Only the charity of the strong who give their labor and efforts to the weak is true charity.
The giving of alms is only a good deed when that which is being given is a product of labor.
A saying goes: the dry hand is stingy, the sweaty hand is generous. So too in the Didache it says: let your charity leave your hand through your sweat.
A human being has been given strength not that he may crush the weak, but that he may support and guide them.
— John Ruskin
Every good deed is charity. To give water to the thirsty is charity. To clear a road of rocks is charity. To convince your neighbors that they should be virtuous is charity. To show the way to a stranger is also charity. To smile as you look at a neighbor’s face is charity.
— Mishkat al-Masabih
Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again. As you would like people to do to you, do exactly so to them.
— Luke 6:30–31
That which you have given away is yours, but that which you have kept is lost.
— Eastern wisdom
People were praising a man who gave away all his possessions. “There is nothing to praise me for,” said the man, “I haven’t done anything yet. As I approached the river that I must cross, I merely took off my clothes so that they wouldn’t get in the way. The real task is how I’m going to swim.”
If a rich person begins being truly charitable, he will soon cease being rich.
