Quotes about goodness
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“Look for the good in every person and every situation. You'll almost always
find it.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

“The nobler sort of man emphasizes the good qualities in others, and does not accentuate the bad. The inferior does.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“It's just that I'm fifteen, and I have this crazy idea I might actually have a life in front of me. I don't see how it's going to do me much good to believe that the world is over and this is just an epilogue.”

Jonathan Maberry book Rot & Ruin

Source: Rot & Ruin

Life, World, Idea

“You make a good point,' Fletcher conceded. 'See, there's a reason why you're the girl and I'm the boy. You think about things while I…'
'Don't?'
'Exactly,' he said happily.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Death Bringer

Girl, Boy, Thinking

“It's good to keep changing your mind. It shows you're thinking. I'll only stop changing my mind when I'm dead. And maybe not even then.”

John Marsden (1950) author

Source: Darkness, Be My Friend

Thinking, Change, Dead

“Live a good long life. Grow old and die after I do. And if you can, die laughing.”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Life

“Better by far to be good and courageous and bold and to make difference. Not change the world exactly, but the bit around you.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

World, Courage, Change

“Avery's tone was grand and high-pitched." And, since I've been hanging out with you, Dad's decided I'm on good behavior now."
"Poor oblivious bastard," murmured Christian.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Behavior

“If only we could see in advance all the harm that can come from the good we think we are doing.”

Luigi Pirandello Six Characters in Search of an Author

Source: Six Characters in Search of an Author

Thinking

“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”

Rita Mae Brown (1944) Novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Brown may have used this quote in 2001 but it was it in a 365 day "Quote" calendar in 1994.
Source: Alma Mater

“Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: The Summer I Turned Pretty

Winter, Time, Summer

“You can’t make someone feel good about themselves until you feel good about
yourself.”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Feeling

“… A good Book, has no Ending…”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Books

“There are good sailors. Well, some good sailors. In a way they are ideal as husbands. They drop in every six months for a wild celebration, then they drop out again before one gets bored with their company or annoyed with by their habits.”

Kerry Greenwood (1954) Australian crime writer

Source: Queen of the Flowers

Way

“It is good to be loved, even though it will not last.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

Love

“There is one other reason for dressing well, namely that dogs respect it, and will not attack you in good clothes.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Dogs, Clothes

“I am very tired of this Government, which I have never seen, and which is always insisting that I must do disagreeable things, and does no good to anybody.”

Naomi Novik book Throne of Jade

Source: Throne of Jade

“I read my books at night, like that, under the quilt with the overheated reading lamp. Reading all those good lines while suffocating. It was magic.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Books, Reading, Night

“It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Adventure of the Naval Treaty

Source: The Naval Treaty

Hope, Flowers

“My ma used to say that crying is good for you. Tears are the path that free your mind of sorrowful thoughts.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Retribution

Tear, Cry

“Once I did bad and that I heard ever. Twice I did good, but that I heard never.”

Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People

Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People

“The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

Source: The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out

Deep, Age

“If you still persist in writing, "Good food at it's best", you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave.”

Lynne Truss (1955) British writer

Source: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Food

“When you think about it, most of the good ideas came along to make sin a whole lot easier.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: Horns

Idea, Thinking

“I have always regarded as a stroke of good fortune that I was not born or brought up in a small American town; they may be the backbone of the nation, but they are also the backbone of ignorance, bigotry, and boredom, all in vast quantities.”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

Source: Death Before Bedtime

“Hysterical optimism will prevail until the world again admits the existence of tragedy, and it cannot admit the existence of tragedy until it again distinguishes between good and evil… Hysterical optimism as a sin against knowledge.”

Richard M. Weaver book Ideas Have Consequences

Source: Ideas Have Consequences

World, Optimism, Knowledge, Evil

“Are you afraid of the good you might do?”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Deep

“What if you had faith and performed good works, what if you died and went to heaven, and what if all the people you met there were people you didn't like?”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Marriage Plot

Source: The Marriage Plot

People, Faith

“Americans should never come to Europe,' she said, and tried to laugh and began to cry, 'it means they never can be happy again. What's the good of an American who isn't happy? Happiness was all we had.”

James Baldwin book Giovanni's Room

Source: Giovanni's Room

Cry, Happiness

“All outward forms of religion are almost useless, and are the causes of endless strife…. Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.”

Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) English children's writer and illustrator

Source: Merry Christmas, Peter Rabbit!

Religion

“But after I got them to leave and shut the door and turned off the light it wasn't any good. It was like saying good-by to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Farewell to Arms

Source: A Farewell to Arms

Light

“She glared at him. “I'm not weird like that. I'm good weird. I'm cool weird.”
“Yes,” he said doubtfully. “Yes, you are.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Playing with Fire

“I’m not crazy,” I whispered.
“I know.”
Believe it or not, that’s the most romantic thing Zachary Goode ever told me.”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

“Of all the things I am not very good at, living in the real world is perhaps the most outstanding.”

Bill Bryson (1951) American author

Source: I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away

World

“Don't. Tell me when, then. And before you say never, take a good look at me and tell me if you see a man who's easily deterred.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

“Good writing is clear. Talented writing is energetic. Good writing avoids errors. Talented writing makes things happen in the reader's mind---vividly, forcefully…”

Samuel R. Delany (1942) American author, professor and literary critic

Source: About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, and Five Interviews

Error

“Booze takes a lot of time and effort if you're going to do a good job with it.”

Raymond Carver (1938–1988) American short story author and poet

Source: Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories

Effort, Time

“I've been a police officer for twenty years now and I'll tell you, pretty much every bad thing is life is a result of bad timing, and every good thing is the result of good timing.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Life, Time

“When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

Men, People, Evil, Country

“I suppose a cry does us all good at times-clears the air as other rain does.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

Time, Cry

“Unpleasant?" he finished for her.
"Only on the days when my adoptive mother tosses me out of the house with instructions never to darken her door again. Usually, I'm remarkably good-natured. Try me on any day that doesn't end in y.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Nature, Housing

“I'm not good at talking about myself.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

“Our hearts are not stones. A stone may disintegrate in time and lose its outward form. But hearts never disintegrate. They have no outward form, and whether good or evil, we can always communicate them to one another.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: After the Quake

Communication, Evil, Time, Heart

“God is the Champion at bringing people from a place of destruction to a place of total victory. As they reach that place of victory they become trophies of his grace. and they are set on the display as a fragrant reminder of God's goodness.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Beauty for Ashes: Receiving Emotional Healing

God, People, Victory

“There are two kinds of fools. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, " This is new, and therefore better.”

John Brunner The Shockwave Rider

Source: The Shockwave Rider

Fools

“Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

Books, Art, Way, Personality

“When you have wisdom that another person knows that he needs, you give it freely. But when the other person doesn't yet know that he needs your wisdom you keep it to yourself. Food only looks good to a hungry man.”

Orson Scott Card book Xenocide

Source: Xenocide

Wisdom, Food, Personality

“Townsend shrugged. 'With all due respect to the good doctor, I highly suspect he's a moron.”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

“No, it’s not a very good story - its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.”

Stephen King book Different Seasons

Variant: No, it's not a very good story - its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.
Source: Different Seasons

Business

“That love which does not build a foundation on good sense is doomed.”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

Love, Sense

“We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with the emphasis on "good" rather than on "time"….”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Time

“God is Good… Jesus is Lord
Be Good to Yourself and each Other
J-Jesus.. O-Others.. Y-Yourself”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Starting Your Day Right: Devotions for Each Morning of the Year

God

“Thought = creation. If these thoughts are attached to powerful emotions (good or bad) that speeds the creation”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

Speed

“You can't believe because she tells you to," I said
"No. The question is: how to be a good person if I don't believe anymore.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

Question, Personality

“My Aunt Dahlia has a carrying voice… If all other sources of income failed, she could make a good living calling the cattle home across the Sands of Dee.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Very Good, Jeeves

Very Good, Jeeves (1930)

Home

“You hate change. I hate it too. But things can't stay the same- and that's well, for when nothing changes in your life, it's as good as being dead”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Hero of Ages

Life, Hate, Change, Dead

“I thought again how you could never really know what you were seeing with just a glance, in motion, passing by. Good or bad, right or wrong. There was always so much more.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

“Was she telling you to stay away from me?" I asked.
He paused, then said, "Yeah." He squeezed my hand out of Aunt Lauren's sight. "It's okay. We're good."

Chloe and Derek”

Kelley Armstrong The Reckoning

Source: The Reckoning

“The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”

Charles Bukowski book Tales of Ordinary Madness

Tales of ordinary madness (1967-83)
Variant: .. the free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them...
Source: Tales of Ordinary Madness

Feeling, Soul

“She was good at talking with young people. She seemed to view them as interesting foreigners.”

Anne Tyler The Amateur Marriage

Source: The Amateur Marriage

People

“I flipped the good doctor the bird.
Snorting, Gideon caught my hand and pulled me back down the hall.
"What is it with you and giving people the finger?"
"What? It's a classic.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Reflected in You

People, Bird