Be very careful. Giving because we think we will get something back will not work. You must be 100 percent willing to give and never experience any return, or it will not work.
Interpretation
True giving is selfless and unconditional; expecting something in return undermines the act.
This quote emphasizes the importance of selflessness in the act of giving. John Templeton highlights that genuine generosity is rooted in the willingness to give without the expectation of receiving anything in return, suggesting that the purity of the intention behind giving is crucial for it to be meaningful and effective. When we give with conditions, we may encounter disappointment, whereas giving freely enhances the value of the gesture.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a charity event to inspire participants to give without expecting anything in return.
The correct description is that we try every day to become more humble when we talk about divinity, we try to realize how little we know and how open minded we should be. It's self centered to think that human beings, as limited as we are, can describe divinity.
Life is made up not necessarily of great sacrifices or high-level duties but of little things. The smiles, the kindnesses, the commitments and obligations and responsibilities that are given habitually and lovingly are the blessings that win and preserve the heart and bring comfort to one's self as we as to others. This is the ministry of service performed by every useful life.
The correct description is that we try every day to become more humble when we talk about divinity, we try to realize how little we know and how open minded we should be.
The objective of our religious foundations is to teach people that they are hurting themselves when they say they believe something. What we should realize is we know almost nothing about God and therefore we should be eager to search and to learn.
The idea that an individual can find God is terribly self-centered. It is like a wave thinking it can find the sea.
Three of my children are medical doctors; they know at least a hundred times as much about your body as my grandfather knew, but they don't know much more about soul than he did.
The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
Killing a man in defense of an idea is not defending an idea; it is killing a man.
So long as large sums of money are involved - and they are bound to be if drugs are illegal - it is literally impossible to stop the traffic, or even to make a serious reduction in its scope.
The environment you fashion out of your thoughts, your beliefs, your ideals, your philosophy is the only climate you will ever live in. The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.
Just watching an animal closely can take you out of your mind and bring you into the present moment, which is where the animal lives all the time - surrendered to life.
Hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but a scarcity of democracy.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.