This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The goodness of the heart is shown in deeds of peacefulness and kindness. Hand and heart Are one thing with the good, as thou should'st be. Do my words trouble thee? Then treasure them, pain overgot gives peace, as death doth Heaven. All things that speak of Heaven speak of peace.
Death | Deeds | Heart | Heaven | Pain | Words | Deeds | Trouble |
Philippine Proverbs, aka Philipino, Filipino, Ilocano and Tagalog Proverbs, Salawikain or Sawikain
Not all goodness brings sweetness.
Pinchas Shapiro of Koretz, aka Pinchas or Pinchos of Koretz
A man cannot be consciously good unless he knows evil. No one can appreciate pleasure unless he has tasted bitterness. Good is only the reverse of evil, and pleasure is merely the opposite of anxiety. … And G-d said: ‘There can be no goodness in man while he is alone without an evil impulse within him. I will endow him with the ability to do evil, and it will be as a help-meet to him to enable him to do good, if he masters the evil nature within him.’ Without the evil impulse, man could do no evil; but neither could he do good.
Ability | Evil | Good | Impulse | Man | Nature | Pleasure | Will |
Inayat Khan, aka Hazrat Inayat Khan, fully Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan
There is no good person who has not a bad side to his nature, nor is there a wicked person who has not a good side to his nature; but the good side of the former covers the bad side of his nature, and the bad side of the latter generally covers the good side of his nature. The right thing is to go forward in the path of goodness, although it is natural that as much goodness as someone possesses so much badness there is in him. Therefore the Sufi complains no more, has no grudge against anyone, has nothing to grumble about: "That person insulted me," or ". . .treated me badly," or ". . .behaved unjustly," or ". . .acted unkindly," -- no complaint whatever, for complaint comes to a person who thinks of himself most of the time. He is inclined to self-pity at every moment, self pity, which is the worst poverty. The one who is sensitive to all things that come from the people around him will have a thousand complaints, whatever be his life's position. In a palace or in a cottage, be he poor or rich, he is always full of complaints. Nothing is right to him, nothing is just, except himself, everybody is cruel to him; and for that poor person life is death. If this person thinks of his health, then he has many complaints to make about different pains and aches and disagreeable things he feels, and if he thinks of his friends and foes then he has many things to say about them.
Good | Life | Life | Nothing | People | Right | Self | Will | Friends |
Pirke Avot, "Verses of the Fathers" or "Ethics of the Fathers" NULL
Rabbi Akiva said: “Everything is foreseen, yet free will is granted; By goodness is the universe judged, yet all depends on the preponderance of (good) deeds.”
If on the other hand I tell you that to let no day pass without discussing goodness and all the other subjects about which you hear me talking and examining both myself and others is really the very best thing that a man can do, and that life without this sort of examination is not worth living.
Cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labour to make all one glow of beauty and never cease chiseling your statue, until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendour of virtue, until you shall see the perfect goodness surely established in the stainless shrine.
Pope Pius X, aka Saint Pope Pius X and Pope of the Eucharist, born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto NULL
I shall spare myself neither care nor labor nor vigils for the salvation of souls. My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His divine help; I can do all in Him who strengthened me! His power is infinite, and if I lean on Him it will be mine; His wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him for counsel I shall not be deceived; His goodness is infinite, and if my trust is stayed on Him I shall not be abandoned. Hope unites me to my God and Him to me. Although I know I am not sufficient for the burden, my strength is in Him. For the salvation of others I must bear weariness, face dangers, suffer offences, confront storms, fight against evil. He is my Hope
Care | Counsel | God | Hope | Labor | Power | Salvation | Strength | Trust | Will | Wisdom | Counsel | God |
Pope Pius X, aka Saint Pope Pius X and Pope of the Eucharist, born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto NULL
I can do all in Him who strengthens me. His Power is infinite, and if I lean on him, it will be mine. His Wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him counsel, I shall not be deceived. His Goodness is infinite, and if my trust is stayed in Him, I shall not be abandoned.
A system of ethics may be based either on fear or on love, but not on both. When based on fear, the letter of the law, as a rule, will be executed, but not its spirit. Because of fear, men may deal honestly with one another, but they will not necessarily be honest men, they may speak truthfully even and not be truthful. Fear develops a dual personality, one manifested in the presence of the object feared, the other, perhaps of extremely opposite tendencies, unfolded in the secret chamber of the heart. In a system of ethics based on fear, man is persuaded that he is weak and untrustworthy, that his nature is hopelessly corrupt, unable to master itself except at the lash of a Force lying outside himself. Man, it then would seem, is innately wicked ; his wickedness must be chained by threats of divine wrath and punishment ; he, of his own accord, would not walk in the path that is straight ; he must be forced into it by the gaps and ditches that are lurking dangerously outside this path. Such a system, in which man is convinced that he is unable to take care of himself, build his own character, merely tends to generate moral weakness and cowardice. A system of ethics based on love develops a unified personality, a oneness between thought and action. It enhances, more and more, the moral courage which is basic to man. Through love, man becomes conscious of the great force of goodness and virtue that lie within him. He knows that he is possessed of inherent goodness and godliness, if he knows that in himself is a spark of the divine, a force that makes for perfection. All he needs to do is to allow this divine spark to illuminate and permeate his whole being, and darkness and evil will disappear from his heart.
Care | Courage | Darkness | Ethics | Evil | Fear | Force | Love | Lying | Man | Men | Nature | Object | Oneness | Punishment | System | Thought | Virtue | Virtue | Weakness | Wickedness | Will | Thought |
R. W. Sellars, fully Roy Wood Sellars
If religion is to survive, it must be human and social. It is they who insist upon a supernatural foundation and object who are its enemies. Man’s life is spiritual in its own right. So long as he shall dream of beauty and goodness and truth his life will not lack religion.
Beauty | Life | Life | Object | Religion | Truth | Will | Beauty |
Rabbi Akiva, fully Rebbe Akiva ben Yosef NULL
Everything is foreseen, yet free will is granted;By goodness is the universe judged,yet all depends on the preponderance of(good)deeds.
It was not at all the intention of the Jewish teachers and sages of old to teach the fear of God. Many of their utterances regarding the relationship between God and man have been greatly misunderstood and therefore misinterpreted. This misunderstanding has been due greatly to the dual meaning of the Hebrow word, "Yirah." "Yirah" means both to reverence and to fear. This word, employed numerous times throughout the Pentateuch with reference to man's attitude toward God, may lead to the translation of either, "Fear thy God," or, "Reverence thy God." It is clear that the translators of the Bible did not consider the significance of the latter meaning and its import upon both the ethics and the character of the race. To revere our God means that we are to look upon him as a Father, a Shepherd, to guide our steps and watch over our destiny ; it means that we are His children and His flock, that He has brought us into existence as an expression of His love. It means that the whole universe is an outflow of His love,and in response to His profound love, we revere His name. To say that God requests fear is to limit his powers, to lower Him to the level of an earthly king, who sways his people with the tyranny of fear. The true attributes of God are outlined in Exodus 34 :6, "The Lord, the Lord God is merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth."
Bible | Character | Children | Destiny | Ethics | Existence | Fear | God | Intention | Lord | Man | Meaning | Means | People | Relationship | Reverence | Teach | Tyranny | Universe | God | Bible | Old |
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, fully Réginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange
Ours is but a borrowed existence, freely given us by God, and He keeps us in existence because indeed He wills it so. Ours is but a goodness in which there is so much infirmity and even degradation; there is so much error in our knowledge. This thought, while serving to make us humble, brings home to us by contrast the infinite majesty of God. And then if it is a question of others and no longer of ourselves, if we have suffered disillusionment about our neighbor whom we had believed to be better and wiser, let us remember that he too has suffered disillusionment about us; let us remember that he too is perhaps better than we are, and that whatever is our own as coming from ourselves-our deficiencies and failings—is inferior to everything our neighbor has from God. This is the foundation of humility in our relations with others. Lastly, we must admit that the disillusionments we ourselves experience, or which others experience through us, in view of the radical imperfection of the creature, are permitted that we may aspire more ardently to a knowledge and love of Him who is the truth and the life, whom we shall some day see as He sees Himself. We shall then understand the meaning of those words of St.Catherine of Siena: “The living, practical knowledge of our own wretchedness and the knowledge of God’s majesty are inseparable in their increase. They are like the lowest and highest points on a circle that is ever expanding.
Better | Contrast | Day | Disillusionment | Error | Existence | Experience | Humility | Imperfection | Knowledge | Love | Meaning | Question | Truth | Wills | Words | Understand |
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, fully Réginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange
The pleasure which is born, not of the love of God but of the love of knowledge, often increases pride and makes souls love themselves more; they seek themselves without being aware of it. Study and speculation, even when they do not err, do not necessarily presuppose the state of grace and charity, and do not always cooperate in increasing it. Prayer, on the contrary, should proceed from the love of God and should end in Him. Through love of God, one seeks to contemplate Him, and the contemplation of His goodness and His beauty increases love.
Beauty | Contemplation | God | Grace | Love | Pleasure | Pride | Study | Beauty | God | Contemplation |
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav or Breslov, aka Reb Nachman Breslover or Nachman from Uman NULL
You must have enough faith in God's goodness to believe that you are important to Him. Have faith that you too are precious in God's eyes. So great is God's goodness that each and every person is great and important in His eyes.
Ralph Bunche, fully Ralph Johnson Bunche
I have a deep-seated bias against hate and intolerance. I have a bias against racial and religious bigotry. I have a bias that leads me to believe in the essential goodness of my fellow man, which leads me to believe that no problem of human relations is ever insoluble.
Hate |
Red Cloud, fully Maȟpíya Lúta in Lakota NULL
After the seventh generation, we would become self-sufficient by taking their goodness and that (goodness) of the Lakota.