Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Goodness

Never say anything to hurt anyone. Moreover … refrain from double talk, from shrewd and canny remarks that are designed to advance our interests at someone’s disadvantage. We are to turn our back upon evil, and in every way possible, do good, help people and bring blessings into their lives.
Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author

The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well? You may say the wisest thing you can, old man,—you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind,—I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that.
Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith

A good man therefore is a standing lesson to us all.
Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist

Let a man be never so ungrateful or inhuman, he shall never destroy the satisfaction of my having done a good office.
Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian

What makes saintliness in my view, as distinguished from ordinary goodness, is a certain quality of magnanimity and greatness of soul that brings life within the circle of the heroic.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) American Abolitionist, Author

You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.
Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet

Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor

I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of goodwill. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman

Nature will not forgive those who fail to fulfill the law of their being. The law of human beings is wisdom and goodness, not unlimited acquisition.
Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) American Educator

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright

Walking on water wasn’t built in a day.
Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American Novelist, Poet

An action is essentially good if the motive of the agent be good, regardless of the consequences.
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician

To become a good man, one must have faithful friends, or outright enemies.
Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France

No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle and pure and good, without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness.
Phillips Brooks (1835–93) American Episcopal Clergyman, Author

Reason teaches us that what is good is good for something, and that what is good for nothing is not good at all.
F. H. Bradley (1846–1924 ) British Idealist Philosopher

Everyone whose deeds are more than his wisdom, his wisdom endures; and everyone whose wisdom is more than his deeds, his wisdom does not endure.
The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith

A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist

Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.
Dodie Smith (1896–1990) British Novelist, Playwright, Writer

He who wishes to secure the good of others, has already secured his own.
Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher

Inability to tell good from evil is the greatest worry of man’s life.
Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer

Talking much is a sign of vanity, for the one who is lavish with words is cheap in deeds.
Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet

Good deeds from good intentions flow; but good intentions only; build for us a place below.
Unknown

When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.
George Washington Carver (1864–1943) American Scientist, Botanist, Educator, Inventor

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.
John Wesley (1703–91) British Methodist Religious Leader, Preacher, Theologian

Example is leadership.
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician

That best portion of a good man’s life; His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet

The devil himself is good when he is pleased.
Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian

Being good is just a matter of temperament in the end.
Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher

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