Quotes About Goodness

And it was then that I knew what it means to be lucky--lucky to have met a person during those three minutes of the day that he's good. Because I have a lot of time on my hands--you can imagine that that adds up. there are 24 hours in a day, and half of that is night. That leaves you with 12. And that's 12 times 60 minutes, that is, 720 minutes minus three minutes of goodness still leaves you with 717 minutes worth of nasty ordinary person.

I love you because I'm good to you.

We must live in the radiance of tomorrow, as our ancestors have suggested in their tales. For what is yet to come tomorrow has possibilities, and we must think of it, the simplest glimpse of that possibility of goodness. That will be our strength. That has always been our strength.

I was suddenly stricken with a feeling of black despair, hopelessly muddled by what was right and wrong. Nothing seemed clear cut; we did evil in the name of good, and good was done in the name of evil. [Chapter 27, page 306]

Capì questo: che le associazioni rendono l'uomo più forte e mettono in risalto le doti migliori delle singole persone, e danno la gioia che raramente s'ha restando per proprio conto, di vedere quanta gente c'è onesta e brava e capace e per cui vale la pena di vedere cose buone (mentre vivendo per proprio conto capita più spesso il contrario, di vedere l'altra faccia della gente, quella per cui bisogna tener sempre la mano alla guardia della spada)

In the end, nature is inexorable: it has no reason to hurry and, sooner or later, it takes what belongs to it. Unconsciously and inflexibly obedient to its own laws, it doesn't know art, just as it doesn't know freedom, just as it doesn't know goodness.

Can I admit to myself that I know about, say, the goodness of love and the evil of murder, while not admitting to myself that I know about the goodness of God and the evil of refusing Him?

The sage of Nazareth may satisfy those who have never faced the problem of evil in their own lives; but to talk about an ideal to those who are under the thralldom of sin is a cruel mockery. Yet if Jesus was merely a man like the rest of men, then an ideal is all that we have in Him. Far more is needed by a sinful world. It is small comfort to be told that there was goodness in the world, when what we need is goodness triumphant over sin.

There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.

There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life.

There is one type of gambling which should always be encouraged. It is betting on goodness. When a person has wronged you, be good to him. If he adds insult to injury, double the bet. And keep on doubling it. You will surely win!

One cannot, without reflection, make some into bearers of goodness and others into miscreants, judging them by relative positive or negative criteria. These, like everything else, change according to historical circumstances, the character of a society, the time and subjective points of view.

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

My true religion is Kindness.

The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life. It should be something useful, something good.

Children," Mrs. Oakenfeld sighed. "I do not want you to be good to avoid being punished. I do not want you to be good so that you can receive rewards. I want you to be good," she stressed, "because it is the right thing to do. You are very formidable adversaries, but don't you see that when you work against eachother, you just cancel eachother out?

My faith is in the belief that sacrifice for others is inherently good and making the choice to do good is the gift of being human.

We can organize the church for acts of goodness such as caring for the poor and helping those in need. We know that this type of organized religion actually pleases Jesus.111

After fifty-five years of dedicating his life and work to the story of ethical systems, Sol Weintraub had come to a single, unshakable conclusion: any allegiance to a deity or concept or universal principal which put obedience above decent behavior toward an innocent human being was evil.

Morninghall was not such an evil man after all. A baffling one, yes. A potentially violent one, yes. An arrogant, intimidating, enigmatic, moody one, yes. But not evil. No man who took pity on a suffering child was evil.

May the same Almighty Goodness banish the accursed monster, war, from all lands, with her hated associates, rapine and insatiable ambition!

To get the best out of a man go to what is best in him.

As soon as our potential experience becomes our actual experience—as soon as we have a stake in its goodness—our brains get busy looking for ways to think about the experience that will allow us to appreciate it.