Charity

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• He is rich who hath enough to be charitable; and it is hard to be so poor that a noble mind may not find a way to this piece of goodness.
  • Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, c 1633-5.

• Charity begins at home, is the voice of the world.
  • Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, ii. 4.

• Certainly it is a heaven upon earth to have a man's mind to move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.
  • Francis Bacon, Essays, 1, ‘Of Truth’.

• In charity there is no excess.
  • Francis Bacon, Essays, 13, ‘Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature’.

• We are obligated to be more scrupulous in fulfilling the commandment of charity than any other positive commandment because charity is the sign of a righteous man.
  • Maimonides, as quoted in A Maimonides Reader (1972) by Isadore Twersky, p. 135.

• In faith and hope the world will disagree,
  But all mankind's concern is charity.
  • Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, III. 303.

• Iniquum est conlapsis manum non porrigere; commune hoc ius generis humani est.
  • It is wrong not to give a hand to the fallen. This right is common to the whole human race.
  • Seneca the Elder, Controversiae , Bk. 1, ch. 1, sect. 14; translation from Norman T. Pratt Seneca's Drama (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983) p. 140.

• Charity itself fulfills the law.
  And who can sever love from charity?
  • William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, Sc. 3, l. 364.

• Charity,
  Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.
  • William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act I, Sc. 2, l. 68.

• To give to the needy alone is charity. All the rest is investment for a return.
  • Valluvar Tirukkural 221

• To receive is bad, even for good cause; and to give is good even if there is no Heaven.
  • Valluvar in Tirukkural 222

• Wiping out the hunger of the Have-nots, is the treasury in which the Haves should deposit their wealth.
  • Valluvar in Tirukkural 226

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

• Charity — gently to hear, kindly to judge.
  • Attributed to William Shakespeare, p. 46 (other sources include only the phrase "gently to hear, kindly to judge").

• Charity, like the sun, brightens every object on which it shines.

• Charity is that rational and constant affection, which makes us sacrifice ourselves to the human race, as if we were united with it, so as to form one individual, partaking equally in its adversity and prosperity.
  • Confucius, p. 46.

• Why should not our solemn duties, and our hastening end, render us so united, that personal contention would be impossible, in a general sympathy quickened by the breath of a forbearing and pitying charity?
  • Henry Giles, p. 47.

• If thou neglectest thy love to thy neighbor, in vain thou professest thy love to God; for by thy love to God, the love to thy neighbor is begotten, and by the love to thy neighbor, thy love to God is nourished.
  • Francis Quarles, p. 47.

• A life in any sphere that is the expression and outflow of an honest, earnest, loving heart, taking counsel only of God and itself, will be certain to be a life of beneficence in the best possible direction.
  • Josiah Gilbert Holland, p. 47.

• We may not substitute charity for godliness; but there is room for the Divine love in the heart which has been touched by the human.
  • William Morley Punshon, p. 47.

• An effort made for the happiness of others lifts us above ourselves.
  • Lydia Maria Child, p. 47.

• Earth has not a spectacle more glorious or more fair to show than this — love tolerating intolerance; charity covering, as with a vail, even the sin of the lack of charity.
  • Frederick William Robertson, p. 47.

• There is no dearth of charity in the world in giving, but there is comparatively little exercised in thinking and speaking.
  • Sir Philip Sidney, p. 47.

• I have more confidence in the charity which begins in the home and diverges into a large humanity, than in the worldwide philanthropy which begins at the outside of our horizon to converge into egotism.
  • Mrs. Jameson, p. 48.

• Nothing will make us so charitable and tender to the faults of others as by self-examination thoroughly to know our own.
  • François Fénelon, p. 48.

Unsourced

• "Charity is the father of sacrifice." ~ Anonymous

• "Not to aid one in distress is to kill him in your heart." ~ Anonymous

• "Charity usually starts from where you can just about afford it." ~ Anonymous

• "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life" ~ English Proverb

• "Charity begins at home and justice begins next door." ~ Charles Dickens