Wealth is nothing but as it is bestowed, and knowledge nothing but as it is communicated.
 Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759). copy citation

Context

“She that has no one to love or trust has little to hope. She wants the radical principle of happiness. We may perhaps allow that what satisfaction this world can afford must arise from the conjunction of wealth, knowledge, and goodness. Wealth is nothing but as it is bestowed, and knowledge nothing but as it is communicated. They must therefore be imparted to others, and to whom could I now delight to impart them? Goodness affords the only comfort which can be enjoyed without a partner, and goodness may be practised in retirement.”” source