Daily Inspiration Quote by Bishop Robert South

A neat little moral yardstick, delivered with the confident snap of a pulpit line. South isn’t merely praising charity; he’s demoting “what he does” - competence, ambition, public achievement - to second place. The real test, he implies, is voluntary loss: what you surrender when no one can compel you.

That ranking matters in South’s context. As a Restoration-era Anglican divine, he’s preaching into a world rebuilding institutions after civil war and regicide, where loyalty and social order are anxious obsessions and the Church is reasserting its authority. “What he does” can be performative: service to crown or church, visible piety, the kind of action that wins status. “What he gives” points to something harder to counterfeit, because giving costs. It reveals what you truly value when self-interest isn’t the only accountant in the room.

The subtext is quietly disciplinary. If you’re rich, your moral biography isn’t written by your projects but by your generosity; if you’re powerful, your legacy isn’t your victories but your relinquishments. South also smuggles in a theological anthropology: humans aren’t finally assessed by productivity but by love made material. “Truer measure” hints at the limits of action as evidence; deeds can be coerced, strategic, or accidental. Giving, ideally, is chosen.

It’s a line that flatters the donor while binding him. You can’t hide behind busyness. You can’t launder your reputation with mere industriousness. South’s brilliance is making ethics feel like arithmetic: subtract from yourself, and the remainder is your character.