If I were to speak in the language of men, or of Angels, yet not have charity, I would be like a clanging bell or a crashing cymbal
And if I have prophecy, and learn every mystery, and obtain all knowledge, and possess all faith, so that I could move mountains, yet not have charity, then I am nothing
And if I distribute all my goods in order to feed the poor, and if I hand over my body to be burned, yet not have charity, it offers me nothing
Charity is patient, is kind. Charity does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not inflated
Charity is not ambitious, does not seek for itself, is not provoked to anger, devises no evil
Charity does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices in truth
Charity suffers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all
Charity is never torn away, even if prophecies pass away, or languages cease, or knowledge is destroyed
For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part
But when the perfect arrives, the imperfect passes away
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I understood like a child, I thought like a child. But when I became a man, I put aside the things of a child
Now we see through a glass darkly. But then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know, even as I am known
But for now, these three continue: faith, hope, and charity. And the greatest of these is charity