60 Philanthropy Quotes Inspiring Altruism and Generosity

It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.
- Albert Einstein

Never respect men merely for their riches, but rather for their philanthropy; we do not value the sun for its height, but for its use.
- Gamaliel Bailey

The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.
- William James

What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.
- Albert Pine

We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it.
- James Baldwin

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
- John F. Kennedy

A man of humanity is one who, in seeking to establish himself, finds a foothold for others and who, in desiring attaining himself, helps others to attain.
- Confucius

The best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.
- Benjamin Franklin

One of the big myths about philanthropy is that it's all about donating funds for a cause. I like to look at it quite differently. Philanthropy is about 'giving' - not just in monetary terms but also in non-monetary aspects, like time, ideas, or being a volunteer. Donating money is just a small part of philanthropy.
- Pankaj Patel

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

Any good that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
- Mahatma Gandhi

The value of a man resides in what he gives.
- Albert Einstein

Gain all you can without harm to mind or body, your own or your neighbor’s, by honest industry and by common sense. Save all you can to keep yourself, as well as your children from prodigal desires…. And, finally, as God placed you here not as a proprietor, but a steward, give all you can.
- John Wesley

I want to be the pebble in the pond that creates the ripple for change.
- Tim Cook

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead

Let no one be discouraged by the belief that there is nothing one person can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills… Each of us can work to change a small portion of events. And in the total of all those acts will be written the history of a generation.
- Robert F. Kennedy

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
- Helen Keller

Do not give, as many rich men do, like a hen that lays her egg and then cackles.
- Henry Ward Beecher

Benevolence today has become altogether too huge an undertaking to be conducted otherwise than on business lines.
- Julius Rosenwald

Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner.
- Warren Buffett

Effective philanthropy requires a lot of time and creativity - the same kind of focus and skills that building a business requires.
- Bill Gates

To give away money is an easy matter and 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

As the furnace purifies the silver, so does charity rid wealth of its dross.
- William Downey

Every good act is charity. A man's true wealth hereafter is the good that he does in this world to his fellows.
- Molière

Men have committed murder for jealousy’s sake, and anger’s sake, and hatred’s sake, and selfishness’ sake, and spiritual pride’s sake; but no man that ever I heard of ever committed a diabolical murder for sweet charity’s sake.
- Herman Melville

Nothing contributes more to make men polite and civilized, than true and genuine charity.
- Wellins Calcott

If you combine all the spectral rays into a single beam, you get white light; and if you combine all the virtues into a single beam you get charity.
- Austin O’Malley

Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven.
- Henry Ward Beecher

The best philanthropy is not just about giving money but giving leadership. The best philanthropists bring the gifts that made them successful—the drive, the determination, the refusal to accept that something can’t be done if it needs to be—into their philanthropy.
- Tony Blair

The true friend of the people should see that they be not too poor, for extreme poverty lowers the character of the democracy.
- Aristotle

Earlier in this century, philanthropy often flowed from the wills of dead industrialists. In recent decades, it’s as likely to have come from a very alive business leader.
- Michael Milken

Rich men are neither better nor worse than all other humans. They contribute to greatness or mediocrity, strength of character or weakness in exactly the same proportion as persons in all other walks of life do.
- Julius Rosenwald

Life’s persistent and most urgent question is 'What are you doing for others?'
- Martin Luther King Jr.

If you’re in the luckiest 1% of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99%.
- Warren Buffett

You look at things you enjoy in your life, but much more important is what you can do to make the world a better place.
- Paul Allen

Shouldn't you put the same amount of effort into your giving as you might for your for-profit investments? After all, philanthropy is an investment, and one in which lives - not profits - are at stake.
- Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen

If you want to do something for your children and show how much you love them, the single best thing—by far—is to support organizations that will create a better world for them and their children.
- Michael Bloomberg

Some writers have so confounded society with government as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins.
- Thomas Paine

Neither the individual nor the race is improved by almsgiving. The best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise.
- Andrew Carnegie

I resolved to stop accumulating and begin the infinitely more serious and difficult task of wise distribution.
- Andrew Carnegie

It is more difficult to give money away intelligently than to earn it in the first place.
- Andrew Carnegie

Wealth is not to feed our egos, but to feed the hungry and to help people help themselves.
- Andrew Carnegie

As I grew older it seemed that I was not making a big enough difference, particularly given my own incredible good fortune. I went from feeling content that things were going well, to realizing that I hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface of what needed to be done.
- Richard Branson

Is the rich world aware of how 4 billion of the 6 billion live? If we were aware, we would want to help out, we’d want to get involved.
- Bill Gates

I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and appropriate use of wealth than to give while one is living…. Interventions have greater value and impact today than if they are delayed.
- Charles Feeney

No one has ever become poor by giving.
- Anne Frank

As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way.
- Mary Anne Radmacher ‍

My theme for philanthropy is the same approach I used with technology: to find a need and fill it.
- An Wang

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.
- George Eliot

That best portion of a good man’s life: His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.
- William Wordsworth

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
- Winston Churchill

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.
- Albert Camus

The proper aim of giving is to put the recipients in a state where they no longer need our gifts.
- C. S. Lewis

It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.
- Mother Teresa

It is a misconception that corporate or government support has ever provided the majority of arts funding. Each U.S. citizen pays about the cost of one postage stamp in taxes to support national arts. The real stars of arts giving are individual donors, who give more to arts than corporations and government entities combined.
- Beth Nathanson

How about no income tax at all on people over 65? People would continue working, remain healthier, not be an economic and social drain on society. Then the elderly would also have more disposable income to help charitable activities.
- John Templeton

In the modern era, government has been seen as society’s problem-solving agency, the place people go to address every conceivable need. This assumption of government omnipotence has profoundly influenced the evolution of philanthropy. The principal function of a philanthropic group becomes interesting government in carrying out its goal, rather than being a problem-solving institution in its own right.
- James Payne

Speeches by businessmen on social responsibility…may gain them kudos in the short run. But it helps to strengthen the already too prevalent view that the pursuit of profits is wicked…. There is one and only one social responsibility of business-to…engage in open and free competition without deception or fraud.
- Milton Friedman

Historically, Americans did not raise funds by appealing to donors’ guilt, or by urging them to ‘give back’ to society. Instead, they appealed to their fellow citizens’ ideals and aspirations, their religious principles, and their desire to create.
- Adam Meyerson