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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

“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

“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

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

“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

“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

“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

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

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

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

“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

“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

“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

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

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

“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

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

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

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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“If one good deed in all my life I did, I do repent it from my very soul.” William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus

“It is such a happiness when good people get together—and they always do.” Jane Austen, Emma

“I would we were all of one mind, and one mind good.” William Shakespeare, Cymbeline

“Hence it is evident that the good citizen need not of necessity possess the virtue which makes a good man.” Aristotle, Politics

“If you don’t live a life in service of a greater good, you’ve gotta at least die a death in service of a greater good, you know?” John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“He did not say that because he knew that if you said a good thing it might not happen.” Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

“You can do as you please, but I shall keep my book on the table here and read a little every morning as soon as I wake, for I know it will do me good and help me through the day.” Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.” Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

“Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil.” John Steinbeck, East of Eden

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

“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

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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)
Muhammad Ali (2)
John Steinbeck (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)
Malcolm X (1)

Related sources

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

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