Quotes about philanthropists

Philanthropist. A rich (and usually bald) old gentleman who has trained himself to grin while his conscience is picking his pocket.

— Ambrose Bierce

To enjoy a good reputation give publicly, and steal privately.

— Josh Billings

If the barricades went up in our streets and the poor became masters, I think the priests would escape, I fear the gentlemen would; but I believe the gutters would simply be running with the blood of philanthropists.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

The worst of charity is that the lives you are asked to preserve are not worth preserving.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

I love my fellow creatures -- I do all the good I can -- yet everybody says I'm such a disagreeable man!

— W. S. Gilbert

He is one of those wise philanthropists who, in a time of famine, would vote for nothing, but a supply of toothpicks.

— Douglas William Jerrold

Are there not thousands in the world who love their fellows even to the death, who feel the giant agony of the world, and more, like slaves to poor humanity, labor for mortal good?

— John Keats

All philanthropy... is only a savory fumigation burning at the mouth of a sewer. This incense offering makes the air more endurable to passers-by, but it does not hinder the infection in the sewer from spreading.

— Ellen Key

Those who give hoping to be rewarded with honor are not giving, they are bargaining.

— Philo

Philanthropic people lose all sense of humanity. It is their distinguishing characteristic.

— Oscar Wilde

Boredom is the legitimate kingdom of the philanthropic.

— Virginia Woolf