“Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses to be bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?”

— Anthony Burgess, book A Clockwork Orange

Source: A Clockwork Orange

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Anthony Burgess297

English writer 1917–1993

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“That man is good who does good to others; if he suffers on account of the good he does, he is very good”

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Aphorism 44
Les Caractères (1688), Du mérite personnel
Context: That man is good who does good to others; if he suffers on account of the good he does, he is very good; if he suffers at the hands of those to whom he has done good, then his goodness is so great that it could be enhanced only by greater sufferings; and if he should die at their hands, his virtue can go no further: it is heroic, it is perfect.