“If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.”
What does it mean to be good? These quotes explore virtue, decency, kindness, and the daily choices that add up to a life well lived. Not preachy — just thoughtful observations from people trying to do right in a complicated world.
“Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.”
“If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.”
“The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.”
“Only good girls keep diaries. Bad girls don't have time.”
“Commitment is a big part of what I am and what I believe. How committed are you to winning? How committed are you to being a good friend? To being trustworthy? To being successful? How committed are you to being a good father, a good teammate, a good role model? There's that moment every morning when you look in the mirror: Are you committed, or are you not?”
“Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.”
“To be good is noble but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.”
“Do not ever say that the desire to 'do good' by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.”
“On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.”
“Edible - good to eat and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm.”
“A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.”
“For all right judgment of any man or things it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.”
“Great and good are seldom the same man.”
“An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.”
“Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.”
“The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”