53 Inspiring Quotes About Generosity

In a world that often seems to move at a relentless pace, the simple act of generosity can stand as a profound gesture of humanity. Whether through grand gestures or small, thoughtful actions, generosity has the power to uplift, transform, and inspire. It is a virtue that transcends cultures, religions, and borders, reminding us of our shared humanity and capacity for kindness. In this curated collection of 53 inspiring quotes, we explore the many facets of generosity—its ability to forge connections, instill hope, and nurture a more compassionate world. Let these words of wisdom serve as a reminder of the impact that even the smallest act of giving can have, both on the giver and the receiver.

1. “It is rare indeed that people give. Most people guard and keep; they suppose that it is they themselves and what they identify with themselves that they are guarding and keeping, whereas what they are actually guarding and keeping is their system of reality and what they assume themselves to be.” - James Baldwin

2. “In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.” - Elizabeth Gilbert

3. “There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” - John Holmes

4. “Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.” - Khalil Gibran

5. “Of the various kinds of intelligence, generosity is the first. Gienka Home from the Ball Bearing Plant (1943) ” - John Surowiecki

6. “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” - Anonymous

7. “When you win and the other fellow loses, what do you see? A losing face. There is great joy in losing and making the other person win and have a happy face. Who will be the happiest person? The one who brings happiness to others.” - Sri Swami Satchidananda

8. “You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” - Debbie Macomber

9. “When it comes to giving, some people stop at nothing.” - Vernon McLellan

10. “You make all kinds of mistakes, but as long as you are generous and true and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her.” - Winston S. Churchill

11. “No, it is not a commonplace, sir! If up to now, for example, I have been told to 'love my neighbor,' and I did love him, what came of it?. . . What came of it was that I tore my caftan in two, shared it with my neighbor, and we were both left half naked, in accordance with the Russian proverb which says: If you chase several hares at once, you won't overtake any one of them. But science says: Love yourself before all, because everything in the world is based on self-interest. If you love only yourself, you will set your affairs up properly, and your caftan will also remain in one piece. And economic truth adds that the more properly arranged personal affairs and, so to speak, whole caftans there are in society, the firmer its foundations are and the better arranged its common cause. It follows that by acquiring for everyone, as it were, and working so that my neighbor will have something more than a torn caftan, not from private, isolated generosities now, but as a result of universal prosperity.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

12. “Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.” - G.K. Chesterton

13. “Because when you love something, you want to do it all the time, even if no one is paying you for it. At least that's how I felt about drawing.” - Meg Cabot

14. “If truth doesn't set you free, generosity of spirit will.” - Katerina Stoykova Klemer

15. “Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?” - Samuel Johnson

16. “Generosity is, by definition, disinterested.” (p.157)” - Piero Ferrucci

17. “I mean a man whose hopes and aims may sometimes lie (as most men's sometimes do, I dare say) above the ordinary level, but to whom the ordinary level will be high enough after all if it should prove to be a way of usefulness and good service leading to no other. All generous spirits are ambitious, I suppose, but the ambition that calmly trusts itself to such a road, instead of spasmodically trying to fly over it, is of the kind I care for.” - Charles Dickens

18. “A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal.” - Steve Maraboli

19. “Because there is no nation so powerful it cannot be wounded, nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort.” - Carmen Agra Deedy

20. “Children must early learn the the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving.” - Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa)

21. “People who love themselves come across as very loving, generous and kind; they express their self-confidence through humility, forgiveness and inclusiveness.” - Sanaya Roman

22. “Generosity is not in giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is in giving me that which you need more than I do.” - Kahlil Gibran

23. “Ah! What pleasure it must be to a woman to suffer for the one she loves!” - Honoré de Balzac

24. “Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

25. “(I)f we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we fear guilt or retribution.” - J.M. Coetzee

26. “That's what I consider true generosity: You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.” - Simone de Beauvoir

27. “Generosity needs no logrolling.” - Toba Beta

28. “Pride only helps us to be generous; it never makes us so, any more than vanity makes us witty.” - George Eliot

29. “Impatient men are generous ones. Or haven't you learned that by now?” - Megan Chance

30. “The wise man does not lay up his own treasures.The more he gives to others,the more he has for his own.” - Lao Tzu

31. “We trust to novels to train us in the practice of great indignations and great generositie.” - Henry James

32. “Don't touch my plumtree!Said my friend and saying so...Broke the branch for me” - Taigi

33. “In a pocket of his knapsack he'd found a last half packet of cocoa and he fixed it for the boy and then poured his own cup with hot water and sat blowing at the rim.You promised not to do that, the boy said.What?You know what, Papa.He poured the hot water back into the pan and took the boy's cup and poured some of the cocoa into his own and then handed it back.I have to watch you all the time, the boy said.” - Cormac McCarthy

34. “It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome. . . . 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. . . . The Indians in their simplicity literally give away all that they have—to relatives, to guests of other tribes or clans, but above all to the poor and the aged, from whom they can hope for no return.” - Charles Alexander Eastman (Ohiyesa)

35. “Motivul pentru care ne place sa ii apreciem pe altii este ca ne e teama de noi insine. La baza optimismului se afla teroarea. Credem ca suntem generosi pentru ca il creditam pe aproapele nostru, care ne vor fi noua benefice" - Dorian Gray” - Oscar Wilde

36. “True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the "rejects of life," to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands--whether of individuals or entire peoples--need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world.” - Paulo Freire

37. “It wasn't that he was specially ungenerous but that he put things off to give his generosity a longer and more significant route.” - Saul Bellow

38. “If you can live with less of what you have. You can be more of who you are.” - Celso Cukierkorn

39. “Now yes, yes, creation sometimes screams a confusing message—fear, pain, grief. Fire burns, rivers flood, winds go hurricane, the earth shudders so hard it levels cities. But you must remember—this was not so in Eden. Mankind fell, surrendering this earth to the evil one. St. Paul says that creation groans for the day of its restoration (see Rom. 8:18–22), making it clear that everything is not as it was meant to be. People come to terrible conclusions when they assume this world is exactly as God intended. (An assumption that has wrought havoc in the sciences.) The earth is broken.Which only makes the beauty that does flow so generously that much more astounding. And reassuring.” - John Eldredge

40. “If you give what can be takes, you are not really giving.Take what you are given, not what you want to be given.Take what is given:Give what cannot be taken.” - Idries Shah

41. “God comes right out and tells us why he gives us more money than we need. It's not so we can find more ways to spend it. It's not so we can indulge ourselves and spoil our children. It's not so we can insulate ourselves from needing God's provision. It's so we can give and give generously (2 Corinthians 8:14; 9:11)” - Randy Alcorn

42. “God doesn't make us rich so we can indulge ourselves and spoil our children, or so we can insulate ourselves form needing God's provision. God gives us abundant material blessing so that we can give it away, and give it generously.” - Randy Alcorn

43. “The most truly generous persons are those who give silently without hope of praise or reward.” - Carol Ryrie Brink

44. “I've been so bothered with my property, that I'm tired of it, and don't mean to save up any more, but give it away as I go along, and then nobody will envy me, or want to steal it, and I shan't be suspecting folks and worrying about my old cash.” - Louisa May Alcott

45. “You know, Emily was a selfish old woman in her way. She was very generous, but she always wanted a return. She never let people forget what she had done for them - and, that way she missed love.” - Agatha Christie

46. “My generosity must bear a cost or there’d be no value in what you gain from it. There’d be no second thought for me, the tiny, humble mankin who came to save you. Is it right for a desperate soul to expect redemption for nothing? No. No, no. So, tell me, child, what will you give me in exchange for my services?"- from "Dimpellumpzki” - Richelle E. Goodrich

47. “They looked at me, and were so full of delight in the pleasure they were giving me that some final thread of resistance gave way and I understood not only how entirely generous they were but also that generosity might be the greatest pleasure there is.” - William Maxwell

48. “God really is a Father, as displeased with a cramped, niggardly attitude of lack as with its opposite.” - Brother Andrew

49. “A generous person may not have wisdom: but, unlike others, he has the means to gain it.” - Idries Shah

50. “If you want to call attention to your good deed then it isn't a good deed, it's a self-serving one. Why? Not only have you patted yourself on the back but you're fishing for others to do the same.” - Donna Lynn Hope

51. “Generosity has little to do with giving gifts, and everything to do with giving space to others to be who they are.” - Patti Digh

52. “Righteousness and generosity are inseparable. The person whose heart longs for God also longs to give to others.” - Dillon Burroughs

53. “Whether we live in poverty or prosperity, we can still live generously.” - Dillon Burroughs