Good morning and happy April 1. I hope that your Wednesday is treating you well. Today I am focusing on the virtue of benevolence. Merriam-Webster defines benevolence as “disposition to do good; an act of kindness; a generous gift.”
Our capability to be benevolent to others by helping them to achieve their goals grows widely when we offer ourselves after we have taken care of our basic needs. It is challenging to ourselves we are tired or feel overwhelmed by the amount of responsibilities and commitments on our daily to-do list.
Benevolence exemplifies the sincere kindness of the mind and spirit, the unprejudiced compassion to do good. It grants understanding and respect for the well-being of other people and discovers compassion and caring gentleness and empathy, with generousness and consideration. It is the disposition to be openly virtuous.
If we desire to help our family, friends, neighbors, or coworkers we need to learn initially to help ourselves by concentration on our physical, mental, and spiritual health. Exercise, eating right, taking time out for ourselves, and practicing meditation are all great ways to keep us healthy.
When we have nurtured inner peace within ourselves and feel inspired, we will possess the emotional strength and energy resources to achieve the efforts we hope to offer to others. In the long run, we are more available to assist others because we dedicated sufficient resources to taking care of ourselves. The efforts we take on in the best interests of others will be continued by our duty to our welfare.
When we allow ourselves benevolence, our benevolence towards others is pleasurable and gratifying. The selflessness that occurs in our heart can have a mighty influence on our objectives, though triggering us to set aside concerns connected to the improvement of the ego so that we can assist people in need reach their highest potential. Our capability to support others in their accomplishments will intensify when we dedicate some of our time to the preservation of our health and welfare. In a sense, the better you feel, the more energy you will have to focus on benevolent activities that make the world a better place.
10 Wisdom Wednesday Quotes: Benevolence
- “The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out.” ― Oscar Wilde
- “For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice”—Baruch Spinoza
- “Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, “What’s in it for me?” ― Brian Tracy
- “How quickly a truly benevolent act is repaid by the consciousness of having done it!”—Hosea Ballou
- “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Benevolence alone will not make a teacher, nor will learning alone do it. The gift of teaching is a peculiar talent, and implies a need and a craving in the teacher himself.”— John Jay Chapman
- “What can a man do with music who is not benevolent?” ― Confucius, The Analects
- “Order and reason, beauty and benevolence, are characteristics and conceptions which we find solely associated with the mind of man.” ― Karl Pearson
- “Poverty is the load of some, and wealth is the load of others, perhaps the greater load of the two. It may weigh them to perdition. Bear the load of thy neighbor’s poverty, and let him bear with thee the load of thy wealth. Thou lightenest thy load by lightening his.”—Saint Aurelius Augustine (Augustine of Hippo)
- “That is fine benevolence, finely executed, which, like the Nile, comes from hidden sources.”—Charles Caleb Colton
