
Martin Luther King, Jr. Bits and Pieces
Categories: service volunteerism volunteering helping community serving giving

Giving people a little more than they expect is a good way to get back more than you'd expect.
Robert Half The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: generosity generous giving sharing business expectations success

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
Albert Einstein The Quotable Einstein
Categories: service ministry giving sharing sacrifice meaning fulfillment

Success, happiness, peace of mind and fulfillment--the most priceless of human treasures--are available to all among us, without exception, who make things happen--who make *good* things happen--in the world around them.
Joe Klock Like Klockwork: The Whimsy, Wit, and (sometime) Wisdom of a Key Largo Curmudgeon
Categories: success happiness peace fulfillment treasure action giving doing

The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions--the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heart-felt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feeling.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: happy joy happiness emotions giving sharing friendships relationships

Life is a journey, and one thing’s for sure: You don’t see many hearses with luggage racks on them. We’re privileged to be here, so instead of just using God’s resources, we should leave the place a little better than we found it-or at least leave it the same.
Joel Cunningham "Unit of One" Fast Company, December 1999
Categories: life death greed materialism service volunteerism giving

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: kindness friendship relationships love volunteer giving sharing

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything you gave me."
Erma Bombeck Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: talent skill ability service giving sharing volunteerism

May the blessing of light be on you, light without and light within. May the blessed sunshine shine on you and warm your heart till it glows like a great peat fire, so that the stranger may come and warm himself at it, and also a friend.
Traditional Irish blessing A Grateful Heart
Categories: light warmth relationships sharing friendships love giving

Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.
Helen Keller Light from Many Lamps
Categories: unhappy unhappiness sadness depression meaning ministry giving volunteerism

Sometimes we are to guard our heart...protect it from invasion and keep things safe and secure. Sometimes we should give our heart...let certain qualities out and release them to others.
Charles Swindoll The Quest for Character
Categories: giving sharing caution risk heart love trust relationships

...not fulfilling your dreams will be a loss to the world, because the world needs everyone's gift--yours and mine.
Barbara Sher Live the Life You Love
Categories: dreams fulfillment meaning purpose ministry giving sharing success

Joy increases as you give it, and diminishes as you try to keep it for yourself. In giving it, you will accumulate a deposit of joy greater than you ever believed possible.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day
Categories: joy happiness giving sharing selfishness selflessness friendship love relationships

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
Helen Keller The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: work talents skills ability giving sharing volunteerism action

Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.
Sarah Bernhardt Simple Abundance
Categories: life giving sharing service serving energy enthusiasm volunteering

Enjoying the joys of others and suffering with them--these are the best guides for man.
Albert Einstein The Quotable Einstein
Categories: joys pains difficulties sharing relationships marriage friendships giving

Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.
Jean Anouilh The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations
Categories: love loving sharing giving marriage parenting children sacrifice

Make one person happy each day and in forty years you will have made 14,600 human beings happy for a little time, at least.
Charley Willey The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: happiness joy service ministry volunteerism hugs smiles giving sharing

I have a prescription for boosting your resistance to burnout: Get outside yourself, and do something that has nothing to do with your normal day's work... Do other things. Do things for other people, if you can. Do whatever you must to get the focus off your own problems. You need to have a diversion, particularly when times are difficult.
Ben Carson, pediatric neurosurgeon "Unit of One: Don't Burn Out", Fast Company May 2000
Categories: burnout stress adversity balance voluteerism giving sharing service ministry

What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
Henry David Thoreau The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: give up giving up resignation quit quitting desperation depression sadness failure

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
Mother Teresa Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: action volunteerism work effort change community giving sharing leadership

The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.
Helen Keller Light from Many Lamps
Categories: sharing giving volunteerism share give happiness meaning sadness depression

Advising is easier than helping.
German proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: proverb advise advice help serve giving sharing assist usefulness words action

You've touched people and know it. You've touched people and never may know it. Either way, no matter what your life feels like to you right now, you have something to give. It is in giving to one another that each one of our lives becomes meaningful.
Laura Schlessinger "In quiet way, one can impact other's lives" by Dr. Laura Schlessinger, a column which appeared in the 11/10/98 Arizona Republic.
Categories: speech service serving ministry ministering giving sharing meaning purpose fulfillment

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor to measure words but to pour them all out, just as it is, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keeping what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.
George Eliot Words for All Occasions
Categories: friendship relationships trust communication kindness agape love caring giving sharing

If you live only for yourself, you are always in immediate danger of being bored to death with the repetition of your own views and interests.
W. Beran Wolfe Light from Many Lamps
Categories: selfishness selflessness giving sharing volunteerism volunteering meaning fulfillment happiness joy balance

Not only is there a right to be happy, there is a duty to be happy. So much sadness exists in the world that we are all under obligation to contribute as much joy as lies within our powers.
John Sutherland Bonnell The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: happiness joy sadness depression despair sharing giving love relationships friendship duty

Unless we think of others and do something for them, we miss one of the greatest sources of happiness.
Ray Lyman Wilbur Light from Many Lamps
Categories: happiness service ministry volunteerism giving sharing volunteering community meaning fulfillment

Anything you can do needs to be done, so pick up the tool of your choice and get started.
Ben Linder Live the Life You Love
Categories: gifts skills talents ability work effort giving sharing volunteerism ministry

The only truly happy man is always a fighting optimist. Optimism includes not only altruism but also social responsibility, social courage and objectivity.
W. Beran Wolfe Light from Many Lamps
Categories: happiness joy meaning purpose fulfillment giving sharing society community volunteerism volunteering

The true way to soften one's troubles is to solace those of others.
Madame De Maintenon The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: help service serving giving sharing volunteering volunteerism adversity challenges problems difficulty difficulties

Be grateful for the joy of life. Be glad for the privilege of work. Be thankful for the opportunity to give and serve. Good work is the great character-builder, the sweetener of life, the maker of destiny. Let the spirit of your work be right, and whether your task be great or small you will then have the satisfaction of knowing it is worth while.
Grenville Kleiser The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: joy life work privilege gratitude opportunity giving serving sharing character destiny spirit

How should one live?
Live
Welcoming
to all.
Mechthild von Magdeburg "Live Welcoming to All" by Sue Monk Kidd, which appeared in the September/October 1997 Weavings.
Categories: attention mindfulness moment now present attentive love giving sharing hospitality charity volunteerism

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium. It will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions.
Martha Graham Creating a Life Worth Living
Categories: creativity gifts talents creative expression art creation ministry sharing giving encouragement culture

Sharing is the essence of teaching. It is, I have come to believe, the essence of civilization...Without it, the imagination is but the echo of the self, trapped in a soundproof chamber, reverberating upon itself until it is spent in exhaustion or futility.
Bill Moyers A World of Ideas
Categories: sharing giving teaching education knowledge imagination leadership civilization society community meaning

Seek to do good, and you will find that happiness will run after you.
James Freeman Clarke The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: work effort action purpose meaning fulfillment sharing giving service serving volunteers volunteering

As you put into practice the qualities of patience, punctuality, sincerity, and solicitude, you will have a better opinion of the world around you.
Grenville Kleiser The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: character patience punctuality time sincerity integrity honesty solicitude caring giving attitude perception

You would be surprised how many people quit when faced with obstacles. As every good salesman knows, everything may not be possible today, but sooner or later, it is possible.
Earl Graves To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love: The Spiritual Dimension of Entrepreneuring
Categories: failure mistake giving up give up pessimism optimism vision goals success self-confidence possibility possibilities

The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.
Aristotle Alexandra Stoddard's Book of Days
Categories: virtue usefulness talents serving sharing volunteerism relationships love character service giving back

A life directed chiefly toward the fulfillment of personal desires sooner or later always leads to bitter disappointment.
Albert Einstein The Quotable Einstein
Categories: wants desires lusts sensuality selfishness sadness depression meaning fulfillment service ministry giving sharing self-sacrifice

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap, the being a force of nature instead of a feverish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
George Bernard Shaw Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: vision mission service giving sharing volunteerism volunteering joy happiness meaning purpose fulfillment attitude reason for living

To me there is in happiness an element of self-forgetfulness. You lose yourself in something outside yourself when you are happy; just as when you are desperately miserable you are intensely conscious of yourself, are a solid little lump of ego weighing a ton.
J.B. Priestley Light from Many Lamps
Categories: happiness fulfillment meaning selflessness selfishness depression sadness emotions attitude giving sharing community service ministry

The ingredients of happiness are so simple that they can be counted on one hand. Happiness comes from within, and rests most securely on simple goodness and clear conscience. Religion may not be essential to it, but no one is known to have gained it without a philosophy resting on ethical principles. Selfishness is its enemy; to make another happy is to be happy one's self. It is quiet, seldom found for long in crowds, most easily won in moments of solitude and reflection. It cannot be bought; indeed money has very little to do with it.
William Ogden Light from Many Lamps
Categories: happiness joy character honesty integrity religion philosohpy self-centered vain service ministry giving sharing meditation possessions money materialism

Look at people; recognize them, accept them as they are, without wanting to change them.
Helen Beginton Words for All Occasions
Categories: acceptance relationships love friendships change sharing giving agape ministry service serving healing marriage relationships

There are many find things which you mean to do some day, under what you think will be more favorable circumstances. But the only time that is surely yours is the present, hence this is the time to speak the word of appreciation and sympathy, to do the generous deed, to forgive the fault of a thoughtless friend, to sacrifice self a little more for others. Today is the day in which to express your noblest qualities of mind and heart, to do at least one worthy thing which you have long postponed, and to use your God-given abilities for the enrichment of some less fortunate fellow traveler. Today you can make your life...significant and worthwhile. The present is yours to do with it as you will.
Grenville Kleiser Light from Many Lamps
Categories: intentions action today life circumstances present past future time appreciation sympathy generosity appreciation forgiveness self-sacrifice giving sharing talents gifts ability