#good

Grandfather looked away from me and out to sea, and when he spoke, it was as though he spoke to himself. “The obligations of normal human kindness – chesed, as the Hebrew has it – that we all owe. But there’s a kind of vanity in thinking you can nurse the world. There’s a kind of vanity in goodness.” I could hardly believe my ears. “But aren’t we supposed to be good?” “I’m not sure.” Grandfather’s voice was heavy. “I do know that we’re not good, and there’s a lot of truth to the saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. ↗

— Madeleine L'Engle

#family

Have I said anything I started out to say about being good? God, I don’t know. A stranger is shot in the street, you hardly move to help. But if half an hour before, you spent just ten minutes with the fellow and knew a little about him and his family, you might just jump in front of his killer and try to stop it. Really knowing is good. Not knowing, or refusing to know, is bad, or amoral, at least. You can’t act if you don’t know. Acting without knowing takes you right off the cliff. ↗

— Ray Bradbury

#good #family

The West's post-Holocaust pledge that genocide would never again be tolerated proved to be hollow, and for all the fine sentiments inspired by the memory of Auschwitz, the problem remains that denouncing evil is a far cry from doing good. ↗

— Philip Gourevitch

#apathy #auschewitz #evil #genocide #good

A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness. ↗

— Elsa Schiaparelli

#dispenses #good #good cook #happiness #like

Wait for that wisest of all counselores, Time. ↗

— Pericles

#counselors #country-foods #good #happy #joy

The dripping blood our only drink, The bloody flesh our only food: In spite of which we like to think That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood-- Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good. ↗

— T.S. Eliot

#good-friday #jesus #spirituality #food

It's good to know how to read, but it's dangerous to know how to read and not how to interpret what you're reading. ↗

— Mike Tyson

#good #how #interpret #know #read

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. ↗

— Milan Kundera

#fore #freedom #goodness #human #only

All those trucks and barges that carry our goods to port are vital connections to the only force which can balance our trade deficit: export. We must keep doing what we do best if we are going to get America out of the red. ↗

— Jo Ann Emerson

#balance #best #carry #connections #deficit

[I]n the end this shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a Queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin. ↗

— Elizabeth I Tudor

#dignity #freedom #good-governance #government #independence