#goodness

But try to remember that a good man can never die. You will see your brother many times again-in the streets, at home, in all the places of the town. The person of a man may go, but the best part of him stays. It stays forever. ↗

— William Saroyan

#goodness #hope #truth #death

Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality. ↗

— Beatrix Potter

#i #never #off #originality #rubbed

As spiritual searchers we need to become freer and freer of the attachment to our own smallness in which we get occupied with me-me-me. Pondering on large ideas or standing in front of things which remind us of a vast scale can free us from acquisitiveness and competitiveness and from our likes and dislikes. If we sit with an increasing stillness of the body, and attune our mind to the sky or to the ocean or to the myriad stars at night, or any other indicators of vastness, the mind gradually stills and the heart is filled with quiet joy. Also recalling our own experiences in which we acted generously or with compassion for the simple delight of it without expectation of any gain can give us more confidence in the existence of a deeper goodness from which we may deviate. (39) ↗

— Ravi Ravindra

#compassion #confidence #expectations #generosity #goodness

It is certain that an atom of goodness on the path of faith is never lost. ↗

— Rumi

#goodness #faith

Miss B. says, "It's a mama's faith what keeps her children right. I'm not talkin' 'bout the churchgoin' kind, neither. Miss Mabel's got faith in goodness. Tell me you can't help but believe in it too just by lookin' at her. ↗

— Ami McKay

#faith

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

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

Since man always remains free and since his freedom is always fragile, the kingdom of good will never be definitively established in this world. Anyone who promises the better world that is guaranteed to last forever is making a false promise; he is overlooking human freedom. Freedom must be constantly won over for the cause of good. Free assent to the good never exists simply by itself. If there were structures which could irrevocably guarantee a determined and good state of the world, man's freedom would be denied, and hence they would not be good structures at all. ↗

— Pope Benedict XVI

#free-will #freedom #good-and-evil #goodness #government

And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more ... ↗

— Banana Yoshimoto

#goodness #kindness #tragedy #friendship

I cannot encourage any fabrication even for the sake of making people feel good. If I were to fabricate consciously and knowingly, I would not only be ordaining myself their enemy, but also ordaining myself God's enemy. ↗

— Criss Jami

#christianity #enemies #fabrications #facts #flattery