good Quotes

“The good and the pleasant approach man; the wise examines both and discriminates between them; the wise prefers the good to the pleasant, but the foolish man chooses the pleasant through love of bodily pleasure.”

“I am a good woman, I hope; and I know my duty.”

“A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong—acting the part of a good man or of a bad.”

“For the fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretence of knowing the unknown; and no one knows whether death, which men in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.”

“When agreements are made according to what is right, what is spoken can be made good. When respect is shown according to what is proper, one keeps far from shame and disgrace. When the parties upon whom a man leans are proper persons to be intimate with, he can make them his guides and masters.”

“So I left him, saying to myself, as I went away: Well, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is,—for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows; I neither know nor think that I know.”

“A way of life that keeps saying ‘Around the next corner, above the next step,’ works against the natural order of things and makes it so difficult to be happy and good.”

“It’s people who claim that they’re good ... that you have to be wary of. ”

“Good is the enemy of great. Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline.”

“The good-to-great companies made a habit of putting their best people on their best opportunities, not their biggest problems.”

“Now of the Chief Good (i.e. of Happiness) men seem to form their notions from the different modes of life, as we might naturally expect: the many and most low conceive it to be pleasure, and hence they are content with the life of sensual enjoyment.”

“The Chief Good we feel instinctively must be something which is our own, and not easily to be taken from us.”

“The man who is truly good and sensible bears all fortunes, we presume, becomingly, and always does what is noblest under the circumstances.”

“Every art, and every science reduced to a teachable form, and in like manner every action and moral choice, aims, it is thought, at some good.”

“E’en intolerable ills, Finding right issue, tend to naught but good.”

“Good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are.”

″‘Tis one thing to speak much, another well.”

“You need to know it’s your actions that will make you a good person, not desire.”

“There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behaves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.”

“Being defiant can be a good thing sometimes. ”

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

“Newt remained curled in the chair. He held out his painty hands as though a cat’s cradle were strung between them. ‘No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat’s cradle is nothing but a bunch of X’s between somebody’s hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X’s….‘”

“It was the belief of Bokonon that good societies could be built only by pitting good against evil, and by keeping the tension between the two high at all times.”

“Some of those activities may be good, but they are taking up resources that your best ones need. So you always will have to choose between good and best. This is especially tough for some creative people, causing them a lack of focus. They create more than they can focus on and feed, they are attached to every idea as if they were all equal, and they try to keep them all alive. Instead of a to-do list, they have a to-do pile. It goes nowhere fast.”

“We feel friendly towards those whom we help to secure good for themselves, provided we are not likely to suffer heavily by it ourselves.”

“Most things will be okay eventually, but not everything will be. Sometimes you’ll put up a good fight and lose. Sometimes you’ll hold on really hard and realize there is no choice but to let go. Acceptance is a small, quiet room.”

“No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. 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.”

“So what was it like being married?” “Well, it’s hard, for sure. But there’s something that feels so good about sharing your life with somebody.”

“We do not know if, out on the moons of Saturn, you will meet with good or with evil—or only with ruins a thousand times older than Troy.”

“Everyone tells you what’s good for you. They don’t want you to find your own answers. They want you to believe theirs.”

“I will be good . . . Please let me out. I will be good!”

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.”

“Everything good seemed to be going away.”

“It does not matter where his body lies, for it is grass; but where his spirit is, it will be good to be.”

“[I]t is rather the case that we desire something because we believe it to be good than that we believe a thing to be good because we desire it. It is the thought that starts things off.”

“Are physicists and biologists willing to believe in anything so long as it is not religious thought? Close enough. Has rationalism and moral thought provided us with an understanding of what is good, what is right, and what is moral? Not close enough. Has secularism in the terrible 20th century been a force for good? Not even close, to being close.”

“If moral statements are about something, then the universe is not quite as science suggests it is, since physical theories, having said nothing about God, say nothing about right or wrong, good or bad. ”

“You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. But it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness.”

“Dee Dee poured another glass of wine. It was good wine. I liked her. It was good to have a place to go when things went bad. I remembered the early days when things would go bad and there wasn’t anywhere to go. Maybe that had been good for me. Then. But now I wasn’t interested in what was good for me. I was interested in how I felt and how to stop feeling bad when things went wrong. How to start feeling good again.”

“Still, I kept thinking about Lydia. The good parts of our relationship felt like a rat walking around and gnawing at the inside of my stomach.”

“Make me feel good in the moontime.”

“God is good. God is good to me. God is good at being God.”

“To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good, or else that it’s a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions. ”

“What good are wings without the courage to fly?”

“What a fool you are, Basta! I’m not talking about children’s magic. I mean the magic of the written word. Nothing is more powerful for good or evil, I do assure you.”

“Martin the Warrior used the sword only for right and good. This is why it has become a symbol of power to Redwall. Knowledge is gained through wisdom, my friend. Use the sword wisely.”

“George promised to be good. But it is easy for little monkeys to forget. ”

“All was quiet in the deep dark wood. The mouse found a nut and the nut was good.”

“No matter what you step in, keep walking along and singing your song... because its all good.”

“On went the mouse through the deep dark wood. An owl saw the mouse and the mouse looked good.

“Pete, you don’t need magic sunglasses to see things in a new way. Just remember to look for the good in every day.”

“ ‘It was all working out so nicely,’ the parson went on sadly, ‘but as it is, you’ll have to go in the morning. A church is no good without a congregation, is it?’ “

“From Market Oh who’ll give us Posies, And Garlands of Roses, To twine round our heads to gay? For here we come bringing You many good wishes to-day. From Market-from market-from market- We all come up from market.”

“On the Wall Top So high- so high on the wall we run, The nearer the sky- why, the nearer the sun, If you give me one penny, I’ll give you two, For that’s the way good neighbours do.”

“When George’s Grandmamma was told That George had been as good as Gold, She Promised in the Afternoon To buy him an Immense BALLOON, And so she; but when it came, It got into the candle flame, And being of a dangerous sort Exploded with a loud report!”

“Well, they are not hard workers, and very thoughtless and full of spirits; but I can’t help liking them. I think they are sound, good fellows at the bottom.”

“Situations can change; people can change. Be the first to seek to bring good. Do not grow accustomed to evil, but defeat it with good.”

“Then one day, in his own good time, Leo bloomed! He could read! He could write! He could draw!”

“Now his basket was uncomfortable. He twisted and he turned. He wiggled and he wriggled. But it was no good. He could not get comfortable.”

“Outside there were two ducks. They looked very comfortable standing on one leg. ‘That’s what I should do!’ said Kipper. But he wasn’t very good. He could only...wobble.”

“The squirrels had made their nest out of sticks. ‘I will build myself a stick nest!’ said Kipper. But Kipper’s nest was not very good. He could only find...three sticks!”

“The sheep looked very happy just sitting in the grass. No, that was no good either. The grass was much to...tickly!”

“ ‘Perhaps a nice dark hole would be good,’ thought Kipper. ‘The rabbits seem to like them.’

“People are rotten everywhere you go. They’re no good. You want to see a very bad man? Make an ordinary man successful beyond his imagination. Let’s see how good he is when he can do whatever he wants.”

″ ‘That’s a good lunch,’ said Albert. ‘I think it’s nice that there are all different kinds of lunches and breakfasts and dinners and snacks. I think eating is nice.’ ”

“A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don’t get to choose our own hearts. We can’t make ourselves want what’s good for us or what’s good for other people. We don’t get to choose the people we are.”

“Good doesn’t always follow from good deeds, nor bad deeds result form bad, does it? Even the wise and good cannot see the end of all actions. Scary idea!”

“I like your kind of quiet. Your heart isn’t quiet.”

“Grocer Cat bought a new dress for Mommy. She earned it by taking such good care of the house. He also bought a present for his son, Huckle. Huckle was a very good helper today.”

“Good Morning! Good Morning! The sun is up! Wash! Brush! Comb! Dress! Get up! There is a lot of work to be done!”

“Here is daddy. He is mostly nice. Almost too nice. Like tonight; although it’s late he reads a good, long story about a horse. Then he gives Alfie a hug and turns off the light when he leaves.”

“Science is just another word for knowledge, and knowledge in itself is neither good nor evil.”

“Laugh and be good, and after dinner we will make him a nest on the floor in a corner, and he shall sit in his nest and see a dance of eighteen cooks.”

“Oh, how good everything tasted in that bower, with the fresh wind rustling the poplar leaves, sunshine and sweet woods smells about them, and birds singing overhead! No grown-up dinner party ever had half so much fun. Each mouthful was a pleasure; and when the last crumb had vanished, Katy produced the second basket...”

“My dears, you will have thirty-five children, and they will all be good and beautiful. Seventeen of your children will be boys and eighteen will be girls. The hair of the whole of your children will curl naturally. They will never have the measles, and they will have recovered from the whooping-cough before being born.”

″ ‘They mean,’ he said sadly, ′ that you must weep with me for my sins, because I have no tears, and pray with me for my soul, because I have no faith, and then, if you have always been sweet, and good, and gentle, the angel of death will have mercy on me.′ ”

“When the children have been good, That is, be it understood, Good at meal-times, good at play, Good all night and good all day, - They shall have the pretty things Merry Christmas always brings.”

“Not one of the seven is really good, for the very excellent reason that Australian children never are.”

“When a man is very good and knows a great deal, he is elected president. They have torch-light processions and bands, and everyone makes speeches. I used to think I might perhaps be a president, but I never thought about being an earl. I didn’t know anything about being an earl.”

“Love and be good to that person in the mirror and you will love and be good to the people around you.”

“Good heavens! what a ninny my brother is! he’ll never come to any good; as the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.”

“Good luck is coming your way. Be ready.”

“You have to eat your oatmeal or you’ll dry up Anybody knows that Nanny likes her coffee hot hot hot An egg cup makes a very good hat”

“Everything was delicious- outside and inside him. Nothing to dread anymore- no doors closed in his mind against thoughts and fears that made him sicken and tremble- it was all good, the sun, the water, Flicka, his father- ”

“Supposed we have fine weather, fine crops, all the stock in good shape. Now that’s wealth. Real wealth. But what’s the result? Counted in dollars, we’re poor. Sometimes the best crops make a man the poorest.”

“You know how hard it is to learn to be good. Well, it may be just as hard to learn to be naughty.”

“We are made up of different parts, some good, some bad, and a healthy mind can tolerate this ambivalence and juggle both good and bad at the same time. Mental illness is precisely about a lack of this kind of integration - we end up losing contact with the unacceptable parts of ourselves.”

“He should first show them in deeds rather than words all that is good and holy.”

“Humans are fundamentally good, they say. And that may well be true. But you can’t make it too easy on them, those good humans. Otherwise they might go bad all of a sudden.”

″ ‘I’m not up to everything, Peterkin, as you’ll find out ere long,’ replied Jack, with a smile; ‘but I have been a great reader of books of travel and adventure all my life, and that has put me up to a good many things that you are, perhaps, not acquainted with.’ ”

″ ‘A feathered arrow without a barb,’ said he, ‘is a good weapon, but a barbed arrow without feathers is utterly useless.’ ”

“Bless you, my darling children! Now you are united and happy; and now you see what I said from the first, that a little misfortune has done you both good. YOU, Giglio, had you been bred in prosperity, would scarcely have learned to read or write - you would have been idle and extravagant, and could not have been a good king as now you will be. You, Rosalba, would have been so flattered, that your little head might have been turned like Angelica’s, who thought herself too good for Giglio.”

“My good woman (for the Fairy was very familiar, and no more minded a Queen than a washerwoman)- my good woman, these people who are following you will be the first to turn against you; and as for this little lady, the best thing I can wish her is a LITTLE MISFORTUNE.”

″ ‘I know a number of funy things,’ says th lady. ‘I have been at some people’s christenings, and turned away from other folks’ doors. I have seen some people spoilt by good fortune, and others, as I hope, improved by hardship. I advise you to stay at the town where the coach stops for the night. Stay there and study, and remember your old friend to whom you were kind.′ ”

“You’re so nice. You’re not good, you’re not bad, You’re just nice. I’m not good, I’m not nice, I’m just right. I’m the witch. You’re the world.”

“it is better to make something happen—good or bad—than to have it happen to you.”

“What would your good be doing if there were no evil, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?”

″‘And now tell me, why is it that you use me words “good people” all the time? Do you call everyone that, or what?’ ‘Everyone,’ the prisoner replied. ‘There are no evil people in the world.‘”

“these “sometimey” feelings are welcomed to stay... reminiscent of ying and yang: they need eachother to help me get through the good & bad days”

“People aren’t born good or bad. Maybe they’re born with tendencies either way, but it’s the way you live your life that matters.”