A first-generation fortune is the most likely to be given away, but once a fortune is inherited it’s less likely that a very high percentage will go back to society.

Without a moral framework, there is nothing left but immediate self-indulgence by some and the path of least resistance by others. Neither can sustain a free society.

Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely.

Some believe all that parents, tutors, and kindred believe. They take their principles by inheritance, and defend them as they would their estates, because they are born heirs to them.

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!

This 90/10 rule holds true in almost anything financial. Take the game of golf, for example. Ten percent of the professional golfers make 90 percent of the money.

The revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution.

In order to deal with all the medical cost demands and other challenges in the U.S., as we look to raise that revenue, the rich will have to pay slightly more. That’s quite clear.

I believe that of all the things I have done, exciting though many of them have been, there’s no doubt in my mind that the most worthwhile have been the establishing of schools and hospitals, and the rebuilding of monasteries in the mountains.

A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.

The general idea of the rich helping the poor, I think, is important.

Legacy is a stupid thing! I don’t want a legacy.

I don’t want you to apologize for being rich; I want you to acknowledge that in America, we all should have to pay our fair share.

There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty.

The ‚Maddox Jolie-Pitt‘ Foundation’s work is inspired by our children and their connections to particular countries.

Income inequity has to be addressed.

My father belongs to the generation that fought the war in the 1940s. When I was a kid my father told me stories – not so many, but it meant a lot to me. I wanted to know what happened then, to my father’s generation. It’s a kind of inheritance, the memory of it.

Charity bestowed upon those who are worthy of it is like good seed sown on a good soil that yields an abundance of fruits. But alms given to those who are yet under the tyrannical yoke of the passions are like seed deposited in a bad soil. The passions of the receiver of the alms choke, as it were, the growth of merits.

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.

To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.

Prince Charles is definitely my hero; he uses his position to do only good in this world.

I give unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture.

Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.

The idea that you encourage companies to take their innovative thinkers and think about the most needy – even beyond the market opportunities – that’s something that appropriately ought to be done.

I would say the most satisfying thing actually is watching my three children each pick up on their own interests and work many more hours per week than most people that have jobs at trying to intelligently give away that money in fields that they particularly care about.

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples‘ money.

Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.

A little over 5% of the world’s population produces almost 29% of the world’s goods and services.

In my youth, I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Philanthropy should be taking much bigger risks that business. If these are easy problems, business and government can come in and solve them.

Effective philanthropy requires a lot of time and creativity – the same kind of focus and skills that building a business requires.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

The first time I ever saw snow skis was when I was 62 years old and that was 19 years ago and I’m still skiing. So, we’ll be skiing with some very close friends of the Carter Center letting them know what the Carter Center is doing around the world. We have programs in over 65 countries.

The most amazing philanthropists are people who are actually making a significant sacrifice.

The baby boomers are getting older, and will stay older for longer. And they will run right into the dementia firing range. How will a society cope? Especially a society that can’t so readily rely on those stable family relationships that traditionally provided the backbone of care?

Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.

People who identify themselves as conservatives donate money to charity more often than people who identify themselves as liberals. They donate more money and a higher percentage of their incomes.

Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor.

I think when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody.

I think, for years, people have been pushed down by religion, and I don’t say that disrespectfully, but they’ve been shown a God that you can’t measure up to.

You may have heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There’s another day you might want to know about: Giving Tuesday. The idea is pretty straightforward. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, shoppers take a break from their gift-buying and donate what they can to charity.

I just think that – when a country needs more income and we do, we’re only taking in 15 percent of GDP, I mean, that – that – when a country needs more income, they should get it from the people that have it.

Once you’ve grown to accept something and it becomes part of the system you’ve inherited, you don’t even notice it any longer.

There is nothing I fear more than waking up without a program that will help me bring a little happiness to those with no resources, those who are poor, illiterate, and ridden with terminal disease.

I like to give back.

The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.

Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do.

Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.

The land of my fathers. My fathers can have it.

When the Oakies left Oklahoma and moved to California, it raised the I.Q. of both states.

I don’t think anybody would argue now that the Internet isn’t becoming a major factor in our lives. However, it’s very new to us. Newsreaders still feel it is worth a special and rather worrying mention if, for instance, a crime was planned by people ‚over the Internet.‘

The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival.

We can’t leave people in abject poverty, so we need to raise the standard of living for 80% of the world’s people, while bringing it down considerably for the 20% who are destroying our natural resources.

Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run.

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.

The capitalist system is about taking from the Earth and from the other great commodity, labour. What’s happening with this system is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and the only way out of it is supposed to be growth. But growth is debt. It’s going to make the situation worse.

The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.

Giving should be entered into in just the same way as investing. Giving is investing.

I’ve been very lucky, and therefore I owe it to try and reduce the inequity in the world. And that’s kind of a religious belief. I mean, it’s at least a moral belief.

Me and my dad are the biggest promoters of an estate tax in the US. It’s not a popular position.