Quotes about goodness
page 31

“It feels good, honey, but it isn't love.”

Joyce Carol Oates book You Must Remember This

Source: You Must Remember This

“What do you think Dimitri? Is this a good idea, Dimitri? Please give us your blessing so that we can fall down and worship you, Dimitri.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Idea, Thinking

“What else should you be? Human beings didn't evolve brains in order to lie around on lakes. Killing's the first thing we learned. And a good thing we did, or we'd be dead, and the tigers would own the earth.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Lie, Learning, Dead

“Trapped for days, years, centuries maybe. Dead, but not allowed to die. Alive, but as good as dead.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Variant: Dead, but not allowed to die. Alive, but as good as dead.
Source: Mockingjay

Dead

“I have an inferiority complex, but it’s not a very good one.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“Jealous of the actors now, are we?"
"What, of some fancy boy on the screen? Inconceivable."
Oh, this was going to be good.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Boy

“Look, I hate good-byes, too. But sometimes, we need them just to survive.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Fall of Night

Hate

“Simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Men

Source: Little Men

Life, Money, World, Business

“It's a good thing he broke up with you because now you're free for when the right man finds you. Your prince is on his way."
"Right. I'm sure he was on his way but a truck hit him.”

Jennifer Crusie book Bet Me

Source: Bet Me

Way

“I never miss a good chance to shut up”

James Patterson book Along Came a Spider

Source: Along Came a Spider

Chance

“He wasn't that good looking, he had the social skills of a wet cat and the patience of a caffeinated hummingbird”

Karen Chance American writer

Cats, Patience

“Yeah, about that,” says Peeta, entwining his fingers in mine. “Don’t try something like that again.” “Or what?” I ask. “Or… or…” He can’t think of anything good. “Just give me a minute.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Thinking

“You know, sometimes you've got to trust the people you love. You've got to trust that if they're good people, they'll make good decisions.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: How to Take the Ex Out of Ex-Boyfriend

Love, People, Decision

“They weren't nice words he said. He could've lived a good life and died never having made a person feel rubbed down to bones and too sad to hold together.”

Shannon Hale book Book of a Thousand Days

Source: Book of a Thousand Days

Life, Sadness, Feeling, Personality

“I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Thinking

“And flash him!” Annabeth’s face reddened. “That came out wrong. But yeah, good idea.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Idea

“That's when I see him. Peter Kavinsky, walking down the hallway. Like magic. Beautiful, dark-haired Peter. He deserves background music, he looks so good.”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Beauty, Music

“Good days, they come around the oddest corners.”

Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin

Source: Let the Great World Spin

“I hope when I'm ninety-five the only things I want are free: love, family, a good home-cooked meal.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

Love, Family, Hope, Home

“Maybe you feel pressure to be positive because so many people rely on your good, fake-positive energy? If that's the case, screw everybody else. You're not a bottle of Valium.”

Augusten Burroughs (1965) American writer

Source: This Is How: Surviving What You Think You Can't

People, Feeling

“The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

People, Feeling, Strong

“Perhaps it is impossible for a person who does no good not to do harm.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe book Uncle Tom's Cabin

Source: Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Ch. 28.

Personality

“Despite his cynical exterior, he had a good heart-and Lissa owned most of it.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Heart

“Everywhere I've turned somebody has wanted to sacrifice me for my good—only they were the ones who benefited. And now we start on the old sacrificial merry-go-round. At what point do we stop?”

Ralph Ellison book Invisible Man

Source: Invisible Man (1952), Chapter 23.

“The meaning of life has not much to do with good and evil, right and wrong, duty, honor, country, or any of that.

It has to do with cutting the right deal.”

Nelson DeMille (1943) American writer

Life, Evil, Country

“The good doctor put a spoon of tea into my honey." "You're drinking tea a honey badger made," Jim said. "What did you expect?”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

Drink, Tea

“I dedicate this novel to Gala, who was constantly by my side while I was writing it, who was the good fairy of my equilibrium, who banished the salamanders of my doubts and strengthened the lions of certainties…”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Source: Hidden Faces

“Your goodness must have some edge to it -- else it is none.”

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

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Variant: Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, — else it is none.
Source: Culture, Behavior, Beauty, Books, Art, Eloquence, Power, Wealth, Illusions
Context: Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, — else it is none. The doctrine of hatred must be preached as the counteraction of the doctrine of love when that pules and whines. I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim. I hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation. Expect me not to show cause why I seek or why I exclude company.

“An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“But sooner or later the last good time would come around. It does for all of us.”

Stephen King book Joyland

Source: Joyland

Time

“So that's how you're going to fix the family problem. Little Dragomirs. Good idea.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

Family, Idea, Problem

“Let every book-worm, when in any fragrant, scarce old tome, he discovers a sentence, a story, an illustration, that does his heart good, hasten to give it the widest circulation that newspapers and magazines, penny and halfpenny, can afford.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

Books, Heart

“Never thee stop believin' in th' Big Good Thing an' knowin' th' world's full of it - and call it what tha' likes. Tha' wert singin' to it when I come into t' garden.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

World

“The old dreams were good dreams; they didn't work out but I'm glad I had them.”

Robert James Waller The Bridges of Madison County

Source: The Bridges of Madison County

Dreams

“You take a man half-bad and a woman half-bad and put their two good halves together and you got one human all good to share between. That's you [our son].”

Ray Bradbury book Something Wicked This Way Comes

Source: Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), Chapter 28

“The ideas of debtor and creditor as to what constitutes a good time never coincide.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Love Among the Chickens

Source: Love Among the Chickens

Idea, Time

“be a good listener, don't judge and don't put boundaries on someone else's grief.”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“That is what death is like. It doesn't matter what uniforms the soldiers are wearing. It doesn't matter how good the weapons are. I thought if everyone could see what I saw, we would never have war anymore.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005)
Context: She died in my arms saying, "I don't want to die." That is what death is like. It doesn't matter what uniforms the soldiers are wearing. It doesn't matter how good the weapons are. I thought if everyone could see what I saw, we could never have war anymore. (p. 189)

Death, War

“I'm about to start reading it again, because what good is a story you only want to read once?”

Bill Willingham (1956) American comics writer and artist

Reading

“I am no theologian. I would not be surprised, however, if Heaven proved to be a cozy kitchen, where delicious treats appeared in the oven and in the refrigerator whenever you wanted them, and where the cupboards were full of good books.”

Dean Koontz (1945) American author

Books, Appearance

“Whatever happened to the good old days when books just got along, cozied up together on bookshelves, hanging out, waiting to be read?”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Burned

Books, Waiting, Reading

“When confronted with a birthday in a week I will remember that a book can be a really good present, too.”

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (1968) Canadian writer

Source: At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much

Birthday, Books, Birthday

“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past, — so good night!”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to John Adams (1 August 1816)
1810s

Dreams, History, Past, Future

“It is good to dress in fair clothes to dine with friends. It honors your host, if you are a guest; and your guest if you are a host. And both adorn the feast, and so celebrate the gifts of the world.”

Alison Croggon (1962) contemporary Australian poet, playwright and fantasy novelist

World, Clothes

“Apparently deciding Charles’s brief introduction wasn’t good enough, his brother reintroduced himself. “Dr. Samuel Cornick, elder brother and tormentor. Very nice to meet you, Anna—”

Patricia Briggs book Cry Wolf

Source: Cry Wolf

“No, no. It's always a good time for you to call, Roza.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Time

“Good and bad, strengths and faults, he was hers forever.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Lucky One

Source: The Lucky One

“Writers aren’t people exactly. Or, if they’re any good, they’re a whole lot of people trying so hard to be one person.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Love of the Last Tycoon

Source: The Love of the Last Tycoon

People, Personality

“Still, being able to feel pain was good, he thought. It's when you can't even feel pain anymore that you're in real trouble.”

Haruki Murakami book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Pain, Feeling

“I think holidays create so much pressure because people feel they should be having a good time. But you shouldn't.”

Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…

People, Feeling, Thinking, Time

“not writing is not good but trying to write when you can't is worse.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Last Night of the Earth Poems

“Good humor and laughter are far too wonderful not to come straight from the heart of God.”

Beth Moore (1957) American evangelist

God, Laughter, Heart

“Speak your latent conviction… Else tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.”

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

Source: Self-Reliance and Other Essays

Sense, Time

“It wasn't even a good note. 'If you are reading this I am probably dead.' What sort of a note is that?”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Reading, Dead

“Unless there is a Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter Sunday.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

Life

“Just once, I'd like to find a boy. And I like him and he likes me. And we have a laugh and the kissing's really good and there's no-one getting in the way of the laughing and the kissing. Is that too much to ask?”

Sarra Manning (1950) British writer

Source: Kiss and Make Up

Way, Boy, Kiss

“Oh, good. You're starting to talk about yourself in the third person. That's not a sign of impending megalomania or anything.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Personality

“It is a good thing to know what it is to be poor, and a better thing if you can do it in company.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

“Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures

Thinking

“Don't wake me for the end of the world unless it has very good special effects.”

Roger Zelazny Prince of Chaos

Source: Prince of Chaos

World

“It makes you feel good to know that there's other people afflicted like you.”

Harvey Pekar (1939–2010) writer

People, Feeling, Affliction

“Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Friendship, For Friend, For Bestfriend, Feeling

“It was worthwhile to come here only to see why Europe is rottening, why all this people - good for nothing - are the cause of all the Hitlers and Mussolinis.”

Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) Mexican painter

Source: Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo

People

“I thought, my love is so good, why isn't it calling the same thing back.”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

Source: The Collected Stories

Love

“There's nothing quite as good as folding up into a book and shutting the world outside. If I pick the right one I can be beautiful, or fall in love, or live happily ever after. Maybe even all three.”

Bill Condon (1955) American film director

Love, Books, World, Beauty

“Take a good rest, small bird," he said. "Then go in and take your chance like any man or bird or fish.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Old Man and the Sea

Source: The Old Man and the Sea

Bird, Fish, Chance

“Grandma said […] when you come on something that is good, first thing to do is share it with whoever you can find; that way, the good spreads out to where no telling it will go.”

Forrest Carter book The Education of Little Tree

Source: The Education of Little Tree

Way, Grandma

“For a minute there it was really good. It was really, really good. Wasn't it good? Maybe really, really good things aren't meant to last for too long; maybe that's what makes them all the more sweet, the temporariness of them.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

“You don't love hatred and evil, of course. You have to practice and see the real gull, the good in every one of them, and to help them see it in themselves. That's what I mean by love.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Love, Evil, Help

“What TV is extremely good at—and realize that this is "all it does"—is discerning what large numbers of people think they want, and supplying it.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

People, Thinking

“She was stronger alone; and her own good sense so well supported her, that her firmness was as unshaken, her appearance of cheerfulness as invariable, as, with regrets so poignant and so fresh, it was possible for them to be.”

Jane Austen book Sense and Sensibility

Source: Sense and Sensibility

Support, Sense, Appearance

“But sometimes normal just isn't happening. Sometimes crazy feels too good to resist.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Blue-Eyed Devil

Feeling

“It is good to renew one's wonder, said the philosopher. Space travel has again made children of us all.”

Ray Bradbury book The Martian Chronicles

Source: The Martian Chronicles

Children, Travel

“The good life of any river may depend on the perception of its music; and the preservation of some music to perceive.”

Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) American writer and scientist

Life, Music, Dependency

“So," I said. "Seems you're going to be stuck with me for a while."
He smiled. A real smile that lit up his whole face.
"Good”

Kelley Armstrong The Reckoning

Source: The Reckoning

Smile

“It's not funny, Jace," Alec interrupted, starting to his feet. "Are you just going to let her stand there and call me names?"

"Yes," Jace said kindly. "It'll do you good-- try to think of it as endurance training.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Thinking, Training

“The man who is honest and good ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

XI, 15
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book XI
Source: The Apology, Phaedo & Crito of Plato/Golden Sayings of Epictetus/Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Strong

“Maybe marriage, like life, isn't only about the big moments, whether they be good or bad. Maybe it's all the small things—like being guided slowly forward, surely, day after day—that stretches out to strengthen even the most tenuous bond.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Life, Marriage

“Reading a good long novel is in many ways like having a long and satisfying affair”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Way, Reading

“I am old enough to know only too well my good and bad qualities, which were often one in the same.”

Lisa See book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Source: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

“I say good-bye to hope, but I also say good-bye to hope's disappointment.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

Hope, Disappointment

“What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked.
It was a good question.”

Maureen Johnson book 13 Little Blue Envelopes

Source: 13 Little Blue Envelopes

Hell, Question

“I have learned that trying again is important and decisivness is good.

I have learned that silence hurts.

I have learned about starting over
and releasing pride.”

Sabrina Ward Harrison (1975) Canadian writer

Source: Spilling Open: The Art of Becoming Yourself

Silence, Learning, Hurt

“He could tell her he loved her. He ached to shout it out loud for the gods and everyone to hear. Little good it would do. Better to trust in the moon's promises than in the word of the Thief of Eddis. He was famous in three countries for his lies.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

Love, God, Country

“If time were a bolt of cloth,” said Om, “I would cut out all the bad parts. Snip out the scary nights and stitch together the good parts, to make time bearable. Then I could wear it like a coat, always live happily.”

Rohinton Mistry A Fine Balance

Source: A Fine Balance

Time, Parting, Clothes, Night

“Still think she is worth it?” Mahon asked quietly.

“Of course. She is my mate.”

Mahon sighed. “So you decided then.”

“Do you think we’d be laying here bleeding in the snow if I wasn’t sure?”

“Good point.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds - Awake

Thinking

“Even though I don't ask, Plutarch gives me cheerful updates on the phone like "Good news, Katniss! I think we've almost got him convinced you're not a mutt!" Or "Today he was allowed to feed himself pudding!”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Thinking

“Somehow, even in the worst of times, the tiniest fragments of good survive. It was the grip in which one held those fragments that counted.”

Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock

Source: Finnikin of the Rock

Time

“My faith is whatever makes me feel good about being alive. If your religion doesn't make you feel good to be alive, what the hell is the point of it?”

Tom Robbins Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

Source: Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

Faith, Religion, Feeling, Hell

“It sounds silly I know. But for me, the power of music rests in its ability to reach inside and touch the places where the deepest cuts lie. Like a benevolent god, a good song will never let you down.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

God, Lie, Music

“You don't go walking into the proverbial lion's den lightly. You start with a good breakfast.”

Jim Butcher book Storm Front

Source: Storm Front

“Phoebe tapped the toe of her sneaker against the dock. “There’s only one good use for a man like Heath Champion.”

“Here we go again,” Molly muttered.

Phoebe’s lip curled. “Target practice.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Match Me If You Can

“Perhaps evil is the crucible of goodness… and perhaps even Satan - Satan, in spite of himself - somehow serves to work out the will of God.”

William Peter Blatty book The Exorcist

Source: The Exorcist

God, Evil

“Change can be good. It just depends on what we make of it.”

Elizabeth Chandler (1954) writer

Source: Summer in the City

Change, Dependency

“Hell is paved with good intentions.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

April 14, 1775 Malone added a footnote indicating this is a "proverbial sentence", quoting an earlier 1651 source. At least two other sources appear prior to Johnson. John Ray, in 1670, cited as a proverb, "Hell is paved with good intentions." Even earlier than that, it has been attributed to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), as "Hell is full of good intentions or desires." [alt.quotations, Earlier Attributions, Wilson, Robert, UseNet, 2009-01-06] Note that "The road to Hell…" is not part of the quotation. The Samuel Johnson web site suggests this entry is dated 16 April, but it appears to be part of the previous entry. Samuel Johnson web site http://www.samueljohnson.com/road.html Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 2

Hell

“You got to know your limits. Once is enough, but you got to learn. A little caution never hurt anyone. A good woodsman has only one scar on him. No more, no less.”

Haruki Murakami book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Source: Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter 24: Shadow Grounds
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Learning, Hurt

“People don't do me much good.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

People

“The best thing about graduating from the university was that I finally had time to sit on a log and read a good book.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Books, Universe, Time, Reading