quotations about benevolence
The administration of government lies in getting proper men. Such men are to be got by means of the ruler's own character. That character is to be cultivated by his treading in the ways of duty. And the treading those ways of duty is to be cultivated by the cherishing of benevolence.
CONFUCIUS
The Doctrine of the Mean
Benevolent people are very apt to be one-sided and fussy, and not of the sweetest temper if others will not be good and happy in their way.
ARTHUR HELPS
Friends in Council
Vengeful benevolence is what I promised you
A dark and everlasting love
THE METEORS
"When Darkness Falls"
You find people ready enough to do the Samaritan, without the oil and twopence.
SYDNEY SMITH
Memoir of Smith
Benevolence is love to all men. It is to know all men.
CONFUCIUS
The Sayings of Confucius
At one time the benevolent affections embrace merely the family, soon the circle expanding includes first a class, then a nation, then a coalition of nations, then all humanity, and finally, its influence is felt in the dealings of man with the animal world. In each of these stages a standard is formed, different from that of the preceding stage, but in each case the same tendency is recognised as virtue.
W.E.H. LECKY
History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne
Scatter plenty o'er a smiling land.
THOMAS GRAY
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
Often have I heard it said, what good thing you do, do not defer it.
ALBERTANO OF BRESCIA
Liber Consolationis et Consilii
No rich man is safe, but in the imitation of that benevolent God, who is the dispenser of all the riches in the universe.
ORVILLE DEWEY
Moral Views of Commerce, Society, and Politics
How easy is it for one benevolent being to diffuse pleasure around him, and how truly is a kind heart a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity to freshen into smiles.
WASHINGTON IRVING
"The Christmas Dinner", The Sketch Book
Feel for others--in your pocket.
C.H. SPURGEON
Salt-Cellars
When it comes to giving some people stop at nothing.
DANISH PROVERB
We have every reason to conclude that moral action extends over the whole empire of God, that Benevolence exerts its noblest energies among the inhabitants of distant worlds, and that it is chiefly through the medium of reciprocal kindness and affection that ecstatic joy pervades the hearts of celestial intelligences, for we cannot conceive happiness to exist in any region of space, or among any class of intellectual beings, where love to the Creator and to one another is not a prominent and permanent affection.
THOMAS DICK
The Complete Works of Thomas Dick
Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment.
C. S. LEWIS
The Problem of Pain
While I crawl upon this planet I think myself obliged to do what good I can in my narrow domestic sphere, to all my fellow-creatures, and to wish them all the good I cannot do.
LORD CHESTERFIELD
letter to the Bishop of Waterford, January 22, 1780
Benevolence is often very peremptory.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
Of Human Bondage
'Tis a kindly action, believe me, to assist the fallen.
OVID
Epistulae ex Ponto
It is the business of the benevolent man to seek to promote what is beneficial to the world and to eliminate what is harmful, and to provide a model for the world. What benefits he will carry out; what does not benefit men he will leave alone.
MAZI
Mazi
The most melancholy of human reflections, perhaps, is that, on the whole, it is a question whether the benevolence of mankind does most good or harm.
WALTER BAGEHOT
Physics and Politics
Every virtue carries with it its own reward, but none so distinguished and pre-eminent in degree as benevolence.
ROBERT PEDDER BUDDICOM
attributed, Day's Collacon