"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."

"GOOD, adj. Sensible, madam, to the worth of this present writer. Alive, sir, to the advantages of letting him alone."

"Men have never been good, they are not good, they never will be good."

"If the function of man is an activity of soul which follows or implies a rational principle, ... and we state the function of man to be a certain kind of life, and this to be an activity or actions of the soul implying a rational principle, and the function of a good man to be the good and noble performance of these, and if any action is well performed when it is performed in accordance with the appropriate excellence: if this is the case, human good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete."

"I believe in angels, something good in everything I see."

"We need to feel that no effort is ever wasted, that no honest reaching out toward the good is vain, that the great All is pressing forward toward a transcendent goal. And there is but a single way to obtain this conviction. It is not possible to enter into the nature of the Good by standing aloof from it — by merely speculating upon it. Act the Good, and you will believe in it. Throw yourself into the stream of the world's good tendency and you will feel the force of the current and the direction in which it is setting. [...] By ceaseless efforts to live the good life we maintain our moral sanity. Not from without, but from within, flow the divine waters that renew the soul."

"Good deeds remain good, no matter whether we know how the world was made or not."

"The Infinite, from which comes the impulse that lead us to activity, is not [...] the highest Goodness, but higher than goodness."

"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."

"We cannot rekindle the morning beams of childhood; we cannot recall the noontide glory of youth; we cannot bring back the perfect day of maturity; we cannot fix the evening rays of age in the shadowy horizon; but we can cherish that goodness which is the sweetness of childhood, the joy of youth, the strength of maturity, the honor of old age, and the bliss of saints."

"He who believes in goodness has the essence of all faith. He is a man "of cheerful yesterdays and confident to-morrows.""

"Nothing that man ever invents will absolve him from the universal necessity of being good as God is good, righteous as God is righteous, and holy as God is holy."

"For ever and ever, my darling, yes— Goodness and love are undying; Only the troubles and cares of earth Are winged from the first for flying. Our way we plough In the furrow "now;" But after the tilling and growing the sheaf; Soil for the root, but the sun for the leaf— And God keepeth watch forever."

"No good thing is ever lost. Nothing dies, not even life which gives up one form only to resume another. No good action, no good example dies. It lives forever in our race. While the frame moulders and disappears, the deed leaves an indelible stamp, and moulds the very thought and will of future generations."

"Be not simply good; be good for something."

"Be good my child, and let who will be clever; Do noble deeds, not dream them all day long; And so make life, death, and that vast forever One grand, sweet song."

"Great hearts alone understand how much glory there is in being good."

"How many people would like to be good, if only they might be good without taking trouble about it! They do not like goodness well enough to hunger and thirst after it, or to sell all that they have that they may buy it; they will not batter at the gate of the kingdom of heaven; but they look with pleasure on this or that aerial castle of righteousness, and think it would be rather nice to live in it."

"Goodness consists not in the outward things we do, but in the inward thing we are. To be is the great thing."

"Live for something! Do good and leave behind you a monument of virtue that the storm of time can never destroy. Write your name in kindness, love, and mercy on the hearts of the thousands you come in contact with, year by year, and you will never be forgotten. Your name, your deeds, will be as legible on the hearts you leave behind, as the stars on the brow of evening. Good deeds will shine as the stars of heaven."

"Le plus grand ennemi du bon, c'est le mieux."

"Man should be ever better than he seems."

"'Tis only noble to be good."

"O, yet we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill, To pangs of nature, sins of will Defects of doubt and taints of blood."

"She has more goodness in her little finger than he has in his whole body."

"One person I have to make good: myself. But my duty to my neighbor is much more nearly expressed by saying that I have to make him happy—if I may."

"How pleasant is Saturday night, When I've tried all the week to be good, Not spoken a word that is bad, And obliged every one that I could."

"For who is there but you? who not only claim to be a good man and a gentleman, for many are this, and yet have not the power of making others good. Whereas you are not only good yourself, but also the cause of goodness in others."

"For the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, Do all the good you can, To all the people you can, In all the ways you can, As long as ever you can."

"My meaning in saying he is a good man is to have you understand me that he is sufficient."

"I am in this earthly world; where to do harm, Is often laudable, to do good sometime Accounted dangerous folly."

"Your great goodness, out of holy pity, Absolv'd him with an axe."

"There lives within the very flame of love A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it; And nothing is at a like goodness still; For goodness, growing to a pleurisy, Dies in his own too much."

"So shines a good deed in a weary world."

"Bonitas non est pessimis esse meliorem."

"What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon also be beautiful."

"Esse quam videri bonus malebat."

"You're good for Madge or good for Cis Or good for Kate, maybe: But what's to me the good of this While you're not good for me?"

"Gute Menschen können sich leichter in schlimme hineindenken als diese injene."

"Every good thing is gentle and consistent, progressing in good order and not going beyond what is right."

"Bono ingenio me esse ornatam, quam auro multo mavolo. Aurum fortuna invenitur, natura ingenium donum. Bonam ego, quam beatam me esse nimio dici mavolo."

"Itidemque ut sæpe jam in multis locis, Plus insciens quis fecit quam prodens boni."

"I know and love the good, yet ah! the worst pursue."

"A glass is good, and a lass is good, And a pipe to smoke in cold weather; The world is good, and the people are good, And we're all good fellows together."

"Since good, the more Communicated, more abundant grows."

"None But such as are good men can give good things, And that which is not good, is not delicious To a well-governed and wise appetite."