Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another.

It is better to do one’s own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.

It’s that wonderful old-fashioned idea that others come first and you come second. This was the whole ethic by which I was brought up. Others matter more than you do, so ‚don’t fuss, dear; get on with it.‘

It is a true rule that love is ever rewarded, either with the reciproque or with an inward and secret contempt.

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image.

A tear dries quickly when it is shed for troubles of others.

Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.

Any of us can be happy and have a good attitude when everything is going our way. But I believe it’s the real test of your character and of your faith to say, ‚Things are not going our way, but I’m still being good to people; I’m still attending church; I still have a good attitude.‘

Compliment three people every day.

It’s human nature to blame someone else for your shortcomings or upsets.

We need to, you know, restore people. We need to show mercy. I mean, because as much mercy as you show people, that’s the mercy you’re going to be receiving.

We have observed that, in society and the world in which we live, selfishness has increased more than love for others, and that men of good will must work, each with his own strengths and expertise, to ensure that love for others increases until it is equal and possibly exceeds love for oneself.

There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.

I must be cruel, only to be kind.

Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.

It is a fact that cannot be denied: the wickedness of others becomes our own wickedness because it kindles something evil in our own hearts.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

You give before you get.

If you’re in favour of any policy – reform, revolution, stability, regression, whatever – if you’re at least minimally moral, it’s because you think it’s somehow good for people. And good for people means conforming to their fundamental nature.

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey ‚people.‘ People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war… Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.

There is a blessed necessity by which the interest of men is always driving them to the right; and, again, making all crime mean and ugly.

When anyone has the power to destroy the whole human race in a matter of hours, it becomes a moral issue. The church must speak out.

The human race is governed by its imagination.

Force always attracts men of low morality.

All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.

Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.

Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

Well, I’ll put it this way: you can certainly say belief in God makes people behave worse. That can be proved beyond a doubt.

I disagree with any policy that would turn America’s back on people who are fleeing harm. I frankly believe that it is contrary to everything that we have symbolically and actually said we stand for.

What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man.

In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.

To God everything is beautiful, good, and just; humans, however, think some things are unjust and others just.

I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies.

Every generation always thinks it was better before, and I think people have been saying this for probably thousands of years.

The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

In whatever adulation you get, there’s truth and there’s not truth. And wherever they dog you, and they say it was horrible – there’s truth and there’s not truth. It’s human nature to like to read the adulation more.

The civility which money will purchase, is rarely extended to those who have none.

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.

No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.

I think that most of us would prefer to be popular than unpopular.

How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

Science, as everyone knows, is responsible, moderate, unsentimental, and otherwise good.

Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.

Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Man is a universe within himself.

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.

It disturbs me no more to find men base, unjust, or selfish than to see apes mischievous, wolves savage, or the vulture ravenous.