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Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence, of this
virtue.
Author: Joseph Addison
Source: in the "Guardian", no. 166
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Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by
interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good
works and almsdeeds which she did.
Author: Bible
Source: Acts (ch. IX, v. 36)
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I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.
Author: Bible
Source: Job (ch. XXIX, v. 15)
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But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy
right hand doeth:
That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in
secret himself shall reward thee openly.
Author: Bible
Source: Matthew (ch. 6, v. 3-4)
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Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of
them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in
heaven.
Author: Bible
Source: Matthew (ch. VI, v. 1)
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He scorn'd his own, who felt another's woe.
Author: Thomas Campbell
Source: Gertrude of Wyoming (pt. I, st. 24)
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Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.
Author: Edward Gibbon
Source: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (ch. XLIX)
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His house was known to all the vagrant train,
He chid their wanderings but reliev'd their pain;
The long remembered beggar was his guest,
Whose beard descending swept his aged breast.
Author: Oliver Goldsmith
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 149)
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Careless their merits or their faults to scan,
His pity gave ere charity began.
Author: Oliver Goldsmith
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 161)
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A kind and gentle heart he had,
To comfort friends and foes;
The naked every day he clad
When he put on his clothes.
Author: Oliver Goldsmith
Source: Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog
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Scatter plenty o'er a smiling land.
Author: Thomas Gray
Source: Elegy in a Country Churchyard (st. 16)
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Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heaven did a recompense as largely send;
He gave to misery (all he had) a tear,
He gain'd from Heaven ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.
Author: Thomas Gray
Source: Elegy--The Epitaph
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To steale the Hog, and give the feet for almes.
[To steal the hog, and give the feet to alms.]
Author: George Herbert
Source: Jacula Prudentum
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By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent,
And what to those we give, to Jove is lent.
Author: Homer ("Smyrns of Chios")
Source: The Odyssey (bk. VI, l. 247), (Pope's translation)
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It never was our guise
To slight the poor, or aught humane despise.
Author: Homer ("Smyrns of Chios")
Source: The Odyssey (bk. XIV, l. 65), (Pope's translation)
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In every sorrowing soul I pour'd delight,
And poverty stood smiling in my sight.
Author: Homer ("Smyrns of Chios")
Source: The Odyssey (bk. XVII, l. 505), (Pope's translation)
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Alas! for the rarity
Of Christian charity
Under the sun.
Oh! it was pitiful!
Near a whole city full,
Home had she none.
Author: Thomas Hood
Source: The Bridge of Sighs
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He is one of those wise philanthropists who, in a time of famine,
would vote for nothing but a supply of toothpicks.
Author: Douglas Jerrold
Source: Douglas Jerrold's Wit
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In misery's darkest caverns known,
His useful care was ever nigh,
Where hopeless Anguish pour'd his groan,
And lonely want retir'd to die.
Author: Samuel Johnson
Source: Verses on the On the Death of Mr. Robert Levet (st. 5), in Boswell's "Life of Johnson" (1782)
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Shut not thy purse-strings always against painted distress.
Author: Charles Lamb (used pseudonym Elia)
Source: Complaint of the Decay of Beggars in the Metropolis
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Help thi kynne, Crist bit (biddeth), for ther bygynneth charitie.
Author: William Langland
Source: Piers Plowman--Passus (18, l. 61)
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Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.
Author: James Russell Lowell
Source: The Vision of Sir Launfal (pt. II, VIII)
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He believed that he was born, not for himself, but for the whole
world.
[Lat., Nec sibi sed toti genitum se credere mundo.]
Author: Lucanus (Marcus Annaeus Lucan)
Source: Pharsalia (II, 383)
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To pity distress it but human; to relieve it is Godlike.
Author: Horace Mann
Source: Lectures on Education (lecture VI)
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Pity the sorrow of a poor old man,
Whose trembling limbs have brought him to your door.
Author: Thomas Moss
Source: The Beggar's Petition
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