Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog.
To get what he wanted, a man had to give other people what they wanted.
Benefits are acceptable, while the receiver thinks he may return them; but once exceeding that, hatred is given instead of thanks. [Lat., Beneficia usque eo laeta sunt dum videntur exsolvi posse; ubi multum antevenere pro gratia odium redditur.]
Offer your strengths to others and you'll be amazed how many people offer their strengths to you.
Nudity is a problem for Americans. It disrupts our social exchange.
Periodically, at the end of a conversation, someone will ask me, 'Is there something I can do for you?' I used to answer with 'Do something that is helpful to something or someone in my world.'
The person who receives the most favors is the one who knows how to return them.
Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.
You owe it to yourself to be the best person possible. Because if you are, others will want to be with you, want to provide you with the things you want in exchange for what you're giving to them.
This is the law of benefits between men; the one ought to forget at once what was given, and the other ought never to forget what he has received.
The only people who steal are thieves, and that's a very small percentage of civilization. Most people want to have some way to make the economic transaction valid. They want to return the favor, if you will... return the benefit and reciprocate.
All animals communicate. What's special about gossip is that it's not about the here and now. You don't gossip about lions. You don't gossip about clouds. You only gossip about other people. And once you do, you can keep track of many more people - this is the basis for forming larger communities.
We befriend whoever befriends us, and we are hostile to those hostile to us.
Every worker receives from society as much as he has given it.
Vladimir Lenin
Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.
The nature of man is such that people consider themselves put under an obligation as much by the benefits they confer as by those they receive.
Bricks and mortar Berlin has become a kind of network across which visitors and residents interact as if on some sort of comfortable global platform.
One hand washeth another, and both the face.
People only speak to get something.
I was able to change my life by knowing that if somebody does something good for you, you have to respond.
I always think if you are asking somebody for something it is a good idea to give them something first.
Some cultural phenomena bear a striking resemblance to the cells of cell biology, actively preserving themselves in their social environments, finding the nutrients they need and fending off the causes of their dissolution.
Opinions is a species of property - I am always desirous of sharing.
To flatter and follow others, without being flattered and followed in turn, is but a state of half enjoyment.
There is no gratitude for things past. Gratitude is always for what you're going to do for people in the future.
