The manifestation of human generosity is timeless. Configured in its substance since Roman law, the donation contract is one of the oldest, but also the most important contracts in national law, structurally related to the acquisition of property rights. Presenting important landmarks regarding the culture of the gift (of giving) in Roman law, the research focuses on the institution of donation, as we find it in the Romanian civil legislation, under different avatars of the concept of animus donandi. In this study, we have analyzed the elements of connection and legal continuity of the concept of gratification, as it was initially configured in the Roman law. Thus, the donation represents that contract by which a party, called a donor, with liberal intention irrevocably reduces its patrimony by a right, increasing the patrimony of the other party, called donee, without seeking to receive any compensation. After millennia, the purpose of the donation remained the same, the liberal intention to provide the contractor with a property advantage. Precisely this aspect ensures the permanence of the rules that govern the legal act of the donation, being exposed surprising symmetries that have crossed the centuries.