John Heywood Quotes

Even a poor man doesn't ask alms unless he sees you have the ability to give.

To be obliged to beg our daily happiness from others bespeaks a more lamentable poverty than that of him who begs his daily bread.

I learned years ago to come to terms with having so much done for me by others.

Charity degrades those who receive it and hardens those who dispense it.

Big Beggarman

There is nothing remotely dignified about sorting through rotting trash to find something to feed your child, or asking someone for money because you have none (anyone who has contrived to give people money before they had to ask will never forget the look of gratitude in their eyes).

That acknowledgment of weakness which we make in imploring to be relieved from hunger and from temptation is surely wisely put in our daily prayer. Think of it, you who are rich, and take heed how you turn a beggar away.

BEGGAR, n. One who has relied on the assistance of his friends.

Beggars beg to get money, not to reproach the passerby.

We are all beggars, each in his own way.

If we take the route of the permanent handout, the American character will itself be impoverished.

Grant me the treasure of sublime poverty: permit the distinctive sign of our order to be that it does not possess anything of its own beneath the sun, for the glory of your name, and that it have no other patrimony than begging.

We don't want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people into complacency and dependence.

In aid, the proper attitude is one omitting gratitude.

A slave has but one master. An ambition man, has as many as there are people who helped him get his fortune.

Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm.

My father and mother had no sense of entitlement for their children.

In our family, where we began with no money, we like to say that we have discovered that God invented money so those who have it can help others.

Helping those who have been struck by unforeseeable misfortunes is fundamentally different from making dependency a way of life.

There are people who can never forgive a beggar for their not having given him anything.

Many men are contemptuous of riches; few can give them away.

My mother, we were a very poor family. When I was a kid, we would be in our little room, and there would be a knock on the door almost every night with a hobo begging for food. Even though we didn't even have enough to eat, my mother always found something to give them.

For some reason for me, and a lot of people, it's so hard to accept help even when it's from your closest friends.

There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.

'Thank you' is often an admission that you needed something that wasn't being fulfilled or you couldn't do on your own, so you needed someone else. There is also guilt. We think, 'Well, too much time has gone by, and it doesn't matter,' but it does. It always matters.