Benevolence Quotes - Page 12

• 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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• 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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• Not a step can we take in any direction without perceiving the most extraordinary traces of design; and the skill everywhere conspicuous is calculated in so vast a proportion of instances to promote the happiness of living creatures, and especially of ourselves, that we feel no hesitation in concluding that, if we knew the whole scheme of Providence, every part would appear to be in harmony with a plan of absolute benevolence.

  Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux

  God, Skills, Design

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 261), 1895.

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• Never did any soul do good but it came readier to do the same again, with more enjoyment. Never was love or gratitude or bounty practiced but with increasing joy, which made the practicer still more in love with the fair act.

  Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

  Gratitude, Joy, Soul

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• My God, grant that my bounty may be a clear and transparent river, flowing from pure charity, and uncontaminated by self-love, ambition, or interest. Thanks are due not to me, but Thee, from whom all I possess is derived. And what are the paltry gifts for which my neighbor forgets to thank me, compared with the immense blessings for which I have so often forgotten to be grateful to Thee!

  Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

  Grateful, Ambition, Blessing

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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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• Good manners are the expressions of benevolence in personal intercourse, by which we endeavor to promote the comfort and enjoyment of others, and to avoid all that gives needless uneasiness.

  Catharine Beecher

  Expression, Giving, Good Man

  Catharine Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe (2008). “American Woman's Home”, p.197, Applewood Books

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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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• 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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• 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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• You have no idea, sir, how difficult it is to be the victim of benevolence.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Ideas, Charity, Victim

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• Now this might disturb you, but I find I'm OK by myself; and I don't need you or your benevolence to make sense.

  Steven Morrissey

  I Don't Need You, Needs, Might

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• Politeness is fictitious benevolence.

  Samuel Johnson

  Manners, Politeness

  Dr. Samuel Johnson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Johnson (Illustrated)”, p.8598, Delphi Classics

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• What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice.

  Frederick Douglass

  Justice, Pity, Asks

  Frederick Douglass (2016). “The Essential Douglass: Selected Writings and Speeches”, p.196, Hackett Publishing

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• In a perfect world perhaps we would all see more clearly. But this is not a perfect world, and it is enough to hope that each of us will share our talents, and find the balance between greed and benevolence that will allow us to live and thrive and help the world around us grow.

  Kent Nerburn

  Perfect, Greed, Balance

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• Nobody ever got anything from God on the grounds that he deserved it. Haven fallen, man deserves only punishment and death. So if God answers prayer it's because God is good. From His goodness, His lovingkindness, His good-natured benevolence, God does it! That's the source of everything.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Faith, Death, Christian

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• Conservatives say the government can't end poverty by force, but they believe it can use force to make people moral. Liberals say government can't make people be moral, but they believe it can end poverty. Neither group attempts to explain why government is so clumsy and destructive in one area but a paragon of efficiency and benevolence in the other.

  Harry Browne

  Believe, Government, People

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