"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals."

"Good can be done by the bad — but the good alone can be good."

"Goodness does not more certainly make men happy than happiness makes them good."

"The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident."

"We set ourselves up as arbiters of what is good when often our standards of goodness are driven by narrow interests, by what we want."

"It is quite natural that in the modern drama the bad is always represented by the most shining talents; the good, the upright, by a grocer's clerk. The spectators find this a matter of course and learn from the play what they knew beforehand, that it is far beneath their dignity to be put in the same class with a grocer's clerk."

"Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow."

"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again."

"Only the mediocre are always at their best."

"That which especially distinguishes a high order of man from a low order of man, that which constitutes human goodness, human nobleness, is surely not the degree of enlightenment with which men pursue their own advantage; but it is self-forgetfulness; it is self-sacrifice; it is the disregard of personal pleasure, personal indulgence, personal advantage, remote or present, because some other line of conduct is more right."

"The desire of the will is not satisfied by any good, as long as we believe that there is yet another beyond it. Therefore, the will is satisfied only by that one good beyond which there is no further good. What can this good be except the boundless God?"

"Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist ... must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness."

"Only those few people who practice it believe in goodness."

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

"Today I didn't even have to use my A.K. I got to say it was a good day."

"No people do so much harm as those who go about doing good."

"How many simple pleasures I denied myself, because I thought that's what goodness was. How stupid that it took me until the end of the world to realize it was something else entirely."

"Most people are bad; if they are strong they take from the weak. The good people are all weak; they are good because they are not strong enough to be bad."

"He who so interprets the supreme good as to disjoin it from virtue, and measures it by his own convenience, and not by the standard of right,—he, I say, if he be consistent with himself, and be not sometimes overcome by natural goodness, can cultivate neither friendship, nor justice, nor generosity."

"Can one desire too much of a good thing?"

"Goodness is always an asset. A man who is straight, friendly and useful may never be famous, but he is respected and liked by all who know him. He has laid a sound foundation for success and he will have a worthwhile life."

"Have we fallen into a mesmerized state that makes us accept as inevitable that which is inferior or detrimental, as though having lost the will or the vision to demand that which is good?"

"It didn't matter how big our house was; it mattered that there was love in it. It didn't matter if our neighborhood was wealthy or otherwise; it mattered that neighbors talked to each other, looked out for one another. The kindnesses that allowed me to trust in people and in the basic goodness of the world could not be measured in dollars; they were paid for, rather, in hugs and ice-cream cones and help with homework."

"Some good we all can do; and if we do all that is in our power, however little that power may be, we have performed our part, and may be as near perfection as those whose influence extends over kingdoms, and whose good actions are felt and applauded by thousands."

"Goodness is beautiful insofar as it is governed by the right measure, by overall balance, by the middle ground established by the exact laws of virtue, which is “harmony.”"

"He who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars; General good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer: For art and science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars."

"E malis multis, malum, quod minimum est, id minimum est malum."

"Marty Hart: Do you wonder ever if you're a bad man?"

"Nothing can work me damage except myself. The harm that I sustain I carry about with me, and never am a real sufferer but by my own fault."

"The cardinal method with faults is to overgrow them and choke them out with virtues."

"Nothing is to be esteemed evil which God and nature have fixed with eternal sanction."

"Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil; I observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape it, and with this I begin and end."

"But, by all thy nature's weakness, Hidden faults and follies known, Be thou, in rebuking evil, Conscious of thine own."

"Aliud ex alio malum."

"Mala mens, malus animus."

"Magna pars vulgi levis Odit scelus spectatque."

"Serum est cavendi tempus in mediis malis."

"Solent suprema facere securos mala."

"Si velis vitiis exui, longe a vitiorum exemplis recedendum est."

"Per scelera semper sceleribus certum est iter."

"Das eben ist der Fluch der bösen That, Das sie fortzeugend immer Böses muss gebären."

"Al mondo mal non e senza rimedio."

"Multitudes think they like to do evil; yet no man ever really enjoyed doing evil since God made the world."

"Maledicus a malefico non distat nisi occasione."

"Of two evils I have chose the least."

"Timely advis'd, the coming evil shun: Better not do the deed, than weep it done."

"Male partum male disperit."

"Pulchrum ornatum turpes mores pejus cœno collinunt."

"Hoc sustinete, majus ne veniat malum."

"Omnia perversas possunt corrumpere mentes."