Who write the quotation charity begins at home?

Charity is something more than mere

kindness. It is not a beggar's dole that we offer and then pass on

and forget. It is not mere composition based on feeling of

superiority, as though conferring some favour. It means tolerance.

Compassion, a patient sympathy for the failings and errors of

others, is large-hearted concession to the weakness. It is the

spontaneous overflow of our sense of Humanism. It tells: "Be to

their virtues very kind; be to their failings little blind." It is

one of the noblest of virtues.

Hence, charity is not easy to

practice. Man is by nature egotistical. Whatever is most unlike him

naturally rouses his ill will. That is why there is so little of

tolerance and so much of faultfinding in the world. Such men can

never cultivate charity. They may throw a coin to the needy while

looking down on him. A man that is cold and unmoved to pity can

make only formal charity, probably for self-publicity.

Charity can never by practiced so

well as in one's home, in one's daily dealing with those near

about. One can never be patient and forbearing with others unless

one is able to cultivate this attitude at home. It is certainly

very much easier to bear with the foibles of those whom we love. So

charity is best practiced with them. Once we begin to cultivate

sympathy with our kith and kin, we will find it easier to do so

with others. The home is the centre, and so let the goodness that

is within us radiate from the centre in ever- winding circles. Once

we begin with our homes, we can gradually extend scope of our

charity till it includes our neighbours, our fellow-workers, our

people, and so on.

Unfortunately, it often happens that

though charity begins at home, it tends to end there. The proverb

warns us against this. The home is the origin; the whole world is

the limit. But an exception must be made. Charity begins at home,

of course, but surely not with oneself. One must be charitable to

the whole world.