Dick Gephardt Quotes

I like to live well and I feel good about it because I know how much we give back. There's plenty for my family, now let's take care of the rest.

I am very grateful for the opportunities I've had and feel I have a duty to repay my good fortune through philanthropic endeavors that expand the reach of human possibility and compassion.

I have always considered myself as a privileged person from a kind of elite among the lucky ones. So I think we should help all those who have not had the luck I have had, to use my fame to help.

I've always felt obligated to help those less fortunate than me. It's an obligation that anyone who has a chance to be in the NBA should feel and act upon.

I'm the luckiest guy in the world, and I am going to give away every penny before I die.

For all of my fortune, there are many with misfortune that need a hand.

I feel that if you are blessed, or lucky enough, to be doing well, you should help others.

Anyone who has been as successful as I have should want to share those resources. Why not give some of it to charity?

I realize that I'm in the top one percent of the world. I've traveled a lot. I've seen immense poverty in the world, and I can't live with everything I've had and be comfortable with everything I have unless I do something for the rest of the world.

It's always the big question in our lives if you have a lot of success. What do you do with it? Buy more houses, buy more cars, buy more stuff, be wealthy and distant and unengaged? Or do you take all that good fortune that has come towards you and spread the love, do something with it?

I have been very fortunate to be successful in business, and I believe that it is right that people who have this type of wealth should give something back into society.

When you're in a position to have gotten so much, the gift at this point is giving back.

I'm just so very lucky to be able to do what I do for a living, and giving back is a way for me to express my gratitude. I'm so lucky to be in a position to help people, and that's appealing to me.

I suppose I arrived at my charitable commitment largely through guilt. I recognized early on that my good fortune was not due to superior personal character or initiative so much as it was to dumb luck.

Philanthropy is the thing that I am really excited about, and having success means I can do more.

Have you ever wondered why the rich and privileged care about, or even bother with, the gift bag? Because they don't need this stuff. If they wanted it, they could afford to buy it, without blinking. But they love the gift bag, beyond reason.

The money I have earned has given me the opportunity to give back to the people who do not have the same opportunities as me.

I give back because that is what I was taught and it is what I believe.

Giving back was an expectation, not an option.

I was very fortunate to have a career like this. I wanted to put a lot back for the community.

I'm not a good philanthropist yet; I'm not as good as I'd like to be... I believe very hard in luck. It's all chance; therefore, any privilege you have is chaos.

It seems like an obligation if you have it so good. You have to spread the wealth.

Share your prosperity.

Think of giving not only as a duty but as a privilege.

The great thing is these days I no longer have to work for a living and that all of the things that I'm able to do where money is paid as compensation for whatever it be, I'm able to donate all of that to charity. That's a wonderful position to find yourself in at the latest stages of your life and I'm proud to have walked the path that I have and I'm proud to be able to continue working and to be able to give away what I earn to some very good causes here in the Southwest.