Pretend to be good always and even God will be fooled. Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr Rosewater
The small man thinks that small acts of goodness are of no benefit, and does not do them; and that small deeds of evil do no harm, and does not refrain from them. Hence, his wickedness becomes so great that it cannot be concealed, and his guilt so great that it cannot be pardoned. Confucius, The Wisdom of Confucius
People who claim that they’re evil are usually no worse than the rest of us ... It’s people who claim that they’re good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of. Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil. Marcus Tullius Cicero
The good of the people is the chief law. Marcus Tullius Cicero
Summum bonum [The highest good] Marcus Tullius Cicero
Good, but not religious-good. Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree, 1872
Hard was the lodging, homely was their food;
For all their luxury was doing good. Samuel Garth, Claremont, 1715
No people do so much harm as those who go about doing good. Mandell Creighton, 1843-1901
This’ll be the first good thing that happened to us. Apart from father dying. Rab C Nesbitt, Duel, Rab’s sister at breakfast table, BBC 1998
If all the good people were clever,
And all clever people were good,
The world would be nicer than ever
We thought that it possible could.
But somehow, ’tis seldom or never
The two hit it off as they should;
The good are so harsh to the clever,
The clever so rude to the good! Elizabeth Wordsworth, Good and Clever
The good die first,
And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust
But to the socket. William Wordsworth, The Excursion
In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favourite device of persons with something to sell. H L Mencken, US editor, 1880-1956
A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. Percy Bysshe Shelley
Content thyself to do obscurely good. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, the post of honour is a private station. Joseph Addison, 1672-1719, Scottish poet & dramatist
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame. Alexander Pope
Men have never been good; they are not good and they never will be good. Karl Barth, Christian Community, 1948
The inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature of man. Francis Bacon, Essays: ‘Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature’, 1625
I never did repent for doing good,
Nor shall not now. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice III iv 10-11, Portia to Lorenzo
’Tis good to be sad and say nothing. William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Jaques, Globe Theatre, Sky Arts 2012
Gloucester, ’tis true that we are in great danger;
The greater therefore should our courage be ...
There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
Would men observingly distil it out –
For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers,
Which is both beautiful and good husbandry,
Besides, there are our outward consciences,
And preachers to us all, admonishing
That we should dress us fairly for our end.
Thus may we gather honey from the weed
And make a moral of the devil himself. William Shakespeare, Henry V IV i 1-14, King Harry to Gloucester
The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones. Julius Caesar starring Paterson Joseph & Ray Fearon & Cyril Nri & Adjoa Andoh & Jeffery Kissoon et al, director Gregory Duran, Antony, RSC 2012
It is not, nor it cannot come to good. William Shakespeare, Hamlet I ii 158
… and ever oft good turns
Are shuffled off with such uncurrent pay. William Shakespeare Twelfth Night III iii 15-16, Antonio
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile;
Filths savour but themselves. William Shakespeare, The History of King Lear IV ii 37-38, Albany
Anybody can be good in the country. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
It is better to be beautiful than to be good, but it is better to be good than to be ugly. ibid.
Because sometimes you have to do something bad to do something good. Oscar Wilde, The Complete Fairy Tales
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious. Oscar Wilde
I wish you’d stop being so good to me, Captain. Cool Hand Luke 1967 starring Paul Newman & George Kennedy & Strother Martin & Jo van Fleet & Joy Harmon & Morgan Woodward & Luke Askew & Robert Donner & Clifton James & J D Cannon et al, director Stuart Rosenberg
On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time. (Humanity & Good) George Orwell
Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell. George Orwell
I hate purity. Hate goodness. I don’t want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone corrupt. George Orwell, 1984 starring John Hurt & Richard Burton & Gregor Fisher & Suzanna Hamilton & Cyril Cusack & James Walker & Andrew Wilde & Corina Seddon & Rupert Baderman & John Boswall & Phyllis Logan et al, director Michael Radford, him to her
Be good and you will be lonesome. Mark Twain, Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World
Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example. Mark Twain
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble. Mark Twain
But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil. Robert A Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart. Anne Frank
I don’t think I am any good. If I thought I was any good, I wouldn’t be. John Betjeman
I don’t believe that if you do good, good things will happen. Everything is completely accidental and random. Sometimes bad things happen to very good people and sometimes good things happen to bad people. But at least if you try to do good things, then you’re spending your time doing something worthwhile. Helen Mirren
Is it better for a man to have chosen evil than to have good imposed upon him? Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange – meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil. ibid.
It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. It may be horrible to be goоd. And when I say that to you I realize how self-contradictory that sounds. I know I shall have many sleepless nights about this. What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him? Deep and hard questions, little 6655321. ibid.
Know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance sake, but for the sake of having done right? Epictetus
How good life is when one does something good and just! Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov