Quotes About Helping Others and Getting Nothing in Return

This collection of quotes about helping others will inspire you to lend a helping hand for nothing in return.

Doing something for someone else simply out of the kindness of your heart speaks volumes about who you are as a person.

Share your favorite quote about helping others with us in the comment section below.

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• Support Quotes
• Encouraging Quotes
• Kindness Quotes For Kids

Research conducted by the Stanford Graduate School of Business has found that individuals who are motivated by a desire to help others are more likely to persist in challenging tasks and achieve their goals.

The research findings demonstrate that helping others can also positively impact motivating giving for personal achievement and success.

What are the benefits of reading these quotes about helping others?

When we help others, it gives them a chance to shine, and you never know just how much that could mean to them when they are feeling low.

Helping others while expecting nothing in return can bring lasting happiness.

It can help you build long-lasting relationships, open more doors for you, and bring meaningful success.

Service to others results in a life of less stress, less anxiety, and less frustration.

When you help others without expecting anything in return, you begin to feel more fulfilled, complete, and alive.

As you’ll notice from the quotes about helping others:

• living for others helps you find great freedom and inner peace
• helping someone else increases our sense of gratitude
• we all need help from time to time

Remember, we find true joy and fulfillment not in being served but in choosing to serve.

Although most people today are motivated by what they get, we should learn to help with no expectation of repayment, for we shall be repaid with joy and fulfillment in countless other ways.

To inspire your next act of love and kindness, below is our collection of inspirational, wise, and meaningful giving quotes about helping others.

Enjoy!

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration. 

If you enjoy this collection, check out our inspirational quotes category page.

Quotes about helping others and getting nothing in return

According to a study by the University of California, Berkeley, people who give to others are more likely to feel a sense of purpose in life than those who do not.

The study highlights the importance of generosity, which you can learn and teach others by reading and sharing these quotes about helping others.

1. “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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2. “There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” – John Holmes

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3. “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” – John Bunyan

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4. “A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal.” – Steve Maraboli

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5. “I don’t want to live in the kind of world where we don’t look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I can’t change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit.” – Charles De Lint

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6. “There is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others.” – Mandy Hale

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7. “It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of person kind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.” – Leo Buscaglia

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8. “If you’re not making someone else’s life better, then you’re wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other lives better.” – Will Smith

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9. “I’m starting to think this world is just a place for us to learn that we need each other more than we want to admit.” – Richelle E. Goodrich

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10. “Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.” – Booker T. Washington

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Quotes about helping others to inspire your next act of love and kindness

A study by the National Institutes of Health found that people who regularly help others experience lower rates of depression, lower levels of stress, and improved overall well-being. 

The study highlights the positive impact the quotes about helping others can have in motivating those around us to help lend a helping hand.

11. “One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.” – Shannon L. Alder

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12. “Never underestimate the difference YOU can make in the lives of others. Step forward, reach out and help. This week reach to someone that might need a lift.” – Pablo

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13. “The next time you want to withhold your help, or your love, or your support for another for whatever the reason, ask yourself a simple question: do the reasons you want to withhold it reflect more on them or on you? And which reasons do you want defining you forevermore?” – Dan Pearce

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14. “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.” – Andre Agassi

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15. “Service to humanity is service to God.” – Lailah Gifty Akita
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16. “Stand up for someone who is in need so that it will build confidence in you to stand up for yourself at times when required…” – Adil Adam Memon

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17. “The simple gift of giving becomes an elaborate rich aftertaste of a natural blissful feeling, lingering endlessly in my lifetime.” – Wes Adamson

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18. “When you reach out to those in need, do not be surprised if the essential meaning of something occurs.” – Stephen Richards

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19. “Sometimes, we may discover we helped the wrong person, but that should not be a reason to stop helping other people in need, even though we were fooled previously. If you want to do good, there are opportunities everywhere. Don’t let the fools spoil your good heart.” – Nico J. Genes

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20. “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.”  – Napoleon Hill

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Quotes about helping others to inspire selflessness

A study published in the Journal of Social Psychology found that people who volunteer their time to help others report higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction compared to those who do not.

This statistic can be used to support the idea that helping others can be beneficial not only to those receiving help, but also to the helpers themselves.

21. “Let the echo of your footsteps spark a ray of hope in the heart of the hopeless and appear as help to the helpless.”  – Abhijit Naskar

22. “Never suppress a generous thought.”  – Camilla Kimball

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23. “Every shine which destroys the darkness of others is a holy shine!”   – Mehmet Murat ildan

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24. “When the chance comes to do a good deed, don’t waste it because it might never come back. The ‎world doesn’t have an (Undo) button; still, you have your conscience, brain, wisdom, and heart to help you do the right thing.”   – Noora Ahmed Alsuwaidi

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25. “When you help someone, you also help yourself. Instead of worrying about how much you get in return, you are better off helping as many people as you can.” – Tapan Ghosh

26. “Helping others is a good effort to instill human dignity” –  Gift Gugu Mona

27. “Our prime purpose in life is to help others. If you can’t help them, at least do not hurt them.” – Dalai Lama

28. “Ask not what I can get more from others, but instead what gift I have that can better help serve others more.”  – David Vosburg

29. “Being able to uplift others is the biggest miracle in the world.” – Sri Avinash Do

30. “The most fulfilling times in my life are those times when I am helping others” –  Charmaine J Forde

Quotes about helping others to help you make a difference in other people’s lives

According to a report by the Corporation for National and Community Service, volunteers in the United States contribute an estimated 6.9 billion hours of service each year, with an estimated value of $167 billion.

This statistic can be used to demonstrate the economic value of volunteering, and to underscore the importance of this type of work in supporting communities and society as a whole.

31. “Be nice to people… maybe it’ll be unappreciated, unreciprocated, or ignored, but spread the love anyway. We rise by lifting others.”  – Germany Kent

32. “Nothing liberates our greatness like the desire to help, the desire to serve.” – Marianne Williamson

33. “You can raise your potential when you help someone to reach their potential.” – Amit Ray

34. “Success comes in direct proportion to the number of people you help.”  – Will Craig

35. “Don’t value your self-worth by others or external things but by appreciating who you are within. And if you must measure your success do it not by what you have gained personally but what you have contributed to a wider benefit.”  – Rasheed Ogunlaru

36. “A truly successful person is not one who achieves his highest ambitions, but one who enjoys helping others reach theirs.”  – Charbel Tadros

37. “If you are truly concerned about helping people and creating value for them in your business and life. God will take care of you, and the universe will reward you.”  – Bernard Kelvin Clive

38. “Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.”  – Saint Augustine

39. “Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light.” – Norman B. Rice

40. “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”  – Buddha

Meaningful quotes about helping others

A study published in the Journal of Health Psychology found that helping others can lead to a reduction in stress and negative emotions, as well as an increase in positive emotions like happiness and satisfaction.

This statistic can be used to highlight the emotional benefits of helping others, which can motivate readers to engage in acts of kindness.

41. “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.”  – Albert Pike

42. “Not he who has much is rich but he who gives much.” – Erich Fromm

43. “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”  – Mother Teresa

44. “Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day.” – Sally Koch

45. “In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.” – Flora Edwards

46. “To me, there are saints every day. They stand up and help others and live for others and do things for others.”  – Theodore Melfi

47. “To do more for the world than the world does for you, that is success.” – Henry Ford

48. “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”  – Charles Dickens

49. “You need an attitude of service. You’re not just serving yourself. You help others to grow up and you grow with them.”  – David Green

50. “An effort made for the happiness of others lifts us above ourselves.”  – Lydia M. Child

More quotes about helping others

51. “What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good.” – Aristotle

52. “If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path.” – Gautama Buddha

53. “The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others.” – Albert Schweitzer

54. “To hell with the self and for others be the help.”― Abhijit Naskar

55. “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” – Dr. Loretta Scott

56. “We can help others in the world more by making the most of ourselves than in any other way.” – Earl Nightingale

57. “When one gives, two get happy.”― Amit Kalantri

58. “You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” – John Wooden

59. “Only by giving are you able to receive more than you already have.” – Jim Rohn

60. “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” – Albert Einstein

Helping others quotes that remind us why it matters

61. “Help others achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours.” — Les Brown

62. “I want to help others smile and be kind as often as possible.” — Ainsley Harriott

63. “We have true power when we support each other.”― Bert McCoy

64. “I think we forget sometimes how blessed we are to be able to help others and make a difference!” — Gautam Rode

65. “I feel that if you are blessed, or lucky enough, to be doing well, you should help others.” – Laurell K. Hamilton

66. “Being self-made means putting yourself in position to help others put themselves in position to be successful.” — A Boogie wit da Hoodie

67. “Doing something for yourself gives motivation but doing something for others gives meaning.”― Maxime Lagacé

68. “Where there is help, there is hope.”― Joseph Meyering Sr.

69. “Through our willingness to help others we can learn to be happy rather than depressed.” – Gerald Jampolsky

70. “Once I leave this earth, I know I’ve done something that will continue to help others.” – Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Encouraging quotes about helping others

71. “Be kind and help others. Let the ones you love know you love them.” – Kyle Carpenter

72. “For me, it has always been about using my platform to help others.” – Bobby Bones

73. “I think it’s important, as a human being, to help others.” – Jason Derulo

74. “You feel alive to the degree that you feel you can help others.” – John Travolta

75. “Always have a willing hand to help someone, you might be the only one that does.” – Roy T. Bennett

76. “People appreciate and never forget that helping hand especially when times are tough.” – Catherine Pulsifer

77. “Helping others is the secret sauce to a happy life.” – Todd Stocker

78. “Take the time to help other people without expecting a reward or gratitude is definitely important in living an optimistic life.” – Krista Witherspoon

79. “Helping others, encouraging others, are often acts of being kind that have more meaning than you may realize.’ – Catherine Pulsifer

80. “How do measure your growth? By how much you help.”― Meir Ezra

Quotes about helping others unconditionally

81. “People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.” – Kent M. Keith

82. “We can not build our own future without helping others build theirs.”― Bill Clinton

83. “As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.” – Audrey Hepburn

84. “Be a glass of water and quench the thirst of others.”― Abhijit Naskar

85. “No one has ever become poor by giving.” – Anne Frank

86. “The greatest good is what we do for one another.” – Mother Teresa

87. “There is no better exercise for your heart than reaching down and helping to lift someone up.” – Bernard Meltzer

88. “I never thought in terms of being a leader. I thought very simply in terms of helping people.” – John Hume

89. “Learn to light a candle in the darkest moments of someone’s life. Be the light that helps others see; it is what gives life its deepest significance.” – Roy T. Bennett

90. “If you can help other lives without neglecting to live your own life, this is a great personal achievement!”― Mehmet Murat ildan

Short quotes about helping others

91. “We change the world a little each day with our kindness.” ― Tom Giaquinto

92. “I don’t care who is giving to whom, but I give my best to my people.”― Sivaprakash Sidhu

93. “I’m just helping someone who is unfortunate. Is that a crime?” ― Shannon A. Thompson

94. “When you open a door for others, you sometimes open doors for yourself.”― Donald L. Hicks

95. “Self-improvement comes mainly from trying to help others.”― Sir John Templeton

96. “It is beautiful, beautiful to give; one of the very most beautiful things in life.”― Elizabeth von Arnim

97. “Be a blessing to someone else.”― Joyce Meyer

98. “In lifting another person, we also lift ourselves.”― Seth Adam Smith

99. “The day you help or give someone anything without any selfish expectations or ulterior motives…is the day your real life begins.”― Joe Campos

100. “The help we give to others creates the ripple of good feeling we give to ourselves.”― Gina Greenlee

Quotes About Helping Others To Show Kindness

101. “Helping others, without expecting anything in return is what true self-worth is all about.” — Gavin Bird

102. “Make each new day count by helping someone or just making someone smile.” — Catherine Pulsifer

103. “Each of us owes someone. We all benefit by reaching out and helping others.” — Les Brown

104. “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” — Gandhi

105. “Somewhere along the way, we must learn that there is nothing greater than to do something for others.” — Martin Luther King Jr

106.  “Advantages of helping people include you being a good example for your children, family, and friends, and you having a direct impact on the trajectory of the lives of a lot of people.” — Rafael Bettencourt

107. “All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own.” — Edwin Markham

108. “Kindness and helping others will return to you when you least expect it, and maybe when you need it.” — Catherine Pulsifer

109. “Don’t hold back your gift, because you never know when you might be helping someone. We all have a gift to give.” — Laya Saul

110. “Helping others, serving others—this is the real meaning of life.” — Dalai Lama

Quotes About Helping Others To Show Compassion

111. “God didn’t make hands to do bad things, but for helping others.” ― Mama Elyse

112. “You get the best out of others when you give the best of yourself.” ― Harry Firestone

113. “We are here on earth to do good for others. What the others are here for, I don’t know.” ― W. H. Auden

114. “Doing things for others always pays dividends.” ― Claude M. Bristol

115. “No joy can equal the joy of serving others.” ― Sai Baba

116. “When a person is down in the world, an ounce of help is better than a pound of preaching.” ― Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

117. “Even if it is a little thing, do something for those who have need of help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it.” ― Dr. Albert Schweitzer

118. “Every morning when I wake up, I dedicate myself to helping others to find peace of mind. Then, when I meet people, I think of them as long-term friends; I don’t regard others as strangers.” ― 14th Dalai Lama

119. “Do something for somebody every day for which you do not get paid.” ― Dr. Albert Schweitzer

120. “Helping others is the key to happiness. People are so engrossed in their own lives that they can’t see that simple truth; it’s that easy. Helping others leads to one’s own happiness.” ― Steven Karius

Quotes About Helping Others To Enhance Your Overall Self

121. “How wrong we would be to stop helping anyone because we cannot help everyone.” — Charles Swindoll

122. “You will discover that you have two hands. One is for helping yourself and the other is for helping others. — Audrey Hepburn

123. “Seek something outside your nine-to-five job as an additional source of fulfillment and as a way to feel the joy of helping others.” — Harold Kushner

124. “We have a responsibility to help those around us and help others in need.” — Virginia Williams

125.“Helping others in need is not only a responsibility of life; it is what gives meaning to life.” — Mollie Marti 

126. “Helping others isn’t a chore; it is one of the greatest gifts there is.” — Liya Kebede

127. “You are not obligated to drink water, but you can’t live without it. Likewise, you are not obligated to help anyone, but a true human can never live without helping someone in need.” ― Abhijit Naskar

128. “If I have ten days to live, I’ll spend one day gathering strength, so I can spend the rest nine days, helping and lifting the fallen.” ― Abhijit Naskar

129. “Helping others will give you a higher level of inner peace and reduce your stress.” — Michele Hartley

130. “Real life is infested with agony – if you can walk through that agony while helping others, that’s what makes you a hero – not a superhero – but a real hero.” ― Abhijit Naskar

Which of these quotes about helping others was your favorite?

People who need our help exist all around us.

When you help them, it means you’ve helped them move forward.

Helping other people reach their goals can also cause you to achieve your own success.

Hopefully, the quotes about helping others above have inspired you to help someone without the expectation of receiving anything in return.

Which of these quotes about helping others resonated with you best?

Do you have any other quotes to add to the list?

Tell us in the comment section below.