Philanthropy Quotes

My philanthropy is no relation to anybody else's. None. My philanthropy and what we do at the foundation speaks for itself and has no relation to anyone's. ~ Jon Bon Jovi

A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer. ~ Seneca.

You have to build a culture of philanthropy. In a country like India, we need to be sensitive and caring about the poorer, more disadvantaged section of our country. ~ Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

To us children he (Mr Ewing) was our very own 'Mr Chips' and invariably we would each receive half a crown whenever we encountered him on his afternoon walk. If we were particularly lucky, he would send us to the 'Big House' for ice-cream – a rare treat in the early 1950s ~ Bill Scott

Music and philanthropy have a long, benevolent relationship with one another. Record bins are rife with charity singles, and concert history is filled with benefit shows for every imaginable cause. Musicians like to give back. ~ Shawn Amos

America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle," he said. "We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world. ~ George W. Bush

Mrs. Crisparkle had need of her own share of philanthropy when she beheld this very large and very loud excrescence on the little party. Always something in the nature of a Boil upon the face of society, Mr. Honeythunder expanded into an inflammatory Wen in Minor Canon Corner. Though it was not literally true, as was facetiously charged against him by public unbelievers, that he called aloud to his fellow-creatures: 'Curse your souls and bodies, come here and be blessed!' still his philanthropy was of that gunpowderous sort that the difference between it and animosity was hard to determine. You were to abolish military force, but you were first to bring all commanding officers who had done their duty, to trial by court-martial for that offence, and shoot them. You were to abolish war, but were to make converts by making war upon them, and charging them with loving war as the apple of their eye. You were to have no capital punishment, but were first to sweep off the face of the earth all legislators, jurists, and judges, who were of the contrary opinion. You were to have universal concord, and were to get it by eliminating all the people who wouldn't, or conscientiously couldn't, be concordant. You were to love your brother as yourself, but after an indefinite interval of maligning him (very much as if you hated him), and calling him all manner of names. Above all things, you were to do nothing in private, or on your own account. You were to go to the offices of the Haven of P ~ Charles Dickens

In everything I do, whether in business, philanthropy or my personal life, I am guided by my inner truth, my values. ~ Shari Arison

Everyone wants to help the world, but first and foremost everyone wants to help oneself. ~ Maria Karvouni

Seeing results flow from my gifts is my greatest pleasure as a philanthropist - whether exonerating a jailed innocent or completing a Frank Gehry building. I want to enjoy my philanthropy. ~ Peter B. Lewis

The Girl Scouts is where I became acquainted with the idea that a woman can do anything. Learning that early on has a tremendous impact on the development of a young girl's personality. It had a huge impact on me. Girl Scouts is where I first learned about philanthropy and fell in love with the concept of helping others-in my troop this was very important. We did a lot of community service like picking up trash and feeding the homeless. Loving humankind was something that echoed throughout my time at Girl Scouts. ~ Lisa Ling

The hey-day of a woman's life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children. ~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton

You want to be paid as well, you virtuous! You want reward for virtue, and heaven for earth, and eternity for your today? ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Broken people have an irresistible urge to try to 'fix' the world. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

If there is one word that describes our form of society in America, it may be the word-voluntary. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Philanthropy, like charity, must begin at home. ~ Charles Lamb

The law has been perverted through the influence of two very different causes-naked greed and misconceived philanthropy. ~ Frederic Bastiat

I hymn and bless Your uncountable compassion and philanthropy, as You desired to number me with Your chosen servants. Look down, now, upon me the lowly one, O God and Master, Lord of mercy, Ruler of all and All-powerful One, hearken to my prayer, and fulfill my entreaties in praise. ~ Marina Of Aguas Santas

It is time for corporate America to become 'the third pillar' of social change in our society, complementing the first two pillars of government and philanthropy. We need the entire private sector to begin committing itself not just to making profits, but to fulfilling higher and larger purposes by contributing to building a better world. ~ Simon Mainwaring

What's the best way to make sure that the poor have a share in a country's growing wealth: Regulation? Taxes? Philanthropy? ~ Linsey McGoey

Helping people doesn't have to be an unsound financial strategy. ~ Melinda Gates

That, however, is - mediocrity, though it be called moderation. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Life is fleeting, and permanence in this world is something we all strive for. The best way to achieve permanence is through philanthropy. ~ Ram Shriram

I believe in that goodly mansion, his heart, he kept one little place under the skylights where Lucy might have entertainment, if she chose to call. It was not so handsome as the chambers where he lodged his male friends; it was not like the hall where he accommodated his philanthropy, or the library where he treasured his science, still less did it resemble the pavilion where his marriage feast was splendidly spread; yet, gradually, by long and equal kindness, he proved to me that he kept one little closet, over the door of which was written " Lucy's Room." I kept a place for him, too - a place of which I never took the measure, either by rule or compass: I think it was like the tent of Peri-Banou. All my life long I carried it folded in the hollow of my hand - yet, released from that hold and constriction, I know not but its innate capacity for expanse might have magnified it into a tabernacle for a host. ~ Charlotte Bronte

Philanthropy isn't just about big gifts; it's about participation. It is about the grace that comes from working together. ~ Marc Benioff

Kindness is about energy we give and take from all creatures. The bottom line is the integrative interaction and the total interconnectedness between human beings, all creatures, and God. Kindness is a spirituality of solid truth, not shifting emotion; of justice, not occasional philanthropy; of genuine love, not sentimentality or masochism; of evolved adults, not fixated infants. ~ Jean Maalouf

I was encouraged to break all the rules but to take the best of philanthropy, the best of investing, and the best of development finance, and experiment with new ways to create this venture capital model of using philanthropy to back patient capital investments, and then build solutions that were measured in terms of the kind of impact and change they were making on people's lives and in the world, not just on the financial return. ~ Jacqueline Novogratz

The age looks steadily to the redressing of wrong, to the righting of every form of error and injustice; and a tireless and prying philanthropy, which is almost omniscient, is one of the most hopeful characteristics of the time. ~ Mary Baker Eddy

My father, a bookkeeper who never earned more than $11,000 a year in his life, sat there, writing out a $25 check to the NAACP. When I asked him why, he said discrimination against anyone is discrimination against us all. And I never forgot that. Indeed, his philanthropy was a gift, not just to that organization, but to me. ~ Michael Bloomberg

There is one kind of charity common enough among us ... It is that patchwork philanthropy which clothes the ragged, feeds the poor, and heals the sick. I am far from decrying the noble spirit which seeks to help a poor or suffering fellow being ... [However] what advances a nation or a community is not so much to prop up its weakest and most helpless members, but to lift up the best and the most gifted, so as to make them of the greatest service to the country. ~ Jamsetji Tata

You don't have to be famous or rich to do a good deed. No matter how small it may seem, each kind deed sends a rippling action of kindness to humanity. Whether it is donating, helping the donor to implement or ensuring the donation recipients are treated right, each one of us has a role in philanthropy. ~ Gloria D. Gonsalves

I'm a technologist by origin and by training, but I'm focused on philanthropy. ~ Pierre Omidyar

If you think of global public goods like polio eradication, the kind of risk-taking new approach, philanthropy really does have a role to play there, because government doesn't do R&D about new things naturally as much as it probably should, and so philanthropy's there. ~ Bill Gates

Being a great philanthropist, Aman Mehndiratta has inspired many of us. His passion and love for serving the human race are inevitable by common public. Aman Mehndiratta is a true inspiration for all of us. Every work he has done taking philanthropy in concern can be a milestone for others who are in the same profession or who want to be the one. ~ Aman Mehndiratta

Without a love of humankind there is no love of God. ~ Sholem Asch

A hand gets way cleaner from washing, not itself, but the other hand. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

At the end of my journey, I see myself as a Rocket. That's where I ended my career, and also the organization that did so much for me. They knew I had a vision, and I went to work for the owner, who's a man who believes in philanthropy and believed in me as a player. ~ Dikembe Mutombo

In business, the market gives you feedback in real time. Your sales figures tell you what's working, what isn't, and how you need to change. If you don't listen to the feedback, you go belly up. In philanthropy, there is no market. ~ Jeff Raikes

If service is the rent you pay for your existence on this earth, are you behind in your rent? ~ Robert G. Allen

God never estimates what we give from impulse. We are given credit for what we determine in our hearts to give; for the giving that is governed by a fixed determination. The Spirit of God revolutionises our philanthropic instincts. Much of our philanthropy is simply the impulse to save ourselves an uncomfortable feeling. The Spirit of God alters all that. As saints our attitude towards giving is that we give for Jesus Christ's sake, and from no other motive. ~ Oswald Chambers

I always had the old-school model that I'm going to work for as long as I'm relevant and focus on for-profit activities and someday when I retire I'm going to learn about philanthropy. ~ Marc Andreessen

What you can give to the world is greater than what you can get out of it. ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

Let him that hath done the good office conceal it; let him that received it disclose it. ~ Seneca The Younger

There is no such thing as selflessness. There are only fair and unfair selfishness. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

True philanthropy requires a disruptive mindset, innovative thinking and a philosophy driven by entrepreneurial insights and creative opportunities. ~ Naveen Jain

The culture of philanthropy is alive and very well in Africa. International aid strengthens and extends it, but in the communities where I have spent time, it is all-pervasive. ~ Ann Cotton

Even philanthropy did not have the desired effect. The genuine as well as the false paper money which flooded Moscow lost its value. The French, collecting booty, cared only for gold. Not only was the paper money valueless which Napoleon so graciously distributed to the unfortunate, but even silver lost its value in relation to gold. ~ Leo Tolstoy

Michael Porter said that "corporations can use philanthropy to improve their competitive context ~ Anonymous

A man may be a Bah' in name only. If he is a Bah' in reality, his deeds and actions will be decisive proofs of it. What are the requirements? Love for mankind, sincerity toward all, reflecting the oneness of the world of humanity, philanthropy, becoming enkindled with the fire of the love of God, attainment to the knowledge of God and that which is conducive to human welfare. ~ Abdu'l- Baha

It's important to think good, speak good, and do good. If we want to see positive change in the world, then we need to connect to goodness. I try in everything I do, both in business and philanthropy, to make a positive change and do that by doing good. ~ Shari Arison

It is better to be part of a great whole than to be the whole of a small part. ~ Frederick Douglass

The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. We cannot exist without mutual help. All therefore that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-men; and no one who has the power of granting can refuse it without guilt. ~ Walter Scott

I was trained from the beginning to work, to save. I have always regarded it a as a religious duty to get all I could honorably and to give all I could. ~ John D. Rockefeller

When time permits, I try to see interesting people in the cities I visit. In Seattle, I met Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, who is shy in personality but flamboyant in his philanthropy. ~ Steven Pinker

The responsibility of philanthropy rests with us. The wealthier we are, the more powerful we get. We cannot put the entire onus on the government. ~ Azim Premji

'Giving 2.0' was born of my desire to redefine and democratize philanthropy. ~ Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen

You cannot mandate philanthropy. It has to come from within, and when it does, it is deeply satisfying. ~ Azim Premji

Philanthropy is activism. ~ Eli Broad

Some show their kindness to the poor by employing them in their kitchens. Would they not be kinder if they employed themselves there? ~ Henry David Thoreau

Billions are wasted on ineffective philanthropy. Philanthropy is decades behind business in applying rigorous thinking to the use of money. ~ Michael Porter

Generosity is the flower of justice. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Charity . . . is the opium of the privileged. ~ Chinua Achebe

Every act of goodness is born from our desire to be happy. ~ Udai Yadla

I was fortunate to get a scholarship when I went to Lehigh University and Princeton. They were both wonderful schools. Somebody was kind enough to spend their money to educate people that they would never get to know. That's what I think philanthropy is about. ~ Lee Iacocca

The gift without the giver is rare. ~ James Russell Lowell

Britain, relative to the U.S., is a highly secular society. Philanthropy alone cannot fill the gap left by government cutbacks. And the sources of altruism go deep into our evolutionary past. ~ Jonathan Sacks

We need to distinguish between two contrasting narratives of Culture Talk. One thinks of premodern peoples as those who are not yet modern, who are either lagging behind or have yet to embark on the road to modernity. The other depicts the premodern as also the antimodern. Whereas the former conception encourages relations based on philanthropy, the latter notion is productive of fear and preemptive police or military action.
The difference is clear if we contrast earlier depictions of Africans with contemporary talk about Muslims. During the Cold War, Africans were stigmatized as the prime example of peoples not capable of modernity. With the end of the Cold War, Islam and the Middle East have displaced Africa as the hard premodern core in a rapidly globalizing world. The difference in the contemporary perception of black Africa and Middle Eastern Islam is this: whereas Africa is seen as incapable of modernity, hard-core Islam is seen as not only incapable of but also resistant to modernity. Whereas Africans are said to victimize themselves, hard-core Muslims are said to be prone to taking others along to the world beyond. ~ Mahmood Mamdani

Extreme civilization robs crime of its frightful poetry, and prevents the writer from restoring it. That would be too dreadful, say those good souls who want everything to be prettified, even the horrible. In the name of philanthropy, imbecile criminologists reduce the punishment, and inept moralists the crime, and what is more they reduce the crime only in order to reduce the punishment. Yet the crimes of extreme civilization are undoubtedly more atrocious than those of extreme barbarism, by virtue of their refinement, of the corruption they imply and of their superior degree of intellectualism. ("A Woman's Vengeance") ~ Jules Barbey D'Aurevilly

There isn't any question that Hollywood is profit driven. Anybody that thinks it isn't is a fool. It's a business. Hollywood was never philanthropy. The only purpose it had was making money; the only purpose it still has is to make money. ~ Sydney Pollack

For some reason now I am thinking of the sort of philanthropist who seems humanly repellent not in spite of his charity but because of it: on some level you can tell that he views the recipients of his charity not as persons so much as pieces of exercise equipment on which he can develop and demonstrate his own virtue. What's creepy and repellent is that this sort of philanthropist clearly needs privation and suffering to continue, since it is his own virtue he prizes, instead of the ends to which the virtue is ostensibly directed. ~ David Foster Wallace

The premise of this foundation is one life on this planet is no more valuable than the next. ~ Melinda Gates

The most generous part of your philanthropy could be the time you put in to procure the same results and same outcomes and same returns you demand in business. ~ Andrew Forrest

Christ took upon himself this human form of ours. He became Man even as we are men. In his humanity and his lowliness we recognize our own form. He has become like a man, so that men should be like him. And in the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Henceforth, any attack on the least of men is an attack on Christ, who took the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all that bears a human form. Through fellowship and communion with the incarnate Lord, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time we are delivered from that individualism which is the consequence of sin, and retrieve our solidarity with the whole human race. By being partakers of Christ incarnate, we are partakers in the whole humanity which he bore. We now know that we have been taken up and borne in the humanity of Jesus, and therefore that new nature we now enjoy means that we too must bear the sins and sorrows of others. The incarnate Lord makes his followers the brothers of all mankind. The "philanthropy" of God (Titus 3:4) revealed in the Incarnation is the ground of Christian love towards all on earth that bears the name of man. The form of Christ incarnate makes the Church into the Body of Christ. All the sorrows of mankind fall upon that form, and only through that form can they be borne. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people. ~ Cesar Chavez

Rather than being a human, be a humanitarian ~ Kowtham Kumar K

When I started teaching at Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2000, no field-based courses in strategic philanthropy existed. ~ Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen

The most disgusting cad in the world is the man who on the grounds of decorum and morality avoids the game of love. He is one who puts his own ease and security above the most laudable of philanthropies. ~ H.L. Mencken

When you have power and use it for destructive purpose: you don't deserve it. ~ Udai Yadla

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

This was the invention of modern American philanthropy as we know it. The idea of systematizing giving to achieve human progress was the true innovation of John D. Rockefeller, and ultimately the Rockefeller Foundation's legacy. ~ Judith Rodin

I do think that people have an obligation to give back but that doesn't necessarily mean that you give back just the traditional way. Maybe there's new ways to give back and make a contribution. I'm looking forward to some mix of philanthropy - maybe through a somewhat different prism - as well as helping entrepreneurs build some significant new businesses. ~ Steve Case

Philanthropy is often seen as society's risk capital. That means the onus is on philanthropists, nonprofit leaders and social entrepreneurs to innovate. But philanthropic innovation is not just about creating something new. It also means applying new thinking to old problems, processes and systems. ~ Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen

I love my fellow creatures - I do all the good I can - yet everybody says I'm such a disagreeable man! ~ W.S. Gilbert

You can do things in every part of the world. You can do things in every discipline. You can do large things, you can do small things. But it takes a while to figure out what you actually want to do. And it changes. As you change your interests and desires in philanthropy change, I think you have to be open to that change. ~ Marc Benioff

It is really not so repulsive to see the poor asking for money as to see the rich asking for more money. And advertisement is the rich asking for more money. ~ G.K. Chesterton

It's easy to be generous with other people's money. ~ Marsha Hinds

... everyone knew that sin was evil, and that no good could come from evil. But he did feel good; he felt positively marvellous. Consequently, it followed logically that telling lies and defecting from duty could not be sins. The chaplain had mastered, in a moment of divine intuition, the handy technique of protective rationalisation, and he was exhilarated by his discovery. It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honour, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. ~ Joseph Heller

Those who give hoping to be rewarded with honor are not giving, they are bargaining. ~ Philo

The moral which presents itself to my reflections, as drawn from Hollingsworth's character and errors, is simply this, that, admitting what is called philanthropy, when adopted as a profession, to be often useful by its energetic impulse to society at large, it is perilous to the individual whose ruling passion, in one exclusive channel, it thus becomes. It ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Putting someone before yourself is possible only if that is done literally. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Philanthropy is the principal social institution that provides instruction in voluntary service. ~ Robert L. Payton

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. ~ Albert Pike

One of the things that I realize is that if you look at big business, I mean, they - and what they fund and what they do, they don't really - they don't fund the small non-profit community-based organizations that really are out there on the front lines helping people. They fund the big philanthropies. They're safe. ~ Rick Santorum

He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

I have failed a lot in my philanthropy, where I will make philanthropic contributions and they just won't be effective. ~ Marc Benioff

I respect generosity in people, and I respect it in companies too, I don't look at it as philanthropy; I see it as an investment in the community. ~ Paul Newman

the inducements of philanthropy to those of patriotism, ~ Alexander Hamilton

He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Legal plunder has two roots: One of them, as I have said before, is in human greed; the other is in false philanthropy. ~ Frederic Bastiat

Think of giving not only as a duty but as a privilege. ~ John D. Rockefeller