Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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1 "For nearly two thousand years the first sentence a Chinese child, living in the direct light of Confucius, was taught to read was…'Human beings are by nature good.' We may smile at the undisguised moralizing, but every nation needs it.'" The World's Religions (Huston Smith)

2 "It's important to realize that there's good in everything and everyone." Worldwide Laws of Life: 200 Eternal Spiritual Principles (John Marks Templeton)

3 "Through dedication to a good life lived with consideration for our fellow men, we begin the active labor of building an enlightened world." Buddhism and Psychotherapy, The Healing of Heart Doctrine (Manly P. Hall)

4 "The universe is impersonally invested in evolving toward goodness and uses any available conduit for the purposes of doing so." Marianne Williamson, 'Spiritual Politics' The Fabric of the Future (M. J. Ryan, editor)

5 "No effort for human good is wasted, no good work fails. The form in which the work is embodied may crumble, but the life remains." The Spiritual Life (Annie Besant)

6 "Everything begins with God as fountain-fullness, out of goodness overflowing first to perfect expression, the Word, and then through the Word exploding outward into a numberless variety of creatures." A Retreat With St. Bonaventure (Leonard J. Bowman)

7 “Let us look at the world through the eyes of those dreamers who have dared to believe that the good in human nature would ultimately blossom forth and regenerate the entire social system.” Lectures on Ancient Philosophy (Manly P. Hall)

8 "I believe that the world records everything good and useful that is done in it; it notes and assimilates to itself every movement and every impulse that is fitted to harmonize with its own becoming, of whose real goodness there can be no doubt." Writings in Time of War (Pierre Teilhard deChardin)

9 "Moral goodness has its eternal value in itself." The Essential Steiner (Rudolf Steiner, edited by Robert A. McDermott)

10 "The Good is the one thing which is the source of all things, and supplies all things at all times." Hermetica (Walter Scott, translator)

11 "Each one vaguely apprehends a good in which the mind may be at rest, and desires it; wherefore to attain unto it each doth strive." Dante, 'Purgatorio', xvii. 127-129 Dante and the Mystics (Edmund G. Gardner)

12 "It is perfectly right to exalt the role of a good intention as the necessary start and foundation of all else; - it is the golden key which unlocks our inward personal world to God's presence." The Divine Milieu (Pierre Teilhard deChardin)

13 "In speaking to those who have had near-death experiences and deathbed visions in which they rise out of the myopia of daily life, we are told that all events happen for the greater good, that nothing is accidental or without the capacity to spur our evolution as loving co-creators with God." Seven Paths to God, The Ways of the Mystic (Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.)

14 "If you would learn the secret of right relations, look only for the good, that is, the divine, in people and things, and leave all the rest to God." Kinship With All Life (J. Allen Boone)

15 "All good things which exist are the fruits of originality." John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), 'On Liberty' Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 16th edition (John Bartlett)

16 "Let me tell you why the creator made this world of generation. He was good, and….he desired that all things should be as like himself as they could be. This is in the truest sense the origin of creation and of the world, as we shall do well in believing on the testimony of wise men. God desired that all things should be good." Plato, 'Timaeus' The Essential Mystics (Andrew Harvey)

17 "The will-to-good is essentially the will of God." The Rays and The Initiations (Alice A. Bailey)

18 "You know, all mystics – Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion – are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well." Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality (Anthony deMello)

19 "Experienced spiritual researchers know what strength they gain by always looking for the good in everything and withholding their critical judgment. This practice should not remain simply an outer rule of life, but must take hold of the innermost part of the soul." How To Know Higher Worlds: A Modern Path of Initiation (Rudolf Steiner)

20 "A seed for transformation exists within the soul of each act of goodness." Invisible Acts of Power: Personal Choices That Create Miracles (Caroline Myss)

21 "There is nothing that does not share in goodness and beauty. Each thing is good and beautiful by its proper form. Everything images the divine goodness in its way." Thomas Aquinas, DDN, n. 355, p. 115 Sheer Joy, Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality (Matthew Fox)

22 "He [Buddha] declared that in spite of all the sorrow and misery of the world, the great scheme of which man is a part is a scheme of eternal justice, and that the law under which we are living is a good law, and needs only that we should understand it and adapt ourselves to it." The Inner Life (Charles W. Leadbeater)

23 "The Infinite Goodness has such wide arms that it takes whatever turns to it." Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), 'The Divine Comedy' Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 16th edition (John Bartlett)

24 "From you, O God, come all good things." Confessions (St. Augustine)

25 “Nothing is of higher worth than to do good.” Chrysippus, Fragment 1192 The New Testament Background: Selected Documents (C. K. Barrett, editor)

This body of quotes compiled by JoAnn Kite