Quotes about Good

There is no inconsistency in saying that God rewards good works, provided we understand that nevertheless men obtain eternal life gratuitously.

We admit no faith to be justifying, which is not itself and in its own nature a spiritually vital principle of obedience and good works.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously.  If you pretend to be bad, it doesn't.  Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.

For the canons of good society are, or should be, the same as the canons of art. Form is absolutely essential to it.

I remember your saying once that there is a fatality about good resolutions—that they are always made too late. Mine certainly were.

As one reads history, not in the expurgated editions written for schoolboys and passmen, but in the original authorities of each time, one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.

Aristotle called this land of attitude "enlightened selfishness." Zoroaster said, "Doing good to others is not a duty. It is a joy, for it increases your own health and happiness." And Benjamin Franklin summed it up very simply—"When you are good to others," said Franklin, "you are best to yourself.

It is confidence in the invariably overriding intention of God for our good, with respect to all the evil and suffering that may befall us on life's journey, that secures us in peace and joy.

Love means will-to-good, willing the benefit of what or who is loved. We may say we love chocolate cake, but we don't. Rather, we want to eat it. That is desire, not love. In our culture we have a great problem distinguishing between love and desire, but it is essential that we do so.

And he will bring justice to the nations. He will not quarrel, nor scream at people. You will not be able to hear his voice above the chatter of the street. In bringing discernment of what is good and right to the point where it actually governs human existence, he will not use even the violence it takes to finish breaking a stick that is already cracked or smother a smoking wick. (Matt. 12:18—21, quoted from Isa. 42:1—4)

I realize that I will either allow my view of evil to determine my view of God and will cut him down accordingly, or I will allow my view of God to determine my view of the evil and will elevate him accordingly, accepting that nothing is beyond his power for good.