Charity Quotations

Many people have spoken eloquently on the topic of charity or aid. Here is a collection of quotes, ranging from the conservative to the radical. We hope you find them challenging and interesting.

• Religious Quotations about Charity
• Philosophical Quotations about Charity
• Humanitarian Quotations about Charity
• Quotations about Inequality and Charity
• Quotations about Giving to Charity Today
• Quotes about Happiness & Giving to Charity

Religious Quotations about Charity:

• “Deeds of giving are the very foundations of the world.”

  — Jewish saying derived from the Mishna, Pirkei Avot 1:2

• “A man’s true wealth is the good he does in this world.”

  — Muhammad (570 – 632 CE)

• “Whatever a man has in superabundance is owed, of natural right, to the poor for their sustenance. So Ambrosius says, and it is also to be found in the Decretum Gratiani: ‘The bread which you withhold belongs to the hungry: the clothing you shut away, to the naked: and the money you bury in the earth is the redemption and freedom of the penniless.’”

  — St Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica, 1274 CE)

Tithing is the religious tradition of putting one’s charitable nature into practice by giving a proportion of your income to charity. Find out more about tithing and donating a proportion of your income to charity.

Philosophical Quotations about Charity:

• “To give away money is an easy matter in any man’s power. But to decide to whom to give it, and how large and when, and for what purpose and how, is neither in every man’s power nor an easy matter.”

  — Aristotle (Ethics, 360 BCE)

• “It is more difficult to give money away intelligently than to earn it in the first place.”

  — Andrew Carnegie (The Gospel of Wealth, 1889)

• “What is the use of living, if it not be to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?”

  — Winston Churchill (speech in Dundee, 1908)

• “The highest use of capital is not to make more money but to make money do more for the betterment of life.”

  — Henry Ford (1863 – 1947)

Choosing to donate your money to charity is a laudable decision, but it is important to give to charities that do the most good with their money. For more information on how to save thousands of lives, read our page on where to give.

Humanitarian Quotations about Charity:

• “It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen that is the common right of humanity.”

  — Seneca the Elder (54 BCE – 39 CE)

• “If there be any truer measure of a man than by what he does, it must be by what he gives.”

  — Robert South (1634 – 1716)

• “I would rather have it said, ‘He lived usefully,’ than, ‘He died rich.’”

  — Benjamin Franklin (letter to his mother, 1750)

• “What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.”

  — Albert Pike (1809 – 1891)

• “Wealth is not to feed our egos, but to feed the hungry and to help people help themselves.”

  — Andrew Carnegie (1835 – 1919)

• “I’ve always respected those who try to change the world for the better rather than just complain about it.”

  — Michael Bloomberg (Autobiography, 1997)

Extreme poverty is one of the most pressing issues of our age. It is the source of much of the world's suffering and makes mere survival into a struggle. Find out more about the problem we face here.

Quotations about Inequality and Charity:

• “If every man took only what was sufficient for his needs, leaving the rest to those in want, there would be no rich and no poor.”

  — St Basil of Caesarea (Homily on Luke 12:18, 372 CE)

• “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

  — Franklin D. Roosevelt (Second Inaugural Address, 1937)

• “The proper aim of giving is to put the recipients in a state where they no longer need our gifts.”

  — C.S. Lewis (The Four Loves, 1960)

• “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”

  — John F. Kennedy (Inaugural Address, 1961)

• “Is the rich world aware of how four billion of the six billion live? If we were aware, we would want to help out, we’d want to get involved.”

  — Bill Gates (1955 –)

The level of inequality between members of the world’s poorest and richest nations is startling. Many are often surprised to find out how rich they are compared to the rest of the world’s population. Use our calculator to find out how rich you really are.

Quotations about Giving to Charity Today:

• “He who gives early gives twice.”

  — Don Miguel de Cervantes (1547 – 1616)

• “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.”

  — Etienne de Grellet (1773 – 1855)

• “The man who dies rich dies disgraced.”

  — Andrew Carnegie (The Gospel of Wealth, 1889)

• “Riches, power and fame last only for a few years! Why do people cling so desperately to these transitory things? Why can’t people who have more than they need for themselves give that surplus to their fellow citizens? Why should some people have such a hard time during their few years on this earth?”

  — Anne Frank (diary entry, 1944)

• “How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment; we can start now, start slowly changing the world!”

  — Anne Frank (diary entry, 1944)

• “But history will judge you, and as the years pass, you will ultimately judge yourself, in the extent to which you have used your gifts and talents to lighten and enrich the lives of your fellow men. In your hands lies the future of your world and the fulfillment of the best qualities of your own spirit.”

  — Robert F. Kennedy (speech at Berkeley, 1966)

There are significant reasons in favor of giving to charity now rather than in the long-distance future. Giving communities a helping hand today allows them to continue to be better off in the future, increasing the social rate of return. It is also important to make a public stand, and encourage others to give.

Quotes about Happiness & Giving to Charity:

• “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.”

  — Sir Walter Scott (1771 – 1832)

• “It is one of the beautiful compensations of this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”

  — Charles Dudley Warner (Fifth Study, 1872)

• “I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as I live it is my privilege — my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I love. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I’ve got a hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

  — George Bernard Shaw (speech in Brighton, 1907)

People are often put off from giving to charity by the idea that a decrease in their wealth will make them less happy. However, there is extensive psychological research which shows that your level of income and how happy you are far less strongly related than we think, and that giving to charity actually may increase your happiness.