Goodness Quotes

People cannot remain good unless good is expected of them.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) German dramatist, poet.

When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad I’m better.

Mae West (1892-1980) American film actress.

There are two perfectly good men; one dead, and the other unborn.

Chinese Proverb.

Be not merely good; be good for something.

Thoreau.

In nothing do men approach so nearly to the gods as in doing good to men.

Cicero.

There may be a certain pleasure in vice, but there is a higher in purity and virtue. The most commanding of all delights is the delight in goodness. The beauty of holiness is but one beauty, but it is the highest. It is the loss of the sense of sin and shame that destroys both men and states.

Independent.

He that is a good man, is three quarters of his way toward the being a good Christian, wheresoever he lives, or whatsoever he is called.

South.

We may be as good as we please, if we please to be good.

Barrow.

Real goodness does not attach itself merely to this life. It points to another world. Political or professional reputation cannot last forever, but a conscience void of offence before God and man is an inheritance for eternity.

Daniel Webster.

We can do more good by being good than in any other way.

Rowland Hill.

If there be a divine providence, no good man need be afraid to do right; he will only fear to do wrong.

Haygood.

To be doing good is man’s most glorious task.

Sophocles.

To be good, we must do good; and by doing good we take a sure means of being good, as the use and exercise of the muscles increase their power.

Tryon Edwards.

It is a law of our humanity, that man must know good through evil. No great principle ever triumphed but through much evil. No man ever progressed to greatness and goodness but through great mistakes.

F.W. Robertson.

By desiring what is perfectly good, even where we do not quite know what it is, and cannot do what we would, we are part of the divine power against evil, widening the skirts of light and making the struggle with darkness narrower.

George Eliot.

Let a man be never so ungrateful or inhuman, he shall never destroy the satisfaction of my having done a good office.

Seneca.

The good are heaven’s peculiar care.

Ovid.

All the fame which ever cheated humanity into higher notions of its own importance would never weigh in my mind against the pure and pious interest which a virtuous being may be pleased to tale in my welfare.

Byron.

He who loves goodness harbors angels, reverse reverence, and lives with God.

Emerson.

He is good that does good to others. Of he suffers for the good he does, he is better still; and if he suffers from them to whom he did good, he has arrived to that height of goodness that nothing but an increase of his sufferings can add to it; if it proves his death, his virtue is at its summit; it is heroism complete.

Bruyere.

I have known some men possessed of good qualities which were very serviceable to others, but useless to themselves; like a sun-dial on the front of a house, to inform and benefit the neighbors and passengers, but not the owner within.

Swift.

He that does good to another, does also good to himself; not only in the consequence, but in the very act of doing it; for the consciousness of well doing is an ample reward.

Seneca.

A good man is kinder to his enemy than bad men to their friends.

Bp. Hall.