What does this quote mean?

“Give a little love to a child, and you get a great deal back.”

Ruskin presents affection toward children as relational rather than one-way: care given to a child can be met with trust, warmth and generosity in return.

Source note: The Crown of Wild Olive, Lecture I, “Work,” Project Gutenberg #26716, printed page 41. Ruskin places the sentence inside a Victorian Christian discussion of what he calls the loving and generous character of “right childhood”; this collection preserves that historical moral framework rather than treating every surrounding prescription as modern child-development evidence.

“It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

Giving becomes deeper when it includes time, attention, effort, and presence rather than possessions alone.

Source note: The Prophet, “On Giving.”

“You give but little when you give of your possessions.”

Possessions can be given without much personal cost; Gibran prepares the contrast with giving one’s own time and presence.

Source note: The Prophet, “On Giving.”

“Do not find your happiness in another’s sorrow.”

A person’s good fortune is morally diminished when it depends on enjoying somebody else’s pain or humiliation.

Source note: The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 18, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).

“Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin;”

The request comes after their father’s death, when Joseph’s brothers fear retaliation and appeal directly for forgiveness of the wrong they committed against him.

Source note: Genesis 50:17, King James Version; Joseph’s brothers send a message asking pardon for their earlier wrongdoing against him.

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind.”

Love is defined partly through patience and kindness, shifting the idea from emotion alone toward repeated behavior under strain.

Source note: 1 Corinthians 13:4 in the King James Version; this is the opening clause of the verse.