Barbara Bush:

Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others.

Dale Evans:

Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld:

Many people despise wealth, but few know how to give it away.

Horace Mann:

Generosity during life is a very different thing from generosity in the hour of death; one proceeds from genuine liberality and benevolence, the other from pride or fear.

Jean Jacques Rousseau:

When a man dies he clutches in his hands only that which he has given away during his lifetime.

Jean-Paul Sartre:

The poor don't know that their function in life is to exercise our generosity.

John D. Rockefeller Jr.:

Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege.

Maya Angelou :

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

Pamela Glenconner:

Giving presents is a talent; to know what a person wants, to know when and how to get it, to give it lovingly and well. Unless a character possesses this talent there is no moment more annihilating to ease than that in which a present is received and given.

Peyton Conway March:

There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life -- happiness, freedom, and peace of mind -- are always attained by giving them to someone else.

Ralph Waldo Emerson:

But it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy something, which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith's.

Ralph Waldo Emerson:

There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. 'Tis good to give a stranger a meal, or a night's lodging. 'Tis better to be hospitable to his good meaning and thought, and give courage to a companion. We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light.

Susan Sarandon :

So I would hope they would develop some kind of habit that involves understanding that their life is so full they can afford to give in all kinds of ways to other people. I consider that to be baseline spirituality.

Thornton Wilder:

Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow.

from "The Matchmaker"

Walt Whitman :

The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give.

Winston Churchill:

You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.

Winston Churchill:

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