Quotes about goodness
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“Dogs make sense. They understand hierarchy and the need to cooperate. They come when you call them. A cat though—a cat will take your number and get back to you. Maybe. If he’s in a good mood.”

Eileen Wilks Mortal Danger

Source: Mortal Danger

Dogs, Cats, Mood, Understanding

“My brother, Jason, came into the bar, then, and sauntered over to give me a hug. He knows that women like a man who's good to his family and also kind to the disabled, so hugging me is a double whammy of recommendation.”

Charlaine Harris book Dead Until Dark

Source: Dead Until Dark

Women, Family

“Mom told us we would have to go shoplifting.
Isn't that a sin?" I asked Mom.
Not exactly," Mom said. "God doesn't mind you bending the rules a little if you have a good reason. It's sort of like justifiable homicide. This is justifiable pilfering.”

Jeannette Walls book The Glass Castle

Source: The Glass Castle

God, Moms

“If you think of someone's good qualities as the umeboshi in an onigiri it's as if their qualities are stuck to their back! Maybe the reason people get jealous of each other is because they can see so clearly the umeboshi on other people's backs.”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 2

People, Thinking

“Annihilation itself is no death to evil. Only good where evil was, is evil dead. An evil thing must live with its evil until it chooses to be good. That alone is the slaying of evil.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

Death, Evil, Dead

“There were some things that only time could cure. Evil men could be destroyed, but nothing could be done with good men who were deluded.”

Arthur C. Clarke book Childhood's End

Guardian Angel, p. 220
2000s and posthumous publications, The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001)
Source: Childhood's End

Time, Men, Evil

“My definition of good literature is that which can be read by an educated reader, and reread with increased pleasure.”

Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American science fiction and fantasy writer

Pleasure, Education, Literature, Reading

“We run when we're scared, we run when we're ecstatic, we run away from our problems and run around for a good time.”

Christopher McDougall (1962) American journalist and writer

Source: Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Problem, Time

“The bottom line is, what defines you isn't how many times you crash, but the number of times you get back on the bike. As long as it's one more. you're all good.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Time

“Bad people succeed and good people fail, but that's not the end of the story. Miracles happen that nobody sees, and among us walk heroes who are never recognized, and people live in loneliness because they cannot believe they are loved.”

Dean Koontz book The Darkest Evening of the Year

Source: The Darkest Evening of the Year

Love, People, Loneliness

“The demands that good people make are upon themselves;
Those that bad people make are upon others.”

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

People

“We're as good at talking ourselves out of fear as into it, aren't we? Maybe better.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: Stay

Fear

“I mean, how do you know if people are good for you or not? It's not like they come with an FDA approved sticker or anything.”

Michael Thomas Ford (1968) American writer

Source: Suicide Notes

People

“Anyway, even if she's sugarcoating my good points, I appreciate it. Frankly, I could use a little sugarcoating.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

“Success in life is the result of good judgment. Good judgment is usually the result of experience. Experience is usually the result of bad judgment.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

Life, Success

“Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Smile

“if i repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. what demon possessed me that i behaved so well?”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Behavior

“Oh, Jake,' Brett said, 'we could have had such a damned good time together.'
Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.
'Yes,' I said. 'Isn’t it pretty to think so?”

Ernest Hemingway book The Sun Also Rises

Book 3, Ch. 19 (the last lines of the novel)
Source: The Sun Also Rises (1926)

Cars, Thinking, Time

“She was good at playing abstract confusion in the same way that a midget is good at being short.”

Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist

Way

“Listen to me, Siddalee, and listen good: There is no excuse to let your looks go, no matter how poor you are. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, but honey let me tell you, ugliness will get you nowhere.”

Rebecca Wells book Little Altars Everywhere

Source: Little Altars Everywhere

“The importance of our connection, what it meant to find each other again, the way it made what happened to us and between us not be a waste, not be for nothing. He would know, he had to know, that not saying good-bye would be the worst end of all.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

Source: Sweethearts

Way

“Love and war always go together. They are the peaks of human emotion! Evil and good, beauty and ugliness”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Love, War, Beauty, Evil

“it's good to have things done with
when they don't work
it's also good not to hate
or even forget
the person you've failed with.”

Charles Bukowski book Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit

Source: Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit

Hate, Personality, Forgetting

“Sleep is not on good terms with broken hearts. It will have nothing to do with them.”

Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden

Sleep, Heart

“There are no self-proclaimed villains, only regiments of self-proclaimed saints. Victorious historians rule where good or evil lies.”

Glen Cook (1944) American fiction writer

Source: Chronicles of the Black Company

Evil, Victory

“It's good to let God pick a man for you. We don't do so well when we pick them ourselves. They end up lipsticks in a drawer, all those wrong colors you thought looked so good in the package.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Queen of Everything

God, Color

“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country. ~ Horace in Odes, Book 3, Ode 2, Line 13, as translated in The Works of Horace by J. C. Elgood
Notes on the Next War (1935)

War, Dogs, Country

“Even bad times have good things in them to make you feel alive.”

Nick Hornby book A Long Way Down

Source: A Long Way Down

Feeling, Time

“If I’m at a party where I’m not enjoying myself, I will put some cookies in my jacket pocket and leave without saying good-bye.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

“Good ideas stay with you until you eventually write the story.”

Brian Keene (1967) American writer

Idea

“But I suppose there might be good in things, even if we don't see it.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“The Three Kinds of Pride are: (1) thinking I am better than the other(s); (2) thinking I am worse than the other(s); and (3) thinking I am just as good as the other(s).”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation

Thinking

“All I'm out for is a good time - all the rest is propaganda.”

Alan Sillitoe book Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Source: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Time

“I believe in me, in my view of the world. I believe in my responsibility for my own destiny, guilt for my own sins, merit for my own good deeds, determination of my own life. I don't believe in miracles, I believe in hard work.”

Philippa Gregory (1954) English novelist

Life, World

“Thank goodness my education was neglected.”

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

Education

“I'm not good with children," the god confessed. "Or people. Well, any organic life forms, really.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Life, God, Children, People

“Oh, why does college have to happen to perfectly good people?”

Rick Riordan book The Hidden Oracle

Source: The Hidden Oracle

People

“Good-bye -- if you hear of my being stood up against a stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease or falling down the cellar stairs.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

Life, Age, Disease, Way

“And it was good just to hold her and touch the softness of her skin. He wanted to hold her hard, not to hurt her but to keep her safe, to show her that he was strong enough to protect her. Her beauty was like fire and strange music, and he loved her.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Dark Visions

Love, Beauty, Music, Strong

“People are more than one thing. Warlocks, no less. I would not even hesitate to say that Malcolm once did much good, before he did evil. It is one of the great lessons of growing up, learning that people can do both.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

People, Learning, Evil

“A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.”

Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) Novelist, screenwriter

“Good-humoured, unaffected girls, will not do for a man who has been used to sensible women. They are two distinct orders of being.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Source: Mansfield Park

Women, Girl

“We tend to think, 'Life should be fair because God is fair.' But God is not life. And if I confuse God with the physical reality of life- by expecting constant good health for example- then I set myself up for crashing disappointment.”

Philip Yancey (1949) American writer

Source: Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud

Life, God, Health, Disappointment

“but isn't there always
one good thing
to look back on?

think of
how many cups of coffee we
drank together.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way

Coffee, Thinking

“An unread book does nobody any good. Stories happen in the mind of a reader, not among symbols printed on a page.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Books

“What I'm mostly good at is sleeping, he once told me in confidence, but he added, I don't see much future in it.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Confidence, Sleep, Future

“There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Men, Education, Appearance

“but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Life

“I guess I should have forgotten about it ages ago, but forgetting isn't something I'm very good at.”

Nick Hornby book High Fidelity

Source: High Fidelity

Age, Forgetting

“Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.”

Alexander Pope An Essay on Man

Source: An Essay on Man

“The Good Fight is the one that we fight in the name of our dreams.”

Paulo Coelho book The Pilgrimage

Source: The Pilgrimage

Dreams, Fight

“I don't care who her mother is," Magnus said. "You can't see me with out an appointment. Come back later. Next March would be good,"
"March?" Sebastian looked horrified.
"You're right," Magnus said, "Too rainy. How about June?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“I'm not sure I even need a lover, male or female. Sometimes I think I'd settle for five good friends.”

Armistead Maupin (1944) American writer

Source: 28 Barbary Lane: The Tales of the City Omnibus

Lovers, Thinking

“I believe in the goodness of imagination.”

Sue Monk Kidd (1948) Novelist

Imagination

“We are not as Christ-centered and cross-cherishing as we should be, because we do not ponder the truth that everything good, and everything bad that God turns for the good, was purchased by the sufferings of Christ.”

John Piper (1946) American writer

Source: The Passion of Jesus Christ

God, Truth, Suffering, Christ

“Life is not so bad if you have plenty of luck, a good physique and not too much imagination.”

Christopher Isherwood (1904–1986) English novelist

Life, Imagination

“I was having that dream again, the good one where we're all in heaven and never heard of Treegap.”

Natalie Babbitt book Tuck Everlasting

Source: Tuck Everlasting

Dreams

“What good is money if it can't buy happiness?”

Agatha Christie book The Man in the Brown Suit

Source: The Man in the Brown Suit

Money, Happiness

“Every good writer I know needs to go into some deep, quiet place to do work that is fully imagined. And what the Internet brings is lots of vulgar data. It is the antithesis of the imagination. It leaves nothing to the imagination.”

Jonathan Franzen (1959) novelist

Imagination

“We love each other, that’s true whatever it means, but we aren’t good at it; for some it’s a talent, for others only an addiction.”

Margaret Atwood book Dancing Girls

Source: Dancing Girls

Love

“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.”

Eudora Welty (1909–2001) American author

“Dashed hopes and good intentions. Good, better, best, bested.”

Edward Albee Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Source: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Hope

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

Michael Hopkins

The Big Book of Interesting Stuff

“When good Americans die, they go to Paris,' the ghost said, after taking a drag on a small cigarette.”

Karen Chance American writer

Source: Embrace the Night

“He was beside me then, his arms wrapped around me, holding me tightly.

"I'm not crazy," I whispered.

"I know."

Believe it or not, that's the most romantic thing Zachary Goode ever told me.

And I kind of loved him for it.”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

Love

“Power changes everything till it is difficult to say who are the heroes and who the villians… And magic itself is neither good nor bad; it is intent that makes it either.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

Change

“Sun is bad for you. Everything our parents said was good is bad. Sun, milk, red meat… college”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Parent, Sun

“I have noticed that doing the sensible thing is only a good idea when the decision is quite small. For the life-changing things, you must risk it.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Life, Idea, Decision, Change

“Those with a moral deficit put on a good show, and sleep like a baby.”

Paul Newman (1925–2008) American actor and film director

Sleep, Baby

“I'm a good person. In most ways. But I'm beginning to think that being a good person in most ways doesn't count for anything very much, if you're a bad person in one way.”

Nick Hornby (1957) English novelist

Way, Thinking, Personality

“Seth trotted over to Kendra. Bringing good luck as usual
It was a weak pass okay”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Rise of the Evening Star

“Isn’t every human being both a scientist and an artist; and in writing of human experience, isn’t there a good deal to be said for recognizing that fact and for using both methods?”

James Agee book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Source: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

“In death, they all looked the same. This morning they spoke, they breathed, they kissed their loved ones good-bye. And now they lay dead. Gone forever.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Love, Death, Kiss, Dead

“I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Love, Money, Dogs

“My good opinion once lost is lost forever.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

“This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don't want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Sun Also Rises

Count Mippipopolous, in Book 1, Ch. 7
Source: The Sun Also Rises (1926)

Drink, Wine

“Why was the judgement of the disapproving so valuable? Who said that their good opinions tended to be any more rational than those of generally pleasant people?”

Shannon Hale book Austenland

Source: Austenland

People

“He balled up my discarded
sweatshirt and put it against his shoulder.
“Go on,” he said. “I don’t bite.”
“And from what I hear, that’s a good thing.”
He gave a rumbling chuckle. “Yeah, it is.”
I leaned against his shoulder.”

Kelley Armstrong The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

“Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.”

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) French poet

Commonly attributed, but source unknown. note: Uncertain

Happy, Cute, Happiness

“They dispute not in order to find or even to seek Truth, but for victory, and to appear the more learned and strenuous upholders of a contrary opinion. Such persons should be avoided by all who have not a good breastplate of patience.”

Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer

"Introductory Epistle : Argument of the Third Dialogue"
On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (1584)
Context: After it hath been seen how the obstinate and the ignorant of evil disposition are accustomed to dispute, it will further be shewn how disputes are wont to conclude; although others are so wary that without losing their composure, but with a sneer, a smile, a certain discreet malice, that which they have not succeeded in proving by argument — nor indeed can it be understood by themselves — nevertheless by these tricks of courteous disdain they pretend to have proven, endeavouring not only to conceal their own patently obvious ignorance but to cast it on to the back of their adversary. For they dispute not in order to find or even to seek Truth, but for victory, and to appear the more learned and strenuous upholders of a contrary opinion. Such persons should be avoided by all who have not a good breastplate of patience.

Truth, Learning, Appearance, Victory

“There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

Source: Taxation No Tyranny https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Taxation_No_Tyranny (1775)

Pain, Communication, Parting

“And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn't really change the fact that you have what you have. Good and bad.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Change

“Ellen Cherry was from the south and had good manners. She didn´t have any panties on, but she had good manners.”

Tom Robbins Skinny Legs and All

Source: Skinny Legs and All

“No good has ever come from feeling guilty, neither intelligence, policy, nor compassion. The guilty do not pay attention to the object but only to themselves, and not even to their own interests, which might make sense, but to their anxieties.”

Paul Goodman (1911–1972) American novelist, playwright, poet and psychotherapist

Feeling, Intelligence, Sense

“not all drugs are good.. some of them are great”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

“Once one becomes a man, he can and must make his own decisions. But I do offer warning. Even a good thing can become destructive if taken to excess.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Alloy of Law

Decision

“When you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”

William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer

Preface
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934)
Context: The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.

Hell, Dead

“Don't talk for five minutes, there's a good chap! I've a strange feeling come over me--almost as if I were going to think!”

Aleister Crowley book Moonchild

Source: Moonchild

Feeling, Thinking

“She shouldn't speak her thoughts; nothing good ever came of speaking your thoughts.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

“I don't want this life to end," said Alexander. "The good, the bad, the everything, the very old, to ever end.”

Paullina Simons book The Summer Garden

Source: The Summer Garden

Life

“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.”

Robert Greene book The 48 Laws of Power

Source: The 48 Laws of Power

Time

“Not only will we have to repent for the sins of bad people; but we also will have to repent for the appalling silence of good people.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Variant: We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.

People, Silence

“So," Annabeth said, "are you going to argue about me coming along?"
"Nah. You'd just beat me up." Percy said.
She managed a laugh, which was good to hear”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian