Generosity means giving, making sacrifices. It's something that people have been doing since who-knows-when. If we were to stop being generous or to stop making sacrifices for one another, the world wouldn't be able to last as a world  -  because even animals are generous with one another, just like human beings. They share their food with one another just like we do. They live together and eat together, feeding their offspring and caring for them. Take ants, for example: Each one helps carry food back to the nest. Other animals take food back to their hole or their hollow in a tree and eat it together.

We human beings live in families, in social situations. To the extent that we are involved with others, to the extent we make sacrifices for one another, beginning with the sacrifices that parents make for their children and continuing with those that we make for society at large. We live together by being generous, by making sacrifices for one another. Our hearts and our lives depend on one another, which is why we need to do this.

(Ajahn Maha Boowa)