You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if it's a little thing, do something for others - something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it.

Albert Schweitzer (1875 - 1965)

The great art of giving consists in this: the gift should cost very little and yet be greatly coveted¹, so that it may be the more highly appreciated.

Baltasar Gracian

The excellence² of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value.

Charles Dudley Warner (1829 - 1900), 'Eleventh Study,' Backlog³ Studies, 1873

A compliment is a gift, not to be thrown away carelessly, unless you want to hurt the giver.

Eleanor Hamilton

There is no benefit in the gifts of a bad man.

Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Medea, 431 B.C.

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.

George Eliot (1819 - 1880)

Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)

Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.

John Wesley (1703 - 1791)

Generosity⁴ is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931)

Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening⁵, seldom sinful, and permanently⁶ personal.

Lenore Hershey

You try to give away what you want yourself.

Lois McMaster Bujold, "Memory", 1996

If we have the opportunity to be generous with our hearts, ourselves, we have no idea of the depth and breadth of love's reach.

Margaret Cho, weblog, 03-09-04

If you want to see what children can do, you must stop giving them things.

Norman Douglas

What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.

P. D. James, Time to Be in Earnest

Gifts allow us to demonstrate exactly how little we know about a person. And nothing pisses a person off more than being shoved into the wrong pigeonhole⁷.

Pam Davis, House M.D., It's A Wonderful Lie, 2008

A gift in season is a double favor to the needy⁸.

Publilius Syrus (~100 BC), Moral Sayings, 100 B.C.

He doubly benefits the needy who gives quickly.

Publilius Syrus (~100 BC), Maxims⁹

The spirit in which a thing is given determines that in which the debt is acknowledged; it's the intention, not the face-value of the gift, that's weighed.

Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD), Letters to Lucilius, 100 A.D.

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.

Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

Purchase not friends by gifts; when thou ceasest to give, such will cease to love.

Thomas Fuller (1608 - 1661)

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Hamlet, 1600