George MacDonald Quotes

The best is he who calls men to the best. And those who heed the call are also blessed. But worthless who call not, heed not, but rest.

The New Testament persistently presses us upward, toward higher motives for being good.

I just wanted to be angelic and pure and nice and kind.

Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness who walks not over the bellies of his lusts. He who doth not kill sin in this way takes no steps toward his journey's end.

Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive.

There is an element of the busybody in our conception of virtue: unless a man makes himself a nuisance to a great many people, we do not think he can be an exceptionally good man.

I can't think of a greater single vehicle to goodness and a better world than if everyone battled their own natures

Be thou good thyself, and let people speak evil of thee; it is better than to be wicked, and that they should consider thee as good.

Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and lo! Virtue is at hand.

People often tell me I could be a great man. I'd rather be a good man.

People are either good or they're not. Religion doesn't make anybody good, I don't think.

Birth is nothing where virtue is not

It is easy to rule over the good.

It is not enough to be nice; you have to be good. We are attracted by nice people; but only on the assumption that their niceness is a sign of goodness.

In the Way of Heaven, there is no partiality of love; it is always on the side of the good man.

With life and all I've been through, I do have a belief in goodness, a good spirit. I think what people have done with religion is personified good and evil, so good's become God with 'o' out, and evil's become Devil with a 'd' added. That's my theory of religion.

How near to good is what is fair!

He is not bad, I don't think. Perhaps he is simply too lazy to be good.

Goodness can endure a few moments; holiness is life-defining.

Why is it that any time we speak of temptation we always speak of temptation as something that inclines us to wrong. We have more temptations to become good than we do to become bad.

He who is upright in his way of life and free from sin.

The eternal not ourselves that makes for righteousness.

Never esteem people (including yourself) more because they have money, nor think less of anyone (including yourself) because they lack it. Virtue is the only just reason for respecting anyone, lack of virtue the only reason for holding anyone in low regard.

One of the nice things about looking at a bear is that you know it spends 100 per cent of every minute of every day being a bear. It doesn't strive to become a better bear. It doesn't go to sleep thinking, "I wasn't really a very good bear today". They are just 100 per cent bear, whereas human beings feel we're not 100 per cent human, that we're always letting ourselves down. We're constantly striving towards something, to some fulfilment

There is no such thing as pure good or pure evil, least of all in people. In the best of us there are thoughts or deeds that are wicked, and in the worst of us, at least some virtue. An adversary is not one who does loathsome acts for their own sake. He always has a reason that to him is justification. My cat eats mice. Does that make him bad? I don't think so, and the cat doesn't think so, but I would bet the mice have a different opinion.