Charity is like warmth in springtime or summer that causes grass, plants, and trees to grow. Without charity, or spiritual warmth, nothing grows.
Emanuel SwedenborgRead
True charity is the desire to be useful to others with no thought of recompense.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True charity involves helping others selflessly, without expecting anything in return.
This quote by Emanuel Swedenborg emphasizes the purest form of charity, which is characterized by a genuine desire to assist others without any anticipation of reward or recognition. It suggests that the highest expression of kindness lies in acts of service motivated solely by the well-being of others, rather than personal gain. This idea challenges common assumptions about altruism and encourages a deeper understanding of what it means to be truly charitable.
Themes
CharitySelflessnessServiceKindnessAltruism
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about community service to highlight the importance of selfless giving.
More from Emanuel Swedenborg
All quotes βIt can in no sense be said that heaven is outside of any one; it is within ... and a man, also, so far as he receives heaven, is a recipient, a heaven, and an angel.
Emanuel SwedenborgRead
I have seen a thousand times that Angels are human form, or men, for I have conversed with them as man to man, sometimes with one alone, sometimes with many in company.
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Hell and Heaven are near man, yes, in him; and every man after death goes to that Hell or heaven in which he was, or to his spirit, during his abode in the world.
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For in every particular of the Word there is an internal sense which treats of things spiritual and heavenly, not of things natural and worldly, such as are treated of in the sense of the letter.
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If love is not married to wisdom (or if goodness is not married to truth), it cannot accomplish anything.
Emanuel SwedenborgRead
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Remember this. Hold on to this. This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others. This is the only thing we can do that has any lasting meaning. This is why we're here. To make each other feel safe.
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Reality is a staircase going neither up nor down, we don't move; today is today, always is today.
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Every man on earth is sick with the fever of sin, with the blindness of sin and is overcome with its fury. As sins consist mostly of malice and pride, it is necessary to treat everyone who suffers from the malady of sin with kindness and love. This is an important truth, which we often forget. Very often we act in the opposite manner: we add malice to malice by our anger, we oppose pride with pride. Thus, evil grows within us and does not decrease; it is not cured - rather it spreads
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