Who knows?

[potent]

The background to the phrase "charity begins at home", please?

[sgs]

It's a well-worn phrase, though no-one is forthcoming about its first usage. It's meaning is that in order to be well-disposed towards the world at large, you need to be in tune with yourself and those close to you, though it can have a more literal meaning. It may have come about as an adaptation of a biblical quote: 'But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home.'

[potent]

thanks, sgs, but I was hoping for more than that

[sgs]

Fair comment, potent. I realise it probably didn't add to your knowledge, but there doesn't seem to be anyone who is able to pinpoint its origin.

[allen ives]

.....she spends hours and hours on volunteer work and neglects the children, forgetting that charity begins at home. This proverb was first recorded in English, in slightly different form, in John Wycliffe's Of Prelates (c. 1380); "Charity should begin at himself." Quote from free on-line encyclopaedia, www.xrefer.com, a very useful place to look for answers. (And stop squabbling... :g)- )

[sgs]

Good answer, allen ives. Who's squabbling?

[potent]

Thanks Allen Ives, but! says Wycliffe,The righteous alone could properly have dominion, even if they were not free to assert it. He then proceeded to say that, as the church was in sin, it ought to give up its possessions and return to evangelical poverty. Such disendowment was, in his view, to be carried out by the state, and particularly by the king. It hardly implies that Wycliffe would counsel self-denial as the 500 years or so the Salvos have. But thanks, Allen, for your interest and as sgs asks: who's squabbling?

[Ginbottle]

Charity at home? so it is not "pay it forward" is it? (from the film)