“Giving alms is only a virtuous deed when you give money that you yourself worked to get.”
Source: Path of Life (1909), p. 83
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Leo Tolstoy 456
Russian writer 1828–1910Related quotes

2014, "Read full interview of Narendra Modi to Rajat Sharma", 2014
Context: I had started the campaign from 15th September. So now it’s 6–7 months since I started the campaign. I am a laborer and my childhood was very tough and physically I am used to all this. I also do my [y]oga and [p]ranayam. But the important point is that I believe you never get tired by doing work. You get tired when you don’t work. When you clean your house, you don’t get tired, it gives you satisfaction.

Quoted by Norman J. Zierold in The Moguls (New York: Coward-McCann, 1969). Also quoted as "Credit you give yourself is not worth having." Thalberg never took an onscreen credit in films he produced; MGM gave him a screen credit for The Good Earth (1937), released after his death.

Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy (2010)
Context: I say: "What you give, you give to yourself; what you do not give, you give up." And this is to say that whatever you do in the world, you do to yourself; and whatever you do not give to the world, you lose. If I keep my knowledge, I lose it. (...) One receives knowledge and gives it. When you give knowledge, you enrich yourself. If you do not give love, you are detracting from yourself. If I begin to help people, if I begin to heal people, I begin to heal. Do you understand? To be a therapist, you have to be a patient. The first thing to do to heal yourself is to heal others. I have one more saying: "I do not want anything for myself that I do not want for others".

“Don't give your money to the church. They should be giving their money to you.”
"Interview With Jesus"
A Place for My Stuff (1981)

"The Brooklyn Divines." Brooklyn Union (Brooklyn, NY), 1883.