Wendell Berry Quotes

The compass of compassion asks not what is good for me? but what is good? Not what is best for me but what is best. Not what is right for me but what is right. Not how much can we take? but How much ought we leave? and how much might we give? Not what is easy but what is worthy. Not what is practical but what is moral.

The great instrument of moral good is the imagination.

The man of sensibility is too busy talking about his feelings to have time for good deeds.

You don't need a religious background to strive for something good, for genuine compassion and love for others.

What is the purpose of our might if we do not use it for good.

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

Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth.

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'

No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.

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

To be doing good deeds is man's most glorious task.

Being a good person and fair person is very important in life, I think.

As long as I'm a good person and I do things from the heart, that's all that matters.

There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham.

The most important thing is that you be a good person and you live by the golden rule of do unto others. If you live by that, that's all I care about.

The propensity to do good things is a choice.

It is by doing good that we become good.

I believe there's a place for goodness and love in everything I do.

That which is selfish is immoral, and that which is unselfish is moral.

Do good to another man, even when they do not do you good; another will certainly do you good. if there is still shame and fear in one's heart to do good, there will certainly be no progress at all.

While selfishness joins hands with no one of the virtues, benevolence is allied to them all.

Being generous, just helping one's relatives and being blameless in one's actions; this is the best good luck.

An act of love always tends towards two things; to the good that one wills, and to the person for whom one wills it.

We all have the duty to do good.

I believe in love, children and being a good person.