#benevolence

Let the professors of Christianity recommend their religion by deeds of benevolence - by Christian meekness - by lives of temperance and holiness. ↗

— Richard Mentor Johnson

#christian #christianity #deeds #holiness #lives

It comes as no surprise to find [Norman] Mailer embracing [in the book On God] a form of Manicheanism, pitting the forces of light and darkness against each other in a permanent stand-off, with humanity as the battlefield. (When asked if Jesus is part of this battle, he responds rather loftily that he thinks it is a distinct possibility.) But it is at points like this that he talks as if all the late-night undergraduate talk sessions on the question of theism had become rolled into one. 'How can we not face up to the fact that if God is All-Powerful, He cannot be All-Good. Or She cannot be All-Good.' Mailer says that questions such as this have bedevilled 'theologians', whereas it would be more accurate to say that such questions, posed by philosophers, have attempted to put theologians out of business. A long exchange on the probability of reincarnation (known to Mailer sometimes as “karmic reassignment”) manages to fall slightly below the level of those undergraduate talk sessions. The Manichean stand-off leads Mailer, in closing, to speculate on what God might desire politically and to say: 'In different times, the heavens may have been partial to monarchy, to communism, and certainly the Lord was interested in democracy, in capitalism. (As was the Devil!)' I think it was at this point that I decided I would rather remember Mailer as the author of Harlot's Ghost and The Armies of the Night. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#capitalism #communism #democracy #devil #god

A benevolent mind, and the face assumes the patterns of benevolence. An evil mind, then an evil face. ↗

— Jimmy Sangster

#benevolence #benevolent #evil #face #mind

We never think lightly of those who walk with us on our uphill days. ↗

— Richelle E. Goodrich

#charity #friends #friendship #giving #kindness

What can a man do with music who is not benevolent? ↗

— Confucius

#music #music

The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out. ↗

— Oscar Wilde

#benevolence #epigram #reputation #wild

Benevolence alone will not make a teacher, nor will learning alone do it. The gift of teaching is a peculiar talent, and implies a need and a craving in the teacher himself. ↗

— John Jay Chapman

#benevolence #craving #gift #himself #implies

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice. ↗

— Baruch Spinoza

#absence #benevolence #confidence #disposition #justice

If you aren't creeped out by the No Birth Control Left Behind rhetoric of the White House and Planned Parenthood, you aren't listening closely enough. The anesthetic of progressive benevolence always dulls the senses. Wake up. ↗

— Michelle Malkin

#anesthetic #behind #benevolence #birth #birth control

Alas few socialists are either benevolent enough to work hard at these occupations out of benevolence or self-interested enough to work hard at them for money. ↗

— John McCarthy

#benevolence #benevolent #either #enough #few