goodness 2

Good actions are the invisible
hinges on the doors of heaven.

Victor Hugo

   

Goodwill to others. . . helps build you up.  It is good for your body.  It makes your blood purer, your muscles stronger, and your whole form more symmetrical in shape.  It is the real elixir of life.

Prentice Mulford

      

To me, one of the proofs that there is a moral governance in the universe is the fact that when people and governments work intelligently and far-sightedly for the good of others, they achieve their own prosperity, too.

Barbara Ward

  

Above all, let us never forget that an act of goodness is in itself an act of happiness.  It is the flower of a long inner life of joy and contentment; it tells of peaceful hours and days on the sunniest heights of our soul.

Maurice Maeterlinck

   
It is within my power either to serve God, or not to serve him.  Serving him I add to my own good and the good of the whole world.  Not serving him, I forfeit my own good and deprive the world of that good, which was in my power to create.

Lev Tolstoy

  
  
Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you.  Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours.

Marcus Aurelius
  

Conquer a person who never gives by gifts;
Subdue untruthful people by truthfulness;
Vanquish an angry person by gentleness;
And overcome the evil person by goodness.

Ancient India

  

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Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

unattributed
(often attributed to John Wesley)
  

We ought to do good to others as simply and as naturally
as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes
season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.

Marcus Aurelius

  
The refuge from pessimism is the good men and women at any time
existing in the world, --they keep faith and happiness alive.

Charles E. Norton
  

Know all the good that individuals find,
Or God and Nature meant to mere mankind.
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in these three words--
Health, Peace, and Competence.

Alexander Pope

  

The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action
by stealth and to have it found out by accident.

Charles Lamb

  

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others
cannot keep it from themselves.

J.M. Barrie

   

She tended to be impatient with that sort of intellectual who,
for all his brilliance, has never been able to arrive at the simple conclusion
that to be reasonably happy you have to be reasonably good.

Carolyn Kizer

   

   

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.

Thomas Carlyle

  

That best portion of good people's lives,
Their little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love.

William Wordsworth

  

Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise
of others, but from doing something worthwhile.

Wilfred Grenfell

  

Waste no more time arguing what a good person should be.  Be one.

Marcus Aurelius

  goodness 2   

All that is good, all that is true, all that is beautiful,
all that is beneficent, be it great or small, be it perfect
or fragmentary, natural as well as supernatural,
moral as well as material, comes from God.

John Henry Newman

   

Morality has been conceived up to the present in a very narrow
spirit, as obedience to a law, as inner struggle between opposite
laws. As for me, I declare that when I do good I obey no one, I
fight no battle and win no victory.  The cultivated person has
only to follow the delicious incline of his or her inner impulses.
Be beautiful and then do at each moment whatever your heart
may inspire you to do. This is the whole of morality.

Ernest Renan

   

If you believe that God overrules all things for good, and only permits
apparently evil happenings for good and the achievement of great ends
unbeknown to you, then all is well.  All is well because
you believe in the sovereignty of God.

Henry T. Hamblin

   

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If you have not often felt the joy of doing a kind act,
you have neglected much, and most of all yourself.

A. Neilen

  

Do things for others and you'll find you self-consciousness
evaporating like morning dew.

Dale Carnegie

  

Sow good services; sweet remembrances will grow from them.

Madame de Stael

  

Goodwill is the mightiest practical force in the universe.

Charles F. Dole

  

 

While I crawl upon this planet I think myself obliged to do
what good I can, in my narrow domestic spheres, to my
fellow creatures, and to wish them all the good I cannot do.

Lord Chesterfield

 

If one is to do good one must do it in the minute particulars.
General good is the plea of the hypocrite, the flatterer and the scoundrel.

William Blake

  

Riches and power are but gifts of blind fate,
whereas goodness is the result of one's own merits.

Heloise

   

 

Those who wait to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.
Life is made up of little things.  True greatness consists in
being great in the little things.

Samuel Johnson

  

Goodness consists not in the outward things we do, but in
the inward thing we are.  To be good is the great thing.

Edwin H. Chapin

  

It is very difficult to know exactly what good should come out of a particular
situation.  To attempt to manipulate circumstances so your idea of good
can come about, is to let the ego play God--and that,
as you know, can and does backfire.

Neem Karoli Baba

 
Goodness Knows

Goodness knows that sometimes the greatest thing
in the world is a smile from a child,
So Goodness laughs a lot.

Goodness knows that it's easier to break a child than to mend one,
So Goodness handles with care.

Goodness knows that everyone deserves a second chance,
And sometimes a third and fourth chance, too.

Goodness knows that we all need friends in this world,
So Goodness is determined to be friendly.

Goodness knows that only people count,
So Goodness never counts out people.

Goodness knows that life is sometimes lonely,
But we are never alone.

And when the sorrows of life are left unexplained,
it's still not too much to bear,
For we can trust that Goodness knows.

--unattributed
   

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goodness 2

And when we come to think of it, goodness is uneventful.
It does not flash, it glows. It is deep, quiet, and very simple.
It passes not with oratory, it is commonly foreign to riches,
nor does it often sit in the places of the mighty:  but may be
felt in the touch of a friendly hand or the look of a kindly eye.

David Grayson

   

I'm coming to believe more and more in the truth that everything we do has
consequences.  A good deed doesn't just evaporate and disappear.

Desmond Tutu

   

Doing good for others is not a duty.  It is a joy,
for it increases your own health and happiness.

Zoroaster

  
Other blessings may be taken away, but if we have acquired a good
friend by goodness, we have a blessing which
improves in value when others fail.

William Ellery Channing
   

   
At a simple level, good is that which helps people--evil is that
which hurts people.  At a higher level, good is that which is in
harmony with divine purpose--evil is that which is
out of harmony with divine purpose.

Peace Pilgrim
  

I have often said that a person who wishes to begin a good life should
be like one who draws a circle.  Let him or her get the center in the
right place and keep it so and the circumference will be good.

Meister Eckhart

   

The power generated of ten minds for good is superior to that of ten
thousand minds acting on a lower motive.  But it is a silent power.  It
moves in mysterious ways.  It is noiseless.  It makes no show
of open opposition.  It uses no methods of effort through
tongue or arm or physical force.

Prentice Mulford

   
Always remember, we all have our own opinions and beliefs.
We have different ways of dealing with life’s troubles and joys.
To survive our differences without hurting each other is what
Goodness is all about.

Dodinsky
   

    
   

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(Found online images come from a variety of unattributed
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Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.