Baruch Spinoza Quotes

Religion creates community, community creates altruism and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious community that makes it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighborliness.

I donate heavily to the church and various churches in the Detroit community and food banks.

Nobody is starving on the streets. We've always taken care of them. We take care of our own; we always have. It is not the government's responsibility.

The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor.

We didn't grow up overly religious, but there was an understanding that you had a duty as a citizen to help your fellow man.

Giving to the individual societal benefits such as free medical care breeds idleness, causing breakdown in the relationship with God.

Those who are more influential because they have greater share of goods and common services should feel responsible for the weaker and be ready to share with them all they possess

You’ve got to help people that are downtrodden and poor, and I just think that that’s part of our culture. You’ve got to help people that can’t help themselves.

Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.

You could go out and give a million dollars to a charity tomorrow to help the homeless. You could argue that it is just wasted. They are not putting anything back into the community.

Last time I was in Jamaica I financed a teacher to teach in an orphanage.

We feel like if we miss a Sunday at church, that's one thing, but we can't miss an opportunity to help.

We went to church every Sunday. I do think it's my duty to give back. That's why I'm involved with St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Britain, relative to the U.S., is a highly secular society. Philanthropy alone cannot fill the gap left by government cutbacks. And the sources of altruism go deep into our evolutionary past.

During 'Jersey Boys,' I discovered one of the most rewarding ways to use your goodwill is to motivate fans and friends into lending support to charity.

We believe that what we possess we don't ultimately own. God is merely entrusting it to us. And one of the conditions of that trust is that we share what we have with those who have less. So, if you don't give to people in need, you can hardly call yourself a Jew. Even the most unbelieving Jew knows that.

Charity begins at home, but should not end there.

Charity should begin at home, but should not stay there.

All the blessings we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbors.

Government does not have a monopoly on compassion.

O Ye Rich Ones on Earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust, and be not intent only on your own ease

It is unacceptable to be silent about American generosity.

Because the goods of the Church are called the goods of the poor, and at these days nothing is less seen, than the poor to be sustained with the same; all parsons, vicars, … and other beneficed men within this deanery, … shall distribute hereafter among their poor parishioners, or other inhabitants there, in the presence of the churchwardens, or some other honest man of the parish, the fortieth part of the fruits and revenues of their said benefice lest they be worthily noted of ingratitude

#GivingTuesday is the perfect cyber-counterbalance to Black Friday and emphasizes giving back in this era of mass consumption.

If you compare charitable donations, you name it, religious tithing, giving, Americans trump citizens of the world hands down.