Dorothy L. Sayers Quotes

I think good work, sincerity and discipline speak for themselves.

There is a moral dimension, for me, in anything that's any good.

Nobody has a franchise on what is good.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.

Anybody can do bad work, but not everybody does good work.

Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.

Honor lies in honest toil.

Whatever you are, always be a good one.

Christianity knows no truth which is not the child of love and the parent of duty.

Do unto others…’ is a good rule of thumb. I live by that. Forgiveness is probably the greatest virtue there is. But that’s exactly what it is - a virtue. Not just a Christian virtue. No one owns being good. I’m good. I just don’t believe I’ll be rewarded for it in heaven. My reward is here and now. It’s knowing that I try to do the right thing. That I lived a good life. And that’s where spirituality really lost its way. When it became a stick to beat people with. ‘Do this or you’ll burn in hell.’ You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway.

Why Christians do what they do is just as important as what they do. Bad motives ruin good acts.

It should seem that indolence itself would incline a person to be honest, as it requires infinitely greater pains and contrivance to be a knave.

When you have a spirit of excellence, you do the right thing not because somebody is watching or making you do it; you do it because it's the right thing to do.

Be honest. Be kind. Be honorable. Work hard. And always be awesome.

No matter what you do, do it to your utmost. I always attribute my success to always requiring myself to do my level best, if only in driving a tack in straight.

Christ could not create a codified 'Christian ethics'; such a thing would be a contradiction in terms.

No ethic is as ethical as the work ethic.

If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing twice.

How sternly we reproach virtue for its failings, how indulgent we are to the better qualities of vice!

I believe in good. It is an ephemeral and elusive quality. It is the center of my beliefs, but it cannot be strengthened by talking about it.

The best practical advice I can give to the present generation is to practice the virtue which the Christians call love.

He who prays as he ought will endeavor to live as he prays.

If virtue were its own reward, it would no longer be a human quality, but supernatural.

If a thing's worth doing at all, it's worth doing well.