We use the word generosity to refer to the virtue of giving good things to others freely and abundantly. Inspirational generosity quotes will challenge the way you think, and help guide you through any life experience.
If you’re searching for character sayings and being honest quotes that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of famous accountability quotes, famous curiosity quotes, and famous envy quotes.
Most Famous Generosity Quotes
Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion. – Mahatma Gandhi
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
Be the change you wish you wish to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi
There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up. – John Holmes
A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines. – Ben Franklin
You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
A thing is bigger for being shared. – Gaelic
Generosity: The habit of giving freely without expecting anything in return. – Unknown
It takes generosity to discover the whole through others. If you realize you are only a violin, you can open yourself up to the world by playing your role in the concert. – Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Generosity is giving more than you can. – Khalil Gibran
Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. – Steve Maraboli
To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart and a free mind. – Pearl S. Buck
Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Goodness is about character, integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people. – Dennis Prager
Be just before you are generous. – E. Haywood
Give even an onion, graciously. – Afghan
With gentleness, overcome anger. With generosity, overcome meanness. With truth, overcome delusion. – The Buddha
Generosity is the most natural outward expression of an inner attitude of compassion. – Unknown
You often say, ‘I would give, but only to the deserving.’ The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish. – Kahlil Gibran
The heart that gives, gathers. – Tao Te Ching
Generosity isn’t about money, it’s about the heart. – Unknown
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
Generosity is the most natural outward expression of an inner attitude of compassion and loving-kindness. – The Dalai Lama XIV
Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity. – Simone Weil
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
Good words are worth much and cost little. – George Herbert
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
Being generous often consists of simply extending a hand. That’s hard to do if you are grasping tightly to your righteousness, your belief system, your superiority, your assumptions about others, your definition of normal. – Patti Digh
Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out. – Frank Howard Clark
If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one. – Mother Teresa
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. – Winston Churchill
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Generosity, kindness, honesty, humor – makes us truly rich. – Waylon Lewis
Where grace happens generosity happens. – Max Lucado
True generosity is an offering; given freely and out of pure love. No strings attached. No expectations. Time and love are the most valuable possession you can share. – Suze Orman
Great spenders are bad lenders. – Ben Franklin
If you have, give; if you lack, seek. – Malay
It is better to return a borrowed pot with a little something you last cooked in it. – Omaha
The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self. – Fred Rogers
The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving. – Albert Einstein
We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers. – Seneca
From the heart, it has come, to the heart, it shall go. – Beethoven’s inscription on his Mass
Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. – Khalil Gibran
I am a generous man, by nature, and far more trusting than I should be. Indeed. The real world is risky territory for people with generosity of spirit. Beware. – Hunter S. Thompson
Be a warrior when it comes to delivering on your ambitions. And a saint when it comes to treating people with respect, modeling generosity, and showing up with outright love. – Robin S. Sharma
It is said that you can’t take it with you; I say there are two things you can take with you: the things you do for others and the things you do to others. – Harold H. Conrett Jr.
Nice words are free, so choose ones that please another’s ears. – Vietnamese
No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted. – Aesop
You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you. – John Bunyan
Give the generous life. – Unknown
Make generosity part of your growth strategy. – Unknown
It is the heart that does the giving; the fingers only let go. – Nigerian proverb
It could be said that while the accumulation of personal wealth is a desirable social norm in mainstream American culture, just the opposite is true in American Indian cultures. . . . At its best, a potlatch was a way to redistribute material wealth rather than leaving it in the hands of a few. – Joseph Bruchac
Happiness is not made by what we own. It is what we share. – Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Don’t wait for other people to be loving, giving, compassionate, grateful, forgiving, generous, or friendly, lead the way. – Steve Maraboli
To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness. – Confucius
Nothing is impossible to the willing heart. – John Heywood
One good turn deserves another. – Aesop
One hand for yourself and one for the ship. – Unknown
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. – Kahlil Gibran
Sustainability, ensuring the future of life on Earth, is an infinite game, the endless expression of generosity on behalf of all. – Paul Hawken
Please all and you will soon please none. – Aesop
Poor people share with the heart. – Haitian
Sacrificing means more. – Unknown
Generosity could be as contagious as the zombie plague as long as enough people were willing to be carriers. – Jonathan Maberry
A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things that renew humanity. – Unknown
Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present. – Albert Camus
Generosity isn’t an act. It’s a way of life. – Chip Ingram
Scatter with one hand; gather with two. – Welsh
What you do to others will bear fruit in you. – Singhalese
Without kindness there can be no true joy. – Thomas Carlyle
Money is but one venue for generosity. Kindness is an even more valuable currency. – Alan Cohen
You can’t please everyone. – Unknown
You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. – Ben Franklin
You may light another’s candle at your own without loss. – Danish
You do not have to be rich to be generous. – Unknown
A generous person will prosper. – Unknown
The greatest way to learn the genius of generosity is to practice it in real time with others. – Chip Ingram
Sometimes, we need only to look at the sunrise to see the generosity of God. – Jocelyn Soriano
Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege. – John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another’s pain, life is not in vain. – Helen Keller
Your time is the greatest gift you can give to someone. – Unknown
Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present. – Albert Camus
You will discover that you have two hands. One is for helping yourself and the other is for helping others. – Audrey Hepburn
The law of prosperity is generosity. If you want more, give more. – Bob Proctor
Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give. – Eleanor Roosevelt
Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out. – Frank A. Clark
Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do. – Khalil Gibran
Generosity is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it away. To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives. – Jean-Paul Sartre
No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave. – Calvin Coolidge
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. – Barbara Bush
My intent is to be generous of spirit and live with total integrity every day of my life. – Deepak Chopra
Generosity is the best investment. – Diane Con Furstenberg
The most generous persons are those who give silently without hope of praise or reward. – Carol Ryrie Brink
Some people are afraid of generosity. They feel they will be taken advantage of or oppressed. In cultivating generosity, we are only oppressing our greed and attachment. This allows our true nature to come out and become lighter and freer. – Ajahn Chah
Generosity could be as contagious as the zombie plague as long as enough people were willing to be carriers. – Jonathan Maberry
Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself. – Og Mandino
Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else’s life forever. – Margaret Cho
Generosity takes an open heart and a love that asks for nothing in return. – Unknown
Being generous of spirit is a wonderful way to live. – Pete Seeger
Generosity is the flower of justice. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Every minute of every hour of every day you are making the world just as you are making yourself, and you might as well do it with generosity and kindness and style. – Rebecca Solnit
Minds, nevertheless, are not conquered by arms, but by love and generosity. – Baruch Spinoza
The only gift is a portion of thyself. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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
He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either. – Friedrich Nietzsche
Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more likely one will be to treat others with respect, kindness, and generosity. – Nathaniel Branden
Generosity consists not the sum given, but the manner in which it is bestowed. – Anonymous
One would give generous alms if one had the eyes to see the beauty of a cupped receiving hand. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others. – Mahatma Gandhi
Generosity is an activity that loosens us up. By offering whatever we can a dollar, a flower, a word of encouragement we are training in letting go. – Pema Chodron
Through radical generosity we are awakening people. – Bill Johnson
Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity. – Albert Camus
A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. – Buddha
Ah! What pleasure it must be to a woman to suffer for the one she loves! – Honoré de Balzac
If we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we fear guilt or retribution. – J.M. Coetzee
Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing. – Alexander Pope
It is through generous giving, that we affirm before the world, our nation’s faith in the inalienable right of every man, to a life of freedom, justice and security. – Harry S. Truman
Giving is God’s way. It is the way that I now understand is the truth of the Universe. Giving multiplies me and makes me feel complete and fulfilled. Giving makes me feel that I make a real and important difference. – Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen
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
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
True generosity is too frequently eaten up by prosperity and riches. – Ellen G. White
Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity. – Albert Camus
It is a powerful practice to be generous when you are the one feeling in need. – Allan Lokos
As desire abates, generosity is born. When we are connected and present, what else is there to do but give? – Jack Kornfield
Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man. – Adam Smith
Pride only helps us to be generous; it never makes us so, any more than vanity makes us witty. – George Eliot
Our only hope lies in the power of our love, generosity, tolerance and understanding and our commitment to making the world a better place for all. – Muhammad Ali
Your greatness is not what you have, it’s what you give. – Unknown
Generosity is not giving me that which I need that you do, but it is giving me that which you need more that I do. – Kahlil Gibran
Silence the angry man with love. Silence the ill-natured man with kindness. Silence the miser with generosity. Silence the liar with truth. – Gautama Buddha
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. – Swami Satchidananda
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. – Horace Mann
Never measure your generosity by what you give, but rather by what you have left. – Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
Generosity is the flower of justice. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
But I give best when I give from that deeper place; when I give simply, freely and generously, and sometimes for no particular reason. I give best when I give from my heart. – Steve Goodier
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
I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing 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
When you become detached mentally from yourself and concentrate on helping other people with their difficulties, you will be able to cope with your own more effectively. Somehow, the act of self-giving is a personal power-releasing factor. – Norman Vincent Peale
Listen with regard when others talk. Give your time and energy to others; let others have their own way; do things for reasons other than furthering your own needs. – Larry Scherwitz
I gave you all my secrets and you lost them all. You lost a lot of things.But the treasure of it was in the giving, not the keeping. – Julio-Alexi Genao
Unless we think of others and do something for them, we miss one of the greatest sources of happiness. – Ray Lyman Wilbur
Give a bowl of rice to a man and you will feed him for a day. Teach him how to grow his own rice and you will save his life. – Confucius
