These words refer to a well-wishing friendliness or concern for the needs and desires of other people. Benevolence has the widest range of any of these words, suggesting an expansive and good-humoured tolerance and sympathy for others: brimming over with a feeling of sunny benevolence towards everyone he encountered. Sometimes the word implies the sympathy of a superior towards a subordinate, an implication strengthened by the word’s formality: working conditions sought as a right, not as a benevolence of their employer. Generosity is more informal and focuses exclusively on the aspect of giving, referring to an unstintingly helpful act or habit: the generosity with which he shared his toys with other children. In contrast to benevolence , which may remain an unacted-upon feeling, generosity is measured by actual behaviour: a plantation owner who looked on his native workers with benevolence but could hardly be accused of treating them with generosity .

At a level of greater in formality, good will and kindness are related somewhat like the previous pair, with good will referring primarily to feeling and kindness to action. Good will may refer to an open, charitable attitude, without reservation or bitterness: Christmas carollers full of merriment and good will . The word may also refer to a willingness to be fair-minded or impartial: both sides bargaining in good will . Kindness may suggest thoughtful or courteous consideration for the feelings of others: neighbour who were always the soul of kindness . Often, however, the word specifically points to the help one person gives to someone less fortunate, less well, or less able than himself: a nurse who treated the sick and wounded with almost reverent kindness . This word, consequently, can sometimes have a patronizing flavour, like benevolence : insisting that he wanted only her good will , not her kindness .

Unselfishness and altruism both point to a generosity that is based on a lack of self-concern. Where generosity may emphasize the quantity given, possibly for ostentatious reasons, unselfishness stresses the effacing personal sacrifice required ?even if a lesser amount is given: It was the tax deduction involve, rather than unselfishness , that prompted his generosity to the charity appeal. While unselfishness is most often used to indicate a personal trait, the more formal altruism is usually reserved to indicate a moral or ethical principle. The word refers to the setting aside of all special or personal interests in determining which course of action will most benefit the group welfare. This makes the word a more specific and exact synonym for one possibility in good will : Australian Volunteers Abroad, searching for a way to put their youthful altruism into practice.