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Goodness, or Good, is a term designating desired, healthy or proper qualities, in contrast with undesired bad, harmful or evil qualities. In religion, ethics, philosophy, and psychology "good and evil" is a very common dichotomy.
- The Infinite, from which comes the impulse that lead us to activity, is not [...] the highest Goodness, but higher than goodness.
- Felix Adler, Life and Destiny: or Thoughts from the Ethical Lectures of Felix Adler (1913), Section 2: Religion
- Good deeds remain good, no matter whether we know how the world was made or not.
- Felix Adler, Life and Destiny (1913), Section 9 : Ethical Outlook
- We need to feel that no effort is ever wasted, that no honest reaching out toward the good is vain, that the great All is pressing forward toward a transcendent goal. And there is but a single way to obtain this conviction. It is not possible to enter into the nature of the Good by standing aloof from it — by merely speculating upon it. Act the Good, and you will believe in it. hrow yourself into the stream of the world's good tendency and you will feel the force of the current and the direction in which it is setting. [...] By ceaseless efforts to live the good life we maintain our moral sanity. Not from without, but from within, flow the divine waters that renew the soul.
- Felix Adler, Life and Destiny (1913)
- I believe in angels, something good in everything I see.
- Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, in "I Have a Dream", on the ABBA album Voulez-Vous (1979).
- If the function of man is an activity of soul which follows or implies a rational principle, ... and we state the function of man to be a certain kind of life, and this to be an activity or actions of the soul implying a rational principle, and the function of a good man to be the good and noble performance of these, and if any action is well performed when it is performed in accordance with the appropriate excellence: if this is the case, human good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete.
- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 1, Chapter 7.
- Men have never been good, they are not good, they never will be good.
- Karl Barth, Time (12 April 1954)
- GOOD, adj. Sensible, madam, to the worth of this present writer. Alive, sir, to the advantages of letting him alone.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Word Book (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
- He who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars;
General good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer:
For art and science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.- William Blake, Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion, Ch. 3, plate 55, line 60 (c. 1803–1820)
- Some good we all can do; and if we do all that is in our power, however little that power may be, we have performed our part, and may be as near perfection as those whose influence extends over kingdoms, and whose good actions are felt and applauded by thousands.
- Jane Bowdler On Christian Perfection.
- It didn't matter how big our house was; it mattered that there was love in it. It didn't matter if our neighborhood was wealthy or otherwise; it mattered that neighbors talked to each other, looked out for one another. The kindnesses that allowed me to trust in people and in the basic goodness of the world could not be measured in dollars; they were paid for, rather, in hugs and ice-cream cones and help with homework.
- Have we fallen into a mesmerized state that makes us accept as inevitable that which is inferior or detrimental, as though having lost the will or the vision to demand that which is good?
- Rachel Carson Silent Spring (1962)
- Goodness is always an asset. A man who is straight, friendly and useful may never be famous, but he is respected and liked by all who know him. He has laid a sound foundation for success and he will have a worthwhile life.
- Herbert N. Casson in: Forbes (1948). p. 42.
- Can one desire too much of a good thing?
- Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605-15), Part I, Book I, Chapter VI.// William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act IV, scene 1, line 123.
- He who so interprets the supreme good as to disjoin it from virtue, and measures it by his own convenience, and not by the standard of right,—he, I say, if he be consistent with himself, and be not sometimes overcome by natural goodness, can cultivate neither friendship, nor justice, nor generosity.
- Cicero, De Officiis
- Most people are bad; if they are strong they take from the weak. The good people are all weak; they are good because they are not strong enough to be bad.
- Commoro, a chief in northern Uganda, speaking to explorer Samuel Baker in 1864. In the Heart of Africa. Chapter, XVI.
- No people do so much harm as those who go about doing good.
- Mandell Creighton, quoted by Louise Creighton in Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton, vol. 2. (1905)
- Today I didn't even have to use my A.K.
I got to say it was a good day.- Ice Cube, It Was a Good Day, from the album The Predator, (February 23, 1992).
- Only those few people who practice it believe in goodness.
- Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Aphorisms, D. Scrase and W. Mieder, trans. (Riverside, California: 1994), p. 29.
- Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist ... must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series (1883), pp. 51-52.
- The desire of the will is not satisfied by any good, as long as we believe that there is yet another beyond it. Therefore, the will is satisfied only by that one good beyond which there is no further good. What can this good be except the boundless God?
- Marsilio Ficino, Five Questions Concerning the Mind (1495) as translated by J. L. Burroughs in The Renaissance Philosophy of Man (1948), p. 201
- That which especially distinguishes a high order of man from a low order of man, that which constitutes human goodness, human nobleness, is surely not the degree of enlightenment with which men pursue their own advantage; but it is self-forgetfulness; it is self-sacrifice; it is the disregard of personal pleasure, personal indulgence, personal advantage, remote or present, because some other line of conduct is more right.
- James Anthony Froude, Short Studies on Great Subjects (1907), p. 19
- Only the mediocre are always at their best.
- Jean Giraudoux as quoted in The Beauty Principal (1984) by Victoria Principal, p. 117
- I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.
- Attributed to Stephen Grellet, variants of this have been been widely circulated as a Quaker saying since at least 1869, and attributed Grellet since at least 1893. W. Gurney Benham in Benham's Book of Quotations, Proverbs, and Household Words (1907) states that though sometimes attributed to others, "there seems to be some authority in favor of Stephen Grellet being the author, but the passage does not appear in any of his printed works." It appears to have been published as an anonymous proverb at least as early as 1859, when it appeared in Household Words : A Weekly Journal.
- Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.
- Isaiah 1:17
- It is quite natural that in the modern drama the bad is always represented by the most shining talents; the good, the upright, by a grocer's clerk. The spectators find this a matter of course and learn from the play what they knew beforehand, that it is far beneath their dignity to be put in the same class with a grocer's clerk.
- Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or Part II, Swenson 1944, 1971 p. 232
- We set ourselves up as arbiters of what is good when often our standards of goodness are driven by narrow interests, by what we want.
- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions. 16 September 2013. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-57131-871-8.
- The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident.
- Charles Lamb, quoted in "Table Talk" in The Athenaeum magazine (4 January 1834).
- Goodness does not more certainly make men happy than happiness makes them good.
- Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations, 'Lord Brooke and Sir Philip Sidney' (1824-1829)
- Good can be done by the bad — but the good alone can be good.
- Johann Kaspar Lavater, Aphorism 362, in Aphorisms on Man, translated by Henry Fuseli (London: J. Johnson, 1788)
- Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.
- C. S. Lewis, in "God in the Dock" (1948).
- Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion. Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger — according to the way you react to it.
- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952).
- His irresolution was based on a fundamental human peculiarity—he wanted to be a good man, but what is good?
- W. Macfarlane, 220—Advanced Field Exploration, in Galaxy Science Fiction, March 1972, p. 59
- Abashed the Devil stood,
And felt how awful goodness is, and saw
Virtue in her shape how lovely.
—saw, and pined his loss.- John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IV, Lines 846-848 (1667, 1674).
- All other knowledge is hurtful to him who has not the science of goodness.
- Montaigne, Essays, M. Screech, trans. (1991), Book I, ch. 25, “On Schoolmasters’ Learning,” p. 159
- The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
- Paul of Tarsus, Galatians 5:22-23 ESV
- We care so little of other people that even Christianity urges us to do good for the love of God.
- Cesare Pavese, This Business of Living, 1938-07-08
- He that does good for good's sake seeks neither praise nor reward, though sure of both at last.
- William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims (1682) no. 441.
- Nor is it a matter for wonder that the good do not appear herded in great thongs. First because specimens of great goodness are rare, secondly, because they avoid the great crowd of the more thoughtless and keep themselves at leisure for the contemplation of what nature has to show.
- Philo, Every Good Man is Free, 63
- Forgetful of all he had written and spoken Antiochus was making preparations for war with Ptolemy, so that what Simonides said seems to be very true: "It is hard to be good." It is indeed easy to be disposed to act honourably and to strive to do so up to a certain point, but to be consistent and under every circumstance to be steadfast in our purpose, esteeming nothing to be of higher importance than justice and honour, is difficult.
- Polybius, Histories, book 29 chapter 26
- Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.
- Alexander Pope, Epilogue to the Satires dialogue I line 136.
- The more skillfully the language of goodness is assumed, the greater the depravity.
- Publius Syrus, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus (1856), # 114
- And spend in the way of God and do not throw (yourselves) with your (own) hands into destruction (by refraining). And do good; Indeed, God loves the doers of good.
- When at eventide noble steeds swift of foot were displayed before him, he said: "I have loved the love of good things over the remembrance of my Lord, until (the sun) was taken behind the veil"
- Quran, 38:31 - 38:32
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- Nec multis verbis nec circumitu longo, quod sit summum bonum, colliges1; digito, ut ita dicam, demonstrandum est nec in multa spargendum. Quid enim ad rem pertinet in particulas illud diducere, cum possis dicere: summum bonum est, quod honestum est? Et quod magis admireris: unum bonum est, quod honestum est, cetera falsa et bona sunt. Hoc si persuaseris tibi et virtutem adamaveris, amare enim parum est, quicquid illa contigerit, id tibi, qualecumque aliis videbitur, faustum felixque erit. Et torqueri, si modo iacueris ipso torquente securior, et aegrotare, si non male dixeris fortunae, si non cesseris morbo, omnia denique, quae ceteris videntur mala, et mansuescent et in bonum abibunt, si super illa eminueris.
- To infer the nature of this Supreme Good, one does not need many words or any round-about discussion; it should be pointed out with the forefinger, so to speak, and not be dissipated into many parts. For what good is there in breaking it up into tiny bits, when you can say: the Supreme Good is that which is honourablea? Besides (and you may be still more surprised at this), that which is honourable is the only good; all other goods are alloyed and debased. If you once convince yourself of this, and if you come to love virtue devotedly (for mere loving is not enough), anything that has been touched by virtue will be fraught with blessing and prosperity for you, no matter how it shall be regarded by others. Torture, if only, as you lie suffering, you are more calm in mind than your very torturer; illness, if only you curse not Fortune and yield not to the disease—in short, all those things which others regard as ills will become manageable and will end in good, if you succeed in rising above them.
- Seneca the Younger, Epistle LXXI. In: Seneca, Epistles, Volume II: Epistles 66-92. Translated by Richard M. Gummere. Loeb Classical Library, page 74-75. Archived from the original on October 23, 2024.
- Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.- William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II, sc. i (1599 or 1600)
- How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act V, sc. i (1596 and 1598)
- It is quite useless to declare that all men are born free if you deny that they are born good. Guarantee a man's goodness and his liberty will take care of itself. To guarantee his freedom on condition that you approve of his moral character is formally to abolish all freedom whatsoever, as every man's liberty is at the mercy of a moral indictment which any fool can trump up against everyone who violates custom, whether as a prophet or as a rascal.
- George Bernard Shaw, in Major Barbara (1905), Preface
- People aren't either wicked or noble. They're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.
- Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events.
- Nothing can harm a good man, either in life or after death.
- Socrates, The Apology, 41 (399 BC)
- For he that is a good man, is three quarters of his way towards the being a good Christian, wheresoever he lives, or whatsoever he is called.
- Robert South, sermon Why Christ's Doctrine was Rejected.
- It is not so important that many should be good as you, as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump.
- Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1.10
- The touchstone of goodness is to own one's defeat even to inferiors.
- Tiruvalluvar, Tirukkural: 786.
- One may slain every goodness and yet escape, but no escape for one who slain gratitude.
- Tiruvalluvar, Tirukkural: 110.
- If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect.
- Leo Tolstoy, Levin in Anna Karenina, C. Garnett, trans. (New York: 2003), Part 8, Chapter 12, p. 735
- Every person has only one purpose: to find perfection in goodness. Therefore, only that knowledge is necessary which leads to this.
- Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom, P. Sekirin, trans. (1997), May 3
- To be good and lead a good life means to give to others more than one takes from them.
- Leo Tolstoy, The First Step (1892), ch. VII
- I longed with all my soul to be good, but I was young; I had passions and I was alone, completely alone in my search for goodness. Every time I tried to express my innermost desires—a wish to be morally good—I met with contempt and scorn, and as soon as I gave in to vile passions I was praised and encouraged. Ambition, lust for power, self-interest, lechery, pride, anger, revenge, were all respected qualities. As I yielded to these passions I became like my elders and I felt that they were pleased with me.
- Leo Tolstoy, A Confession (1882), as translated by Jane Kentish (Penguin: 1987), p. 22
- In Donald's mind, even acknowledging an inevitable threat would indicate weakness. Taking responsibility would open him up to blame. Being a hero- being good- is impossible for him.
- Mary L. Trump, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man (2020), p. 210
- What is good looking, as Horace Smith remarks, but looking good? Be good, be womanly, be gentle, — generous in your sympathies, heedful of the well-being of all around you; and, my word for it, you will not lack kind words of admiration.
- John Greenleaf Whittier, The Beautiful
- For avoiding slavery to the belly or to sleep and incontinence, is there, think you, any more effective specific than the possession of other and greater pleasures, which are delightful not only to enjoy, but also because they arouse hopes of lasting benefit? ... Do you think then that out of all this thinking there comes anything so pleasant as the thought: ‘I am growing in goodness and I am making better friends'? And that, I may say, is my constant thought.
- Xenophon, Socrates in Memorabilia, 1.6.1
- They live best, I think, who strive best to become as good as possible: and the pleasantest life is theirs who are conscious that they are growing in goodness.
- Xenophon, Socrates in Memorabilia, 4.8.6
- Human nature is evil; its goodness derives from conscious activity. Now it is human nature to be born with a fondness for profit. Indulging this leads to contention and strife, and the sense of modesty and yielding with which one was born disappears. One is born with feelings of envy and hate, and, by indulging these, one is led into banditry and theft, so that the sense of loyalty and good faith with which he was born disappears. One is born with the desires of the ears and eyes and with a fondness for beautiful sights and sounds, and, by indulging these, one is led to licentiousness and chaos, so that the sense of ritual, rightness, refinement, and principle with which one was born is lost. Hence, following human nature and indulging human emotions will inevitably lead to contention and strife, causing one to rebel against one’s proper duty, reduce principle to chaos, and revert to violence. Therefore one must be transformed by the example of a teacher and guided by the way of ritual and rightness before one will attain modesty and yielding, accord with refinement and ritual, and return to order.
- Xun Zi, “Human Nature is Evil,” Sources of Chinese Tradition (1999), vol. 1, pp. 179-180
- Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 326-29.
- Whatever any one does or says, I must be good.
- Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations, Chapter VII.
- What good I see humbly I seek to do,
And live obedient to the law, in trust
That what will come, and must come, shall come well.- Edwin Arnold, The Light of Asia (1879), Book VI, line 273.
- Because indeed there was never law, or sect, or opinion, did so much magnify goodness, as the Christian religion doth.
- Francis Bacon, Essays, Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature.
- For the cause that lacks assistance,
The wrong that needs resistance,
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I can do.- George Linnæus Banks, What I Live For.
- The good he scorned
Stalked off reluctant, like an ill-used ghost,
Not to return; or if it did, in visits
Like those of angels, short and far between.- Robert Blair, The Grave, Part II, line 586.
- One may not doubt that, somehow Good
Shall come of Water and of Mud;
And sure, the reverent eye must see
A purpose in Liquidity.- Rupert Brooke, Heaven.
- No good Book, or good thing of any sort, shows its best face at first.
- Thomas Carlyle, Essays, "Novalis".
- Ergo hoc proprium est animi bene constituti, et lætari bonis rebus, et dolere contrariis.
- This is a proof of a well-trained mind, to rejoice in what is good and to grieve at the opposite.
- Cicero, De Amicitia, XIII.
- Homines ad deos nulla re propius accedunt, quam salutem hominibus dando.
- Men in no way approach so nearly to the gods as in doing good to men.
- Cicero, Oratio Pro Quinto Ligario, XII.
- Cui bono?
- What's the good of it? for whose advantage?
- Cicero, Oratio Pro Sextio Roscio Amerino, XXX. Quoted from Lucius Cassius—Second Philippic. ("Qui bono fueret.") See Life of Cicero, II. 292. Note.
- That good diffused may more abundant grow.
- William Cowper, Conversation (1782), line 441.
- Doing good,
Disinterested good, is not our trade.- William Cowper, The Task (1785), Book I. The Sofa, line 673.
- Now, at a certain time, in pleasant mood,
He tried the luxury of doing good.- George Crabbe, Tales of the Hall (1819), Book III.
- Who soweth good seed shall surely reap;
The year grows rich as it groweth old,
And life's latest sands are its sands of gold!- Julia C. R. Dorr, To the "Bouquet Club".
- Look around the habitable world, how few
Know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.- John Dryden, Juvenal, Satire X.
- If you wish to be good, first believe that you are bad.
- Epictetus, Fragments. Long's translation.
- For all their luxury was doing good.
- Samuel Garth, Cleremont, line 149.
- Ein guter Mensch, in seinem dunkeln Drange,
Ist sich des rechten Weges wohl bewusst.- A good man, through obscurest aspirations
Has still an instinct of the one true way. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Prolog im Himmel
- A good man, through obscurest aspirations
- And learn the luxury of doing good.
- Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller (1764), line 22.
- Impell'd with steps unceasing to pursue
Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view,
That, like the circle bounding earth and skies,
Allures from far, yet, as I follow, flies.- Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller (1764), line 25.
- If goodness leade him not, yet wearinesse
May tosse him to my breast.- George Herbert, The Pulley, Stanza 4.
- Vir bonus est quis?
Qui consulta patrum, qui leges juraque servat.- Who is a good man? He who keeps the decrees of the fathers, and both human and divine laws.
- Horace, Epistles, I. 16. 40.
- God whose gifts in gracious flood
Unto all who seek are sent,
Only asks you to be good
And is content.- Victor Hugo, God whose Gifts in Gracious Flood.
- He was so good he would pour rose-water on a toad.
- Douglas Jerrold, Jerrold's Wit, A Charitable Man.
- Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
- John. I. 46.
- How near to good is what is fair!
- Ben Jonson, Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly.
- Rari quippe boni: numero vix sunt totidem quot
Thebarum portæ, vel divitis ostia Nili.- The good, alas! are few: they are scarcely as many as the gates of Thebes or the mouths of the Nile.
- Juvenal, Satires (early 2nd century), XIII. 26.
- The good, alas! are few: they are scarcely as many as the gates of Thebes or the mouths of the Nile.
- Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever;
Do noble things, not dream them all day long;
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand, sweet song.- Charles Kingsley, Farewell. To C. E. G.
- Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever;
Do lovely things, not dream them, all day long;
And so make Life, and Death, and that For Ever,
One grand sweet song.- Charles Kingsley, Farewell. Version in ed. of 1889. Also in Life. Ed. by his wife, Volume I, p. 487, with line: "And so make Life, Death, and that vast For Ever".
- Weiss
Dass alle Länder gute Menschen tragen.- Know this, that every country can produce good men.
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan der Weise, II.
- Know this, that every country can produce good men.
- Segnius homines bona quam mala sentiunt.
- Men have less lively perception of the good than of the bad.
- Livy, Annales, XXX. 21.
- Men have less lively perception of the good than of the bad.
- The soil out of which such men as he are made is good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for and to be buried in.
- James Russell Lowell, Among my Books. Second Series. Garfield.
- Si veris magna paratur
Fama bonis, et si successu nuda remoto
Inspicitur virtus, quicquid laudamus in ullo
Majorum, fortuna fuit.- If honest fame awaits the truly good; if setting aside the ultimate success of excellence alone is to be considered, then was his fortune as proud as any to be found in the records of our ancestry.
- Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia, IX. 593.
- If honest fame awaits the truly good; if setting aside the ultimate success of excellence alone is to be considered, then was his fortune as proud as any to be found in the records of our ancestry.
- The crest and crowning of all good,
Life's final star, is Brotherhood.- Edwin Markham, Brotherhood.
- None
But such as are good men can give good things,
And that which is not good, is not delicious
To a well-governed and wise appetite.- John Milton, Comus (1637), line 702.
- Since good, the more
Communicated, more abundant grows.- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book V, line 71.
- A glass is good, and a lass is good,
And a pipe to smoke in cold weather;
The world is good, and the people are good,
And we're all good fellows together.- John O'Keefe, Sprigs of Laurel, Act II, scene 1.
- I know and love the good, yet ah! the worst pursue.
- Petrarch, To Laura in Life, Canzone XXI.
- Itidemque ut sæpe jam in multis locis,
Plus insciens quis fecit quam prodens boni.- And so it happens oft in many instances; more good is done without our knowledge than by us intended.
- Plautus, Captivi Prologue, XLIV.
- And so it happens oft in many instances; more good is done without our knowledge than by us intended.
- Bono ingenio me esse ornatam, quam auro multo mavolo.
Aurum fortuna invenitur, natura ingenium donum.
Bonam ego, quam beatam me esse nimio dici mavolo.- A good disposition I far prefer to gold; for gold is the gift of fortune; goodness of disposition is the gift of nature. I prefer much rather to be called good than fortunate.
- Plautus, Phœnulus, I. 2. 90.
- A good disposition I far prefer to gold; for gold is the gift of fortune; goodness of disposition is the gift of nature. I prefer much rather to be called good than fortunate.
- Every good thing is gentle and consistent, progressing in good order and not going beyond what is right.
- Porphyry, On Abstinence from Killing Animals, translated by Gillian Clark (Bloomsbury, 2014), II. 39. 4.
- Gute Menschen können sich leichter in schlimme hineindenken als diese injene.
- Good men can more easily see through bad men than the latter can the former.
- Jean Paul Richter, Hesperus, IV.
- Good men can more easily see through bad men than the latter can the former.
- You're good for Madge or good for Cis
Or good for Kate, maybe:
But what's to me the good of this
While you're not good for me?- Christina G. Rossetti, Jessie Cameron, Stanza 3.
- Esse quam videri bonus malebat.
- He preferred to be good, rather than to seem so.
- Sallust, Catlina, LIV.
- He preferred to be good, rather than to seem so.
- What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon also be beautiful.
- Sappho, Fragment, 101.
- Bonitas non est pessimis esse meliorem.
- It is not goodness to be better than the very worst.
- Seneca the Younger, Epistolæ Ad Lucilium.
- It is not goodness to be better than the very worst.
- So shines a good deed in a weary world.
- Willie Wonka, played by Gene Wilder, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (film) (1971), screenplay by Roald Dahl David Seltzer
- There lives within the very flame of love
A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it;
And nothing is at a like goodness still;
For goodness, growing to a pleurisy,
Dies in his own too much.- William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act IV, scene 7, line 115.
- Your great goodness, out of holy pity,
Absolv'd him with an axe.- William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (c. 1613), Act III, scene 2, line 263.
- I am in this earthly world; where to do harm,
Is often laudable, to do good sometime
Accounted dangerous folly.- William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605), Act IV, scene 2, line 75.
- My meaning in saying he is a good man is to have you understand me that he is sufficient.
- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act I, scene 3, line 14.
- For the Lord Jesus Christ's sake,
Do all the good you can,
To all the people you can,
In all the ways you can,
As long as ever you can.- Tombstone inscription in Shrewsbury, England. Favorite of Mr. Moody.
- For who is there but you? who not only claim to be a good man and a gentleman, for many are this, and yet have not the power of making others good. Whereas you are not only good yourself, but also the cause of goodness in others.
- How pleasant is Saturday night,
When I've tried all the week to be good,
Not spoken a word that is bad,
And obliged every one that I could.- Nancy Dennis Sproat, How Pleasant is Saturday Night.
- One person I have to make good: myself. But my duty to my neighbor is much more nearly expressed by saying that I have to make him happy—if I may.
- Robert Louis Stevenson, Christmas Sermon.
- She has more goodness in her little finger than he has in his whole body.
- Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation (c. 1738), Dialogue II.
- O, yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill,
To pangs of nature, sins of will
Defects of doubt and taints of blood.- Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H. (1849), LIV. 1.
- 'Tis only noble to be good.
- Alfred Tennyson, Lady Clara Vere de Vere. Same in Juvenal, Satires, VIII. 24.
- Man should be ever better than he seems.
- Sir Aubrey de Vere, A Song of Faith.
- Le plus grand ennemi du bon, c'est le mieux.
- The better is the greatest enemy of the good.
- French proverb, as cited in Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820), §216.
- Variants:
- Dans ses écrits un sage Italien
Dit que le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.- In his writings a wise Italian
Says that the better is the enemy of the good. - Voltaire, La Bégueule (The Prude) (1772)
- In his writings a wise Italian
- The perfect is the enemy of the good.
- Modern paraphrase of Voltaire.
- Dans ses écrits un sage Italien
Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
- Live for something! Do good and leave behind you a monument of virtue that the storm of time can never destroy. Write your name in kindness, love, and mercy on the hearts of the thousands you come in contact with, year by year, and you will never be forgotten. Your name, your deeds, will be as legible on the hearts you leave behind, as the stars on the brow of evening. Good deeds will shine as the stars of heaven.
- Thomas Chalmers, p. 243.
- Goodness consists not in the outward things we do, but in the inward thing we are. To be is the great thing.
- Edwin Hubbell Chapin, p. 286.
- How many people would like to be good, if only they might be good without taking trouble about it! They do not like goodness well enough to hunger and thirst after it, or to sell all that they have that they may buy it; they will not batter at the gate of the kingdom of heaven; but they look with pleasure on this or that aerial castle of righteousness, and think it would be rather nice to live in it.
- George MacDonald, p. 286.
- Great hearts alone understand how much glory there is in being good.
- Jules Michelet, p. 286.
- Be good my child, and let who will be clever;
Do noble deeds, not dream them all day long;
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand, sweet song.- Charles Kingsley, p. 286.
- Be not simply good; be good for something.
- Henry David Thoreau, p. 286.
- No good thing is ever lost. Nothing dies, not even life which gives up one form only to resume another. No good action, no good example dies. It lives forever in our race. While the frame moulders and disappears, the deed leaves an indelible stamp, and moulds the very thought and will of future generations.
- Samuel Smiles, p. 286.
- For ever and ever, my darling, yes—
Goodness and love are undying;
Only the troubles and cares of earth
Are winged from the first for flying.
Our way we plough
In the furrow "now;"
But after the tilling and growing the sheaf;
Soil for the root, but the sun for the leaf—
And God keepeth watch forever.- Mary Mapes Dodge, p. 287.
- Nothing that man ever invents will absolve him from the universal necessity of being good as God is good, righteous as God is righteous, and holy as God is holy.
- Charles Kingsley, p. 287.
- He who believes in goodness has the essence of all faith. He is a man "of cheerful yesterdays and confident to-morrows."
- James Freeman Clarke, p. 287.
- We cannot rekindle the morning beams of childhood; we cannot recall the noontide glory of youth; we cannot bring back the perfect day of maturity; we cannot fix the evening rays of age in the shadowy horizon; but we can cherish that goodness which is the sweetness of childhood, the joy of youth, the strength of maturity, the honor of old age, and the bliss of saints.
- Henry Giles, p. 287.
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Virtues
Altruism • Asceticism • Beneficence • Benevolence • Bravery • Carefulness • Charity • Cheerfulness • Cleanliness • Common sense • Compassion • Constancy • Courage • Dignity • Diligence • Discretion • Earnestness • Faith • Fidelity • Forethought • Forgiveness • Friendship • Frugality • Gentleness • Goodness • Grace • Gratitude • Holiness • Honesty • Honor • Hope • Hospitality • Humanity • Humility • Integrity • Intelligence • Justice • Kindness • Love • Loyalty • Mercy • Moderation • Modesty • Optimism • Patience • Philanthropy • Piety • Prudence • Punctuality • Poverty • Purity • Self-control • Simplicity • Sincerity • Sobriety • Sympathy • Temperance • Tolerance
Vices
Aggression • Anger • Apathy • Arrogance • Bigotry • Contempt • Cowardice • Cruelty • Dishonesty • Drunkenness • Egotism • Envy • Evil speaking • Gluttony • Greed • Hatred • Hypocrisy • Idleness • Ignorance • Impatience • Impenitence • Ingratitude • Inhumanity • Intemperance • Jealousy • Laziness • Lust • Malice • Neglect • Obstinacy • Philistinism • Prejudice • Pretension • Pride • Recklessness • Self-righteousness • Selfishness • Superficiality • Tryphé • Unkindness • Usury • Vanity • Worldliness
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