“Charity, if you have the means, is a personal choice, but charity which is expected or compelled is simply a polite word for slavery.”

—  Terry Goodkind , book The Pillars of Creation

Source: The Pillars of Creation

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Charity, if you have the means, is a personal choice, but charity which is expected or compelled is simply a polite wor…" by Terry Goodkind?
Terry Goodkind photo
Terry Goodkind 93
American novelist 1948

Related quotes

Peter Singer photo

“Hebrew word for "charity" tzedakah, simply means "justice" and as this suggests, for Jews, giving to the poor is no optional extra but an essential part of living a just life.”

Peter Singer (1946) Australian philosopher

Source: The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty

Julian of Norwich photo

“I had three manners of understanding of this light, Charity. The first is Charity unmade; the second is Charity made; the third is Charity given. Charity unmade is God; Charity made is our soul in God; Charity given is virtue. And that is a precious gift of working in which we love God, for Himself; and ourselves, in God; and that which God loveth, for God.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

The Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 84

Bob Dylan photo

“They already expect you to just give a check to tax-deductible charity organization.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Ballad of a Thin Man

Pope Benedict XVI photo

“Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion. Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space.”

Pope Benedict XVI (1927) 265th Pope of the Catholic Church

2009, Cartias in Vertitate (29 June 2009)

Calvin Coolidge photo

“Of course we are all aware that the recognition of brotherhood brings in the requirement of charity. But it is only on the basis of individual property that there can be any charity. Our very conception of the term means that we deny ourselves of what belongs to us, in order to give it to another. If that which we give is not really our own, but belongs to the person to whom we give it, such an act may rightfully be called justice, but it cannot be regarded as charity.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

1920s, Authority and Religious Liberty (1924)

“If you want to pray to Allah for better means of subsistence, then first give something in charity”

Ali book Nahj al-Balagha

Nahj al-Balagha

Jack London photo

“A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog when you are just as hungry as the dog.”

Jack London (1876–1916) American author, journalist, and social activist

"Confession" in Complete Works of Jack London, Delphi Classics, 2013
Variant: Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.

Julian of Norwich photo

“Charity keepeth us in Faith and Hope, and Hope leadeth us in Charity. And in the end all shall be Charity.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

The Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 84

Eduardo Galeano photo

“I don't believe in charity. I believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person. I have a lot to learn from other people.”

Eduardo Galeano (1940–2015) Uruguayan writer

Galeano, in: David Barsamian (2004) Louder Than Bombs: Interviews from The Progressive Magazine. p. 146

Related topics