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Benevolence: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
A kind and gentle heart he had, To comfort friends and foes; The naked every day he clad When he put on his clothes.— GOLDSMITH — Elegy on the Death of a
Mad Dog. Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride, And e'en his failings lean'd to virtue's side.— GOLDSMITH — The Deserted Village. L. 163.
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere, Heaven did a recompense as largely send; He gave to misery (all he had) a tear, He gain'd from Heaven ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.— GRAY — Elegy. The Epitaph.
Scatter plenty o'er a smiling land.— GRAY — Elegy in a Country Churchyard. St. 16.
By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent, And what to those we give, to Jove is lent.— HOMER — Odyssey. Bk. 6. L. 247.
Pope's trans. In every sorrowing soul I pour'd delight, And poverty stood smiling in my sight.— HOMER — Odyssey. Bk. 17. L.505.
Pope's trans. It never was our guise To slight the poor, or aught humane despise.— HOMER — Odyssey. Bk. 14. L. 65.
Pope's trans. In misery's darkest cavern known, His useful care was ever nigh, Where hopeless anguish pour'd his groan, And lonely want retir'd to die.— SAM'L JOHNSON — On the Death of Mr. Robert Levet. St. 5.
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three, Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.— LOWELL — The Vision of Sir Launfal. Pt. II. VIII.
For his bounty There was no winter in't; an autumn 'twas That grew the more by reaping: his delights Were dolphin-like.— Shakespeare — S. Antony and Cleopatra. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 87.
The poor must be wisely visited and liberally cared for, so that mendicity shall not be tempted into mendacity, nor want exasperated into crime.— ROBERT C. WINTHROP — Yorktown
Oration in 1881.— BIRDS
Come, all ye feathery people of mid-air, Who sleep 'midst rocks, or on the mountain summits Lie down with the wild winds; and ye who build Your homes amidst green leaves by grottoes cool; And ye who on the flat sands hoard your eggs For suns to ripen, come!— BARRY CORNWALL — An Invocation to
Birds. When the swallows homeward fly, When the roses scattered lie, When from neither hill or dale, Chants the silvery nightingale: In these words my bleeding heart Would to thee its grief impart; When I thus thy image lose Can I, ah! can I, e'er know repose?— KARL HERRLOSSOHN — When the
Swallows Homeward Fly. I was always a lover of soft-winged things. C.— VICTOR HUGO — I Was Always a Lover.
Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these? Do you ne'er think who made them, and who taught The dialect they speak, where melodies Alone are the interpreters of thought? Whose household words are songs in many keys, Sweeter than instrument of man e'er caught!— LONGFELLOW — Tales of a Wayside Inn.
The Poet's Tale. The Birds of Killingworth. Hear how the birds, on ev'ry blooming spray, With joyous musick wake the dawning day!— POPE — Pastorals. Spring. L. 23.
Albatross. And a good south wind sprung up behind, The Albatross did follow, And every day, for food or play, Came to the mariner's hollo! In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, It perched for vespers nine; Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, Glimmered the white moonshine. "God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends that plague thee thus!- Why look'st thou so?"-" With my cross-bow I shot the Albatross."— COLERIDGE — Ancient Mariner. Pt. I. St. 18.
Nec sibi sed toti genitum se credere mundo. He believed that he was born, not for himself, but for the whole world.— LUCAN — Pharsalia. II. 383.
Misero datur quodcunque, fortunæ datur. Whatever we give to the wretched, we lend to fortune.— SENECA — Troades. 697.
Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco. Being myself no stranger to suffering, I have learned to relieve the sufferings of others.— VIRGIL — Eneid. I. 630.