“The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.”
“I don’t mean good like going to church or not breaking laws. If, in your heart, you try to get through the day without hurting other people, then you are a good person...”
“When happiness pours out of your heart, good pours out into the world.”
“God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong, but I can t. If a thing is free to be good it s also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata -of creatures that worked like machines- would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they ve got to be free. Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently, He thought it worth the risk. (...) If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will -that is, for making a real world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings- then we may take it it is worth paying.”
“What would your good do if evil didn t exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?”
“Most good things have been said far too many times and just need to be lived.”
“We need not take refuge in supernatural gods to explain our saints and sages and heroes and statesmen, as if to explain our disbelief that mere unaided human beings could be that good or wise.”
“Madame Kovarian: The anger of a good man is not a problem. Good men have too many rules. The Doctor: Good men don t need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.”
“What if — is more complicated than that? What if maybe opposite is true as well? Because, if bad can sometimes come from good actions—? where does it ever say, anywhere, that only bad can come from bad actions? Maybe sometimes — the wrong way is the right way? You can take the wrong path and it still comes out where you want to be? Or, spin it another way, sometimes you can do everything wrong and it still turns out to be right?”
“Tell me there is still good in the world. Tell me there is still hope for all of us.”
“Risk means shit happens or good luck”
“A girl s life was defined by lines: fine lines, hairlines, bikini lines, class lines, the tightrope line between being a good girl and a slut. But there was always a moment when the lines blurred and a good girl had to decide whether to toe the line, cross the line, or stay safe behind the line that guarded her virtue.”
“In great hearts the cruelty of life gives birth to good.”
“War, Nobby. Huh! What is it good for? he said. Dunno, Sarge. Freeing slaves, maybe? Absol—well, okay. Defending yourself against a totalitarian aggressor? All right, I ll grant you that, but— Saving civilization from a horde of— It doesn t do any good in the long run is what I m saying, Nobby, if you d listen for five seconds together, said Fred Colon sharply. Yeah, but in the long run, what does, Sarge?”
“See yourself as you really are. Accept the good and the bad. Only then can you truly share yourself with another.”
“Trying too hard to be too good, even when trying to be bad, is too good for the bad, too bad for the good.”
“Good and evil are so close as to be chained together in the soul.”