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Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.
* Jane Austen
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The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.
* Pierre Corneille
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One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!
* George Eliot
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Giving presents is a talent; to know what a person wants, to know when and how to get it, to give it lovingly and well. Unless a character possesses this talent there is no moment more annihilating to ease than that in which a present is received and given.
* Pamela Glenconner
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There is sublime thieving in all giving. Someone gives us all he has and we are his.
* Eric Hoffer
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Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.
* Samuel Johnson
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What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.
* François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
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Some people have a knack of putting upon you gifts of no real value, to engage you to substantial gratitude. We thank them for nothing.
* Charles Lamb
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This is what is hardest: to close the open hand because one loves.
* Friedrich Nietzsche
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A gift in season is a double favor to the needy.
* Publilius Syrus
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Behold, I do not give lectures or a little charity,
When I give I give myself.
* Walt Whitman
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