Someone who takes pity and lends, who is disposed to be compassionate, quick to render assistance, who believes that there is more happiness in giving than in receiving, who easily forgives but is not easily angered, who will never seek to be avenged, and will in all things take thought for his neighbor’s needs as if they were his own. Such a person is overflowing with affectionate kindness, making himself all things to all men yet pricing his deeds like something discarded in order to be ever and everywhere ready to supply to others what they need, in a word, so dead to himself that he lives only for others.
Bernard of Clairvaux
