66+ Best Reciprocity Quotes: Exclusive Selection

Reciprocity is behaviour in which two people or groups of people give each other help and advantages. Profoundly inspirational reciprocity quotes will fire up your brain and encourage you to look at life differently while making you laugh.

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Famous Reciprocity Quotes

There is one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one’s life reciprocity. Confucius

It’s not equality that counts, it’s reciprocity that counts. Love is not like a balance sheet. There’s no such thing as double entry accounting when it comes to love. Debra Ollivier

The basis of social relationships is reciprocity: if you cooperate with others, others will cooperate with you. Carroll Quigley

Recognize and admit that you are emotionally attached to and dependent on your partner in much the same way that a child is on a parent for nurturing, soothing, and protection. Adult attachments may be more reciprocal and less centered on physical contact, but the nature of the emotional bond is the same.

Abundance is a dance with reciprocity of what we can give, what we can share, and what we receive in the process. Terry Tempest Williams

Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Reciprocity is a deep instinct; it is the basic currency of social life. Jonathan Haidt

In some Native languages the term for plants translates to “those who take care of us. Robin Wall Kimmerer

When a man is guided by the principles of reciprocity and consciousness, he is not far from the moral law. Whatever you don’t wish for yourself don’t do unto others. Confucius

Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one way street into a sacred bond. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Peace is not just the absence of war, it is the active presence of a capacity for love and compassion, and reciprocity. It is an awareness that our lives are not to be lived simply for ourselves through expressing our individuality, but we confirm the purpose of our lives through the work of expressing our shared sense of community in a purposeful and practical way; to sustain our own lives we sustain the lives of others in family, in a community of neighborhoods called a city, and in a community of nations called the world. Dennis Kucinich

The trees act not as individuals, but somehow as a collective. Exactly how they do this, we don’t yet know. But what we see is the power of unity. What happens to one happens to us all. We can starve together or feast together. Robin Wall Kimmerer

We must remember how to honor and respect life with each breath, step, word, and thought. What you bless blesses you in return. This is the power of reciprocity. Sandra Ingerman

Joanna Macy writes that until we can grieve for our planet we cannot love it  grieving is a sign of spiritual health. But it is not enough to weep for our lost landscapes; we have to put our hands in the earth to make ourselves whole again. Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Robin Wall Kimmerer

A little reciprocity goes a long way. Malcolm Forbes

We need acts of restoration, not only for polluted waters and degraded lands, but also for our relationship to the world. We need to restore honor to the way we live, so that when we walk through the world we don’t have to avert our eyes with shame, so that we can hold our heads up high and receive the respectful acknowledgment of the rest of the earth’s beings. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Reciprocity, a symbiotic relationship, is a relationship in which two people have worked out certain terms. I am using you in certain ways; you are using me in certain ways. That is a balanced relationship. Frederick Lenz , Reciprocal quotes relationships

Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us. Robin Wall Kimmerer

The universe is a vast system of exchange. Every artery of it is in motion, throbbing with reciprocity, from the planet to the rotting leaf. Edwin Hubbel Chapin

If citizenship is a matter of shared beliefs, then I believe in the democracy of species. If citizenship means an oath of loyalty to a leader, then I choose the leader of the trees. If good citizens agree to uphold the laws of the nation, then I choose natural law, the law of reciprocity, of regeneration, of mutual flourishing. Robin Wall Kimmerer

True community is based upon equality, mutuality, and reciprocity. It affirms the richness of individual diversity as well as the common human ties that bind us together. Pauli Murray

This is really why I made my daughters learn to garden  so they would always have a mother to love them, long after I am gone. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Is it possible for a person to love without wanting love back? Is anything so pure? Or is love, by its nature, a reciprocity, like oceans and clouds, an evaporating of seawater and replenishing by rain? Alan Lightman

The land knows you, even when you are lost. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Tell me who I’ve got to be, to get some reciprocity Lauryn Hill

It’s not just land that is broken, but more importantly, our relationship to land. Robin Wall Kimmerer

If you ask anyone, what is morality based on? These are the two factors that always come out: One is reciprocity, a sense of fairness, and the other one is empathy and compassion. Frans de Waal

Transformation is not accomplished by tentative wading at the edge. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Lack of reciprocity ruins friendships, but makes love affairs exciting for a time. Mason Cooley

Suppression of our natural responses to disaster is part of the disease of our time. The refusal to acknowledge these responses causes a dangerous splitting. It divorces our mental calculations from our intuitive, emotional, and biological embeddedness in the matrix of life. That split allows us passively to acquiesce in the preparations for our own demise. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Whenever you feel short or in need of something, give what you want first and it will come back in buckets. That is true for money, a smile, love, friendship. I know it is often the last thing a person may want to do, but it has always worked for me. I just trust that the principle of reciprocity is true, and I give what I want. Robert Kiyosaki , Reciprocal quotes friendship

We are showered every day with gifts, but they are not meant for us to keep. Their life is in their movement, the inhale and the exhale of our shared breath. Our work and our joy is to pass along the gift and to trust that what we put out into the universe will always come back. Robin Wall Kimmerer

The universe is a vast system of exchange. Every artery of it is in motion, throbbing with reciprocity, from the planet to the rotting leaf. The vapor climbs the sunbeam, and comes back in blessings upon the exhausted herb. The exhalation of the plant is wafted to the ocean. And so goes on the beautiful commerce of nature. And all because of dissimilarity because no one thing is sufficient in itself, but calls for the assistance of something else, and repays by a contribution in turn. Edwin Hubbel Chapin

To love a place is not enough. We must find ways to heal it. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of happy mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give. Bertrand Russell

It was through her actions of reciprocity, the give and take with the land, that the original immigrant became indigenous. For all of us, becoming indigenous to a place means living as if your children’s future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. Robert A. Heinlein

If grief can be a doorway to love, then let us all weep for the world we are breaking apart so we can love it back to wholeness again. Robin Wall Kimmerer

What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others. Confucius

All powers have two sides, the power to create and the power to destroy. We must recognize them both, but invest our gifts on the side of creation. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Hospitality is always an act that benefits the host even more than the guest. The concept of hospitality arose in ancient times when reciprocity was easier to see: in nomadic cultures, the food and shelter one gave to a stranger yesterday is the food and shelter one hopes to receive from a stranger tomorrow. By offering hospitality, one participates in the endless reweaving of a social fabric on which all can depend thus the gift of sustenance for the guest becomes a gift of hope for the host. Parker J. Palmer

I am obligated to respond in a way that fits what they did.

Tsze Kung asked, Is there one word with which to act in accordance throughout a lifetime? The Master said, Is not reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others. Confucius

What goes around comes around.

No love is ever wasted. Its worth does not lie in reciprocity. Neal A. Maxwell

The Course, as you might imagine, is not too big on reciprocity. After all, forgiveness, its central teaching, is a clear case of non reciprocity: someone attacks you, and you respond with love. Here are some images of non reciprocity in the Course.

Unconditional love. That’s what he wants to give her and what he wants from her. People should give without wanting anything in return. All other giving is selfish. But he is being a little selfish, isn’t he, by wanting her to love him in return? He hopes that she loves him in return. Is it possible for a person to love without wanting love back? Is anything so pure? Or is love, by its nature, a reciprocity, like oceans and clouds, an evaporating of seawater and a replenishing of rain? Alan Lightman

Here, someone demands that you do something outrageous. To reciprocate would be to respond with outrage, right? Yet instead, you happily comply, not out of fear, but out of love.

The need to speak the truth and even to seek it for oneself is only conceivable in so far as the individual thinks and acts as one of a society, and not of any society for it is just the constraining relations between superior and inferior that often drive the latter to prevarication but of a society founded on reciprocity and mutual respect, and therefore on cooperation. Jean Piaget , Reciprocal quotes respect

It is expected that a patient in Course-based therapy will at times feel that his insane thought system is threatened by the light of sanity. He will view the therapist as the source of this threat, and will therefore attack him. The therapist’s job is to meet attack without attacking a case of non reciprocity if there ever was one.

I’ve argued that many of what philosophers call moral sentiments can be seen in other species. In chimpanzees and other animals, you see examples of sympathy, empathy, reciprocity, and a willingness to follow social rules. Dogs are a good example of a species that have and obey social rules; that’s why we like them so much, even though they’re large carnivores. Frans de Waal

Here, the adult is fully in his rights to scold the child, at least according to the law of reciprocity. But he doesn’t. He responds with kindness.

Love is a mutual self giving which ends in self recovery. Fulton J. Sheen

This is essentially the same as the previous one. Rather than returning insanity for insanity, you see his insanity as a chance to bless him.

When one cultivates to the utmost the principles of his nature, and exercises them on the principle of reciprocity, he is not far from the path. Confucius

Listen to the story of the prodigal son, and learn what God’s treasure is and yours:

I think that all moralities adequately serving the function of fostering social cooperation must contain a norm of reciprocity a norm of returning good for good received. Such a norm is a necessity, I argue, because it helps relieve the strains on motivation of contributing to social cooperation when it comes into conflict with self interest. David Wong

Most Course students will recognize that what Jesus is talking about here is his crucifixion. In this light, the message of the crucifixion was a demonstration of non-reciprocity: They assaulted him; he responded with forgiveness and defenselessness. Notice the parallels between this passage and our first one above

Reciprocity helps us balance the need for self determination and creative individuality with mutual hope, and therefore what might be described as solidarity  David Blunkett

Someone in class pointed out how much we have distorted the crucifixion, if this is true. For we have turned it into a story of reciprocity God needed to balance the books; He needed someone to pay for mankind’s sins. How ironic this would be if Jesus intended it all along as a demonstration of non reciprocity.

Happiness is like a kiss. You must share it to enjoy it Bernard Meltzer

Don’t react violently against the one who is evil:

Between women love is contemplative; caresses are intended less to gain possession of the other than gradually to re create the self through her; separateness is abolished, there is no struggle, no victory, no defeat; in exact reciprocity each is at once subject and object, sovereign and slave; duality become mutuality. Simone de Beauvoir

Here, in all three cases, someone tries to take from you your physical well-being and your dignity. Reciprocity would dictate that you try at least to protect your well being and dignity, and at most try to take his. Yet instead, you freely give what this person tried to take, and then go ahead and give twice as much!