David Rieff Quotes

It's very difficult to ignore humanitarian disasters. The royalties from my albums continue to support my charity work.

Americans are blessed with great plenty; we are a generous people and we have a moral obligation to assist those who are suffering from poverty, disease, war and famine.

At least once a year, I meet with a group called the Giving Pledge. It's a group of billionaires - including me, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Ted Turner - who have pledged to give away most of their money to charity. We meet for three days to talk about what we're doing to help make the planet a better place to live.

When the Haiti earthquake happened, I registered with UNICEF to set up an account, and posted to Twitter for people to donate to it. In a matter of a couple of hours, $30,000 had been donated. That, to me, was eye-opening.

I am happy to donate funds to various organizations that help people in need.

They're so generous, the American fans. They send money to the various charities I support. I tried to raise a little bit of money to send to Nepal, and they were straight in with thousands of dollars.

In all the ages, three-fourths of the support of the great charities has been conscience money.

European countries give much larger shares of aid for poverty relief than the U.S.

My goal is to change perception about giving money for charity. A lot of people still think that this is only for the rich. I used to think like this, but this isn't true. Begin by donating the smallest amount you can afford. You'll soon realize how easy it is to support worthy causes.

The world is full of miserable places. One way of living comfortably is not to think about them or, when you do, to send money

All the bullets and all the bombs that explode all over the world won't leave the impact, when all is said and done, of a dollar bill dropped in the Jimmy Fund pot by a warm heart and a willing hand. You should be proud and happy to know that your contribution will someday help some kid to a better life.

We citizens of the affluent countries tend to discuss our obligations toward the distant needy mainly in terms of donations and transfers, assistance and redistribution: How much of our wealth, if any, should we give away to the hungry abroad?

Philanthropy is in the DNA of my family.

After the sale of Celtel, I really wanted to give the money back, and I had a number of choices - to go and buy masses of blankets and baby milk or to go into Darfur or Congo. That would have been very nice actually, but it's just like an aspirin: it doesn't deal with the problem.

Jessica Simpson is the youth ambassador for Operation Smile, and an episode of The Apprentice featured a team managing a charity concert she put on. Donald Trump came on stage and pledged a donation.

Suggest your children try tithing - giving 10 percent of their allowance to a charity every month.

It's an irony that growing inequality could mean more money for philanthropy. In the U.S., quite a few of the ultra-rich have taken to heart the 19th century industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie's comment that it's a disgrace to die wealthy.

For me, I get immense pleasure out of giving. I do what I can. I try and give around 10% of my earnings a year. Some years, I give more, some I give less.

For over 35 years, I've been making charitable donations anonymously.

I think people like Bill Gates, who have given away enormous sums of money, are shining examples for all of us to follow.

There are a lot of people with a lot of money, and I'm amazed they don't understand what a great pleasure it can be to give.

It's sort of well-known that anytime any catastrophe happens anywhere in the world, they can count on the United States for help.

If you buy a sweater for €1,000 and you know that the funds you are paying are also going to help to build a hospital and a school, wouldn't you think better about it?

I run a charity. If my name pops up in your call ID, chances are I'm about to ask you for something - money, free ad space, your first born. So it is probably no surprise that people often don't take my calls.

My goal is to work diligently to become the top philanthropist in the world.