From the World's Literature
Your most precious, valued possessions and your greatest powers are invisible and intangible. No one can take them. You, and you alone, can give them. You will receive abundance for your giving. --W. Clement Stone
You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if it's a little thing, do something for others - something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. --Albert Schweitzer
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. --Kahlil Gibran
Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I don't think you ever stop giving. I really don't. I think it's an on-going process. And it's not just about being able to write a check. It's being able to touch somebody's life. --Oprah Winfrey
The only gift is a portion of thyself. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
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
If we have the opportunity to be generous with our hearts, ourselves, we have no idea of the depth and breadth of love's reach. --Margaret Cho
If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give. --George MacDonald
What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give. --P. D. James
The manner of giving is worth more than the gift. --Pierre Corneille
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. --Winston Churchill
A hug is a great gift - one size fits all, and it's easy to exchange. --Unknown
A friend is a gift you give yourself. --Robert Louis Stevenson
To give and then not feel that one has given is the very best of all ways of giving. --Max Beerbohm
We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it. --John Lennon
What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. --Eleanor Powell
A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer. --Lucius Seneca
No one has ever become poor by giving. --Anne Frank
You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving. --Unknown
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. --Lao Tzu
I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
For it is in giving that we receive. --Francis of Assisi
It isn't the size of the gift that matters, but the size of the heart that gives it. --Eileen Elias Freeman
When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous. --Wayne Dyer
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. --William A. Ward
Ideal relationship is based on giving. --Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
The essential elements of giving are power and love - activity and affection - and the consciousness of the race testifies that in the high and appropriate exercise of these is a blessedness greater than any other. --Mark Hopkins
The degree of loving is measured by the degree of giving. --Edwin Louis Cole
Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process. --Jim Rohn
Giving is true having. --Charles Spurgeon
Source: Google: gifting quotation
From the World's Spiritual Traditions
Christianity. Luke 6.38:
Give, and it will be given to you... for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.
Shinto. Oracle of the Kami of Itsukushima:
Those who do not abandon mercy will not be abandoned by me.
Hinduism. Rig Veda 1.125.5:
He who gives liberally goes straight to the gods; on the high ridge of heaven he stands exalted.
Judaism. Mishnah, Abot 4.1:
Who is honored? He who honors mankind.
Islam. Qur'an 39.10:
Those who act kindly in this world will have kindness.
Tenrikyo. Ofudesaki 3.47:
Understand that through saving others you shall also be saved.
Taoism. Tao Te Ching 17:
It is only when one does not have enough faith in others that others will have no faith in him.
Islam. Qur'an 3.92:
You will not attain piety until you expend of what you love; and whatever thing you expend, God knows of it.
Buddhism. Itivuttaka 18:
If beings knew, as I know, the fruit of sharing gifts, they would not enjoy their use without sharing them, nor would the taint of stinginess obsess the heart and stay there. Even if it were their last bit, their last morsel of food, they would not enjoy its use without sharing it, if there were anyone to receive it.
Christianity. Acts 20.35:
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Buddhism. Sutra of Forty-two Sections 10:
The Buddha said, "When you see someone practicing the Way of giving, aid him joyously, and you will obtain vast and great blessings." A shramana asked: "Is there an end to those blessings?" The Buddha said, "Consider the flame of a single lamp. Though a hundred thousand people come and light their own lamps from it so that they can cook their food and ward off the darkness, the first lamp remains the same as before. Blessings are like this, too."
Confucianism. Great Learning 10.9:
The accumulation of wealth is the way to scatter the people, and the letting it be scattered among them is the way to collect the people.
Christianity. 2 Corinthians 9.6-11:
He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. As it is written,
He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures forever. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your resources and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for great generosity.
Islam. Qur'an 74.6-7:
Give not with the thought to gain, and be patient unto thy Lord.
Hinduism. Bhagavad Gita 17.20-21:
Giving simply because it is right to give, without thought of return, at a proper time, in proper circumstances, and to a worthy person, is enlightened giving. Giving with regrets or in the expectation of receiving some favor or of getting something in return, is selfish giving.
Islam. Qur'an 92.18-21:
He who gives his wealth to purify himself, and confers no favor on any man for recompense, only seeking the Face of his Lord the Most High; He shall surely be satisfied.
Buddhism. Garland Sutra 21:
Enlightening beings are magnanimous givers, bestowing whatever they have with equanimity, without regret, without hoping for reward, without seeking honor, without coveting material benefits, but only to rescue and safeguard all living beings.
Christianity. Luke 3:11:
He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.
Buddhism. Shantideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life 8.125:
"If I give this, what shall I [have left to] enjoy?" — Such selfish thinking is the way of the ghosts;
"If I enjoy this, what shall I [have left to] give?" — Such selfless thinking is a quality of the gods.
Confucianism. Mencius VII.B.11:
A man who is out to make a name for himself will be able to give away a state of a thousand chariots, but reluctance would be written all over his face if he had to give away a basketful of rice and a bowlful of soup when no such purpose was served.
Christianity. 2Corinthians 8:14:
But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality.
Source: World Scripture: A Comparative Anthrology of Sacred Texts,
Andrew Wilson, Ph.D., Editor, Paragon House, 1998,
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