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Good quotes

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“Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

“There is an old illusion—it is called good and evil.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“Annihilation itself is no death to evil. Only good where evil was, is evil dead. An evil thing must live with its evil until it chooses to be good. That alone is the slaying of evil.” George MacDonald, Lilith

“Man selects only for his own good; Nature only for that of the being which she tends.” Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species

“would not one tiny crime be wiped out by thousands of good deeds?” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

“For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.” Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

“He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.” Confucius, Analects

“The part of philanthropist is indeed a dangerous one; and the man who would do his neighbour good must first study how not to do him evil, and must begin by pulling the beam out of his own eye.” George MacDonald, Lilith

“Segregation is that which is forced upon inferiors by superiors. But separation is that which is done voluntarily, by two equals—for the good of both!” Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

“I try not to speak about the charities and people I help, because I believe we can only be truly generous when we expect nothing in return.” Muhammad Ali, The Soul of a Butterfly

“Having a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other is the most common thing in the world.” JAY-Z, Decoded

“The success of our economy has always depended, not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity, on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart, not out of charity, but because it is the surest...” Barack Obama, Inaugural Address

“When bad men combine, the good must associate” Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents

“The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn't the real point.” Albert Camus, The Plague

“There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it.” J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

“What is morality? . . . Judgment to distinguish right and wrong, vision to see the truth, courage to act upon it, dedication to that which is good, integrity to stand by the good at any price.” Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

“If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.” Confucius, Analects

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“Some have little power to do good, and have likewise little strength to resist evil.” Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

“The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.” Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

“What is a good man but a bad man's teacher? What is a bad man but a good man's job?” Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“For the function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil; whereas, inasmuch as all things morally wrong are evil, trickery prefers the evil to the good.” Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties

“I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.” Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

“Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win By fearing to attempt.” William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

“War is war. The only good human being is a dead one.” George Orwell, Animal Farm

“there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so” William Shakespeare, Hamlet

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” John Steinbeck, East of Eden

“Wouldn't it be a beautiful world if just 10 percent of the people who believe in the power of love would compete with one another to see who could do the most good for the most people?” Muhammad Ali, The Soul of a Butterfly

“It is easy enough to do good once or twice, but to keep on doing good without getting disgusted with the ingratitude of those whom we have benefited, that is not so easy.” Martin Luther, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians

“Let your evinced desires be for what is good, and the people will be good.” Confucius, Analects

“when each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.” Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.” J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

“Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings, who think themselves good because they have crippled paws!” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you; and besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil.” Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I have been wicked in my day, but I never thought a little girl like you would ever be able to melt me and end my wicked deeds.” L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.” William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

“To safeguard democracy the people must have a keen sense of independence, self-respect and their oneness, and should insist upon choosing as their representatives only such persons as are good and true.” Mahatma Gandhi, The Story of my Experiments with Truth

“Men always love what is good or what they find good; it is in judging what is good that they go wrong.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

“Neither worse then nor better is a thing made by being praised.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Through the gathering momentum of millions of acts of service and decency and kindness, I know we can overcome evil with greater good.” George W. Bush, State of the Union Address

“I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.” Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

“If you do something too good, then, after a while, if you don't watch it, you start showing off. And then you're not as good any more.” J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

“Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had.” Aristotle, Politics

“The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call...” C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“OPTIMISM, n. The doctrine, or belief, that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly, everything good, especially the bad, and everything right that is wrong.” Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

“There is no vice so simple but assumes some mark of virtue on his outward parts.” William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“It's so hard to know what to do when one wishes earnestly to do right.” George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

“Life wasn't made to be easy on folks: they wouldn't ever have any reason to be good and die.” William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying

“It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good.” J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

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Related topics

evil day right love understanding praise strength women bad power life belief happiness men death morality contradiction annihilation man nature

Related authors

George R. R. Martin (1)
Samuel Johnson (1)
William Shakespeare (8)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (3)
Henry David Thoreau (3)
Confucius (3)
Marcus Aurelius (3)
Friedrich Nietzsche (2)
Ayn Rand (2)
George MacDonald (2)
John Steinbeck (2)
Muhammad Ali (2)
J. K. Rowling (2)
Aristotle (2)
W. Somerset Maugham (2)
L. Frank Baum (2)
Charles Darwin (1)
George Bernard Shaw (1)
George Orwell (1)
Jane Austen (1)

Related sources

As I Lay Dying (1)
Civil Disobedience (3)
Analects (3)
Meditations (3)
Lilith (2)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (2)
Atlas Shrugged (2)
East of Eden (2)
Of Human Bondage (2)
The Soul of a Butterfly (2)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2)
The Merchant of Venice (2)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (2)
Politics (2)
On The Origin of Species (1)
Hamlet (1)
Tao Te Ching (1)
The Story of my Experiments with Truth (1)
The Devil's Dictionary (1)
The Fault in Our Stars (1)

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