Benevolence Quotes - Page 11

• Humanity, perhaps, that quality of benevolence that humans have, without irony, named after themselves.

  Laini Taylor

  Humanity, Quality, Irony

  Laini Taylor (2011). “Daughter of Smoke and Bone: Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy”, p.43, Hachette UK

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• I think you may judge of a man’s character by the persons whose affection he seeks. If you find a man seeking only the affection of those who are great, depend upon it he is ambitious and self-seeking; but when you observe that a man seeks the affection of those who can do nothing for him, but for whom he must do everything, you know that he is not seeking himself, but that pure benevolence sways his heart.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Heart, Character, Men

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• Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

  John Calvin

  Heart, Promise, Mind

  John Calvin (1975). “John Calvin: Selections from His Writings”, p.380, Oxford University Press

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• Capital must be propelled by self-interest; it cannot be enticed by benevolence.

  Walter Bagehot

  Self, Interest, Self Interest

  Walter Bagehot, Richard Holt Hutton (1889). “The Works of Walter Bagehot: With Memoirs by R. H. Hutton”

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• There is in Aristotle an almost complete absence of what may be called benevolence or philanthropy. The sufferings of mankind . . . there is no evidence that they cause him unhappiness except when the sufferers happen to be his friends.

  Bertrand Russell

  Suffering, May, Causes

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.177, Routledge

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

  Julius Rosenwald

  Lines, Today, Huge

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• I rejoice that the reign of Christ is such, while it thrills the soul with emotions, and opens before the highest intellect the most ooundless conceptions, we are left at the same time ready, though our hearts be thrilled, to have our hands filled for deeds of benevolence and love. The happiest moments may be the busiest moments.

  Matthew Simpson

  Heart, Hands, Soul

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• Religion, charity, pure benevolence, and morals, mingled up with superstitious rites and ferocious cruelty, form in their combination institutions the most powerful and the most pernicious that have ever afflicted mankind.

  John Quincy Adams

  Powerful, Charity, Moral

  John Quincy Adams (2017). “John Quincy Adams: Diaries 1821-1848”, p.329, Library of America

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• If the prince of a State love benevolence, he will have no opponent in all the empire.

  Mencius

  Love Is, Government, Opponents

  Confucius, Mencius, Ming Zuoqiu, Tso-ch'iu Ming (1861). “The Chinese Classics”, p.174

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• He who outrages benevolence is called a ruffian: he who outrages righteousness is called a villain. I have heard of the cutting off of the villain Chow, but I have not heard of the putting of a ruler to death.

  Mencius

  Cutting, Ruffian, Villain

  "The Mencius". 1B:8, as translated in "China" (1904) by Sir Robert Kennaway Douglas, p. 8, c. 300 BC.

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• There needs no small degree of address to gain the reputation of benevolence without incurring the expense.

  Richard Brinsley Sheridan

  Degrees, Needs, Addresses

  1777 Joseph Surface. The School for Scandal, act 5, sc.1.

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• Though there is a benevolence due to all mankind, none can question but a superior degree of it is to be paid to a father, a wife, or child. In the same manner, though our love should reach to the whole species, a greater proportion of it should exert itself towards that community in which Providence has placed us. This is our proper sphere of action, the province allotted us for the exercise of our civil virtues, and in which alone we have opportunities of expressing our goodwill to mankind.

  Joseph Addison

  Children, Father, Exercise

  Joseph Addison (1839). “Essays Moral and Humorous: Also Essays on Imagination and Taste”, p.187

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• The true value of the Christian religion rests, not upon speculative views of the Creator, which must necessarily be different in each individual, according to the extent of the knowledge of the finite being, who employs his own feeble powers in contemplating the infinite: but it rests upon those doctrines of kindness and benevolence which that religion claims and enforces, not merely in favour of man himself but of every creature susceptible of pain or of happiness.

  Charles Babbage

  Christian, Pain, Kindness

  "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher". Book by Charles Babbage, 1864.

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• How pitiable is it to reflect, that although you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of Mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of these rights and privileges, which he hath conferred upon them, that you should at the same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren, under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves

  Benjamin Banneker

  Father, Rights, Criminals

  Letter to Thomas Jefferson on slavery, August 19, 1791.

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• As we learned from the Clinton administration and much of the media, a machine gun in the hands of a federal agent is now a symbol of benevolence and concern for a child's well-being.

  James Bovard

  Children, Gun, Media

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• Self-love, in a well-regulated breast, is as the steward of the household, superintending the expenditure, and seeing that benevolence herself should be prudential, in order to be permanent, by providing that the reservoir which feeds should also be fed.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Self, Order, Should

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”

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• Politeness is fictitious benevolence. Depend upon it, the want of it never fails to produce something disagreeable to one or other.

  Samuel Johnson

  Want, Failing, Produce

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (2006). “A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.200, Penguin UK

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• Adam Smith's image of competition in the marketplace was intended as an adjunct to his detailed description of human motivation in The Theory of Moral Sentiments , in which the pursuit of profit is tempered at every juncture by sympathy and benevolence, and by the posture of the "impartial spectator" which is forced on us by our moral nature.

  Ted Malloch

  Motivation, Competition, Moral

  "Doing Virtuous Business: The Remarkable Success of Spiritual Enterprise". Book by Ted Malloch, 2011.

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• The love of action is a principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature. It often leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge; but when it is guided by the sense of propriety and benevolence, it becomes the parent of every virtue, and, if those virtues are accompanied with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an empire may be indebted for their safety and prosperity to the undaunted courage of a single man.

  Edward Gibbon

  Revenge, Ambition, Men

  Edward Gibbon (1846). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.488

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• Mediocrity is the most effective mask a superior spirit can wear, because to the great majority, which is to say, to the mediocre,it will not suggest a disguise:--and yet it is precisely for their sake that he puts it on--so as not to arouse them, and, indeed, not infrequently to avoid this out of pity and benevolence.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Majority, Mediocrity, Sake

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• States strong enough to do good are but few.
  Their number would seem limited to three.

  Robert Frost

  Strength, Strong, Numbers

  Robert Frost (1955). “Selected poems”

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• The lower a man descends in his love, the higher he lifts his life.

  William Rounseville Alger

  Men, His Love, Higher

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• Be generous, and pleasant-tempered, and forgiving; even as God scatter favors over thee, do thou scatter over the people.

  Saadi

  People, Forgiving, Favors

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• When thou seest thine enemy in trouble, curl not thy whiskers in contempt; for in every bone there is marrow, and within every jacket there is a man.

  Saadi

  Men, Enemy, Curls

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• It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow citizens.

  Adam Smith

  Self, Humanity, Liberty

  Adam Smith (1817). “An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations0: With a life of the author : Also a view of the doctrine of Smith, compared with that of the french economists ...”, p.19

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