Quotes about Giving/Kindness | Energize: Volunteer Management Resources for Directors of Volunteers

We post quotables by newest submissions first.

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own.

-- Benjamin Disraeli Submitted by several colleagues

We are not here to enjoy the things on earth, but to pass them around. The people who do it are the happiest people you know!

-- President George Bush Submitted by Redd Torres Eakin

You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.

-- Henry Drummond Submitted by Linda Soos-Davis

May I never get too busy in my own affairs that I fail to respond to the needs of others with kindness and compassion.

-- Thomas Jefferson Submitted by Rex Morey

You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson Submitted by Dena Spanos-Hawkey

When giving comes directly from the heart, it can never disappoint or embarrass.

-- Bel Kaufman Submitted by Lynne Ferrell

With a sweet tongue and kindness, you can drag an elephant by a hair.

-- Persian Proverb Submitted by Mike Corbin, Membership Chair, Metropolitan Detroit Volunteer Administration Network

If you want to touch the past TOUCH A ROCK. If you want to touch the present TOUCH A ROSE. If you want to touch the future TOUCH A LIFE.

Submitted by Elaine Sonmor, Program Coordinator, Successful Mothers Support Program, Battlefords Health District, Saskatchewan, Canada

All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own.

Submitted by Dorothy Thompson, SCP Director-The Salvation Army, NJ, USA

When you stop giving and offering something to the rest of the world, it's time to turn out the lights.

-- George Burns Submitted by Anna Soulek, Student, Wyoming, USA

Some get and forget. Some give and forgive.

-- Marquis on a street corner Submitted by Fr. Bryan Bayda, The Welcome Home, Manitoba

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

-- Aesop Submitted by Judy P. King, Director of Volunteer Services, Georgia

There are two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we receive, and the larger kind we feel for what we give.

-- Edward Arlington Robinson Submitted by Katherine Morton, Volunteer Program Coordinator, AIDS Calgary Awareness Association, Calgary, AB Canada

Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received - only what you have given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage.

-- St. Francis of Assisi Submitted by Claire Rochon, Manager, Fund Development, Street Kids International, Canada

It's good to be blessed. It's better to be a blessing.

Submitted by Kathy Carter, Volunteer Coordinator of Foster Care Citizen Review of Palm Beach County

Destiny is not necessarily what we get out of life, but rather, what we give.

-- Cary Grant Submitted by Diego Ojanio Franco, Chairman, The Cedarwork Project, Inc., Quezon City, Philippines

Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

-- I John 3:18 Submitted by Mike Corbin, Membership Chair, Metropolitan Detroit Volunteer Administration Network

If you can't go where people are happier, try to make people happier where you are.

-- Ashleigh Brilliant Submitted by Mike Corbin, Membership Chair, Metropolitan Detroit Volunteer Administration Network

I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore 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 Submitted by Mike Corbin, Membership Chair, Metropolitan Detroit Volunteer Administration Network

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson Submitted by Fiona Dawe, Executive Director, YouthNet, London, England

You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.

-- Winston Churchill Submitted by Elise Slobodin, Planning Executive, UJA-Federation, New York USA

Too often we under-estimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

-- Dr. Felice Leonardo Buscaglia Submitted by several colleagues

If you insist on measuring yourself, place the tape around your heart rather than your head.

-- Carol Trabelle Submitted by Caitlin Rohrer, Girl Scouts, Trillium Council, Pennsylvania

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

-- Mercy Mission Kenya Submitted by Henri Nouwen

If just one person believes in you
Deep enough and strong enough
Believes in you hard enough and long enough
Before you knew it, someone else would think "If he can do it, I can do it"
Making it two.
Two whole people who believe in you.
And maybe even you can believe in you too.

-- Robin and the Muppet Gang, from "It's Not Easy Being Green and Other Things to Consider" Submitted by April

If you don't have any charity in your heart you have the worst kind of heart trouble.

-- Bob Hope Submitted by Judi Reed

The road to success is not crowded. Because while most are looking for ways to take, the truly successful people are finding ways to give. With a giving attitude, every situation is an opportunity for success.

Submitted by Gracie Harrison

A pessimist, they say, sees a glass of water as being half empty; an optimist sees the same glass as half full. But a giving person sees a glass of water and starts looking for someone who might be thirsty.

-- G. Thomas Gale Submitted by Diane Klebanow

Being good is commendable, but only when it is combined with doing good is it useful.

Submitted by Bernadette Bowie

No one cares what you know, unless they know that you care.

Submitted by Charles D. Powell

It is imperative to ask our self every morning "what will I give those around me today?

One cannot feel self-worth without giving.

Submitted by Hisham El Rouby