Black Elk Quotes

Good character consists of recognizing the selfishness that inheres in each of us and trying to balance it against the altruism to which we should all aspire. It is a difficult balance to strike, but no definition of goodness can be complete without it.

I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.

Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.

People confuse goodness with weakness. It is weak people, not good people (goodness demands strength), who are taken advantage of.

For me, Charles Xavier is a monk. He's like a selfless, egoless almost sexless force for the betterment of humanity and mortality.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people. There are few men so foolish, hence the erratic quality of leadership in the world.

The time has come for all good men to rise above principle.

He who never sacrificed a present to a future good or a personal to a general one can speak of happiness only as the blind do of colors.

Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions.

The virtue involved in helping those one loves is not 'selflessness' or 'sacrifice,' but integrity.

It costs you something to do good!

There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.

Love places someone else in the centre of your being and your own self is blurred.

Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

When we grow old, there can only be one regret - not to have given enough of ourselves.

The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

I don't mind if my future is long or short, as long as I'm doing the right thing. And as long as I behave for other people.

I try to be a good person every day. If you didn't like me, there would be something wrong with you, because I really go out and work as hard as I can to help people. I put myself last - always. I'm a giver all the way.

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.

The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.

Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism.

Everybody wants to be good, but not many are prepared to make the sacrifices it takes to be great. To many people, being nice in order to be liked is more important. There's equal merit in that, but you must not confuse being good with being liked.

I always kind of thought I want to be a good person, I want to be right to my fellow men and love them like we're supposed to.