Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes About Generosity
-
The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.
→ -
Exaggeration is in the course of things. Nature sends no creature, no man into the world, without adding a small excess of his proper quality. Given the planet, it is still necessary to add the impulse; so, to every creature nature added a little violence of direction in its proper path, a shove to put it on its way; in every instance, a slight generosity, a drop too much.
→ -
The trail of the serpent reaches into all the lucrative professions and practices of man. Each has its own wrongs. Each finds a tender and very intelligent conscience a disqualification for success. Each requires of the practitioner a certain shutting of the eyes, a certain dapperness and compliance, an acceptance of customs, a sequestration from the sentiments of generosity and love, a compromise of private opinion and lofty integrity.
→ -
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
→ -
It is always so pleasant to be generous, though very vexatious to pay debts.
→ -
The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic.
→ -
You cannot give anything to a magnanimous person. After you have served him, he at once puts you in debt by his magnanimity.
→ -
Noblesse oblige; or, superior advantages bind you to larger generosity.
→ -
You cannot do a kindness too soon.
→ -
Behind every individual closes organization; before him opens liberty,--the Better, the Best. The first and worse races are dead.The second and imperfect races are dying out, or remain for the maturing of the higher. In the latest race, in man, every generosity, every new perception, the love and praise he extorts from his fellows, are certificates of advance out of fate into freedom.
→