good - quotes

François de La Rochefoucauld, 1613-1680

was a French author and moralist

We often do good in order that we may do evil with impunity.

Oscar (Fingall O'Flahertie Wills) Wilde, 1854-1900

was an Irish dramatist, novelist, and poet

Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.

Edmund Burke, 1729-1797

was an Irish orator, philosopher, and politician

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

was an English poet and playwright

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.

( “Julius Caesar”, Act 3 scene 2, ca 1599 )

Oscar (Fingall O'Flahertie Wills) Wilde, 1854-1900

was an Irish dramatist, novelist, and poet

To be good, according to the vulgar standard of goodness, is obviously quite easy. It merely requires a certain amount of sordid terror, a certain lack of imaginative thought, and a certain low passion for middle-class respectability.

Oscar (Fingall O'Flahertie Wills) Wilde, 1854-1900

was an Irish dramatist, novelist, and poet

It is better to be beautiful than to be good, but it is better to be good than to be ugly.

George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), 1903-1950

was an English essayist, novelist, and satirist

On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time.

Joseph Addison, 1672-1719

was an English essayist, poet, and politician

Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, the post of honor is a private station.

( “Cato, a Tragedy”, 1712 )