TERMS STARTING WITH
Goodness: (AS. god) The extrinsic elections of things. The positive object of desire. For Plato, coextensive with being. For the Romans, duty. For Kant, that which has value. For Peirce, the adaptation of a subject to its end. In psychology: the characteristic actions which follow moral norms. Opposite of evil. See Ethics. -- J.K.F.
goodness ::: n. --> The quality of being good in any of its various senses; excellence; virtue; kindness; benevolence; as, the goodness of timber, of a soil, of food; goodness of character, of disposition, of conduct, etc.
goodness of fit: A measure of how well a set of observations agree with a proposed statistical model.
goodness who became incarnate and visited the
TERMS ANYWHERE
(2) In ethics: in the narrower traditional sense, intuitionism is the view that certain actions or kinds of action may be known to be right or wrong by a direct intuition of their rightness or wrongness, without any consideration of the value of their consequences. In this sense intuitionism is opposed to utilitarian and teleological ethics, and is most recently represented by the neo-intuitionists at Oxford, H. A. Prichard, E. F. Carritt, W. D. Ross. It is sometimes said to involve the view that the organ of ethical insight is non-rational and even unique. It takes, according to Sidgwick, three forms. Perceptual intuitionism holds that only judgments relating to the rightness or wrongness of particular acts are intuitive. Dogmatic intuitionism holds that some general material propositions relating to the rightness or wrongness of kinds of acts may also be intuited, e.g. that promises ought to be kept. Philosophical intuitionism holds that it is only certain general propositions about what is right or wrong that are intuitive, and that these are few and purely formal. In the wider more recent sense, intuitionism includes all views in which ethics is made to rest on intuitions, particular or general, as to the rightness, obligatoriness, goodness, oi value of actions or objects. Taken in this sense, intuitionism is the dominant point of view in recent British ethics, and is represented in Europe by the phenomenological ethics of M. Scheler and N. Hartmann, having also proponents in America. That is, it covers not only the deontological intuitionism to be found at Oxford, but also the axiological and even teleological or utilitarian intuitionism to be found in J. Martineau, H. Sidgwick, H. Rashdall, G. E. Moore, J. Laird. Among earlier British moralists it is represented by tho Cambridge Platonists, the Moral Sense School, Clarke, Cumberland, Butler, Price, Reid, Whewell, etc.By saying that the basic propositions of ethics (i.e. of the theory of obligation, of the theory of value, or of both) are intuitive, the intuitionists mean at least that they are ultimate and underivative, primitive and uninferable, as well as synthetic, and sometimes also that they are self-evident and a priori. This implies that one or more of the basic notions of ethics (rightness, goodness, etc.) are indefinable, i.e. simple or unanalysable and unique; and that ethics is autonomous. Intuitionists also hold that rightness and goodness are objective and non-natural. Hence their view is sometimes called objectivism or non-naturalism. The views of Moore and Laird are also sometimes referred to as realistic. See Deontological ethics, Axiological ethics, Teleological ethics, Utilitarianism, Objectivism, Realism, Autonomy of ethics, Non-naturalistic ethics. -- W.K.F.
abraar ::: best of believers; goodness; righteous; virtuous
According to the Sankhya philosophy, prakriti is considered to possess three basic qualities or qualitative bases (triguna), namely sattva (substantial reality), rajas (inherent activity), and tamas (inertia), popularly rendered goodness, passion, and darkness; or virtue, foulness, and ignorance.
Acts: In ethics the main concern is usually said to be with acts or actions, particularly voluntary ones, in their moral relations, or with the moral qualities of acts and actions. By an act or action here is meant a bit of behavior or conduct, the origination or attempted origination of a change by some agent, the execution of some agent's choice or decision (so that not acting may be an act). As such, an act is often distinguished from its motive, its intention, and its maxim on the one hand, and from its consequences on the other, though it is not always held that its moral qualities are independent of these. Rather, it is frequently held that the rightness of an act, or its moral goodness, or both, depend at least in part on the character or value of its motive, intention, maxim, or consequences, or of the life or system of which it is a part. Another question concerning acts in ethics is whether they must be free (in the sense of being partially or wholly undetermined by previous causes), as well as voluntary, in order to be moral, and, if so, whether any acts are free in this sense. See Agent. -- W.K.F.
A distinction is often drawn between two kinds of value, namely intrinsic value and extrinsic or instrumental value. By extrinsic value is meant the character of being good or of having value as a means to something. By intrinsic value is meant the character of being good or valuable in itself or as an end or for its own sake. See Intrinsic goodness. Value-theorists have been mainly concerned with intrinsic value. The term "worth" has sometimes been used as equivalent to intrinsic value (Kant). But the distinction has often been criticized, e.g., by Dewey and Laird.
Agathodaemon, Agathodaimon (Greek) The good genius (represented as a youth holding a horn of plenty and a bowl, or a poppy and ears of corn) to whom at Athens a cup of pure wine was drunk at dinner; in one of his many forms, the kosmic Christos, the serpent of eternity — which in the human mind becomes the serpent of Genesis — which after the fall of Mediterranean civilizations became Satan. Brahma, in order to create hierarchies, becomes fourfold and emanates successively daemons, angels, pitris, and men. Agathodaimon refers to the first of these emanations, sons of kosmic darkness, signifying incomprehensible light which is prior to manifested light. Christian theology has recognized this in making Satan’s host the first sons of God, but has unconsciously perverted their descent in order to enlighten man into a rebellion against Almighty Power. Thus in later times Agathodaimon became the enemy of divine goodness. The same has happened in the case of the asuras in India, and of the kosmic serpent. In Gnostic gems it appears under the name Chnouphis or Chnoubis.
AHAMKARA. ::: Ego; ego-idea; egoism; the separative egosense; the divisional principle of ego-formation.
rājasika ahamkāra ::: dynamic egoism.
sāllvika ahamkāra ::: egoism as expressed in the sense of goodness and virtue.
tāmasika ahamkāra ::: egoism as expressed in ignorance and inertia.
Ahamkara: Egoism or self-conceit; the self-arrogating principle ‘I’, ‘I am’-ness; self-consciousness. Rajasika ahamkara: Dynamic egoism with passion and pride. Sattvika ahamkara: Egoism composed in the sense of goodness and virtue. Tamasika ahamkara: Egoism as expressed in ignorance and inertia.
aleconner ::: n. --> Orig., an officer appointed to look to the goodness of ale and beer; also, one of the officers chosen by the liverymen of London to inspect the measures used in public houses. But the office is a sinecure. [Also called aletaster.]
Anarchism: This doctrine advocates the abolition of political control within society: the State, it contends, is man's greatest enemy -- eliminate it and the evils of human life will disappear. Positively, anarchism envisages a homely life devoted to unsophisticated activity and filled with simple pleasures. Thus it belongs in the "primitive tradition" of Western culture and springs from the philosophical concept of the inherent and radical goodness of human nature. Modern anarchism probably owes not a little, in an indirect way, to the influence of the primitivistic strain in the thought of Jean Jacques Rousseau. In a popular sense the word "anarchy" is often used to denote a state of social chaos, but it is obvious that the word can be used in this sense only by one who denies the validity of anarchism. -- M.B.M.
An examination of desire and will leads to the same conclusion. These, too, betoken a self which fulfills itself in attaining an ideal. This ideal can be found only in the Absolute, revealed now not only as an absolute mind but as an absolute moral person, enshrining goodness and beauty as well as truth -- that is as God. -- B.A.G.F.
annihilate ::: v. t. --> To reduce to nothing or nonexistence; to destroy the existence of; to cause to cease to be.
To destroy the form or peculiar distinctive properties of, so that the specific thing no longer exists; as, to annihilate a forest by cutting down the trees.
To destroy or eradicate, as a property or attribute of a thing; to make of no effect; to destroy the force, etc., of; as, to annihilate an argument, law, rights, goodness.
“An Occultist or a philosopher will not speak of the goodness or cruelty of Providence; but, identifying it with Karma-Nemesis, he will teach that nevertheless it guards the good and watches over them in this, as in future lives; and that it punishes the evil-doer — aye, even to his seventh rebirth. So long, in short, as the effect of his having thrown into perturbation even the smallest atom in the Infinite World of harmony, has not been finally readjusted. For the only decree of Karma — an eternal and immutable decree — is absolute Harmony in the world of matter as it is in the world of Spirit. It is not, therefore, Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we, who reward or punish ourselves according to whether we work with, through and along with nature, abiding by the laws on which that Harmony depends, or — break them.
Anugraha, Anugrahana (Sanskrit) Anugraha, Anugrahaṇa [from anu-grah to support, uphold, foster, treat kindly] Favor, kindness, promoting or favoring a good object. In the Vishnu-Purana (1:5) applied to the eighth creation (in the Matsya and other Puranas to the fifth creation), the period of formative development “which possesses both the qualities of goodness and darkness.” In Sankhya philosophy anugraha-sarga is the creation or formation of “the feelings or mental conditions.”
As known to the Greeks and Romans, Mithras was the god of the sun, of purity, moral goodness, and knowledge, whose worship spread over the Roman world, especially during the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
Aufklärung: In general, this German word and its English equivalent Enlightenment denote the self-emancipation of man from mere authority, prejudice, convention and tradition, with an insistence on freer thinking about problems uncritically referred to these other agencies. According to Kant's famous definition "Enlightenment is the liberation of man from his self-caused state of minority, which is the incapacity of using one's understanding without the direction of another. This state of minority is caused when its source lies not in the lack of understanding, but in the lack of determination and courage to use it without the assistance of another" (Was ist Aufklärung? 1784). In its historical perspective, the Aufklärung refers to the cultural atmosphere and contrlbutions of the 18th century, especially in Germany, France and England [which affected also American thought with B. Franklin, T. Paine and the leaders of the Revolution]. It crystallized tendencies emphasized by the Renaissance, and quickened by modern scepticism and empiricism, and by the great scientific discoveries of the 17th century. This movement, which was represented by men of varying tendencies, gave an impetus to general learning, a more popular philosophy, empirical science, scriptural criticism, social and political thought. More especially, the word Aufklärung is applied to the German contributions to 18th century culture. In philosophy, its principal representatives are G. E. Lessing (1729-81) who believed in free speech and in a methodical criticism of religion, without being a free-thinker; H. S. Reimarus (1694-1768) who expounded a naturalistic philosophy and denied the supernatural origin of Christianity; Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86) who endeavoured to mitigate prejudices and developed a popular common-sense philosophy; Chr. Wolff (1679-1754), J. A. Eberhard (1739-1809) who followed the Leibnizian rationalism and criticized unsuccessfully Kant and Fichte; and J. G. Herder (1744-1803) who was best as an interpreter of others, but whose intuitional suggestions have borne fruit in the organic correlation of the sciences, and in questions of language in relation to human nature and to national character. The works of Kant and Goethe mark the culmination of the German Enlightenment. Cf. J. G. Hibben, Philosophy of the Enlightenment, 1910. --T.G. Augustinianism: The thought of St. Augustine of Hippo, and of his followers. Born in 354 at Tagaste in N. Africa, A. studied rhetoric in Carthage, taught that subject there and in Rome and Milan. Attracted successively to Manicheanism, Scepticism, and Neo-Platontsm, A. eventually found intellectual and moral peace with his conversion to Christianity in his thirty-fourth year. Returning to Africa, he established numerous monasteries, became a priest in 391, Bishop of Hippo in 395. Augustine wrote much: On Free Choice, Confessions, Literal Commentary on Genesis, On the Trinity, and City of God, are his most noted works. He died in 430. St. Augustine's characteristic method, an inward empiricism which has little in common with later variants, starts from things without, proceeds within to the self, and moves upwards to God. These three poles of the Augustinian dialectic are polarized by his doctrine of moderate illuminism. An ontological illumination is required to explain the metaphysical structure of things. The truth of judgment demands a noetic illumination. A moral illumination is necessary in the order of willing; and so, too, an lllumination of art in the aesthetic order. Other illuminations which transcend the natural order do not come within the scope of philosophy; they provide the wisdoms of theology and mysticism. Every being is illuminated ontologically by number, form, unity and its derivatives, and order. A thing is what it is, in so far as it is more or less flooded by the light of these ontological constituents. Sensation is necessary in order to know material substances. There is certainly an action of the external object on the body and a corresponding passion of the body, but, as the soul is superior to the body and can suffer nothing from its inferior, sensation must be an action, not a passion, of the soul. Sensation takes place only when the observing soul, dynamically on guard throughout the body, is vitally attentive to the changes suffered by the body. However, an adequate basis for the knowledge of intellectual truth is not found in sensation alone. In order to know, for example, that a body is multiple, the idea of unity must be present already, otherwise its multiplicity could not be recognized. If numbers are not drawn in by the bodily senses which perceive only the contingent and passing, is the mind the source of the unchanging and necessary truth of numbers? The mind of man is also contingent and mutable, and cannot give what it does not possess. As ideas are not innate, nor remembered from a previous existence of the soul, they can be accounted for only by an immutable source higher than the soul. In so far as man is endowed with an intellect, he is a being naturally illuminated by God, Who may be compared to an intelligible sun. The human intellect does not create the laws of thought; it finds them and submits to them. The immediate intuition of these normative rules does not carry any content, thus any trace of ontologism is avoided. Things have forms because they have numbers, and they have being in so far as they possess form. The sufficient explanation of all formable, and hence changeable, things is an immutable and eternal form which is unrestricted in time and space. The forms or ideas of all things actually existing in the world are in the things themselves (as rationes seminales) and in the Divine Mind (as rationes aeternae). Nothing could exist without unity, for to be is no other than to be one. There is a unity proper to each level of being, a unity of the material individual and species, of the soul, and of that union of souls in the love of the same good, which union constitutes the city. Order, also, is ontologically imbibed by all beings. To tend to being is to tend to order; order secures being, disorder leads to non-being. Order is the distribution which allots things equal and unequal each to its own place and integrates an ensemble of parts in accordance with an end. Hence, peace is defined as the tranquillity of order. Just as things have their being from their forms, the order of parts, and their numerical relations, so too their beauty is not something superadded, but the shining out of all their intelligible co-ingredients. S. Aurelii Augustini, Opera Omnia, Migne, PL 32-47; (a critical edition of some works will be found in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vienna). Gilson, E., Introd. a l'etude de s. Augustin, (Paris, 1931) contains very good bibliography up to 1927, pp. 309-331. Pope, H., St. Augustine of Hippo, (London, 1937). Chapman, E., St. Augustine's Philos. of Beauty, (N. Y., 1939). Figgis, J. N., The Political Aspects of St. Augustine's "City of God", (London, 1921). --E.C. Authenticity: In a general sense, genuineness, truth according to its title. It involves sometimes a direct and personal characteristic (Whitehead speaks of "authentic feelings"). This word also refers to problems of fundamental criticism involving title, tradition, authorship and evidence. These problems are vital in theology, and basic in scholarship with regard to the interpretation of texts and doctrines. --T.G. Authoritarianism: That theory of knowledge which maintains that the truth of any proposition is determined by the fact of its having been asserted by a certain esteemed individual or group of individuals. Cf. H. Newman, Grammar of Assent; C. S. Peirce, "Fixation of Belief," in Chance, Love and Logic, ed. M. R. Cohen. --A.C.B. Autistic thinking: Absorption in fanciful or wishful thinking without proper control by objective or factual material; day dreaming; undisciplined imagination. --A.C.B. Automaton Theory: Theory that a living organism may be considered a mere machine. See Automatism. Automatism: (Gr. automatos, self-moving) (a) In metaphysics: Theory that animal and human organisms are automata, that is to say, are machines governed by the laws of physics and mechanics. Automatism, as propounded by Descartes, considered the lower animals to be pure automata (Letter to Henry More, 1649) and man a machine controlled by a rational soul (Treatise on Man). Pure automatism for man as well as animals is advocated by La Mettrie (Man, a Machine, 1748). During the Nineteenth century, automatism, combined with epiphenomenalism, was advanced by Hodgson, Huxley and Clifford. (Cf. W. James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, ch. V.) Behaviorism, of the extreme sort, is the most recent version of automatism (See Behaviorism). (b) In psychology: Psychological automatism is the performance of apparently purposeful actions, like automatic writing without the superintendence of the conscious mind. L. C. Rosenfield, From Beast Machine to Man Machine, N. Y., 1941. --L.W. Automatism, Conscious: The automatism of Hodgson, Huxley, and Clifford which considers man a machine to which mind or consciousness is superadded; the mind of man is, however, causally ineffectual. See Automatism; Epiphenomenalism. --L.W. Autonomy: (Gr. autonomia, independence) Freedom consisting in self-determination and independence of all external constraint. See Freedom. Kant defines autonomy of the will as subjection of the will to its own law, the categorical imperative, in contrast to heteronomy, its subjection to a law or end outside the rational will. (Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, § 2.) --L.W. Autonomy of ethics: A doctrine, usually propounded by intuitionists, that ethics is not a part of, and cannot be derived from, either metaphysics or any of the natural or social sciences. See Intuitionism, Metaphysical ethics, Naturalistic ethics. --W.K.F. Autonomy of the will: (in Kant's ethics) The freedom of the rational will to legislate to itself, which constitutes the basis for the autonomy of the moral law. --P.A.S. Autonymy: In the terminology introduced by Carnap, a word (phrase, symbol, expression) is autonymous if it is used as a name for itself --for the geometric shape, sound, etc. which it exemplifies, or for the word as a historical and grammatical unit. Autonymy is thus the same as the Scholastic suppositio matertalis (q. v.), although the viewpoint is different. --A.C. Autotelic: (from Gr. autos, self, and telos, end) Said of any absorbing activity engaged in for its own sake (cf. German Selbstzweck), such as higher mathematics, chess, etc. In aesthetics, applied to creative art and play which lack any conscious reference to the accomplishment of something useful. In the view of some, it may constitute something beneficent in itself of which the person following his art impulse (q.v.) or playing is unaware, thus approaching a heterotelic (q.v.) conception. --K.F.L. Avenarius, Richard: (1843-1896) German philosopher who expressed his thought in an elaborate and novel terminology in the hope of constructing a symbolic language for philosophy, like that of mathematics --the consequence of his Spinoza studies. As the most influential apostle of pure experience, the posltivistic motive reaches in him an extreme position. Insisting on the biologic and economic function of thought, he thought the true method of science is to cure speculative excesses by a return to pure experience devoid of all assumptions. Philosophy is the scientific effort to exclude from knowledge all ideas not included in the given. Its task is to expel all extraneous elements in the given. His uncritical use of the category of the given and the nominalistic view that logical relations are created rather than discovered by thought, leads him to banish not only animism but also all of the categories, substance, causality, etc., as inventions of the mind. Explaining the evolution and devolution of the problematization and deproblematization of numerous ideas, and aiming to give the natural history of problems, Avenarius sought to show physiologically, psychologically and historically under what conditions they emerge, are challenged and are solved. He hypothesized a System C, a bodily and central nervous system upon which consciousness depends. R-values are the stimuli received from the world of objects. E-values are the statements of experience. The brain changes that continually oscillate about an ideal point of balance are termed Vitalerhaltungsmaximum. The E-values are differentiated into elements, to which the sense-perceptions or the content of experience belong, and characters, to which belongs everything which psychology describes as feelings and attitudes. Avenarius describes in symbolic form a series of states from balance to balance, termed vital series, all describing a series of changes in System C. Inequalities in the vital balance give rise to vital differences. According to his theory there are two vital series. It assumes a series of brain changes because parallel series of conscious states can be observed. The independent vital series are physical, and the dependent vital series are psychological. The two together are practically covariants. In the case of a process as a dependent vital series three stages can be noted: first, the appearance of the problem, expressed as strain, restlessness, desire, fear, doubt, pain, repentance, delusion; the second, the continued effort and struggle to solve the problem; and finally, the appearance of the solution, characterized by abating anxiety, a feeling of triumph and enjoyment. Corresponding to these three stages of the dependent series are three stages of the independent series: the appearance of the vital difference and a departure from balance in the System C, the continuance with an approximate vital difference, and lastly, the reduction of the vital difference to zero, the return to stability. By making room for dependent and independent experiences, he showed that physics regards experience as independent of the experiencing indlvidual, and psychology views experience as dependent upon the individual. He greatly influenced Mach and James (q.v.). See Avenarius, Empirio-criticism, Experience, pure. Main works: Kritik der reinen Erfahrung; Der menschliche Weltbegriff. --H.H. Averroes: (Mohammed ibn Roshd) Known to the Scholastics as The Commentator, and mentioned as the author of il gran commento by Dante (Inf. IV. 68) he was born 1126 at Cordova (Spain), studied theology, law, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy, became after having been judge in Sevilla and Cordova, physician to the khalifah Jaqub Jusuf, and charged with writing a commentary on the works of Aristotle. Al-mansur, Jusuf's successor, deprived him of his place because of accusations of unorthodoxy. He died 1198 in Morocco. Averroes is not so much an original philosopher as the author of a minute commentary on the whole works of Aristotle. His procedure was imitated later by Aquinas. In his interpretation of Aristotelian metaphysics Averroes teaches the coeternity of a universe created ex nihilo. This doctrine formed together with the notion of a numerical unity of the active intellect became one of the controversial points in the discussions between the followers of Albert-Thomas and the Latin Averroists. Averroes assumed that man possesses only a disposition for receiving the intellect coming from without; he identifies this disposition with the possible intellect which thus is not truly intellectual by nature. The notion of one intellect common to all men does away with the doctrine of personal immortality. Another doctrine which probably was emphasized more by the Latin Averroists (and by the adversaries among Averroes' contemporaries) is the famous statement about "two-fold truth", viz. that a proposition may be theologically true and philosophically false and vice versa. Averroes taught that religion expresses the (higher) philosophical truth by means of religious imagery; the "two-truth notion" came apparently into the Latin text through a misinterpretation on the part of the translators. The works of Averroes were one of the main sources of medieval Aristotelianlsm, before and even after the original texts had been translated. The interpretation the Latin Averroists found in their texts of the "Commentator" spread in spite of opposition and condemnation. See Averroism, Latin. Averroes, Opera, Venetiis, 1553. M. Horten, Die Metaphysik des Averroes, 1912. P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin, 2d ed., Louvain, 1911. --R.A. Averroism, Latin: The commentaries on Aristotle written by Averroes (Ibn Roshd) in the 12th century became known to the Western scholars in translations by Michael Scottus, Hermannus Alemannus, and others at the beginning of the 13th century. Many works of Aristotle were also known first by such translations from Arabian texts, though there existed translations from the Greek originals at the same time (Grabmann). The Averroistic interpretation of Aristotle was held to be the true one by many; but already Albert the Great pointed out several notions which he felt to be incompatible with the principles of Christian philosophy, although he relied for the rest on the "Commentator" and apparently hardly used any other text. Aquinas, basing his studies mostly on a translation from the Greek texts, procured for him by William of Moerbecke, criticized the Averroistic interpretation in many points. But the teachings of the Commentator became the foundation for a whole school of philosophers, represented first by the Faculty of Arts at Paris. The most prominent of these scholars was Siger of Brabant. The philosophy of these men was condemned on March 7th, 1277 by Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, after a first condemnation of Aristotelianism in 1210 had gradually come to be neglected. The 219 theses condemned in 1277, however, contain also some of Aquinas which later were generally recognized an orthodox. The Averroistic propositions which aroused the criticism of the ecclesiastic authorities and which had been opposed with great energy by Albert and Thomas refer mostly to the following points: The co-eternity of the created word; the numerical identity of the intellect in all men, the so-called two-fold-truth theory stating that a proposition may be philosophically true although theologically false. Regarding the first point Thomas argued that there is no philosophical proof, either for the co-eternity or against it; creation is an article of faith. The unity of intellect was rejected as incompatible with the true notion of person and with personal immortality. It is doubtful whether Averroes himself held the two-truths theory; it was, however, taught by the Latin Averroists who, notwithstanding the opposition of the Church and the Thomistic philosophers, gained a great influence and soon dominated many universities, especially in Italy. Thomas and his followers were convinced that they interpreted Aristotle correctly and that the Averroists were wrong; one has, however, to admit that certain passages in Aristotle allow for the Averroistic interpretation, especially in regard to the theory of intellect. Lit.: P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin au XIIIe Siecle, 2d. ed. Louvain, 1911; M. Grabmann, Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristotelesübersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts, Münster 1916 (Beitr. z. Gesch. Phil. d. MA. Vol. 17, H. 5-6). --R.A. Avesta: See Zendavesta. Avicehron: (or Avencebrol, Salomon ibn Gabirol) The first Jewish philosopher in Spain, born in Malaga 1020, died about 1070, poet, philosopher, and moralist. His main work, Fons vitae, became influential and was much quoted by the Scholastics. It has been preserved only in the Latin translation by Gundissalinus. His doctrine of a spiritual substance individualizing also the pure spirits or separate forms was opposed by Aquinas already in his first treatise De ente, but found favor with the medieval Augustinians also later in the 13th century. He also teaches the necessity of a mediator between God and the created world; such a mediator he finds in the Divine Will proceeding from God and creating, conserving, and moving the world. His cosmogony shows a definitely Neo-Platonic shade and assumes a series of emanations. Cl. Baeumker, Avencebrolis Fons vitae. Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Philos. d. MA. 1892-1895, Vol. I. Joh. Wittman, Die Stellung des hl. Thomas von Aquino zu Avencebrol, ibid. 1900. Vol. III. --R.A. Avicenna: (Abu Ali al Hosain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina) Born 980 in the country of Bocchara, began to write in young years, left more than 100 works, taught in Ispahan, was physician to several Persian princes, and died at Hamadan in 1037. His fame as physician survived his influence as philosopher in the Occident. His medical works were printed still in the 17th century. His philosophy is contained in 18 vols. of a comprehensive encyclopedia, following the tradition of Al Kindi and Al Farabi. Logic, Physics, Mathematics and Metaphysics form the parts of this work. His philosophy is Aristotelian with noticeable Neo-Platonic influences. His doctrine of the universal existing ante res in God, in rebus as the universal nature of the particulars, and post res in the human mind by way of abstraction became a fundamental thesis of medieval Aristotelianism. He sharply distinguished between the logical and the ontological universal, denying to the latter the true nature of form in the composite. The principle of individuation is matter, eternally existent. Latin translations attributed to Avicenna the notion that existence is an accident to essence (see e.g. Guilelmus Parisiensis, De Universo). The process adopted by Avicenna was one of paraphrasis of the Aristotelian texts with many original thoughts interspersed. His works were translated into Latin by Dominicus Gundissalinus (Gondisalvi) with the assistance of Avendeath ibn Daud. This translation started, when it became more generally known, the "revival of Aristotle" at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. Albert the Great and Aquinas professed, notwithstanding their critical attitude, a great admiration for Avicenna whom the Arabs used to call the "third Aristotle". But in the Orient, Avicenna's influence declined soon, overcome by the opposition of the orthodox theologians. Avicenna, Opera, Venetiis, 1495; l508; 1546. M. Horten, Das Buch der Genesung der Seele, eine philosophische Enzyklopaedie Avicenna's; XIII. Teil: Die Metaphysik. Halle a. S. 1907-1909. R. de Vaux, Notes et textes sur l'Avicennisme Latin, Bibl. Thomiste XX, Paris, 1934. --R.A. Avidya: (Skr.) Nescience; ignorance; the state of mind unaware of true reality; an equivalent of maya (q.v.); also a condition of pure awareness prior to the universal process of evolution through gradual differentiation into the elements and factors of knowledge. --K.F.L. Avyakta: (Skr.) "Unmanifest", descriptive of or standing for brahman (q.v.) in one of its or "his" aspects, symbolizing the superabundance of the creative principle, or designating the condition of the universe not yet become phenomenal (aja, unborn). --K.F.L. Awareness: Consciousness considered in its aspect of act; an act of attentive awareness such as the sensing of a color patch or the feeling of pain is distinguished from the content attended to, the sensed color patch, the felt pain. The psychologlcal theory of intentional act was advanced by F. Brentano (Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte) and received its epistemological development by Meinong, Husserl, Moore, Laird and Broad. See Intentionalism. --L.W. Axiological: (Ger. axiologisch) In Husserl: Of or pertaining to value or theory of value (the latter term understood as including disvalue and value-indifference). --D.C. Axiological ethics: Any ethics which makes the theory of obligation entirely dependent on the theory of value, by making the determination of the rightness of an action wholly dependent on a consideration of the value or goodness of something, e.g. the action itself, its motive, or its consequences, actual or probable. Opposed to deontological ethics. See also teleological ethics. --W.K.F. Axiologic Realism: In metaphysics, theory that value as well as logic, qualities as well as relations, have their being and exist external to the mind and independently of it. Applicable to the philosophy of many though not all realists in the history of philosophy, from Plato to G. E. Moore, A. N. Whitehead, and N, Hartmann. --J.K.F. Axiology: (Gr. axios, of like value, worthy, and logos, account, reason, theory). Modern term for theory of value (the desired, preferred, good), investigation of its nature, criteria, and metaphysical status. Had its rise in Plato's theory of Forms or Ideas (Idea of the Good); was developed in Aristotle's Organon, Ethics, Poetics, and Metaphysics (Book Lambda). Stoics and Epicureans investigated the summum bonum. Christian philosophy (St. Thomas) built on Aristotle's identification of highest value with final cause in God as "a living being, eternal, most good." In modern thought, apart from scholasticism and the system of Spinoza (Ethica, 1677), in which values are metaphysically grounded, the various values were investigated in separate sciences, until Kant's Critiques, in which the relations of knowledge to moral, aesthetic, and religious values were examined. In Hegel's idealism, morality, art, religion, and philosophy were made the capstone of his dialectic. R. H. Lotze "sought in that which should be the ground of that which is" (Metaphysik, 1879). Nineteenth century evolutionary theory, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics subjected value experience to empirical analysis, and stress was again laid on the diversity and relativity of value phenomena rather than on their unity and metaphysical nature. F. Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra (1883-1885) and Zur Genealogie der Moral (1887) aroused new interest in the nature of value. F. Brentano, Vom Ursprung sittlicher Erkenntnis (1889), identified value with love. In the twentieth century the term axiology was apparently first applied by Paul Lapie (Logique de la volonte, 1902) and E. von Hartmann (Grundriss der Axiologie, 1908). Stimulated by Ehrenfels (System der Werttheorie, 1897), Meinong (Psychologisch-ethische Untersuchungen zur Werttheorie, 1894-1899), and Simmel (Philosophie des Geldes, 1900). W. M. Urban wrote the first systematic treatment of axiology in English (Valuation, 1909), phenomenological in method under J. M. Baldwin's influence. Meanwhile H. Münsterberg wrote a neo-Fichtean system of values (The Eternal Values, 1909). Among important recent contributions are: B. Bosanquet, The Principle of Individuality and Value (1912), a free reinterpretation of Hegelianism; W. R. Sorley, Moral Values and the Idea of God (1918, 1921), defending a metaphysical theism; S. Alexander, Space, Time, and Deity (1920), realistic and naturalistic; N. Hartmann, Ethik (1926), detailed analysis of types and laws of value; R. B. Perry's magnum opus, General Theory of Value (1926), "its meaning and basic principles construed in terms of interest"; and J. Laird, The Idea of Value (1929), noteworthy for historical exposition. A naturalistic theory has been developed by J. Dewey (Theory of Valuation, 1939), for which "not only is science itself a value . . . but it is the supreme means of the valid determination of all valuations." A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic (1936) expounds the view of logical positivism that value is "nonsense." J. Hessen, Wertphilosophie (1937), provides an account of recent German axiology from a neo-scholastic standpoint. The problems of axiology fall into four main groups, namely, those concerning (1) the nature of value, (2) the types of value, (3) the criterion of value, and (4) the metaphysical status of value. (1) The nature of value experience. Is valuation fulfillment of desire (voluntarism: Spinoza, Ehrenfels), pleasure (hedonism: Epicurus, Bentham, Meinong), interest (Perry), preference (Martineau), pure rational will (formalism: Stoics, Kant, Royce), apprehension of tertiary qualities (Santayana), synoptic experience of the unity of personality (personalism: T. H. Green, Bowne), any experience that contributes to enhanced life (evolutionism: Nietzsche), or "the relation of things as means to the end or consequence actually reached" (pragmatism, instrumentalism: Dewey). (2) The types of value. Most axiologists distinguish between intrinsic (consummatory) values (ends), prized for their own sake, and instrumental (contributory) values (means), which are causes (whether as economic goods or as natural events) of intrinsic values. Most intrinsic values are also instrumental to further value experience; some instrumental values are neutral or even disvaluable intrinsically. Commonly recognized as intrinsic values are the (morally) good, the true, the beautiful, and the holy. Values of play, of work, of association, and of bodily well-being are also acknowledged. Some (with Montague) question whether the true is properly to be regarded as a value, since some truth is disvaluable, some neutral; but love of truth, regardless of consequences, seems to establish the value of truth. There is disagreement about whether the holy (religious value) is a unique type (Schleiermacher, Otto), or an attitude toward other values (Kant, Höffding), or a combination of the two (Hocking). There is also disagreement about whether the variety of values is irreducible (pluralism) or whether all values are rationally related in a hierarchy or system (Plato, Hegel, Sorley), in which values interpenetrate or coalesce into a total experience. (3) The criterion of value. The standard for testing values is influenced by both psychological and logical theory. Hedonists find the standard in the quantity of pleasure derived by the individual (Aristippus) or society (Bentham). Intuitionists appeal to an ultimate insight into preference (Martineau, Brentano). Some idealists recognize an objective system of rational norms or ideals as criterion (Plato, Windelband), while others lay more stress on rational wholeness and coherence (Hegel, Bosanquet, Paton) or inclusiveness (T. H. Green). Naturalists find biological survival or adjustment (Dewey) to be the standard. Despite differences, there is much in common in the results of the application of these criteria. (4) The metaphysical status of value. What is the relation of values to the facts investigated by natural science (Koehler), of Sein to Sollen (Lotze, Rickert), of human experience of value to reality independent of man (Hegel, Pringle-Pattlson, Spaulding)? There are three main answers: subjectivism (value is entirely dependent on and relative to human experience of it: so most hedonists, naturalists, positivists); logical objectivism (values are logical essences or subsistences, independent of their being known, yet with no existential status or action in reality); metaphysical objectivism (values --or norms or ideals --are integral, objective, and active constituents of the metaphysically real: so theists, absolutists, and certain realists and naturalists like S. Alexander and Wieman). --E.S.B. Axiom: See Mathematics. Axiomatic method: That method of constructing a deductive system consisting of deducing by specified rules all statements of the system save a given few from those given few, which are regarded as axioms or postulates of the system. See Mathematics. --C.A.B. Ayam atma brahma: (Skr.) "This self is brahman", famous quotation from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 2.5.19, one of many alluding to the central theme of the Upanishads, i.e., the identity of the human and divine or cosmic. --K.F.L.
bellibone ::: n. --> A woman excelling both in beauty and goodness; a fair maid.
beneficence ::: n. --> The practice of doing good; active goodness, kindness, or charity; bounty springing from purity and goodness.
benignity ::: n. --> The quality of being benign; goodness; kindness; graciousness.
Mildness; gentleness.
Salubrity; wholesome quality.
Best: The principle of the best of all possible worlds; according to Leibniz, the world which exists is the best possible because God's wisdom makes him know, his goodness makes him choose, and his power always makes him produce the best possible. See Optimism. -- J.M.
Goodness: (AS. god) The extrinsic elections of things. The positive object of desire. For Plato, coextensive with being. For the Romans, duty. For Kant, that which has value. For Peirce, the adaptation of a subject to its end. In psychology: the characteristic actions which follow moral norms. Opposite of evil. See Ethics. -- J.K.F.
(b) In axiology, two types of good, goodness, or value: intrinsic and extrinsic or instrumental.
black ::: a. --> Destitute of light, or incapable of reflecting it; of the color of soot or coal; of the darkest or a very dark color, the opposite of white; characterized by such a color; as, black cloth; black hair or eyes.
In a less literal sense: Enveloped or shrouded in darkness; very dark or gloomy; as, a black night; the heavens black with clouds.
Fig.: Dismal, gloomy, or forbidding, like darkness; destitute of moral light or goodness; atrociously wicked; cruel;
bountyhood ::: n. --> Goodness; generosity.
bounty ::: n. --> Goodness, kindness; virtue; worth.
Liberality in bestowing gifts or favors; gracious or liberal giving; generosity; munificence.
That which is given generously or liberally.
A premium offered or given to induce men to enlist into the public service; or to encourage any branch of industry, as husbandry or manufactures.
Brentano, Franz: (1838-1917) Who had originally been a Roman Catholic priest may be described as an unorthodox neo-scholastic. According to him the only three forms of psychic activity, representation, judgment and "phenomena of love and hate", are just three modes of "intentionality", i.e., of referring to an object intended. Judgments may be self-evident and thereby characterized as true and in an analogous way love and hate may be characterized as "right". It is on these characterizations that a dogmatic theory of truth and value may be based. In any mental experience the content is merely a "physical phenomenon" (real or imaginary) intended to be referred to, what is psychic is merely the "act" of representing, judging (viz. affirming or denying) and valuing (i.e. loving or hating). Since such "acts" are evidently immaterial, the soul by which they are performed may be proved to be a purely spiritual and imperishable substance and from these and other considerations the existence, spirituality, as also the infinite wisdom, goodness and justice of God may also be demonstrated. It is most of all by his classification of psychic phenomena, his psychology of "acts" and "intentions" and by his doctrine concerning self-evident truths and values that Brentano, who considered himself an Aristotelian, exercised a profound influence on subsequent German philosophers: not only on those who accepted his entire system (such as A. Marty and C. Stumpf) but also those who were somewhat more independent and original and whom he influenced either directly (as A. Meinong and E. Husserl) or indirectly (as M. Scheler and Nik. Hartmann). Main works: Psychologie des Aristoteles, 1867; Vom Dasein Gottes, 1868; Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt, 1874; Vom Ursprung sittliches Erkenntnis, 1884; Ueber die Zukunft der Philosophie, 1893; Die vier Phasen der Philos., 1895. -- H.Go. Broad, C.D.: (1887) As a realistic critical thinker Broad takes over from the sciences the methods that are fruitful there, classifies the various propositions used in all the sciences, and defines basic scientific concepts. In going beyond science, he seeks to reach a total view of the world by bringing in the facts and principles of aesthetic, religious, ethical and political experience. In trying to work out a much more general method which attacks the problem of the connection between mathematical concepts and sense-data better than the method of analysis in situ, he gives a simple exposition of the method of extensive abstraction, which applies the mutual relations of objects, first recognized in pure mathematics, to physics. Moreover, a great deal can be learned from Broad on the relation of the principle of relativity to measurement.
canter ::: n. --> A moderate and easy gallop adapted to pleasure riding.
A rapid or easy passing over.
One who cants or whines; a beggar.
One who makes hypocritical pretensions to goodness; one who uses canting language. ::: v. i.
Chesed (“mercy,” “goodness”)—the 4th sefira.
chi-squared test: A test on the goodness of fit of an observation to the theoretical value/assumed distribution through the use of the chi-squared distribution to test its likelihood of deviation due to natural variations.
Criterion: Broadly speaking, any ground, basis, or means of judging anything as to its quality. Since validity, truth, goodness, justice, virtue, and beauty are some of the most fundamental qualities for philosophic enquiry, criteria for these are embodied in almost all philosophies and are either assumed or derived. In logic, consistency is a generally recognized criterion; in epistemology, evidence of the senses, comparison, or reason may be regarded as criteria; in metaphysical speculation have been suggested. as criteria for truth, among others, correspondence, representation, practicability, and coherence; in religion, evidences of faith, revelation or miracle; in ethics, pleasure, desirability, utility, self-determination of the will, duty, conscience, happiness, are among common criteria, while in aesthetics there have been cited interest, satisfaction, enjoyment, utility, harmony. -- K.F.L.
Criterion ethical: In ethics the main problem is often said to be the finding of a criterion of virtue, or of rightness, or of goodness, depending on which of these concepts is taken as basic; and the quest for a moral standard, or for an ethical first principle, or for a summum bonum may generally be construed as a quest for such a criterion (e.g., Kant's first form of the categorical imperative may be interpreted as a criterion of rightness). Hence to find a criterion of, say, goodness is to find a characteristic whose presence, absence, or degree may be taken as a mark of the presence, absence, or degree of goodness. Thus hedonists hold pleasantness to be such a characteristic. Often, finding a criterion of a characteristic is taken as equivalent to finding a definition of that characteristic. Strictly, this is not the case, for a characteristic may serve as a criterion of another with which it is not identical. Pleasantness might be a criterion of goodness without being identical with it, if only the above relation held between pleasantness and goodness. However, the discovery of a definition of a characteristic does normally furnish a criterion of that characteristic. Vide the definition of a right act as an act conducive to the greatest happiness.
damage ::: n. --> Injury or harm to person, property, or reputation; an inflicted loss of value; detriment; hurt; mischief.
The estimated reparation in money for detriment or injury sustained; a compensation, recompense, or satisfaction to one party, for a wrong or injury actually done to him by another.
To ocassion damage to the soudness, goodness, or value of; to hurt; to injure; to impair.
degenerate ::: a. --> Having become worse than one&
Dense order: See Continuity. Deontological ethics: Any ethics which does not make the theory of obligation entirely dependent on the theory of value, holding that an action may be known to be right without a consideration of the goodness of anything, or at least that an action may be right and be known to be so even though it does not flow from the agent's best motive (or even from a good one) and does not, by being performed, bring into being as much good as some other action open to the agent. Opposed to axiological ethics. Also called formalism and intuitionism. See Intuitionism. -- W.K.F.
Disvalue: Bad. Evil. Opposed to value or goodness. -- A.J.B.
Ethical Hedonism: See Hedonism, ethical. Ethical relativism: The view that ethical truths are relative -- that the rightness of an action and the goodness of an object depend on or consist in the attitude taken towards it by some individual or group, and hence may vary from individual to individual or from group to group. See Absolutism. -- W.K.F.
Ethical judgments fall, roughly, into tw o classes, (a) judgments of value, i.e. judgments as to the goodness or badness, desirability or undesirability of certain objects, ends, experiences, dispositions, or states of affairs, e.g. "Knowledge is good," (b) judgments of obligation, i.e. judgments as to the obligatoriness, rightness or wrongness, wisdom or foolishness of various courses of action and kinds of conduct, judgments enjoining, recommending or condemning certain lines of conduct. Thus there are two pnrts of ethics, the theory of value or axiology. which is concerned with judgments of value, extrinsic or intrinsic, moral or non-moral, the theory of obligation or deontology, which is concerned with judgments of obligation. In either of these parts of ethics one mav take either of the above approaches -- in the theory of value one may be interested either in anilvzing and explaining (psychologically or sociologically) our various judgments of value or in establishing or recommending certain things as good or as ends, and in the theory of obligation one may be interested either in analyzing and explaining our various judgments of obligation or in setting forth certain courses of action as right, wise, etc.
Ethical rule: See Rule. Ethics: (Gr. ta ethika, from ethos) Ethics (also referred to as moral philosophy) is that study or discipline which concerns itself with judgments of approval and disapproval, judgments as to the rightness or wrongness, goodness or badness, virtue or vice, desirability or wisdom of actions, dispositions, ends, objects, or states of affairs. There are two main directions which this study may take. It may concern itself with a psychological or sociological analysis and explanation of our ethical judgments, showing what our approvals and disapprovals consist in and why we approve or disapprove what we do. Or it may concern itself with establishing or recommending certain courses of action, ends, or ways of life as to be taken or pursued, either as right or as good or as virtuous or as wise, as over against others which are wrong, bad, vicious, or foolish. Here the interest is more in action than in approval, and more in the guidance of action than in its explanation, the purpose being to find or set up some ideal or standard of conduct or character, some good or end or summum bonum, some ethical criterion or first principle. In many philosophers these two approaches are combined. The first is dominant or nearly so in the ethics of Hume, Schopenhauer, the evolutionists, Westermarck, and of M. Schlick and other recent positivists, while the latter is dominant in the ethics of most other moralists.
ethics ::: 1. A system of moral principles. 2. The branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions. **ethics".
Ethics: That study or discipline which concerns itself with judgments of approval and disapproval, judgments as to the rightness or wrongness, goodness or badness, virtue or vice, desirability or wisdom of actions, dispositions, ends, objects, or states of affairs.
Evil: (AS. yfel) Negation of the extrinsic elections of things. In practice, the positive effects of such negation. The morally bad. Hostility to the welfare of anything. Absence of the good. Opposite of goodness. See Ethics. -- J.K.F.
Extrinsic or instrumental goodness depends for its existence upon some object, end or purpose which it serves. It derives its being from its service as an instrument in promoting or sustaining some more ultimate good and finally some ultimate or intrinsic good. It is good which is good for something.
exuberant ::: a. --> Characterized by abundance or superabundance; plenteous; rich; overflowing; copious or excessive in production; as, exuberant goodness; an exuberant intellect; exuberant foliage.
fire-fanged ::: a. --> Injured as by fire; burned; -- said of manure which has lost its goodness and acquired an ashy hue in consequence of heat generated by decomposition.
"For good is all that helps the individual and the world towards their divine fullness, and evil is all that retards or breaks up that increasing perfection.” The Synthesis of Yoga ::: *goodness.
Gnome [from Greek gnome thought, intelligence; or gnomon one who knows, an instructor, interpreter, guardian] Coined by Paracelsus for the elemental beings pertaining to the element earth, hence popularly believed in Medieval Europe to inhabit mines and caves, pictured as very small men, ugly and often misshapen. The females, called gnomides, were supposed to be of extreme beauty and goodness, being the especial guardians of diamonds. Elemental beings generally “are the Soul of the elements, the capricious forces in Nature, acting under one immutable Law, inherent in these Centres of Force, with undeveloped consciousness and bodies of plastic mould, which can be shaped according to the conscious or unconscious will of the human being who puts himself en rapport with them” (BCW 6:189). They belong to the three elemental kingdoms below the mineral kingdom.
godlyhead ::: n. --> Goodness.
goodlyhood ::: n. --> Goodness; grace; goodliness.
goodness ::: n. --> The quality of being good in any of its various senses; excellence; virtue; kindness; benevolence; as, the goodness of timber, of a soil, of food; goodness of character, of disposition, of conduct, etc.
goodness of fit: A measure of how well a set of observations agree with a proposed statistical model.
goodness who became incarnate and visited the
goody-goody ::: a. --> Mawkishly or weakly good; exhibiting goodness with silliness.
Gunas ::: In Hindu philosophy these are the tripartite aspects of reality: sattva ("goodness"), rajas ("volition"), and tamas ("entropy").
He taught that the primal cause, which he names Bythos (depth), manifested itself as the pleroma (fullness), the sum total of all manifestation. His teachings on pleroma are defined by a vast, intricate diagrammatic scheme, representing a process of emanation on a hierarchical plan with threefold, sevenfold, tenfold, and twelvefold hierarchies; mankind itself forming a lower branch of these hierarchies. Thus he is enabled to explain the origin of mixture or evil, and to reconcile the goodness of God with the imperfection of nature by pointing to minor demiurgic creators; thus too he can give the true meaning of Christ and redemption.
Historically, one may say that, in general, Greek ethics was teleological, though there are deontological strains in Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. In Christian moralists one finds both kinds of ethics, according as the emphasis is on the will of God as the source of duties (the ordinary view) or on the goodness of God as somehow the end of human life (Augustine and Aquinas), theology and revelation taking a central role in either case. In modern philosophical ethics, again, both kinds of ethics are present, with the opposition between them coming out into the open. Starting in the 17th and 18th centuries in Britain are both "intuitionism" (Cambridge Platonists, Clarke, Butler, Price, Reid, Whewell, McCosh, etc.) and utilitarianism (q.v.), with British ethics largely a matter of controversy between the two, a controversy in which the teleological side has lately been taken by Cambridge and the deontological side by Oxford. Again, in Germany, England, and elsewhere there have been, on the one hand, the formalistic deontologism of Kant and his followers, and, on the other, the axiological or teleological ethics of the Hegelian self-realizationists and the Wertethik of Scheler and N. Hartmann.
Hsin: Heart; mind. The original or intuitive mind of man which is good (Mencius). Human desires (the hsin of man as different from the hsin of the Confucian Moral Law or tao). The Mind which is identical with the Great Ultimate (T'ai Chi). (Shao K'ang-chieh, 1011-1077.) One aspect of the Nature (hsing). "When the Nature is viewed from its goodness, it is the Moral Law (tao); when it is viewed from its essence, it is the Destiny (ming) ; when it is viewed from its natural state or spontaneity, it is Heaven (T'ien); and when it is viewed from its manifestations, it is the Mind (hsin)." (Ch'eng I-ch'uan( 1033-1107.) "The pure and refined portion of the vital force, ch'i." Being such it "has the Great Ultimate as its Reason (li) and Yin and Yang as its passivity and activity." It is the spiritual faculty or consciousness of man. (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200.) The mind conceived as identical with the Universe and Reason (li). (Lu Hsiang-shan, 1139-1193.) The mind conceived as identical with Reason (li) and intuition. (Wang Yang-ming, 14-73-1529.)
hypocrisy ::: n. --> The act or practice of a hypocrite; a feigning to be what one is not, or to feel what one does not feel; a dissimulation, or a concealment of one&
imbonity ::: n. --> Want of goodness.
(In Aesthetics): A movement in both art and general aesthetic theory which was particularly widespread and influential in the last years of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries. So interpreted, it is especially associated with Novalis, the Schlegels, and Jean Paul Richter in Germany, Rousseau, Chateaubriand, Hugo, Lamartine in France; Blake, Scott, the Lake Poets, Shelley, and Byron in England. As a general attitude toward art and its function, as an interpretation of the goodness, beauty, and purpose of life, romanticism has always existed and can be confined to no one period. The essence of romanticism, either as an attitude or as a conscious program, is an intense interest in nature, and an attempt to seize natural phenomena in a direct, immediate, and naive manner. Romanticism thus regards all forms, rules, conventions, and manners as artificial constructs and as hindrances to the grasp, enjoyment, and expression of nature, hence its continual opposition to any kind of classicism (q.v.), whose formalities it treats as fetters. Romanticism stresses the values of sincerity, spontaneity, and passion, as against the restraint and cultivation demanded by artistic forms and modes. It reasserts the primacy of feeling, imagination, and sentiment, as opposed to reason. It maintains that art should concern itself with the particular and the concrete, observing and reporting accurately the feelings aroused by nature, with no idealization or generalization. It commands the artist to feel freely and deeply, and to express what he has felt with no restraints, either artistic or social. It seeks in works of art a stimulus to imagination and feeling, a point of departure for free activity, rather than an object that it can accept and contemplate.
infinite ::: a. --> Unlimited or boundless, in time or space; as, infinite duration or distance.
Without limit in power, capacity, knowledge, or excellence; boundless; immeasurably or inconceivably great; perfect; as, the infinite wisdom and goodness of God; -- opposed to finite.
Indefinitely large or extensive; great; vast; immense; gigantic; prodigious.
Greater than any assignable quantity of the same kind; --
In organic bodies matter may become conscious. Mind, being an activity of the body, and unsubstantial, is not causally effective, but simply entertains and contemplates essences both enacted and unenacted. Its registration of the natural functions and drives of the body of which it is the aura, is desire, which gives values like truth, goodness, and beauty to the essences entertained. The desire to know, satisfied by intelligibility, creates science, which is investigation of the world of enacted essences, where alone the explanation of things is to be found.The natural desire to experience social harmony and to contemplate beauty creates morality, art, poetry and religion, which entertain in imagination and seek to make concrete by action, combinations of essences, often unenacted and purely ideal.
interpreted, leaves no room for a belief in a world of evil powers arrayed against the goodness
“In the Dwapara Yuga righteousness was diminished by a half. The Veda became fourfold. Some men studied four Vedas, other three, others two, others one, and some none at all. Ceremonies were celebrated in a great variety of ways. From the decline of goodness only few men adhered to truth. When men had fallen away from goodness, many diseases, desires, and calamities, caused by destiny, assailed them, by which they were severely afflicted and driven to practise austerities. Others desiring heavenly bliss offered sacrifices. Thus men declined through unrighteousness” (abridged by Muir, 1:144)
In the theory of value the first question concerns the meaning of value-terms and the status of goodness. As to meaning the main point is whether goodness is definable or not, and if so, how. As to status the main point is whether goodness is subjective or objective, relative or absolute. Various positions are possible. Recent emotive meaning theories e.g. that of A. J. Ayer, hold that "good" and other value-terms have only an emotive meaning, Intuitionists and non-naturalists often hold that goodness is an indefinable intrinsic (and therefore objective or absolute) property, e.g., Plato, G. E. Moore, W. D. Ross, J. Laird, Meinong, N. Hartman. Metaphysical and naturalistic moralists usually hold that goodness can be defined in metaphysical or in psychological terms, generally interpreting "x is good" to mean that a certain attitude is taken toward x by some mind or group of minds. For some of them value is objective or absolute in the sense of having the same locus for everyone, e.g., Aristotle in his definition of the good as that at which all things aim, (Ethics, bk. I). For others the locus of value varies from individual to individual or from group to group, i.e. different things will be good for different individuals or groups, e.g., Hobbes, Westermarck, William James, R. B. Perry.
intrinsic ::: a. --> Inward; internal; hence, true; genuine; real; essential; inherent; not merely apparent or accidental; -- opposed to extrinsic; as, the intrinsic value of gold or silver; the intrinsic merit of an action; the intrinsic worth or goodness of a person.
Included wholly within an organ or limb, as certain groups of muscles; -- opposed to extrinsic. ::: n.
Intrinsic goodness, or that which is good in itself without depending upon anything else for its goodness (though it may for its existence), is conceived in many ways: Realists, who agree that goodness is not dependent upon persons for its existence, say good is anything desirable or capable of arousing desire or interest, a quality of any desirable thing which can cause interest to be aroused or a capacity for being an end of action, that which ought to be desired, that which ought to be. Subjectivists, who agree that goodness is dependent upon persons for existence, hold views of two sorts: good is partially dependent upon persons as anything desired or "any object of any interest" (R. B. Perry), "a quality of any object of any interest" causing it to be desired (A. K. Rogers); good is completely dependent upon persons as sittsfaction of any desire or any interest in any object (DeW. H. Parker), pleasant feeling (Hedonism). See Value. Opposed to bad, evil, disvalue. -- A.J.B.
Intrinsic goodness: The property of being good in itself or good as an end (and not as a means merely) or desirable for its own sake. Sometimes identified with the property of being desired for its own sake. According to G. E. Moore a thing is intrinsically good if it would be good even if it existed quite alone. -- W.K.F.
i: The Great Unit. See t'ai i. T'ai Chi: The Great Ultimate or Terminus, which, in the beginning of time, "engenders the Two Primary Modes (i), which in turn engender the Four Secondary Modes or Forms (hsiang), which in their turn give rise to the Eight Elements (pa kua) and the Eight Elements determine all good and evil and the great complexity of life." (Ancient Chinese philosophy). The Great Ultimate which comes from, but is originally one with, the Non-Ultimate (wu chi). Its movement and tranquillity engender the active principle, yang, and the passive principle, yin, respectively (the Two Primary Modes), the transformation and the union of which give rise to the Five Agents (wu hsing) of Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, and Earth, and thereby the determinate things (Chou Lien-hsi, 1017-1073). The Great Ultimate which is One and unmoved, and which, when moved, becomes the Omnipotent Creative Principle (shen) which engenders Number, then Form, and finally corporeality. Being such, the Great Ultimate is identical with the Mind, it is identical with the Moral Law (tao). (Shao K'ang-chieh, 1011-1077) The Great Ultimate which is identical with the One (1), or the Grand Harmony (T'ai Ho). (Chang Heng-ch'u, 1020-1077). The Great Ultimate which is identical with the Reason (li) of the universe, of the two (yin and yang) vital forces (ch'i), and of the Five Elements (wu hsing). It is the Reason of ultimate goodness. ''Collectively there is only one Great Ultimate, but there is a Great Ultimate in each thing" (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200).
Jen: Man. Goodness; virtue in general; the moral principle; the moral ideal of the superior man (chun. tzu); the fundamental as well as the sum total of virtues, just as the Prime (yuan) is the origin and the vital force of all things --jen consisting of "man" and "two" and yuan consisting of "two" and "man". (Confucianism.) True manhood; man's character; human-heartedness; moral character; being man-like; "that by which a man is to be a man;" "realization of one's true self and the restoration of the moral order." (Confucius and Mencius.) "The active (yang) and passive (yin) principles are the way of Heaven; the principles of strength and weakness are the way of Earth; and true manhood and righteousness (i) are the way of Man." "True manhood is man's mind and righteousness is man's path." It is one of the three Universally Recognized Moral Qualities of man (ta te), the four Fundamentals of the Moral Life (ssu tuan), and the five Constant Virtues (wu ch'ang). True manhood and righteousness are the basic principles of Confucian ethics and politics. (Confucianism.) The golden rule; "Being true to the principles of one's nature (chung) and the benevolent exercise of them in relation to others (shu)." "The true man, having established his own character, seeks to establish the character of others; and having succeeded, seeks to make others succeed." (Confucius.) Love; benevolence; kindness; charity; compassion; "the character of the heart and the principle of love;" "love towards all men and benefit towards things." (Confucianism.) "Universal love without the element of self," (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.) "Universal Love." (Han Yu, 767-824.) The moral principle with regard to others. "True manhood is the cardinal virtue by which others are pacified, whereas righteousness is the cardinal principle by which the self is rectified." It means "to love others and not the self." (Tung Chung-shu, 177-104 B.C.) Love of all men and things and impartiality and justice towards all men and things, this virtue being the cardinal virtue not only of man but also of the universe. "Love means to devote oneself to the benefit of other people and things." "Love implies justice, that is, as a man, treating others as men." "The true man regards the universe and all things as a unity. They are all essential to himself. As he realizes the true self, there is no limit to his love." (Ch'eng Ming-tao, 1032-1068.) "Love is the source of all laws, the foundation of all phenomena." "What is received from Heaven at the beginning is simply love, and is therefore the complete substance of the mind." "Love is the love of creating in the mind of Heaven and Earth, and men and other creatures receive it as their mind." (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200.)
kalyan.a (kalyana; kalyanam) ::: fortunate; beneficent; beneficence; kalyana goodness, good. kaly kalyanabuddhi
kind ::: superl. --> Characteristic of the species; belonging to one&
Krita Yuga (Sanskrit) Kṛta Yuga [from kṛta well-done from the verbal root kṛ to do, make + yuga age] The first of the four great yugas which constitute a mahayuga (great age). In the krita or satya yuga, virtue or intrinsic goodness is said to reign supreme. It is often called the Golden Age of mankind, lasting 1,728,000 years. See also YUGA
Light Light ranges from the arcana of cosmic being to the physical light that turns the vanes of some scientific mill. As the opposite of darkness, evil, ignorance, sleep, and death, it signifies wisdom, goodness, and life. In one sense it is a permutation of mulaprakriti, and as such is that root-substance which can never become objective to mortals in this race or round. It is objective only in relation to that Darkness which is absolute Light. Otherwise it includes both spirit and matter. Three kinds are enumerated: the abstract and absolute, which is darkness; the light of the unmanifest-manifest or Second Logos; and the latter reflected in the dhyani-chohans, minor logoi, and thence shed upon the lower and more objective planes. In a high aspect, it is daiviprakriti or the light of the Logos, the synthesis of the seven cosmic forces; descending through the planes of manifestation, it condenses into forms; physical matter itself is a condensation of light. Through light everything is thus brought into being. Being a root of mental self, it also therefore is the root of physical self (SD 1:430).
Mean: In general, that which in some way mediates or occupies a middle position among various things or between two extremes. Hence (especially in the plural) that through which an end is attained; in mathematics the word is used for any one of various notions of average; in ethics it represents moderation, temperance, prudence, the middle way. In mathematics: The arithmetic mean of two quantities is half their sum; the arithmetic mean of n quantities is the sum of the n quantities, divided by n. In the case of a function f(x) (say from real numbers to real numbers) the mean value of the function for the values x1, x2, . . . , xn of x is the arithmetic mean of f(x1), f(x2), . . . , f(xn). This notion is extended to the case of infinite sets of values of x by means of integration; thus the mean value of f(x) for values of x between a and b is ∫f(x)dx, with a and b as the limits of integration, divided by the difference between a and b. The geometric mean of or between, or the mean proportional between, two quantities is the (positive) square root of their product. Thus if b is the geometric mean between a and c, c is as many times greater (or less) than b as b is than a. The geometric mean of n quantities is the nth root of their product. The harmonic mean of two quantities is defined as the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of their reciprocals. Hence the harmonic mean of a and b is 2ab/(a + b). The weighted mean or weighted average of a set of n quantities, each of which is associated with a certain number as weight, is obtained by multiplying each quantity by the associated weight, adding these products together, and then dividing by the sum of the weights. As under A, this may be extended to the case of an infinite set of quantities by means of integration. (The weights have the role of estimates of relative importance of the various quantities, and if all the weights are equal the weighted mean reduces to the simple arithmetic mean.) In statistics, given a population (i.e., an aggregate of observed or observable quantities) and a variable x having the population as its range, we have: The mean value of x is the weighted mean of the values of x, with the probability (frequency ratio) of each value taken as its weight. In the case of a finite population this is the same as the simple arithmetic mean of the population, provided that, in calculating the arithmetic mean, each value of x is counted as many times over as it occurs in the set of observations constituting the population. In like manner, the mean value of a function f(x) of x is the weighted mean of the values of f(x), where the probability of each value of x is taken as the weight of the corresponding value of f(x). The mode of the population is the most probable (most frequent) value of x, provided there is one such. The median of the population is so chosen that the probability that x be less than the median (or the probability that x be greater than the median) is ½ (or as near ½ as possible). In the case of a finite population, if the values of x are arranged in order of magnitude --repeating any one value of x as many times over as it occurs in the set of observations constituting the population --then the middle term of this series, or the arithmetic mean of the two middle terms, is the median. --A.C. In cosmology, the fundamental means (arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic) were used by the Greeks in describing or actualizing the process of becoming in nature. The Pythagoreans and the Platonists in particular made considerable use of these means (see the Philebus and the Timaeus more especially). These ratios are among the basic elements used by Plato in his doctrine of the mixtures. With the appearance of the qualitative physics of Aristotle, the means lost their cosmological importance and were thereafter used chiefly in mathematics. The modern mathematical theories of the universe make use of the whole range of means analyzed by the calculus of probability, the theory of errors, the calculus of variations, and the statistical methods. In ethics, the 'Doctrine of the Mean' is the moral theory of moderation, the development of the virtues, the determination of the wise course in action, the practice of temperance and prudence, the choice of the middle way between extreme or conflicting decisions. It has been developed principally by the Chinese, the Indians and the Greeks; it was used with caution by the Christian moralists on account of their rigorous application of the moral law. In Chinese philosophy, the Doctrine of the Mean or of the Middle Way (the Chung Yung, literally 'Equilibrium and Harmony') involves the absence of immoderate pleasure, anger, sorrow or joy, and a conscious state in which those feelings have been stirred and act in their proper degree. This doctrine has been developed by Tzu Shu (V. C. B.C.), a grandson of Confucius who had already described the virtues of the 'superior man' according to his aphorism "Perfect is the virtue which is according to the mean". In matters of action, the superior man stands erect in the middle and strives to follow a course which does not incline on either side. In Buddhist philosophy, the System of the Middle Way or Madhyamaka is ascribed more particularly to Nagarjuna (II c. A.D.). The Buddha had given his revelation as a mean or middle way, because he repudiated the two extremes of an exaggerated ascetlsm and of an easy secular life. This principle is also applied to knowledge and action in general, with the purpose of striking a happy medium between contradictory judgments and motives. The final objective is the realization of the nirvana or the complete absence of desire by the gradual destruction of feelings and thoughts. But while orthodox Buddhism teaches the unreality of the individual (who is merely a mass of causes and effects following one another in unbroken succession), the Madhyamaka denies also the existence of these causes and effects in themselves. For this system, "Everything is void", with the legitimate conclusion that "Absolute truth is silence". Thus the perfect mean is realized. In Greek Ethics, the doctrine of the Right (Mean has been developed by Plato (Philebus) and Aristotle (Nic. Ethics II. 6-8) principally, on the Pythagorean analogy between the sound mind, the healthy body and the tuned string, which has inspired most of the Greek Moralists. Though it is known as the "Aristotelian Principle of the Mean", it is essentially a Platonic doctrine which is preformed in the Republic and the Statesman and expounded in the Philebus, where we are told that all good things in life belong to the class of the mixed (26 D). This doctrine states that in the application of intelligence to any kind of activity, the supreme wisdom is to know just where to stop, and to stop just there and nowhere else. Hence, the "right-mean" does not concern the quantitative measurement of magnitudes, but simply the qualitative comparison of values with respect to a standard which is the appropriate (prepon), the seasonable (kairos), the morally necessary (deon), or generally the moderate (metrion). The difference between these two kinds of metretics (metretike) is that the former is extrinsic and relative, while the latter is intrinsic and absolute. This explains the Platonic division of the sciences into two classes: those involving reference to relative quantities (mathematical or natural), and those requiring absolute values (ethics and aesthetics). The Aristotelian analysis of the "right mean" considers moral goodness as a fixed and habitual proportion in our appetitions and tempers, which can be reached by training them until they exhibit just the balance required by the right rule. This process of becoming good develops certain habits of virtues consisting in reasonable moderation where both excess and defect are avoided: the virtue of temperance (sophrosyne) is a typical example. In this sense, virtue occupies a middle position between extremes, and is said to be a mean; but it is not a static notion, as it leads to the development of a stable being, when man learns not to over-reach himself. This qualitative conception of the mean involves an adaptation of the agent, his conduct and his environment, similar to the harmony displayed in a work of art. Hence the aesthetic aspect of virtue, which is often overstressed by ancient and neo-pagan writers, at the expense of morality proper. The ethical idea of the mean, stripped of the qualifications added to it by its Christian interpreters, has influenced many positivistic systems of ethics, and especially pragmatism and behaviourism (e.g., A. Huxley's rule of Balanced Excesses). It is maintained that it is also involved in the dialectical systems, such as Hegelianism, where it would have an application in the whole dialectical process as such: thus, it would correspond to the synthetic phase which blends together the thesis and the antithesis by the meeting of the opposites. --T.G. Mean, Doctrine of the: In Aristotle's ethics, the doctrine that each of the moral virtues is an intermediate state between extremes of excess and defect. -- O.R.M.
Monas Monadum In Leibniz’ system of monads, the supreme monad, which is infinite and upon which there depend three classes of finite monads. This supreme monad held the place of God, an infinite perfect spirit, a Person of absolute power, wisdom, and goodness. In this case, the supreme monad is cosmically more than a person — for etymologically person means a mask or vehicle through and from which issue the attributes and powers of something incomparably higher than itself. Equivalent to the summit of the human hierarchy.
niḥsreyasa. (T. nges legs; C. zhishan; J. shizen; K. chison 至善). In Sanskrit, "ultimate goodness," a term often used in Buddhist texts to refer to liberation from REBIRTH. The term commonly occurs in conjunction with ABHYUDAYA (lit., "elevation"), which refers to the worldly prosperity and temporal happiness that is achieved through rebirth as a prosperous human or divinity. Thus, abhyudaya and niḥsreyasa constitute the two benefits that accrue from practicing the dharma: those who maintain the precepts and offer charity to the SAMGHA attain the "elevation" (abhyudaya) of a happy rebirth within SAMSĀRA; those who follow the path to its conclusion achieve the ultimate goodness (niḥsreyasa) of liberation from rebirth.
Nishida Kitaro. (西田幾太郎) (1870-1945). Influential Japanese philosopher of the modern era and founder of what came to be known as the KYOTO SCHOOL, a contemporary school of Japanese philosophy that sought to synthesize ZEN Buddhist thought with modern Western, and especially Germanic, philosophy. Nishida was instrumental in establishing in Japan the discipline of philosophy as practiced in Europe and North America, as well as in exploring possible intersections between European philosophy and such Buddhist ontological notions as the idea of nonduality (ADVAYA). Nishida was born in 1870, just north of Ishikawa prefecture's capital city of Kanazawa. In 1894, he graduated from Tokyo Imperial University with a degree in philosophy and eventually took an appointment at Kyoto University, where he taught from 1910 until his retirement in 1927. At Kyoto University, Nishida attracted a group of students who would later become known collectively as the "Kyoto School." These philosophers addressed an array of philosophical concerns, including metaphysics, ontology, phenomenology, and epistemology, using Western critical methods but in conjunction with Eastern religious concepts. Nishida's influential 1911 publication Zen no kenkyu ("A Study of Goodness") synthesized Zen Buddhist and German phenomenology to explore the unity between the ordinary and the transcendent. He argued that, through "pure experience" (J. junsui keiken), an individual human being is able to come in contact with a limitless, absolute reality that can be described either as God or emptiness (suNYATĀ). In Nishida's treatment, philosophy is subsumed under the broader soteriological quest for individual awakening, and its significance derives from its effectiveness in bringing about this goal of awakening. Other important works by Nishida include Jikaku ni okeru chokkan to hansei ("Intuition and Reflection in Self-Consciousness," 1917), Geijutsu to dotoku ("Art and Morality," 1923), Tetsugaku no konpon mondai ("Fundamental Problems of Philosophy," 1933), and Bashoteki ronri to shukyoteki sekaikan ("The Logic of the Place of Nothingness and the Religious Worldview," 1945). Nishida's Zen no kenkyu also helped lay the foundation for what later became regarded as Nihonjinron, a nationalist discourse that advocated the uniqueness and superiority of the Japanese race. Prominent in Nishida's philosophy is the idea that the Japanese-as exemplified in their exceptional cultivation of Zen, which here can stand for both Zen Buddhism and the homophonous word for "goodness"-are uniquely in tune with this concept of "pure experience." This familiarity, in part influenced by his longtime friend DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI, elevates the Japanese race mentally and spiritually above all other races in the world. This view grew in popularity during the era of Japanese colonial expansion and remained strong in some quarters even after the end of World War II. Since at least the 1970s, Nishida's work has been translated and widely read among English-speaking audiences. Beginning in the 1990s, however, his writings have come under critical scrutiny in light of their ties with Nihonjinron and Japanese nationalism.
On the question as to what acts are right or to be done ethical theories fall into two groups (1) Axiological theories seek to determine what is right entirely by reference to the goodness or value of something, thus miking the theory of obligation dependent on the theorv of value. For a philosopher like Martineau it is the comparative goodness of its motive that determines which act is right. For a teleologist it is the comparative amount of good which it brings or probably will bring into being that determines which act is right -- the egoistic teleologist holding that the right act is the act which is most conducive to the good of the agent (some Sophists, Epicurus, Hobbes), and the universalistic teleologist holding that the right act is the act which is most conducive to the good of the world as a whole (see Utilitarianism). (2) On deontological theories see Deontological ethics and Intuitionism.
Persian Philosophy: Persia was a vast empire before the time of Alexander the Great, embracing not only most of the orientnl tribes of Western Asia but also the Greeks of Asia Minor, the Jews and the Egyptians. If we concentrate on the central section of Persia, three philosophic periods may be distinguished Zoroastrianism (including Mithraism and Magianism), Manichaeanism, and medieval Persian thought. Zarathustra (Or. Zoroaster) lived before 600 B.C. and wrote the Avesta, apparently in the Zend language. It is primarily religious, but the teaching that there are two ultimate principles of reality, Ormazd, the God of Light and Goodness, and Ahriman, God of Evil and Darkness, is of philosophic importance. They are eternally fighting Mitra is the intermediary between Ormazd and man. In the third century A. D., Mani of Ecbatana (in Media) combined this dualism of eternal principles with some of the doctrines of Christianity. His seven books are now known only through second-hand reports of Mohammedan (Abu Faradj Ibn Ishaq, 10th c., and Sharastani, 12th c.) and Christian (St. Ephrem, 4th c., and Bar-Khoni, 7th c.) writers. St Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.) has left several works criticizing Manichaeism, which he knew at first-hand. From the ninth century onward, many of the great Arabic philosophers are of Persian origin. Mention might be made of the epicureanism of the Rubaiyat of the Persian poet, Omar Kayyam, and the remarkable metaphysical system of Avicenna, i.e. Ibn Sina (11th c.), who was born in Persia. -- V.J.B.
pessimism ::: The belief that the experienced world is the worst possible. It involves a general belief that things are bad, and tend to become worse; or that looks to the eventual triumph of evil over good; it contrasts with optimism, the contrary belief in the goodness and betterment of things generally. A common conundrum illustrates optimism versus pessimism with the question - does one regard a given glass of water as: "Is the glass half empty or half full?" Conventional wisdom expects optimists to reply with half full and pessimists to respond with half empty, but this is not always the case.
quote :::In spiritual terms, kauthar refers to the abundance of good, or abundant blessings, that Allah has promised to those who pray sincerely and devote their lives selflessly to the good of humanity. Esoterically, this is the Divine wine. Also, the name of Chapter 108 of the Qur'an. In the hadith, al-kauthar is variously likened, to a river, a lake, or a fountain, while also saying that these attributes are just a portion of the great goodness of al-kauthar. One of the sayings of Muhammad (hadith), as narrated by Sahl bin Sad, says: I heard the Prophet saying, "I am your predecessor at al-kauthar, and whoever will come to it, will drink from it, and whoever will drink from it, will never become thirsty after that."
Right-hand Path From time immemorial, in all countries and among all races, there have been recognized two antagonistic schools of occult training, known as the path of light and the path of darkness. They represent two fundamental courses in nature, and are more commonly called the right-hand path and the left-hand path, as in Greek, Latin, English, and many other languages the word for right-hand also means propitious or skilled, or right as opposed to wrong. Hence in symbology it implies goodness, rightness, light: solar as opposed to lunar, spiritual as opposed to material, etc.
saint ::: a person of exceptional holiness or goodness.
sankhya ::: n. --> A Hindoo system of philosophy which refers all things to soul and a rootless germ called prakriti, consisting of three elements, goodness, passion, and darkness.
Sattvaguna: Quality of light, purity and goodness.
Sattva: Sanskrit for being, existence, reality, true essence; one of the three constituents of the Cosmic Substance (prakriti), viz. the illuminating aspect of Nature that reveals all manifestations; in Yoga, the quality of purity or goodness.
Sattva(Sanskrit) ::: One of the trigunas or "three qualities," the other two being rajas and tamas. Sattva is thequality of truth, goodness, reality, purity. These three gunas or qualities run all through the web or fabricof nature like threads inextricably mingled, for, indeed, each of these three qualities participates likewiseof the nature of the other two, yet each one possessing its predominant (which is its own svabhava) orintrinsic characteristic. One who desires to gain some genuine understanding of the manner in which thearchaic wisdom looks upon these three phases of human intellectual and spiritual activity must rememberthat not one of these three can be considered apart from the other two. The three are fundamentally threeoperations of the human consciousness, and essentially are that consciousness itself.
Sattva (Sanskrit) Sattva [from sat being] True essence, spiritual essence, reality, true being. Also one of the trigunas (three qualities), the other two being rajas and tamas. “Sattwa is the quality of truth, goodness, reality, purity. These three gunas or qualities run all through the web or fabric of Nature like threads inextricably mingled, for, indeed, each of these three qualities participate likewise in the nature of the other two, yet each one possessing its predominant (which is its own Swabhava) or intrinsic characteristic. One who desires to gain some genuine understanding of the manner in which the Archaic Wisdom looks upon these three phases of human intellectual and spiritual activity must remember that not one of these three can be considered apart from the other two. The three are fundamentally three operations of the human consciousness, and essentially are that consciousness itself” (OG 153-4). As the human being is the microcosm of the macrocosm, the same gunas can be discovered in the cosmos.
Sattva: (Skr. "be-ness") Being, existence, reality, etc. Also one of the three gunas (q.v.) of the Sankhya (q.v.) and as such the quality of buoyancy, pleasure, and goodness of matter or prakrti (q.v.). -- K.F.L.
sattva &
sat-tva ::: 'true essence'; the abode of goodness; purity.
Sattvika or Sattvic (Sanskrit) Sāttvika [from sattva reality] Pertaining to the quality of goodness; sattvic is the anglicized form.
Sdtivic ego is the sense of goodness and virtue.
Shan: Goodness, "the practice of virtue." (Confucianism). It is antecedent to the Great Ultimate (T'ai Chi) and motion, although it is involved in the Reason of the universe. (Neo-Confucianism) -- W.T.C.
Shruti: “Scavengers of goodness, agents of destruction and darkness.”
sovereignty, and goodness. They are the 1st angels
Suddhasattva (Sanskrit) Śuddhasattva [from śuddha pure + sattva goodness] Pure goodness, reality per se; a state of conscious spiritual egoity or egoship, and at the same time pure spiritual essence. Considered from the substance viewpoint, it is a supermaterial or ultramaterial essence or substance which to us is invisible, yet on its own plane luminous if not indeed light itself. Of this stuff or essence the bodies of the highest dhyanis and the gods are formed. It is spiritual substance without adulteration of the differentiated matters of the lower cosmic planes.
Summum Bonum: (Lat. the supreme good) A term applied to an ultimate end of human conduct the worth of which is intrinsically and substantively good. It is some end that is not subordinate to anything else. Happiness, pleasure, virtue, self-realization, power, obedience to the voice of duty, to conscience, to the will of God, good will, perfection have been claimed as ultimate aims of human conduct in the history of ethical theory. Those who interpret all ethical problems in terms of a conception of good they hold to be the highest ignore all complexities of conduct, focus attention wholly upon goals towards which deeds are directed, restrict their study by constructing every good in one single pattern, center all goodness in one model and thus reduce all other types of good to their model. -- H.H.
thanksgiving ::: n. --> The act of rending thanks, or expressing gratitude for favors or mercies.
A public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness; also, a day set apart for religious services, specially to acknowledge the goodness of God, either in any remarkable deliverance from calamities or danger, or in the ordinary dispensation of his bounties.
Theodice, Theodicy [coined from Greek theos god + dike justice] A vindication of divine justice; a system or method of intellectual theorizing about the nature of so-called divine justice, having in view vindication of the justice and holiness of God, in connection with evil. Ancient philosophers all taught that the heart of things was divine harmony and that whatever evil, distortion, and obliquity might exist in the world is ultimately traceable back to the imperfect intelligence of evolving beings, who by their manifold conflicts of thought and will thus produce disharmony, relative confusion, and hence evil, in the scheme of things. This view was replaced during Christian ages by the attempt of many writers to rescue the reputation of the Christian God, who on the one hand is said to be the creator of everything and who yet is supposed to be the fountain of love, mercy, harmony, and goodness. In view of the evils and suffering in the world, such Christian attempts have been futile, for it is obvious that if God is the creator of all that is, He must have been either directly or indirectly the creator of all the disharmony, wickedness, and misery in the world, as was indeed alleged by many Jewish rabbis, following statements in the Hebrew scriptures. But this thought has been denied by Christians who refuse to accept their God of love and justice as the creator of evil, and thus they had recourse to the Devil, who himself must have been created by their omniscient God.
theodicies ::: systems of the vindication of God"s goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil.
These desires and drives, however, tend to stray beyond their proper provinces and to become intermingled and confused in attempts to identify truth, goodness, and beauty, to turn justifications into explanations, to regard subsistent ideals as concretely existent facts, and to distort facts into accordance with desired ideals. It is the business of reason and philosophy to clear up this confusion by distinguishing human drives and interests from one another, indicating to each its proper province and value, and confining each to the field in which it is valid and in which its appropriate satisfaction may be found. By so doing, they dispel the suspicion and antagonism, with which the scientist, the moralist, the artist, and the theologian are wont to view one another, and enable a mind at harmony with itself to contemplate a world in which subsistent and the existent form a harmonious whole. --
This dynamic and orderly character of the universe is due to Reason and the vital force. As the Ch'eng brothers (I-ch'uan, 1033-1077, and Min-tao, 1032-1086) said, "All things have the same Reason in them." Thus, Reason combines the Many into One, while the vital force differentiates the One into the Many, each with its own "determinate nature." The two principles, however, are not to be sharply contrasted, for neither is independent of the other. Reason operates through, and is embodied in, the vital force. It is this cooperative functioning of theirs that makes the universe a cosmos, a harmonious system of order and sequence. "Centrality is the order of the universe and harmony is its unalterable law." As such the cosmos is a moral order. This is the main reason why the greatest of the Neo-Confucians, Chu Hsi (1130-1200) said that "the Great Ultimate is nothing but the Reason of ultimate goodness."
To Kao Tzu, contemporary of Mencius, human nature is capable of being good or evil; to Mencius (371-289 B.C.), good; to Hsi'm Tzu (c 355-c 238 B.C.), evil; to Tung Cchung-shu (177-104 B.C.), potentially good; to Yang Hsiung (d. 18 B.C.), both good and evil; to Han Yu (676-82+ A.D.), good in some people, mixed in some, and evil in others; to Li Ao (d. c 844), capable of being "reverted" to its original goodness. To the whole Neo-Confucian movement, what is inborn is good, but due to external influence, there is both goodness and evil. Chang Heng-ch'u (1020-1077) said that human nature is good in all men. The difference between them lies in their skill or lack of skill in returning to accord with their original nature. To Ch'eng I-ch'uan (1033-1107) and Ch'eng Ming-tao (1032-1193), man's nature is the same as his vital force (ch'i). They arc both the principle of life. In principle there are both good and evil in the vital force with which man is involved. Man is not born with these opposing elements in his nature. Due to the vital force man may become good or evil. Chu Hsi (1130-1200) regarded the nature as identical with Reason (li). Subjectively it is the nature; objectively it is Reason. It is the framework of the moral order (tao), with benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom (ssu tuan) inherent in it. Evil is due to man's failure to preserve a harmonious relation between his nature-principles. Wang Yang-ming (1473-1529) identified the nature with the mind, which is Reason and originally good. -- W.T.C.
Trigunas (Sanskrit) Triguṇa-s The three qualities; all differentiated beings and matter are considered to possess three inherent qualities or characteristics: sattva (purity, goodness, truth); rajas (activity, passion, desire); and tamas (quiescence, indifference, darkness). Each of these three qualities has both a good and an imperfect or evil side, and possesses in itself the other two qualities; for instance, there is sattva-sattva, rajas-sattva, tamas-sattva, etc. Thus in the different hierarchies in the cosmos, the beings composing these hierarchies may be classified not only under one of the three gunas, as essentially manifesting that characteristic, but likewise during their evolution they pass through the phases of the other two qualities, although under the dominance of the main quality from which they as individuals derive.
Tui: The opposite. Everything has its opposite. "When there is the active force (yang), there is the passive force (yin). When there is good, there is evil. As yang increases, yin decreases, and as goodness is augmented, evil is diminished." (Ch'eng Ming-tao, 1032-1086). -- W.T.C.
Two contrasts in which the term "value" occurs remain to be mentioned. (1) "Value" is sometimes contrasted with "fact" or "existence". Here the contrast intended is that of the "ought" versus the "is", and the term "value" is used to cover not only the various kinds of goodness, but also beauty and rightness. And the main problem is that of the relation of value and existence. (2) "Value" is also used more narrowly, being contrasted with rightness. Here the distinction intended is within the "ought" as opposed to the "is" and is between the "good" and the "right", with "value" taken as equivalent to "goodness". Then the main problem concerns the relation of value and obligation. In the sense of value involved in the former contrast value-theory will include ethics. In the latter it will not. See Axiology, Ethics, Obligation. -- W.K.F.
Uma-kanya (Sanskrit) Umā-kanyā [from u-mā O [child], do not [practice austerities] — the exclamation addressed to Pārvatī by her mother + kanyā maid, virgin] The daughter of Himavat, who became the consort of Siva; also called Parvati and Durga. Uma-Kanya “being her esoteric name, and meaning the ‘Virgin of light,’ Astral Light in one of its multitudinous aspects” (SD 1:92). Now the goddess is worshiped as Durga-Kali (the black and inaccessible one); in this character “human flesh was offered to her every autumn; and, as Durga, she was the patroness of the once murderous Thugs of India, and the special goddess of Tantrika sorcery. But in days of old it was not as it is now. The earliest mention of the title ‘Uma-Kanya’ is found in the Kena-Upanishad; in it the now blood-thirsty Kali, was a benevolent goddess, a being of light and goodness, who brings about reconciliation between Brahma and the gods. She is Saraswati and she is Vach. In esoteric symbology, Kali is the dual type of the dual soul — the divine and the human, the light and the dark soul of man” (TG 352).
Value: The contemporary use of the term "value" and the discipline now known as the theory of value or axiology are relatively recent developments in philosophy, being largely results of certain 19th and 20th century movements. See Ethics. "Value" is used both as a noun and as a verb. As a noun it is sometimes abstract, sometimes concrete. As an abstract noun it designates the property of value or of being valuable. In this sense "value" is often used as equivalent to "worth" or "goodness," in which case evil is usually referred to as "disvalue." But it is also used more broadly to cover evil or badness as well as goodness, just as "temperature" is used to cover both heat and cold. Then evil is referred to as negative value and goodness as positive value.
virtue ::: 1. The quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong. 2. Moral excellence; goodness; righteousness. 3. A particular moral excellence; a good or admirable quality or property. An example or kind of moral excellence. virtues.
Vishnu (Sanskrit) Viṣṇu [from the verbal root viṣ to enter, pervade] The sustainer or preserver; the second of the three gods of the Hindu Trimurti or Triad. Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu together are infinite space, of which the gods, rishis, manus, and all in the universe are simply the manifestations, qualities, and potencies. Vishnu is called the eternal deity, and in the Mahabharata and the Puranas he is declared to be the imbodiment of sattva-guna, the quality of mercy and goodness, which displays itself as the preserving power in the self-existent, all-pervading spirit. His symbol is the chakra (circle). He is identical with the Hindu Idaspati (master of the waters) and with the Greek Poseidon and Latin Neptune.
Vohu-Mano, Vohu-Mana (Avestan) Vahman (Pahlavi) Bahman (Persian) [from Avestan vohu goodness from the verbal root vah to love cf Sanskrit verbal root vas + the verbal root man to think, be aware] In the Gathas, Vangaheush Manangho, Vohu-Manangha. Good thoughts, good state of being, which is pure consciousness and the most exalted state of existence. It is only through Vohuman, as said in the Gathas, that the laws of life are fulfilled and ever renewed. In Mazdean literature, white is the color of Vohu-Mano. In later mystic Persian literature, it has been regarded as the first intellect, homogeneously in harmony with the totality of life.
While not abandoning its interest in beauty, artistic value, and other normative concepts, recent aesthetics has tended to lay increasing emphasis on a descriptive, factual approach to the phenomena of art and aesthetic experience. It differs from art history, archeology, and cultural history in stressing a theoretical organization of materials in terms of recurrent types and tendencies, rather than a chronological or genetic one. It differs from general psychology in focusing upon certain selected phases in psycho-physical activity, and on their application to certain types of objects and situations, especially those of art. It investigates the forms and characteristics of art, which psychology does not do. It differs from art criticism in seeking a more general, theoretical understanding of the arts than is usual in that subject, and in attempting a more consistently objective, impersonal attitude. It maintains a philosophic breadth, in comparing examples of all the arts, and in assembling data and hypotheses from many sources, including philosophy, psychology, cultural history, and the social sciences. But it is departing from traditional conceptions of philosophy in that writing labelled "aesthetics" now often includes much detailed, empirical study of particular phenomena, instead of restricting itself as formerly to abstract discussion of the meaning of beauty, the sublime, and other categories, their objective or subjective nature, their relation to pleasure and moral goodness, the purpose of art, the nature of aesthetic value, etc. There has been controversy over whether such empirical studies deserve to be called "aesthetics", or whether that name should be reserved for the traditional, dialectic or speculative approach; but usage favors the extension in cases where the inquiry aims at fairly broad generalizations.
Will (Scholastic): Will is one of the two rational faculties of the human soul. Only man, as a rational animal, possesses will. Animals are prompted to action by the sensory appetites and in this obey the law of their nature, whereas human will is called free insofar as it determines itself towards the line of action it chooses. Though the objects of will are presented by the intellect, this faculty does not determine will which may still act against the intellect's judgment. The proper object of rational will is good in its universal aspect. Goodness is one of the original ("transcendental") aspects of being, envisioned under this aspect, it becomes a possible end of will. As such, it is apprehended by reason, arousing a simple volitive movement. Follow the approval of "synderesis" (v. there), striving, deliberation, consent, final approval by reason, choice of means and execution. Thus, there is a complicated interplay of intellectual and volitive performances which finally end with action. Action being necessarily about particulars and these being material, will, an "immaterial" faculty cannot get directly in touch with reality and needs, as does on its part intellect, an intermediary; the sensory appetites are the ultimate executors, while the vis cogitativa or practical reason supplies the link on the side of intellectual performance. True choice exists only in rational beings, animals appearing to deliberate are, in truth, only passively subjected to the interference of images and appetites, and their actions are automatically determined by the relative strength of these factors. While man's will is essentially free, it is restricted in the exercise of its fi eedom by imagination, emotion, habit. Whatever an end will aims at, it is always a good, be it one of a low degree. -- R.A.
Yuan: The beginning. For the One Prime, see: i yuan. The beginning of number, one. The beginning of the material principle or the vital force (ch'i). The originating power of the Heavenly Element (chien) in the system of the Eight Elements (pa kua), "being attentive to the fundamentals --the first and the chief quality of goodness," one of the four virtues (ssu te). The great virtue of Heaven and Earth which expresses itself in production and reproduction .
Yu: Desire, which the Taoists regard as detrimental to a good life and the understanding of Tao, but which the Confucians accept as natural and reasonable if under control. "The nature of man is tranquil, but when it is affected by the external world, it begins to have desires . . . When the likes and dislikes are not properly controlled and our conscious minds are distracted by the material world, we love our true selves and the principle of reason in Nature is destroyed . . . The people are therefore controlled through the rituals and music instituted by the ancient kings." As Tai Tung-yuan (1723-1777) puts it, "Man and creatuies all have desires, and desires are the functionings of their nature . . . If functionings and operations do not err, they are in harmony with the characteristics of Heaven and Earth . . . Goodness is nothing but the transformation of Heaven and Earth and the functionings and capabilities of nature . . . We should not be without desires, but we should minimize them. -- W.T.C.
Zenkoji. (善光寺). In Japanese, "Monastery of the Radiance of Goodness"; located in modern-day Nagano. According to the Zenkoji engi, the monastery was built at the beginning of the seventh century by a certain Honda Yoshimitsu to enshrine a famous Amida (AMITĀBHA) triad. In the ancient Indian kingdom of VAIsĀLĪ, a merchant by the name of Somachattra is said to have warded off epidemic demons and cured his daughter by invoking the name of the buddha Amitābha ten times. Somachattra was so moved by the appearance of Amitābha and his two attendants AVALOKITEsVARA and MAHĀSTHĀMAPRĀPTA in the sky that he asked the Buddha for an icon to be made in their likeness. The triad was then forged with special gold from the dragon king's palace and worshipped as a living manifestation of Amitābha and his attendants. Somachattra was later reborn as King Song (r. 523-553) of the Korean kingdom of Paekche. The triad first traveled to Paekche to aid King Song, after which it was taken to Japan. Honda Yoshimitsu is said to have discovered the triad in the Naniwa Canal and enshrined it in his house, which was later transformed into a magnificent buddha hall by Empress Kogyoku (r. 642-645). With support from the Hojo bakufu, a Zenkoji cult proliferated especially during the Kamakura period and onwards, and numerous replicas of the "original" (Shinano) Zenkoji triad were made and enshrined in Shin ("New") Zenkoji temples. For centuries, the (Shinano) Zenkoji in Nagano remained under the control of another powerful TENDAISHu monastery known as MIIDERA. Zenkoji was devastated by fire in 1179, but legendary accounts testify to the miraculous escape of the "original" triad, which now remains as a secret buddha (HIBUTSU) image largely unavailable for public viewing. After the Japanese monk IPPEN's visit to Zenkoji, several Shin Zenkoji temples also came to be associated with his tradition, the JISHu.
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1 Thomas Merton
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1 Shaykh Mehmet Adil al-Haqqani Al-Naqshabandi
1 Sehopenhauer
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1 Pseudo-Dionysius
1 Ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite
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1 Methodius of Sicily
1 Maximus
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1 Ken Wilber
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1 Ferdinand Ulrich
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1 Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche
1 Claudio Naranjo
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1 Saadi
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1:What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
2:Goodness in the form of Truth, and Truth in the power of Goodness, is Wisdom. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, #KEYS
3:All the goodness and the heroisms will rise up again, then be cut down again and rise up." ~ John Steinbeck, #KEYS
4:Let us be kind to one another after the pattern of the tender mercy and goodness of our Creator. ~ Saint Clement, #KEYS
5:Be a true representative of the goodness in your heart, and don't expect it to be easy or even noticed. ~ Adyashanti, #KEYS
6:God's will is the cause of goodness in things ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.20.4)., #KEYS
7:God wills no good more than He wills His own goodness ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.19.9)., #KEYS
8:You must have boundless faith in the divine goodness, for the victory is absolutely certain. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
9:Christ's mind is the controlling influence that inspires us to moderation and goodness in our behavior. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
10:What needs our time are kinder beings, not more intelligent beings. Intelligence without goodness is a failed mutation. ~ Claudio Naranjo, #KEYS
11:Divine goodness not only does not reject the repentant soul, but always seeks to find even the obstinate. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
12:The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God for what He is sending us every day in His goodness." ~ Saint Gianna Molla, #KEYS
13:Blessed is the man who knows his own weakness, because this knowledge becomes to him the foundation, root, and beginning of all Goodness. ~ Saint Isaac of Syria, #KEYS
14:Conquer the angry one by not getting angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and the liar by speaking the truth. ~ Gautama Buddha, #KEYS
15:When Divine grace descends, men having the germs of piety and goodness in them are changed at once into holy beings. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
16:Something cannot be added to God by the action of anything, for His goodness is completely perfect ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 3.18)., #KEYS
17:The nonsubsistence of being as being is the ultimate witness of its superessential fullness: as the likeness of divine goodness. ~ Ferdinand Ulrich, Homo Abyssus (286-87), #KEYS
18:Because of his infinite goodness, it is more proper to God to show mercy and to spare than to punish ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.21.2)., #KEYS
19:Have great confidence in God's goodness and mercy, and He will never abandon you; but don't neglect to embrace His holy cross because of this. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
20:This is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce good ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.2.3ad1). #KEYS
21:This is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce good ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.2.3ad1)., #KEYS
22:All beings, to the extent that they exist, are good and come from the Good and they fall short of goodness and being in proportion to their remoteness from the Good. ~ Pseudo-Dionysius, #KEYS
23:But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. ~ Latita Vistara, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
24:Compassion toward animals is essentially bound up with goodness of character. Whoever is cruel to them cannot be good to men ~ Sehopenhauer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
25:He says that they are "children" when their own way of thinking is molded into loving kindness toward their brothers and sisters, in likeness of the Father's goodness. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
26:God invisible,...say not so; for who is more apparent than He? That is the goodness of God, that is His virtue, to be apparent in all. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
27:The first gift of the absolute transcendent Goodness is the gift of being, and that Goodness is praised from those that first and principally have a share of being. ~ Ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite, #KEYS
28:The goodness of God is the highest object of prayer, and it reaches down to our lowest need. It quickens our soul and gives it life, and makes it grow in grace and virtue." ~ Saint Julian of Norwich, #KEYS
29:the Many returning to and embracing the One is Good, and is known as wisdom; the One returning to and embracing the Many is Goodness, and is known as compassion. ~ Ken Wilber, Sex Ecology Spirituality, #KEYS
30:The Twelve Powers of the Mother manifested for Her Work: Sincerity, Peace, Equality, Generosity, Goodness, Courage, Progress, Receptivity, Aspiration, Perserverance, Gratitude, Humility
~ The Mother?,#KEYS
31:Goodness of character was the attribute of the master of messengers, and was ever the most righteous action of the truthful saints. ~ Imam Ghazali), @Sufi_Path #KEYS
32:Although it is possible to think of God without considering His goodness, it is impossible to think that God exists and is not good ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 10.12ad9)., #KEYS
33:True joy, genuine festival, means the casting out of wickedness. To achieve this one must live a life of perfect goodness and, in the serenity of the fear of God, practise contemplation in one's heart. ~ Athanasius, #KEYS
34:Since we are not without insight, we ought to perceive the will of the goodness of our Father in speaking to us, wishing us to search out how we are to approach him, without being led astray like them. ~ Letter of Barnabas, #KEYS
35:Thou who art the soul of all things, Thy universal diffusion witnesses to Thy power and goodness. It is in thee, in others, in all creatures, in all worlds. ~ Vishnu Purana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
36:Allah 'Azza wa Jalla wants only goodness for us, not badness. But people oppress themselves, & cause trouble & problems for themselves. ~ Shaykh Mehmet Adil al-Haqqani Al-Naqshabandi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
37:This is the good of each thing, namely, to participate in the likeness of God; for every other goodness is nothing other than a certain likeness of the first goodness ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 1.96)., #KEYS
38:...God will elevate to the throne a model king, a Christian king. The son of Saint Louis will love religion, goodness, justice. The Lord will give him the light, the wisdom, and the power." ~ Ven. Mother Marie Josepha of Bourg (1788-1862), #KEYS
39:Meditate on the Lord alone, on Him, the Fountain of Goodness. Pray to Him; depend on Him. Try to give more time to japa and meditation. Surrender your mind at His Feet. Endeavor to sustain japa and meditation without a break. ~ SRI ANANDAMAYI MA, #KEYS
40:They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. ~ Saint Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
41:The Spirit is the source of holiness, a spiritual light, and he offers his own light to every mind to help it in its search for truth. By nature the Spirit is beyond the reach of our mind, but we can know him by his goodness. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
42:He has not assumed a body as proper to His own nature, far from it, for as the Word He is without body. He has been manifested in a human body for this reason only, out of the love and goodness of His Father, for the salvation of us men. ~ Athanasius, #KEYS
43:The Spirit is the source of holiness, a spiritual light, and he offers his own light to every mind to help it in its search for truth. By nature the Spirit is beyond the reach of our mind, but we can know him by his goodness. ~ Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, #KEYS
44:Agatha, the name of our saint, means 'good.' She was truly good, for she lived as a child of God. She was also given as the gift of God, the source of all goodness to her bridegroom, Christ, and to us. For she grants us a share in her goodness. ~ Methodius of Sicily, #KEYS
45:The Word of God cries out in the most remote solitude of the divine goodness. His cry is the creation of all natures... because through him God the Father has called, that is, created everything that he wanted to come to be. ~ Eriugena, Commentary on the Gospel of John 1.27, #KEYS
46:The eye of his intellect beholds the whole implicit trace of God's goodness... [and] what the pure intellect sees naturally through reverent knowledge it can also passively experience, becoming, through its habit of virtue, the very thing it sees. ~ Maximus, Ambiguum 10 (1133C), #KEYS
47:And by the words, "God saw that it was good," it is sufficiently intimated that God made what was made not from any necessity, nor for the sake of supplying any want, but solely from His own goodness, that is, because it was good. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, City of God xi.24, #KEYS
48:Even as civil authority has the disposal of men in matters of life and death, and all that touches the end of its government, namely justice, so God has all things at his disposal to direct them to the end of his government, which end is his Goodness ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (De Potentia 1.6ad4)., #KEYS
49:Practice in a straightforward way. There is no need to live in fantasy and 'pretend' to be anything other than what you are. Be honest and open with yourself - if you are a good person, recognize that goodness and build upon it. If you are a deluded person, recognize that delusion and begin to disentangle yourself from it, be rid of it. It is essential that your practice be pure, straightforward and honest. ~ Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche, #KEYS
50:The centre of the Mother's symbol represent the Divine Consciousness, the Supreme Mother, the Mahashakti.
The four petals of the Mother's symbol represent the four Aspects or Personalities of the Mother; Maheshwari (Wisdom), Mahalakshmi(Harmony), Mahakali(Strength) and Mahasaraswati (Perfection).
The twelve petals of the Mother's symbol represent; Sincerity, Humility, Gratitude, Perseverance, Aspiration, Receptivity, Progress, Courage, Goodness, Generosity, Equality, Peace.
~ ?, https://www.auroville.com/silver-ring-mother-s-symbol.html, [T5],#KEYS
51:Everybody has certain ideals which determine the direction of his endeavors and his judgments. In this sense I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves - such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine. The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Without the sense of fellowship with men of like mind, of preoccupation with the objective, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific research, life would have seemed to me empty. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
52:The simple fact is that we live in a world of conflict and opposites because we live in a world of boundaries. Since every boundary line is also a battle line, here is the human predicament: the firmer one's boundaries, the more entrenched are one's battles. The more I hold onto pleasure, the more I necessarily fear pain. The more I pursue goodness, the more I am obsessed with evil. The more I seek success, the more I must dread failure. The harder I cling to life, the more terrifying death becomes. The more I value anything, the more obsessed I become with its loss. Most of our problems, in other words, are problems of boundaries ~ ?, #KEYS
53:Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful: he cuts away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown upon his work. So do you also: 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 chiselling 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. ~ Plotinus, The Enneads, #KEYS
54:If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for . . . To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him.
Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference. ~ Thomas Merton,#KEYS
55:Turn your thoughts now, and lift up your thoughts to a devout and joyous contemplation on sage Vyasa and Vasishtha, on Narda and Valmiki. Contemplate on the glorious Lord Buddha, Jesus the Christ, prophet Mohammed, the noble Zoroaster (Zarathushtra), Lord Mahavira, the holy Guru Nanak. Think of the great saints and sages of all ages, like Yajnavalkya, Dattatreya, Sulabha and Gargi, Anasooya and Sabari, Lord Gauranga, Mirabai, Saint Theresa and Francis of Assisi. Remember St. Augustine, Jallaludin Rumi, Kabir, Tukaram, Ramdas, Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, Vivekananda and Rama Tirtha. Adore in thy heart the sacred memory of Mahatma Gandhi, sage Ramana Maharishi, Aurobindo Ghosh, Gurudev Sivananda and Swami Ramdas. They verily are the inspirers of humanity towards a life of purity, goodness and godliness. Their lives, their lofty examples, their great teachings constitute the real wealth and greatest treasure of mankind today.
~ Sri Chidananda, Advices On Spiritual Living,#KEYS
56:ཨོཾ། འཇིགས་པ་བརྒྱད་སྐྱོབ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
OM, JIK PA GYÉ KYOB MA LA CHAK TSAL LO
"Om! Homage to you, who protects from the eight fears!
བཀྲ་ཤིས་དཔལ་འབར་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
TASHI PAL BAR MA LA CHAK TSAL LO
Homage to you, who shines as a beacon of goodness!
ངན་སོང་སྒོ་འགེགས་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
NGEN SONG GO GEK MA LA CHAK TSAL LO
Homage to you, who closes the gates to the lower realms!
མཐོ་རིས་ལམ་འདྲེན་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
TORI LAM DREN MA LA CHAK TSAL LO
Homage to you, who leads the way to the higher realms!
རྟག་ཏུ་ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་སྟོངས་པར་མཛད། །
TAK TU KYÉ KYI TONG PAR DZÉ
You are my constant companion.
ད་དུང་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བསྐྱབ་ཏུ་གསོལ། །
DA DUNG TUK JÉ KYAB TU SOL
Always protect me with compassion! ~ Prayer to Tara, H E Garchen Rinpoche?#KEYS
57:Why God sometimes allows people who are genuinely good to be hindered in the good that they do. God, who is faithful, allows his friends to fall frequently into weakness only in order to remove from them any prop on which they might lean. For a loving person it would be a great joy to be able to achieve many great feats, whether keeping vigils, fasting, performing other ascetical practices or doing major, difficult and unusual works. For them this is a great joy, support and source of hope so that their works become a prop and a support upon which they can lean. But it is precisely this which our Lord wishes to take from them so that he alone will be their help and support. This he does solely on account of his pure goodness and mercy, for God is prompted to act only by his goodness, and in no way do our works serve to make God give us anything or do anything for us. Our Lord wishes his friends to be freed from such an attitude, and thus he removes their support from them so that they must henceforth find their support only in him. For he desires to give them great gifts, solely on account of his goodness, and he shall be their comfort and support while they discover themselves to be and regard themselves as being a pure nothingness in all the great gifts of God. The more essentially and simply the mind rests on God and is sustained by him, the more deeply we are established in God and the more receptive we are to him in all his precious gifts - for human kind should build on God alone. ~ Meister Eckhart, #KEYS
58:In the name of Him Who created and sustains the world, the Sage Who endowed tongue with speech.
He attains no honor who turns the face from the doer of His mercy.
The kings of the earth prostate themselves before Him in supplication.
He seizes not in haste the disobedient, nor drives away the penitent with violence. The two worlds are as a drop of water in the ocean of His knowledge.
He withholds not His bounty though His servants sin; upon the surface of the earth has He spread a feast, in which both friend and foe may share.
Peerless He is, and His kingdom is eternal. Upon the head of one He placed a crown another he hurled from the throne to the ground.
The fire of His friend He turned into a flower garden; through the water of the Nile He sended His foes to perdition.
Behind the veil He sees all, and concealed our faults with His own goodness.
He is near to them that are downcast, and accepts the prayers of them that lament.
He knows of the things that exist not, of secrets that are untold.
He causes the moon and the sun to revolve, and spreads water upon the earth.
In the heart of a stone hath He placed a jewel; from nothing had He created all that is.
Who can reveal the secret of His qualities; what eye can see the limits of His beauty?
The bird of thought cannot soar to the height of His presence, nor the hand of understanding reach to the skirt of His praise.
Think not, O Saadi, that one can walk in the road of purity except in the footsteps of Mohammed (Peace and Blessings be Upon Him)
~ Saadi, The Bustan of Sa'di,#KEYS
59:Now I have taught you about Immortal Man and have loosed the bonds of the robbers from him. I have broken the gates of the pitiless ones in their presence. I have humiliated their malicious intent, and they all have been shamed and have risen from their ignorance. Because of this, then, I came here, that they might be joined with that Spirit and Breath, [III continues:] and might from two become one, just as from the first, that you might yield much fruit and go up to Him Who Is from the Beginning, in ineffable joy and glory and honor and grace of the Father of the Universe.
"Whoever, then, knows the Father in pure knowledge will depart to the Father and repose in Unbegotten Father. But whoever knows him defectively will depart to the defect and the rest of the Eighth. Now whoever knows Immortal Spirit of Light in silence, through reflecting and consent in the truth, let him bring me signs of the Invisible One, and he will become a light in the Spirit of Silence. Whoever knows Son of Man in knowledge and love, let him bring me a sign of Son of Man, that he might depart to the dwelling-places with those in the Eighth.
"Behold, I have revealed to you the name of the Perfect One, the whole will of the Mother of the Holy Angels, that the masculine multitude may be completed here, that there might appear in the aeons, the infinities and those that came to be in the untraceable wealth of the Great Invisible Spirit, that they all might take from his goodness, even the wealth of their rest that has no kingdom over it. I came from First Who Was Sent, that I might reveal to you Him Who Is from the Beginning, because of the arrogance of Arch-Begetter and his angels, since they say about themselves that they are gods. And I came to remove them from their blindness, that I might tell everyone about the God who is above the universe. Therefore, tread upon their graves, humiliate their malicious intent, and break their yoke and arouse my own. I have given you authority over all things as Sons of Light, that you might tread upon their power with your feet."
These are the things the blessed Savior said, and he disappeared from them. Then all the disciples were in great, ineffable joy in the spirit from that day on. And his disciples began to preach the Gospel of God, the eternal, imperishable spirit. Amen.
~ The Sophia of Jesus, (excerpt), The Nag Hamadi Library,#KEYS
60:Evil
Hasten towards the good, leave behind all evil thoughts, for to do good without enthusiasm is to have a mind which delights in evil.
If one does an evil action, he should not persist in it, he should not delight in it. For full of suffering is the accumulation of evil.
If one does a good action, he should persist in it and take delight in it. Full of happiness is the accumulation of good.
As long as his evil action has not yet ripened, an evildoer may experience contentment. But when it ripens, the wrong-doer knows unhappiness.
As long as his good action has not yet ripened, one who does good may experience unhappiness. But when it ripens, the good man knows happiness.
Do not treat evil lightly, saying, "That will not touch me." A jar is filled drop by drop; even so the fool fills himself little by little with wickedness.
Do not treat good lightly, saying, "That will not touch me." A jar is filled drop by drop; even so the sage fills himself little by little with goodness.
The merchant who is carrying many precious goods and who has but few companions, avoids dangerous roads; and a man who loves his life is wary of poison. Even so should one act regarding evil.
A hand that has no wound can carry poison with impunity; act likewise, for evil cannot touch the righteous man.
If you offend one who is pure, innocent and defenceless, the insult will fall back on you, as if you threw dust against the wind.
Some are reborn here on earth, evil-doers go to the worlds of Niraya,1 the just go to the heavenly worlds, but those who have freed themselves from all desire attain Nirvana.
Neither in the skies, nor in the depths of the ocean, nor in the rocky caves, nowhere upon earth does there exist a place where a man can find refuge from his evil actions.
Neither in the skies, nor in the depths of the ocean, nor in the rocky caves, nowhere upon earth does there exist a place where a man can hide from death.
People have the habit of dealing lightly with thoughts that come. And the atmosphere is full of thoughts of all kinds which do not in fact belong to anybody in particular, which move perpetually from one person to another, very freely, much too freely, because there are very few people who can keep their thoughts under control.
When you take up the Buddhist discipline to learn how to control your thoughts, you make very interesting discoveries. You try to observe your thoughts. Instead of letting them pass freely, sometimes even letting them enter your head and establish themselves in a quite inopportune way, you look at them, observe them and you realise with stupefaction that in the space of a few seconds there passes through the head a series of absolutely improbable thoughts that are altogether harmful.
...?
Conversion of the aim of life from the ego to the Divine: instead of seeking one's own satisfaction, to have the service of the Divine as the aim of life.
*
What you must know is exactly the thing you want to do in life. The time needed to learn it does not matter at all. For those who wish to live according to Truth, there is always something to learn and some progress to make. 2 October 1969 ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931,#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:Badness is only spoiled goodness. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 2:God's glory is His goodness. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 3:In goodness there are all kinds of wisdom. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 4:Goodness Is oneness-love In perfect action. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 5:When good men die their goodness does not perish. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 6:Without Goodness one cannot enjoy enduring happiness ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 7:Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. ~ william-shakespeare, @wisdomtrove 8:Goodness can be found sometimes in the middle of hell. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 9:Loving-kindness is the better part of goodness. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 10:Remember the goodness of God in the frost of adversity. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 11:Always God’s goodness is the ground of our expectation. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 12:A grateful heart is like a sponge that soaks up God's goodness. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 13:The moment good taste knows itself, some of its goodness is lost. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 14:Hard times always uncover the basic goodness and evil of the day. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 15:This is true faith, a living confidence in the goodness of God. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 16:What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 17:God's grace, quite simply, is God's mercy and goodness toward us. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 18:Jesus Christ was an extremist for love, truth and goodness. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 19:The purpose of life is to bring forth goodness. Now, in this life. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 20:True goodness springs from a man's own heart. All men are born good. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 21:It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 22:It is certain that an atom of goodness on the path of faith is never lost. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 23:Only a writer who has the sense of evil can make goodness readable. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 24:Religions are many and diverse, but reason and goodness are one. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 25:Goodness shapes our will, and truth shapes our understanding. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 26:Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 27:I have good looking kids. Thank goodness my wife cheats on me. ~ rodney-dangerfield, @wisdomtrove 28:Greatness is a matter of a moment. Goodness is the work of a lifetime. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 29:In society one needs a flexible virtue; too much goodness can be blamable. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 30:There is within human nature an amazing potential for goodness. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 31:Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished. ~ nelson-mandela, @wisdomtrove 32:There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 33:I close my eyes, think positive thoughts, and breathe goodness in and out ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 34:Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 35:Happiness is a certain activity of soul in conformity with perfect goodness. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 36:The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 37:God is not merely good, but goodness; goodness is not merely divine, but God. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 38:Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!' & 39:I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness. ~ walt-whitman, @wisdomtrove 40:Mere goodness can achieve little against the power of nature. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 41:The goodness of your true pun is in the direct ratio of its intolerability. ~ edgar-allan-poe, @wisdomtrove 42:To be acutely conscious is a disease, a real, honest-to-goodness disease. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 43:It's better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a terrific cost. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 44:Trinity!! Higher than any being, any divinity, any goodness! ~ pseudo-dionysius-the-areopagite, @wisdomtrove 45:Truth, and goodness, and beauty are but different faces of the same all. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 46:Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of one's own goodness. ~ michel-de-montaigne, @wisdomtrove 47:Secrecy is the element of all goodness; even virtue, even beauty is mysterious. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 48:The cosmos deals in the currency of emotion. When we feel good, goodness flows. ~ danielle-laporte, @wisdomtrove 49:Order is not goodness; but perhaps it is the indispensable road to arrive at it. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 50:Man has two great spiritual needs. One is for forgiveness. The other is for goodness. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 51:How lovely goodness is in those who, stepping lightly, go smiling through the world. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 52:Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed. ~ reinhold-niebuhr, @wisdomtrove 53:One's sanctions for truth and goodness are established largely by individual preferences. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 54:What makes a man stand up and work? Strength. Strength is goodness, weakness is sin. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 55:You must never forget that greatness does not guarantee happiness but goodness always does ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 56:If there be any one whose power is in beauty, in purity, in goodness, it is a woman. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 57:... there are people who added goodness to the world and people who lived to destroy it. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 58:Every man had his personal habits, passions, and impulses toward goodness, beauty, and truth. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 59:Faith is a free surrenderand a joyous wager on the unseen, unknown, untested goodness of God. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 60:The goodness of God is infinitely more wonderful than we will ever be able to comprehend. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 61:Goodness, generosity, or love does not come into being save through the search for reality. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 62:Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 63:The man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 64:Free will, though it makes evil possible, also makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 65:Be a true representative of the goodness in your heart, and don't expect it to be easy or even noticed. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove 66:Try your best to make goodness attractive. That's one of the toughest assignments you'll ever be given. ~ fred-rogers, @wisdomtrove 67:True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove 68:To make knowledge valuable, you must have the cheerfulness of wisdom. Goodness smiles to the last. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 69:Nothing that was worthy in the past departs; no truth or goodness realized by man ever dies, or can die. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 70:I never could be so happy as you. Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 71:I am larger, better than I thought, I did not know I held so much goodness. —Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 72:If love is not married to wisdom (or if goodness is not married to truth), it cannot accomplish anything. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 73:Those that hate goodness are sometimes nearer than those that know nothing at all about it and think they have it. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 74:Jesus didn't go around condemning people. The Bible says it's the goodness of God that leads people to repentance. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 75:Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is none. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 76:The egg is white though the hen is black as coal... Out of evil comes good, through the great goodness of God. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 77:Be like the honeybee who gathers only nectar wherever it goes. Seek the goodness that is found in everyone. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 78:If you set out to meditate, it will not be meditation. If you set out to be good, goodness will never flower. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 79:I hate purity, I hate goodness! I don't want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 80:Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. To these I commit my day. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 81:Being in humaneness is good. If we select other goodness and thus are far apart from humaneness, how can we be the wise? ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 82:Every germ of goodness will at last struggle into bloom and fruitage... true success follows every right step. ~ orison-swett-marden, @wisdomtrove 83:Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 84:Why don’t I see goodness and beauty everywhere? Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside. ~ anthony-de-mello, @wisdomtrove 85:The harvested fields bathed in the autumn mist speak of God and his goodness far more vividly than any human lips. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 86:If we do not believe in ourselves- neither in our efficacy nor in our goodness- the universe is a frightening place. ~ nathaniel-branden, @wisdomtrove 87:Loving-kindness is the better part of goodness. It lends grace to the sterner qualities of which this consists. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 88:The danger in trying to do good is that the mind comes to confuse the intent of goodness with the act of doing things well. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 89:Goodness is, so to speak, itself; badness is only spoiled goodness. And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 90:Love is an image of God, and not a lifeless image, but the living essence of the divine nature which beams full of all goodness. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 91:The gratitude that we encounter helps us believe in the goodness of the world, and strengthens us thereby to do what's good. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 92:You tend to close your eyes to truth, beauty and goodness because they give no scope to your sense of the ridiculous. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 93:As mercy is God's goodness confronting human misery and guilt, so grace is his goodness directed toward human debt and demerit. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 94:Trust, practice, and then release yourself into the goodness of Existence and your life will prove that what you believe, you see. ~ michael-beckwith, @wisdomtrove 95:The first link between my soul and Christ is not my goodness but my badness, not my merit but my misery, not my riches but my need. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 96:The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. ~ charlie-chaplan, @wisdomtrove 97:Choose the way of life. Choose the way of love. Choose the way of caring. Choose the way of goodness. It's up to you. It's your choice. ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 98:Perfect goodness can never debate about the end to be attained, and perfect wisdom cannot debate about the means most suited to achieve it. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 99:She thought there were no Gods; no one was to blame; and so she evolved this atheist's religion of doing good for the sake of goodness. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 100:The moral duty of man consists of imitatingthe moral goodness and beneficence of God,manifested in the creation, toward all His creatures. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 101:In the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love. ~ dwight-eisenhower, @wisdomtrove 102:Strength and strength's will are the supreme ethic. All else are dreams from hospital beds, the sly, crawling goodness of sneaking souls. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 103:You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. ~ eckhart-tolle, @wisdomtrove 104:Goodness is not in the backyard of the individual nor in the open field of the collective; goodness flowers only in freedom from both. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 105:Do not talk to me of goodness, of abstract justice, of nature law. Necessity is the highest law, public welfare is the highest justice. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 106:Goodness and love mould the form into their own image, and cause the joy and beauty of love to shine forth from every part of the face. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 107:The greatest historian should also be a great moralist. It is no proof of impartiality to treat wickedness and goodness on the same level. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 108:When good men die their goodness does not perish, But lives though they are gone. As for the bad, All that was theirs dies and is buried with them. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 109:If children are allowed free development and given occupation to correspond with their unfolding minds their natural goodness will shine forth. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 110:Do not doubt your own basic goodness. In spite of all confusion and fear, you are born with a heart that knows what is just, loving, and beautiful. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 111:The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove 112:God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 113:If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 114:Christ is no Moses, no exactor, no giver of laws, but a giver of grace, a Savior; he is infinite mercy and goodness, freely and bountifully given to us. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 115:I am lucky to be what I am! Thank goodness I'm not just a clam, or a ham, or a dusty jar of sour gooseberry jam! I am what I am - that's a great thing to be! ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 116:My wish is that South Africans never give up on the belief in goodness, that they cherish that faith in human beings as a cornerstone of our democracy. ~ nelson-mandela, @wisdomtrove 117:Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn't marry a girl just because she's pretty, but my goodness, doesn't it help? ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 118:There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 119:We live in an age which is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy, as if it were a crime. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 120:Do not compromise yourself and put your goodness in the same impermanent category as whatever circumstance happening. Be the best you in every circumstance. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 121:If you make it a habit not to blame others, you will feel the growth of the ability to love in your soul, and you will see the growth of goodness in your life. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 122:Goodness that comes out of hiding and assumes a public role is no longer good, but corrupt in its own terms and will carry its own corruption wherever it goes. ~ hannah-arendt, @wisdomtrove 123:There are two things that men should never weary of, goodness and humility; we get none too much of them in this rough world among cold, proud people. ~ robert-louis-stevenson, @wisdomtrove 124:How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 125:The higher the sun ariseth, the less shadow doth he cast; even so the greater is the goodness, the less doth it covet praise; yet cannot avoid its rewards in honours. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 126:Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing. ~ francis-bacon, @wisdomtrove 127:Since God is the highest good, he would not allow any evil to exist in his works unless his omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 128:It is goodness that gives to a neighborhood its beauty. One who is free to choose, yet does not prefer to dwell among the good - how can he be accorded the name of wise? ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 129:Literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others - because it's a tool to help us live and die with a little bit more wisdom, goodness, and sanity. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 130:The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 131:The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 132:I inhale great draught of space... the east and west are mine... and the north and south are mine... I am grandeur than I thought... I did not know i held so much goodness. ~ walt-whitman, @wisdomtrove 133:Let us therefore rely on the goodness of the cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 134:The activities of drawing, eating and drinking, all involve assimilations by the self of desirable elements from the world, a transfer of goodness from without to within. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 135:The true past departs not, no truth or goodness realized by man ever dies, or can die; but all is still here, and, recognized or not, lives and works through endless change. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 136:The value of culture is its effect on character. It avails nothing unless it ennobles and strengthens that. Its use is for life. Its aim is not beauty but goodness. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 137:That's the way life works: gratitude and appreciation just bring more goodness. Remember: Everything we give out comes back. Gratitude has all sorts of little, surprising rewards. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 138:That which you create in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come. Don't spend your life accumulating material objects that will only turn to dust and ashes. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 139:The Heart and core of everything here is good, that whatever may be the surface waves, deep down and underlying everything, there is an infinite basis of Goodness and Love. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 140:The more conscious I was of goodness and of all that was & 141:Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 142:Always having what we want may not be the best good fortune Health seems sweetest after sickness, food in hunger, goodness in the wake of evil, and at the end of daylong labor sleep. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 143:Beauty adds to goodness a relation to the cognitive faculty: so that "good" means that which simply pleases the appetite; while the "beautiful" is something pleasant to apprehend. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 144:Beauty adds to goodness a relation to the cognitive faculty: so that "good" means that which simply pleases the appetite; while the "beautiful" is something pleasant to apprehend. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 145:The gods, (if gods to goodness are inclined If acts of mercy touch their heavenly mind), And, more than all the gods, your generous heart, Conscious of worth, requite its own desert! ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 146:In order to obtain and hold power a man must love it. Thus the effort to get it is not likely to be coupled with goodness, but with the opposite qualities of pride, craft and cruelty. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 147:It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 148:It is by the goodness of god that in our country we have those 3 unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove 149:The spiritual idea of distances of space is the same as of distances of good or distances of truth, which are affinities and likenesses according to states of goodness and truth. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 150:For us, with the rule of right and wrong given us by Christ, there is nothing for which we have no standard. And there is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 151:Thank goodness for all the things you are not, thank goodness you're not something someone forgot, and left all alone in some punkerish place, like a rusty tin coat hanger hanging in space. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 152:The Lord delights to surprise us with His goodness, if only we will unlock the door of obedience with the key of faith - which He has given - and then push it open and walk through. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 153:Badness cannot succeed even in being bad in the same way in which goodness is good. Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness. Evil is a parasite, not an original thing. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 154:Without goodness a man cannot endure adversity for long, nor can he enjoy prosperity for long. The good man is naturally at ease with goodness. The wise man cultivates goodness for its advantage. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 155:With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 156:But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22 ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 157:He had the unlucky capacity many men have of seeing and believing in the possibility of goodness and truth, but of seeing the evil and falsehood of life too clearly to take any serious part in it. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 158:Whatever mitigates the woes, or increases the happiness of others, is a just criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, is a criterion of iniquity. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 159:Let no man turn aside, ever so slightly, from the broad path of honour, on the plausible pretence that he is justified by the goodness of his end. All good ends can be worked out by good means. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 160:Three things are necessary to make every man great,every nation great1.Conviction of the powers of goodness.2.Absence of jealousy and suspicion.3.Helping all who are trying to be and do good. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 161:One of the main reasons that we lose our enthusiasm in life is because we become ungrateful..we let what was once a miracle become common to us. We get so accustomed to his goodness it becomes a routine. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 162:Every one of the great revolutionists, from Isaiah to Shelley, have been optimists. They have been indignant, not about the badness of existence, but about the slowness of men in realizing its goodness. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 163:It was one of those evenings when men feel that truth, goodness and beauty are one. In the morning, when they commit their discovery to paper, when others read it written there, it looks wholly ridiculous. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove 164:... The idea of God, as meaning an infinitely intelligent, wise and good Being, arises from reflecting on the operations of our own mind, and augmenting, without limit, those qualities of goodness and wisdom. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 165:I care far more how humanity lives than how long. Progress, for me, means increasing goodness and happiness of individual lives. For the species, as for each man, mere longevity seems to me a contemptible ideal. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 166:In order to get the power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness, but with qualities which are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning, cruelty. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 167:I win not because of my own efforts or my own goodness, but rather through the grace, love, and mercy of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He died so that I might win this game of life and live with Him forever. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 168:Our task is to stand tall in God's love, secure in our place, sparkling in kindness, surrounded by his goodness, freely giving to all who come our way. You, me, and the Christmas tree. Picked, purchased, and pruned. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 169:The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile." "Try your best to make goodness attractive. That's one of the toughest assignments you'll ever be given. ~ fred-rogers, @wisdomtrove 170:but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 171:I know for sure that appreciating whatever shows up for you in life changes your personal vibration. You radiate and generate more goodness for yourself when you’re aware of all you have and not focusing on your have-nots. ~ oprah-winfrey, @wisdomtrove 172:I can choose to grateful when I am criticized, even when my heart still responds in bitterness. I can choose to speak about goodness and beauty, even when my inner eye still looks for someone to accuse or something to call ugly. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 173:Education in the true sense is helping the individual to be mature and free, to flower greatly in love and goodness. That is what we should be interested in, and not in shaping the child according to some idealistic pattern. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 174:One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right if the head is totally wrong. Only through the bringing together of head and heart-intelligence and goodness-shall man rise to a fulfillment of his true nature. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 175:Our surest protection against assault from abroad has been not all our guards, gates and guns, or even our two oceans, but our essential goodness as a people. Our richest asset has been not our material wealth but our values. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 176:Zen is the spirit of a man. Zen believes in his inner purity and goodness. Whatever is superadded or violently torn away, injures the wholesomeness of the spirit. Zen, therefore, is emphatically against all religious conventionalism. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove 177:The good life consists in deriving happiness by using your signature strengths every day in the main realms of living. The meaningful life adds one more component: using these same strengths to forward knowledge, power or goodness. ~ martin-seligman, @wisdomtrove 178:To be good, according to the vulgar standard of goodness, is obviously quite easy. It merely requires a certain amount of sordid terror, a certain lack of imaginative thought, and a certain low passion for middle- class respectability. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 179:Now the goodness that we have to consider is clearly human goodness, since the good or happiness which we set out to seek was human good and human happiness. But human goodness means in our view excellence of soul, not excellence of body. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 180:God is the Champion at bringing people from a place of destruction to a place of total victory. As they reach that place of victory they become trophies of his grace. and they are set on the display as a fragrant reminder of God's goodness. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 181:Will Supreme, Thy Will prevails. The Fountain of Goodness accomplishes everything when the time is ripe. To aspire to That which is Eternal Truth is right for everyone. Of Thee alone must be the spoken word, All else is but futility and pain. ~ anandamayi-ma, @wisdomtrove 182:You were born with potential. You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness. You were born with wings. You are not meant for crawling, so don't. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 183:The Scripture says that God blesses where men walk in unity, so we just thought it's good for us to come together as Democrats, Republicans; believers, nonbelievers, all different walks of life and say hey, we are here to celebrate the goodness of God. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 184:The signal instances of Providential goodness which we have experienced and which have now almost crowned our labors with complete success demand from us in a peculiar manner the warmest returns of gratitude and piety to the Supreme Author of all good. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 185:Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. To these I commit my day. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek his grace. And then, when this day is done, I will place my head on my pillow and rest. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 186:Our world hinges on moral foundations. God has made it so. God has made the universe to be based on a moral law. So long as man disobeys it he is revolting against God. That's what we need in the world today: people who will stand for right and goodness. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 187:The mind starts to berate itself for its failure to stop being the mind! But the mind can’t stop thinking any more than the heart can stop beating. That’s what it does. And thank goodness for that. If we stopped thinking we wouldn’t be enlightened… we’d be stupid! ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 188:the real "work" of prayer is to become silent and listen to the voice that says good things about me. To gently push aside and silence the many voices that question my goodness and to trust that I will hear the voice of blessing& 189:To be united to God in unity of person was not fitting to human flesh, according to its natural endowments, since it was above his dignity; nevertheless, it was fitting that God, by reason of his infinite goodness, should unite it to himself for human salvation. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 190:The central question is, Are the leaders of the future truly men and women of God, people with an ardent desire to dwell in God's presence, to listen to God's voice, to look at God's beauty, to touch God's incarnate Word and to taste fully God's infinite goodness. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 191:To be united to God in unity of person was not fitting to human flesh, according to its natural endowments, since it was above his dignity; nevertheless, it was fitting that God, by reason of his infinite goodness, should unite it to himself for human salvation. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 192:The moral duty of man consists of imitating the moral goodness and beneficence of God, manifested in the creation towards all his creatures. Everything of persecution and revenge between man and man, and everything of cruelty to animals is a violation of moral duty ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 193:We are beginning to regain a knowledge of Creation, a knowledge forfeited by the fall of Adam. By God's mercy we can begin to recognize His Wonderful works and wonders also in flowers when we ponder his might and goodness. Therefore we laud, magnify and thank Him. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 194:If you were to give me forty such men, I never could be so happy as you. Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness. No, no, let me shift for myself; and, perhaps, if I have very good luck, I may meet with another Mr. Collins in time. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 195:Little mouse, you were so quick, so bright, so sweet, so full of life. And you still are everything you were then. None of it’s lost forever. All that promise, all that hope, that love and goodness‚ it’s still inside you. No one can take the gifts God gave you. Only you. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 196:If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 197:If you are to go to Christ, do not put on your good doings and feelings, or you will get nothing. Go in your sins, they are your livery. Your ruin is your argument for mercy! Your poverty is your plea for heavenly alms! And your need is the motive for heavenly goodness. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 198:Let anyone who comes to you go away feeling better and happier. Everyone should see goodness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile. Joy shows from the eyes. It appears when we speak and walk. It cannot be kept closed inside us. It reacts outside. Joy is very infectious. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 199:You don't impress the officials at NASA with a paper airplane. You don't boast about your crayon sketches in the presence of Picasso. You don't claim equality with Einstein because you can write & 200:The small man thinks that small acts of goodness are of no benefit, and does not do them; and that small deeds of evil do no harm, and does not refrain from them. Hence, his wickedness becomes so great that it cannot be concealed, and his guilt so great that it cannot be pardoned. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 201:But chiefly, no lies! No lies about there being a Santa Claus or about the world being full of noble and honorable people all eager to help each other and do good to each other. I'll tell her there are honor and goodness in the world, the same as there are diamonds and radium. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 202:When man learns to respect even the smallest being of creation... nobody has to teach him to love his fellow man. Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 203:I have often thought with wonder of the great goodness of God; and my soul has rejoiced in the contemplation of His great magnificence and mercy. May He be blessed for ever! For I see clearly that He has not omitted to reward me, even in this life, for every one of my good desires. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 204:This world is nothing. It is at best only a hideous caricature, a shadow of the Real. We must go to the Real. Renunciation will take us to It. Renunciation is the very basis of our true life; every moment of goodness and real life that we enjoy is when we do not think of ourselves. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 205:There is a dew in one flower and not in another, because one opens in cup and takes it in, while the other closes itself, and the drops run off. God rains His goodness and mercy as widespread as the dew, and if we lack them, it is because we will not open our hearts to receive them. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 206:By realisation I mean a wonderful experience of peace, goodness and beauty, when the world makes sense and there is an all-pervading unity of both substance and essence. While such experience does not last, it cannot be forgotten. It shines in the mind, both as memory and longing. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 207:Nobody ever got anything from God on the grounds that he deserved it. Haven fallen, man deserves only punishment and death. So if God answers prayer it's because God is good. From His goodness, His lovingkindness, His good-natured benevolence, God does it! That's the source of everything. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 208:Long may it remain in this mixed world a question not easy of decision, which is the more beautiful evidence of the Almighty's goodness, the soft white hand formed for the ministrations of sympathy and tenderness, or the rough hard hand which the heart softens, teaches, and guides in a moment. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 209:Your life is something opaque, not transparent, as long as you look at it in an ordinary human way. But if you hold it up against the light of God's goodness, it shines and turns transparent, radiant and bright. And then you ask yourself in amazement: Is this really my own life I see before me? ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 210:If you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times. In the kingdom of love there is no competition; there is no possessiveness or control. The more love you give away, the more love you will have. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 211:[... ] it is right to be kind and even sacrifice ourselves to people who need kindness and lie in our way - otherwise, besides failing to help them, we run into the aridity of self-development. To seek for recipients of one's goodness, to play the Potted Jesus leads to the contray the Christian danger. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 212:It seems that God does not exist; because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word "God" means that He is infinite goodness. If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 213:It seems that God does not exist; because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word "God" means that He is infinite goodness. If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 214:Why does not goodness prevail? M: It does - in my real world. In my world, even what you call evil is the servant of the good and therefore necessary. It is like boils and fevers that clear the body of impurities. Disease is painful, even dangerous, but if dealt with rightly, it heals. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 215:This is what you do on your very first day in Paris. You get yourself, not a drizzle, but some honest-to-goodness rain, and you find yourself someone really nice and drive her through the Bois de Boulogne in a taxi. The rain's very important. That's when Paris smells its sweetest. It's the damp chestnut trees. ~ audrey-hepburn, @wisdomtrove 216:I am made by a God: from that God I came perfect above all forms of life, adequate to my function, self-sufficing, lacking nothing: for I am the container of all, that is, of every plant and every animal, of all the Kinds of created things, and many Gods and nations of Spirit-Beings and lofty souls and men happy in their goodness. ~ plotinus, @wisdomtrove 217:While we contemplate in all creatures, as in a mirror, those immense riches of His wisdom, justice, goodness and power, we should not meerly run them over cursorily, and, so to speak, with a fleeting glance, but we should ponder them at length, turn them over in our mind seriously and faithfully and recollect them repeatedly. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 218:Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight. True education combines intellect, beauty, goodness, and the greatest of these is goodness. When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 219: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 chiselling 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. ~ plotinus, @wisdomtrove 220:The good life consists in deriving happiness by using your signature strengths every day in the main realms of living. The meaningful life adds one more component: using these same strengths to forward knowledge, power, or goodness. A life that does this is pregnant with meaning, and if God comes at the end, such a life is sacred. ~ martin-seligman, @wisdomtrove 221:He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began.What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness! A beautiful woman utters absurdities: we listen, and we hear not the absurdities but wise thoughts. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 222:In the end, what would you gain from everlasting remembrance? Absolutely nothing. So, what is left worth living for? This alone: justice in thought, goodness in action, speech that cannot deceive, and a disposition glad of whatever comes, welcoming it as necessary, as familiar, as flowing from the same source and fountain as yourself. ~ marcus-aurelius, @wisdomtrove 223:It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. A handsome woman talks nonsense, you listen and hear not nonsense but cleverness. She says and does horrid things, and you see only charm. And if a handsome woman does not say stupid or horrid things, you at once persuade yourself that she is wonderfully clever and moral. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 224:If I had a friend and loved him because of the benefits which this brought me and because of getting my own way, then it would not be my friend that I loved but myself. I should love my friend on account of his own goodness and virtues and account of all that he is in himself. Only if I love my friend in this way do I love him properly. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 225:God's love never ceases. Never. Though we spurn him. Ignore him. Reject him. Despise him. Disobey him. He will not change. Our evil cannot diminish his love. Our goodness cannot increase it. Our faith does not earn it any more than our stupidity jeopardizes it. God doesn't love us less if we fail or more if we succeed. God's love never ceases. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 226:Goodness has no opposite. Most of us consider goodness as the opposite of the bad or evil and so throughout history in any culture goodness has been considered the other face of that which is brutal. So man has always struggled against evil in order to be good; but goodness can never come into being if there is any form of violence or struggle. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 227:No matter what is going on in your life today, remember, it is only preparation. People come and go; situations rise and fall; it's all preparation for better things. You must stretch, reach, grow into your goodness. Without the preparation we receive through adversity, disappointment, confusion, or pain, we could not appreciate the goodness when it arrives. ~ lyania-vanzant, @wisdomtrove 228:An & 229:Choose today to let the peace of Christ rule in your heart and have an attitude of gratitude toward the Lord. Even if you have things that are upsetting you, take a step of faith and begin to thank God for His goodness in your life. Thank Him for working behind the scenes on your behalf. As you do, you will walk forward into the life of blessing He has in store for you! ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 230:No one can give a definition of the soul. But we know what it feels like. The soul is the sense of something higher than ourselves, something that stirs in us thoughts, hopes, and aspirations which go out to the world of goodness, truth and beauty. The soul is a burning desire to breathe in this world of light and never to lose it& 231:We can never lose what is really ours. Who can lose his being? Who can lose his very existence? If I am good, it is the existence first, and then that becomes colored with the quality of goodness. If I am evil, it is the existence first, and that becomes colored with the quality of badness. That existence is first, last, and always; it is never lost but ever present. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 232:We need limitations and temptations to open our inner selves, dispel our ignorance, tear off disguises, throw down old idols, and destroy false standards. Only by such rude awakenings can we be led to dwell in a place where we are less cramped, less hindered by the ever-insistent External. Only then do we discover a new capacity and appreciation of goodness and beauty and truth. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 233:Fight for the value of your person. Fight for the virtue of your pride. Fight for the essence of that which is man: for his sovereign rational mind. Fight with the radiant certainty and the absolute rectitude of knowing that yours is the Morality of Life and that yours is the battle for any achievement, any value, any grandeur, any goodness, any joy that has ever existed on this earth ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 234:If you punish a child for being naughty, and reward him for being good, he will do right merely for the sake of the reward; and when he goes out into the world and finds that goodness is not always rewarded, nor wickedness always punished, he will grow into a man who only thinks about how he may get on in the world, and does right or wrong according as he finds advantage to himself. ~ immanuel-kant, @wisdomtrove 235:Gratitude is the confidence in life itself... As gratitude grows it gives rise to joy. We experience the courage to rejoice in our own good fortune and in the good fortune of others... We can be joyful for people we love, for moments of goodness, for sunlight and trees, and for the very breath within our lungs. Like an innocent child, we can rejoice in life itself, in being alive. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 236:We've been a free people living under the law, with faith in our Maker and in our future. I've said before that the most sublime picture in American history is of George Washington on his knees in the snow at Valley Forge. That image personifies a people who know that it's not enough to depend on our own courage and goodness; we must also seek help from God, our Father and Preserver. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 237:In the eternal world, all is one. In spiritual space there is no distance. In eternal time there is no segmentation into today, yesterday or tomorrow. In eternal time all is now; time is presence. I believe that this is what eternal life means: it is a life where all that we seek, goodness, unity, beauty, truth and love, are no longer distant from us but are now completely present with us. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 238:Every season is likeable, and wet days and fine, red wine and white, company and solitude. Even sleep, that deplorable curtailment of the joy of life, can be full of dreams; and the most common actions‚îÄ‚îÄa walk, a talk, solitude in one’s own orchard‚îÄ‚îÄcan be enhanced and lit up by the association of the mind. Beauty is everywhere, and beauty is only two finger’s-breadth from goodness. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 239:Freedom without organization of work would be useless. The child left free without means of work would go to waste, just as a new-born baby, if left free without nourishment, would die of starvation.The organization of the work, therefore, is the cornerstone of this new structure of goodness [in education], but even that organization would be in vain without the liberty to make use of it. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 240:I have not loved the world, nor the world me, but let us part fair foes; I do believe, though I have found them not, that there may be words which are things, hopes which will not deceive, and virtues which are merciful, or weave snares for the failing: I would also deem o'er others' griefs that some sincerely grieve; that two, or one, are almost what they seem, that goodness is no name, and happiness no dream. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 241:In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified... . All three were crucified for the same crime-the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 242:Strictly speaking, there are no such things as good and bad impulses. Think... of a piano. It has not got two kinds of notes on it, the & 243:Society is made up of individuals. The thoughts and actions of each individual influence the culture of that society. Instead of waiting for others to improve, we should try to improve ourselves. Once our attitude has changed, we will be able to perceive goodness throughout world. If there is a positive change in us, it will also be reflected in others. It is only what we give that we can hope to get back. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 244:The wide stare stared itself out for one while; the Sun went down in a red, green, golden glory; the stars came out in the heavens, and the fire-flies mimicked them in the lower air, as men may feebly imitate the goodness of a better order of beings; the long dusty roads and the interminable plains were in repose-and so deep a hush was on the sea, that it scarcely whispered of the time when it shall give up its dead. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 245:There once was a child, and he strolled about a good deal, and thought of a number of things. He had a sister, who was a child too, and his constant companion. These two used to wonder all day long. They wondered at the beauty of the flowers; they wondered at the height and blueness of the sky; they wondered at the depth of the bright water; they wondered at the goodness and the power of God who made the lovely world. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 246:When we’re told that we must silence the mind, yet it stubbornly continues to perform its thinking function, we blame ourselves for our failure. Or more accurately the mind starts to berate itself for its failure to stop being the mind! But the mind can’t stop thinking any more than the heart can stop beating. That’s what it does. And thank goodness for that. If the mind stopped thinking we wouldn’t be enlightened … we’d be stupid! ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 247:When we become isolated, we are prone to being damaged; our minds lose their flexibility and natural kindness; we become vulnerable to fear and negativity. The sense of belonging keeps you in balance amidst the inner and outer immensities. The ancient and eternal values of human life - truth, unity, goodness, justice, beauty, and love are all statements of belonging; they are also the secret intention and dream of human longing. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 248:I live in the space of thankfulness – and I have been rewarded a million times over for it. I started out giving thanks for small things, and the more thankful I became, the more my bounty increased. That’s because what you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it. Opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life. ~ oprah-winfrey, @wisdomtrove 249:When consciousness is not housed in a particular object, we say that it resides where there is no permanent cloister. What does it mean not to be located in a particular site? That is, it does not reside in goodness – evil, existence – non-existence, spirit – matter. This means not to remain in the emptiness or non-emptiness, nor in the rest or the no-one. Where there is no permanent cloister, there is the true cloak of consciousness. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove 250:Intellectually I touched God many times as truth and emotionally I touched God as love. I touched God as goodness. I touched God as kindness. It came to me that God is a creative force, a motivating power, an over-all intelligence, an ever-present, all pervading spirit - which binds everything in the universe together and gives life to everything. That brought God close. I could not be where God is not. You are within God. God is within you. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 251:The only thing that really matters is that there be an action of goodness, love and intelligence in living. Is goodness individual or collective, is love personal or impersonal, is intelligence yours, mine or somebody else? If it is yours or mine then it is not intelligence, or love, or goodness. If goodness is an affair of the individual or of the collective, according to one's particular preference or decision, then it is no longer goodness. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 252:Because the divine goodness could not be adequately represented by one creature alone, God produced many and diverse creatures, that what was wanting in one in the representation of the divine goodness might be supplied by another. For goodness, which in God is simple and uniform, in creatures is manifold and divided. Thus the whole universe together participates in the divine goodness more perfectly and represents it better than any single creature. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 253:Because the divine goodness could not be adequately represented by one creature alone, God produced many and diverse creatures, that what was wanting in one in the representation of the divine goodness might be supplied by another. For goodness, which in God is simple and uniform, in creatures is manifold and divided. Thus the whole universe together participates in the divine goodness more perfectly and represents it better than any single creature. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 254:Jesus Christ knew he was God. So wake up and find out eventually who you really are. In our culture, of course, they‚Äôll say you‚Äôre crazy and you‚Äôre blasphemous, and they‚Äôll either put you in jail or in a nut house (which is pretty much the same thing). However if you wake up in India and tell your friends and relations, ‚ÄòMy goodness, I‚Äôve just discovered that I‚Äôm God,‚Äô they‚Äôll laugh and say, ‚ÄòOh, congratulations, at last you found out. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 255:I just remember their kindness and goodness to me, and their peacefulness and their utter simplicity. They inspired real reverence, and I think, in a way, they were certainly saints. And they were saints in that most effective and telling way: sanctified by leading ordinary lives in a completely supernatural manner, sanctified by obscurity, by usual skills, by common tasks, by routine, but skills, tasks, routine which received a supernatural form from grace within. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 256:When you learn to embrace your self with a sense of appreciation and affection, you begin to glimpse the goodness and light that is in you and gradually you will realize that you are worthy of respect from yourself. When you recognize your limits, but still embrace your life with affection and graciousness, the sense of inner dignity begins to grow. You become freer and less dependent on the affirmation of outer voices and less troubled by the negativity of others. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 257:... believing in a God whom we cannot but regard as evil, and then, in mere terrified flattery calling Him & 258:The American elite is almost beyond redemption. . . . Moral relativism has set in so deeply that the gilded classes have become incapable of discerning right from wrong. Everything can be explained away, especially by journalists. Life is one great moral mush& 259:I have been asked many times, Why do you laugh so much and make so many jokes? I become serious sometimes-when I have a stomachache! The Lord is all blissfulness. He is the reality behind all that exists. He is the goodness, the truth in everything. You are His incarnations. That is what is glorious. The nearer you are to Him, the less you will have occasions to cry or weep. The further we are from Him, the more will long faces come. The more we know of Him, the more misery vanishes. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 260:Love of goodness without love of learning degenerates into simple-mindedness. Love of knowledge without love of learning degenerates into utter lack of principle. Love of faithfulness without love of learning degenerates into injurious disregard of consequences. Love of uprightness without love of learning degenerates into harshness. Love of courage without love of learning degenerates into insubordination. Love of strong character without love of learning degenerates into mere recklessness. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 261:Those, however, who saw that one cannot attain wisdom and perennial intellectual life, unless it be given through the gift of grace, and that the goodness of the Almighty God is so great that He hears those who invoke His name, and they gain salvation, became humble, acknowledging that they are ignorant, and directed their life as the life of one desiring eternal wisdom. And that is the life of the virtuous, who proceed in the desire for the other life, which is commended by the saints. ~ nicholas-of-cusa, @wisdomtrove 262:It is due to neither impotence nor ignorance on God‚Äôs part that evils occur in the world, but it is owing to the order of his wisdom and to the greatness of his goodness, whence come the many and divers grades of goodness in things, many of which would be lacking were he to allow no evil to exist. Thus there would be no good of patience without the evil of persecution, nor the good of the preservation of its life in a lion, without the evil of the destruction of the animals on which it lives. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 263:It is due to neither impotence nor ignorance on God‚Äôs part that evils occur in the world, but it is owing to the order of his wisdom and to the greatness of his goodness, whence come the many and divers grades of goodness in things, many of which would be lacking were he to allow no evil to exist. Thus there would be no good of patience without the evil of persecution, nor the good of the preservation of its life in a lion, without the evil of the destruction of the animals on which it lives. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 264:Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from which one is getting something. . . . The truth of the sunshine, the truth of the rain, the truth of the fresh air, the truth of the wind in the trees. . . and if we allow ourselves to be benefited by the forms of truth that are readily accessible to us instead of rejecting them as "merely natural," we will be in a better position to profit by higher forms of truth when they come our way. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 265:I have never seen one who really loves goodness or one who really hates wickedness. One who really loves goodness will not place anything above it. One who really hates wickedness will practice goodness in such a way that wickedness will have no chance to get at him. Is there anyone who has devoted his whole strength to doing good for even as long as a single day? I have not seen anyone give up such an attempt because he had not the strength to go on. Perhaps there is such a case, but I have never seen it. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 266:Evil denotes the lack of good. Not every absence of good is an evil, for absence may be taken either in a purely negative or in aprivative sense. Mere negation does not display the character of evil, otherwise nonexistents would be evil and moreover, a thing would be evil for not possessing the goodness of something else, which would mean that man is bad for not having the strength of a lion or the speed of a wild goat. But what is evil is privation; in this sense blindness means the privation of sight. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 267:Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Every one there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled with light. But they do not call it goodness. They do not call it anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at the source from which it comes. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 268:Evil denotes the lack of good. Not every absence of good is an evil, for absence may be taken either in a purely negative or in aprivative sense. Mere negation does not display the character of evil, otherwise nonexistents would be evil and moreover, a thing would be evil for not possessing the goodness of something else, which would mean that man is bad for not having the strength of a lion or the speed of a wild goat. But what is evil is privation; in this sense blindness means the privation of sight. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 269:God made the world for the delight of human beings& 270:To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 271:Taste, if it mean anything but a paltry connoisseurship, must mean a general susceptibility to truth and nobleness, a sense to discern, and a heart to love and reverence all beauty, order, goodness, wheresoever, or in whatsoever forms and accompaniments they are to be seen. This surely implies, as its chief condition, not any given external rank or situation, but a finely-gifted mind, purified into harmony with itself, into keenness and justness of vision; above all, kindled into love and generous admiration. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 272:We lump together all things that are beyond the capacity of all of us collectively to understand-and one name we give to all those things together is God. Therefore, God is the creative force, the sustaining power, that which motivates toward constant change, the overall intelligence which governs the universe by physical and spiritual law, truth, love, goodness, kindness, beauty, the ever-present, all-pervading essence or spirit, which binds everything in the universe together and gives to everything in the universe.. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 273:Love doesn’t hurt. Love is not the problem. – Don’t blame love if a failed relationship interfered with your other important relationships, or robbed you of your self-esteem and personal freedoms. No, don’t blame love. For it wasn’t love that stole from you. It was possession. It was obsession. It was manipulation. It was confusion. Love had nothing to do with your situation. For love doesn’t close the door against all that is good. It opens it wide to let more goodness in. Love creates freedom and abundance. ~ marc-and-angel-chernoff, @wisdomtrove 274:... superstitions, which, being unable to defend themselves on fair ground, raise these intangling brambles to cover and protect their weakness. Chased from the open country, these robbers fly into the forest, and lie in wait to break in upon every unguarded avenue of the mind, and overwhelm it with religious fears and prejudices. ... The idea of God, as meaning an infinitely intelligent, wise and good Being, arises from reflecting on the operations of our own mind, and augmenting, without limit, those qualities of goodness and wisdom. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 275:The realization of our soul has its moral and its spiritual side. The moral side represents training of unselfishness, control of desire; the spiritual side represents sympathy and love. They should be taken together and never separated. The cultivation of the merely moral side of our nature leads us to the dark region of narrowness and hardness of heart, to the intolerant arrogance of goodness; and the cultivation of the merely spiritual side of our nature leads us to a still darker region of revelry in intemperance of imagination. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 276:To be "in Christ" is to place one's trust in Him for salvation from sin. To be "in Christ" is to trust His goodness, not our own; to trust that His sacrificial death on the cross paid the complete debt of death we owe for our sin; to trust that His resurrection gives us eternal life instead of relying upon our own ability to please God. To be "in Christ" is to claim, by faith, the free gift of salvation. To be "in Christ" is to enjoy a completely restored relationship with our Father in heaven by virtue of His Son's righteous standing. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 277:Dear God, Please teach me to forgive myself and others. Remove the walls that keep love out, behind which I am a prisoner. Heal my guilt and remove my anger, that I might be reborn. Make gentle my heart and strong my spirit and show me how to love. Please show me how to honor myself. Please teach me how to listen to myself. "Please program my mind to know itself, that I might at last be free. Teach me to appreciate your spirit that lives within me. Show me how to be good to myself, that I might know more fully the goodness of life. Amen ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 278:There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you ‚î of kindness and consideration and respect ‚î not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn't know you had. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 279:Happy is the man who has that in his soul which acts upon the dejected as April airs upon violet roots. Gifts from the hand are silver and gold, but the heart gives that which neither silver nor gold can buy. To be full of goodness, full of cheerfulness, full of sympathy, full of helpful hope, causes a man to carry blessings of which he is himself as unconscious as a lamp is of its own shining. Such a one moves on human life as stars move on dark seas to bewildered mariners; as the sun wheels, bringing all the seasons with him from the south. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 280:You can be good for the mere sake of goodness; you cannot be bad for the mere sake of badness. You can do a kind action when you are not feeling kind and when it gives you no pleasure, simply because kindness is right; but no one ever did a cruel action simply because cruelty is wrong - only because cruelty is pleasant or useful to him, In other words, badness cannot succeed even in being bad in the same way in which goodness is good. Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness. And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 281:God has no needs. Human love, as Plato teaches us, is the child of Poverty ‚Äì of want or lack; it is caused by a real or supposed goal in its beloved which the lover needs and desires. But God's love, far from being caused by goodness in the object, causes all the goodness which the object has, loving it first into existence, and then into real, though derivative, lovability. God is Goodness. He can give good, but cannot need or get it. In that sense , His love is, as it were, bottomlessly selfless by very definition; it has everything to give, and nothing to receive. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 282:God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 283:When we stop fighting with ourselves, we aren't creating anymore conflict in our mind. Then our mind can for the first time relax and be still. Then for the first time our consciousness can become whole and unfragmented. Then total attention can be given to all of our thoughts and feelings. And then there will be found a gentleness and a goodness in us that can embrace all that is been given in the world. Then a deep love for everything will be the result of this deep attention. For this total attention, this soft and pure consciousness that we are, is nothing but Love itself. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 284:It's been written that the most sublime figure in American history was George Washington on his knees in the snow at Valley Forge. He personified a people who knew that it was not enough to depend on their own courage and goodness, that they must also seek help from God - their Father and preserver. Where did we begin to lose sight of that noble beginning, of our conviction that standards of right and wrong do exist and must be lived up to? Do we really think that we can have it both ways, that God will protect us in a time of crisis even as we turn away from him in our day-to-day life? ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 285:There may not be a hell, but those who judge may create one. I think people are over-taught. They are over-taught everything. You have to find out by what happens to you, how you will react. I'll have to use a strange term here... "good." I don't know where it comes from, but I feel that there's an ultimate strain of goodness born in each of us. I don't believe in God, but I believe in this "goodness" like a tube running through our bodies. It can be nurtured. It's always magic, when on a freeway packed with traffic, a stranger makes room for you to change lanes... it gives you hope. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 286:If there is anything Zen strongly emphasizes it is the attainment of freedom; that is, freedom from all unnatural encumbrances. Meditation is something artificially put on; it does not belong to the native activity of the mind. Upon what do the fowls of the air meditate? Upon what do the fish in the water meditate? They fly; they swim. Is not that enough? Who wants to fix his mind on the unity of God and man, or on the nothingness of life? Who wants to be arrested in the daily manifestations of his life-activity by such meditations as the goodness of a divine being or the everlasting fire of hell? ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove 287:W ithdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful; he cuts away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown upon his work. So do you also; cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is in shadow; labor to make all one glow of beauty and never cease chiseling your statue until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendor of virtue, until you shall see the perfect goodness established in the stainless shrine. ~ plotinus, @wisdomtrove 288:Trying to become a good or better human being sounds like a commendable and high-minded thing to do, yet it is an endeavour you cannot ultimately succeed in unless there is a shift in consciousness. This is because it is still part of the same dysfunction, a more subtle and rarified form of self-enhancement, of desire for more and a strengthening of one's conceptual identity, one's self- image. You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. But it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness. ~ eckhart-tolle, @wisdomtrove 289:Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful: he cuts away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown upon his work. So do you also: 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 chiselling 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. ~ plotinus, @wisdomtrove 290:Obedience need never be anxious, for there is no form of goodness which it does not possess in itself. When we go out of ourselves through obedience and strip ourselves of what is ours, then God must enter into us; for when someone wills nothing for themselves, then God must will on their behalf just as he does for himself. Whenever I have taken leave of my own will, putting it in the hands of my superior, and no longer will anything for myself, then God must will on my behalf, and if he neglects me in this respect, then he neglects himself. And so in all things in which I do not will for myself, God wills on my behalf. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 291:He is neither number nor order; nor greatness nor smallness; nor equality nor inequality; nor similarity nor dissimilarity; neither is He still, nor moving, nor at rest; neither has He power nor is power, nor is light; neither does He live nor is He life; neither is He essence, nor eternity nor time; nor is He subject to intelligible contact; nor is He science nor truth, nor a king, nor wisdom; neither one nor oneness, nor godhead nor goodness; nor is He spirit according to our understanding, nor a son, nor a father; nor anything else known to us or to any other of the beings or creatures that are or are not; ... ~ pseudo-dionysius-the-areopagite, @wisdomtrove 292:Goodwill has something in common with each of these categories of love, because goodwill is by definition a love for usefulness of all kinds. Goodwill wants to do what is good for our neighbor, and goodness is the same as usefulness. Each of the categories of love just mentioned have usefulness as their goal: love for heaven has the goal of being useful in spiritual ways; love for the world has the goal of being useful in earthly ways, which could also be called forms of civil service; and love for ourselves has the goal of being useful in physical ways, which could also be labeled benefits at home for ourselves and our loved ones.” ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 293:The simple fact is that we live in a world of conflict and opposites because we live in a world of boundaries. Since every boundary line is also a battle line, here is the human predicament: the firmer one’s boundaries, the more entrenched are one’s battles. The more I hold onto pleasure, the more I necessarily fear pain. The more I pursue goodness, the more I am obsessed with evil. The more I seek success, the more I must dread failure. The harder I cling to life, the more terrifying death becomes. The more I value anything, the more obsessed I become with its loss. Most of our problems, in other words, are problems of boundaries and the opposites they create. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 294:Every major religion has similar ideas of love, the same goal of benefiting through spiritual practice, and the same effect of making its followers into better human beings. All religions teach moral precepts for perfecting the functions of the mind, body, and speech. All teach us not to lie or steal or take others' lives, and so on. The common goal of all moral precepts laid down by the great teachers of humanity is unselfishness. Those teachers wanted to lead their followers away from the paths of negative deeds caused by ignorance and to introduce them to paths of goodness. All religions can learn from one another; their ultimate goal is to produce better human beings who will be more tolerant, more compassionate, and less selfish. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 295:How can He who is beyond all things be also above the very principle of divinity and of goodness? By divinity and goodness must be understood the essence of the gift which makes us good and divine, or that unapproachable semblance of the supreme goodness and divinity whereby we also are made good and divine. For since this is the principle of deification and sanctification for those who are so deified and sanctified, then He. who is the essential principle of all principles (and therefore the principle of divinity and goodness) is above that divinity and goodness by means of which we are made good and divine: moreover, since He is inimitable and incomprehensible, He is above imitation and comprehension as He is above those who imitate and partake of Him. ~ pseudo-dionysius-the-areopagite, @wisdomtrove 296:The real importance of Swedenborg lies in the doctrines he taught, which are the reverse of the gloom and hell-fire of other breakaway sects. He rejects the notion that Jesus died on the cross to atone for the sin of Adam, declaring that God is neither vindictive nor petty-minded, and that since he is God, he doesn't need atonement. It is remarkable that this common-sense view had never struck earlier theologians. God is Divine Goodness, and Jesus is Divine Wisdom, and Goodness has to be approached through Wisdom. Whatever one thinks about the extraordinary claims of its founder, it must be acknowledged that there is something very beautiful and healthy about the Swedenborgian religion. Its founder may have not been a great occultist, but he was a great man. Colin Wilson ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 297:One of the most profound changes in my life happened when I got my head around the relationship between gratitude and joy. I always thought that joyful people were grateful people. I mean, why wouldn’t they be? They have all of that goodness to be grateful for. But after spending countless hours collecting stories about joy and gratitude, three powerful patterns emerged: Without exception, every person I interviewed who described living a joyful life or who described themselves as joyful, actively practiced gratitude and attributed their joyfulness to their gratitude practice. Both joy and gratitude were described as spiritual practices that were bound to a belief in human interconnectedness and a power greater than us. People were quick to point out the differences between happiness and joy as the difference between a human emotion that’s connected to circumstances and a spiritual way of engaging with the world that’s connected to practicing gratitude. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 298:Divinity above all knowledge, whose goodness passes understanding . . . direct our way to the summit of thy mystical oracles, most incomprehensible, most lucid and most exalted, where the simple and pure and unchangeable mysteries of theology are revealed in the darkness, clearer than light, of that silence in which secret things are hidden; a darkness that shines brighter than light, that invisibly and intangibly illuminates with splendours of inconceivable beauty the soul that sees not. Let this be my prayer; but do thou, diligently giving thyself to mystical contemplation, leave the senses, and the operations of the intellect, and all things sensible and intelligible, and things that are and things that are not, that thou mayest rise as may be lawful for thee, by ways above knowledge to union with Him who is above all knowledge and all being; that in freedom and abandonment of all, thou mayest be borne, through pure, entire and absolute abstraction of thyself from all things, into the supernatural radiance of the divine darkness. ~ pseudo-dionysius-the-areopagite, @wisdomtrove 299:“Divinity above all knowledge, whose goodness passes understanding . . . direct our way to the summit of thy mystical oracles, most incomprehensible, most lucid and most exalted, where the simple and pure and unchangeable mysteries of theology are revealed in the darkness, clearer than light, of that silence in which secret things are hidden; a darkness that shines brighter than light, that invisibly and intangibly illuminates with splendours of inconceivable beauty the soul that sees not. Let this be my prayer; but do thou, diligently giving thyself to mystical contemplation, leave the senses, and the operations of the intellect, and all things sensible and intelligible, and things that are and things that are not, that thou mayest rise as may be lawful for thee, by ways above knowledge to union with Him who is above all knowledge and all being; that in freedom and abandonment of all, thou mayest be borne, through pure, entire and absolute abstraction of thyself from all things, into the supernatural radiance of the divine darkness. ~ pseudo-dionysius-the-areopagite, @wisdomtrove 300:Because in proportion as we ascend higher our speech is contracted to the limits of our view of the purely intelligible; and so now, when we enter that darkness which is above understanding, we pass not merely into brevity of speech, but even into absolute silence, and the negation of thought. Thus in the other treatises our subject took us from the highest to the lowest, and in the measure of this descent our treatment of it extended itself; whereas now we rise from beneath to that which is the highest, and accordingly our speech is restrained in proportion to the height of our ascent; but when our ascent is accomplished, speech will cease altogether, and be absorbed into the ineffable. But why, you will ask, do we add in the first and begin to abstract in the last? The reason is that we affirmed that which is above all affirmation by comparison with that which is most nearly related to it, and were therefore compelled to make a hypothetical affirmation; but when we abstract that which is above all abstraction, we must distinguish it also from those things which are most remote from it. Is not God more nearly life and goodness than air or a stone; must we not deny more fully that He is drunken or enraged, than that He can be spoken of or understood? ~ pseudo-dionysius-the-areopagite, @wisdomtrove 301:Again, ascending, we say that He is neither soul nor intellect; nor has He imagination, nor opinion or reason; He has neither speech nor understanding, and is neither declared nor understood; He is neither number nor order, nor greatness nor smallness, nor equality nor likeness nor unlikeness; He does not stand or move or rest; He neither has power nor is power; nor is He light, nor does He live, nor is He life; He is neither being nor age nor time; nor is He subject to intellectual contact; He is neither knowledge nor truth. nor royalty nor wisdom; He is neither one nor unity, nor divinity, nor goodness; nor is He spirit, as we understand spirit; He is neither sonship nor fatherhood nor anything else known to us or to any other beings, either of the things that are or the things that are not; nor does anything that is, know Him as He is, nor does He know anything that is as it is; He has neither word nor name nor knowledge; He is neither darkness nor light nor truth nor error; He can neither be affirmed nor denied; nay, though we may affirm or deny the things that are beneath Him, we can neither affirm nor deny Him; for the perfect and sole cause of all is above all affirmation, and that which transcends all is above all subtraction, absolutely separate, and beyond all that is. ~ pseudo-dionysius-the-areopagite, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:Goodness gracious me! ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
2:No greatness without goodness. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
3:Badness is only spoiled goodness. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
4:Evil is more famous than goodness. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
5:Goodness had nothing to do with it. ~ Mae West, #NFDB
6:Goodness is stronger than evil. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
7:How goodness heightens beauty! ~ Milan Kundera, #NFDB
8:Goodness is very seldom dramatic, ~ Tony Reinke, #NFDB
9:It's pure goodness to laugh again. ~ Lisa McMann, #NFDB
10:and gave her a thank-goodness hug ~ Blue Balliett, #NFDB
11:God's glory is His goodness. ~ Henry Ward Beecher, #NFDB
12:Let goodness go with the doing. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
13:Beauty is no guarantee of goodness. ~ Claudia Gray, #NFDB
14:God in his goodness sent the grapes ~ Walter Scott, #NFDB
15:When goodness is lost there is morality. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
16:Dear goodness, the things you learned. ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
17:Thank goodness I've saved my money. ~ Kyle Chandler, #NFDB
18:Goodness, Truth and Beauty come first ~ Muriel Spark, #NFDB
19:For goodness sake, look at those cakes. ~ James Brown, #NFDB
20:Goodness, man, don't be so lachrymose. ~ D H Lawrence, #NFDB
21:In goodness there are all kinds of wisdom. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
22:Nature is goodness crystallized. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
23:Infinite goodness has such wide arms. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
24:The face of goodness may surprise you. ~ Victor LaValle, #NFDB
25:God is not a symbol of goodness; ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
26:God’s goodness is stronger than any evil! ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
27:Goodness thinks no ill Where no ill seems. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
28:Love goodness more than you fear evil. ~ Jonathan Rogers, #NFDB
29:You are my goodness. My redemption. My lifeline. ~ Tijan, #NFDB
30:Goodness Is oneness-love In perfect action. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
31:I believe in the goodness of imagination. ~ Sue Monk Kidd, #NFDB
32:Love gives one a kind of goodness. ~ Alexandre Dumas fils, #NFDB
33:We believe in the inherent goodness of man. ~ Steven Biko, #NFDB
34:Goodness is nothing in the furnace of art. ~ Peter Shaffer, #NFDB
35:I love your duck with all its ducky goodness! ~ Jade Puget, #NFDB
36:Strength is goodness, weakness is sin. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
37:When goodness is lost, it is replaced by morality. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
38:Goodness is easier to recognize than to define. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
39:...goodness is murdered, mediocrity thrives... ~ Bill Hicks, #NFDB
40:Goodness that preaches undoes itself. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
41:Someone else's loss is my chocolatey goodness ~ Joss Whedon, #NFDB
42:Thank goodness my education was neglected. ~ Beatrix Potter, #NFDB
43:Thank goodness werewolves don’t come in “ugly. ~ Celia Kyle, #NFDB
44:Fear corrodes our confidence in God's goodness. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
45:Fearful is the seductive power of goodness. ~ Bertolt Brecht, #NFDB
46:Goodness is beauty in its best mistake ~ Christopher Marlowe, #NFDB
47:Goodness is beauty in the best estate. ~ Christopher Marlowe, #NFDB
48:You are remembered for your goodness. ~ Harbhajan Singh Yogi, #NFDB
49:It is only goodness which gives extra... ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
50:My goodness, you're 60 already, already ~ John Walter Bratton, #NFDB
51:The chief beginning of evil is goodness in excess. ~ Menander, #NFDB
52:When good men die their goodness does not perish. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
53:Evil is always possible. Goodness is a difficulty. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
54:Goodness strives not, and therefore it is not rebuked. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
55:Only basic goodness gives life to technique. ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
56:The soul is strong that trusts in goodness. ~ Philip Massinger, #NFDB
57:A real man is he whose goodness is a part of himself. ~ Mencius, #NFDB
58:is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
59:Kindness is goodness hidden in the heart ~ William Kean Seymour, #NFDB
60:Goodness means the highest degree of popularity. ~ Heinrich Mann, #NFDB
61:Goodness, that Simon Cowell is a sensitive soul. ~ Bruce Forsyth, #NFDB
62:I didn’t feel that there was much goodness in me. ~ Garry Disher, #NFDB
63:I never seen good come out of goodness. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
64:Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
65:Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile: ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
66:Without Goodness one cannot enjoy enduring happiness ~ Confucius, #NFDB
67:Only basic goodness gives life to technique. To ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
68:Photographers aren't artists, for goodness sake. ~ Diana Vreeland, #NFDB
69:Taste goodness before you recommend it. ~ Chinmayananda Saraswati, #NFDB
70:The goodness of the heart is shown in deeds ~ Philip James Bailey, #NFDB
71:Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
72:Who will dare to write a history of human goodness? ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
73:Goodness has never been a guarantee of safety. ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
74:I am inspired when I see goodness in other people. ~ Tricia Helfer, #NFDB
75:I see humanity’s flaws, but I see the goodness too. ~ Melissa Marr, #NFDB
76:Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? ~ Anthony Burgess, #NFDB
77:evil is, after all, only a deficiency of goodness. ~ Dorothy Gilman, #NFDB
78:Goodness and hard work are rewarded with respect. ~ Luther Campbell, #NFDB
79:Nil magnum nisi bonum. No greatness without goodness. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
80:Nothing is rarer than real goodness. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
81:It is not goodness to be better than the worst. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
82:Loving-kindness is the better part of goodness. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
83:When a man is ill his very goodness is sickly. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
84:CALVIN:
As usual goodness hardly puts up a fight. ~ Bill Watterson,#NFDB
85:Goodness is about what you do. Not who you pray to. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
86:Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil. ~ Robert A Heinlein, #NFDB
87:Nothing easier than to confuse busyness with goodness. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
88:Abash'd the Devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
89:Did Pete cry? Goodness no. Buttons come, and buttons go. ~ Eric Litwin, #NFDB
90:God’s goodness by how my life felt at any given time. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
91:He seemed full of some goodness she didn't understand ~ Raymond Carver, #NFDB
92:Sin makes its own hell, and goodness its own heaven. ~ Mary Baker Eddy, #NFDB
93:Sin writes histories, goodness is silent. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
94:"The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind." ~ Atiśa Dīpa kara Śrījñāna, #NFDB
95:Goodness begins simply with the fact of life itself. ~ Gwendolyn Brooks, #NFDB
96:Goodness is the only investment that never fails. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
97:Goodness its the kind of work I come to the Fringe to see ~ Lyn Gardner, #NFDB
98:He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him! ~ Arthur Miller, #NFDB
99:Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
100:Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
101:Goodness can be found sometimes in the middle of hell. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
102:Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, #NFDB
103:Greatness is a matter of a moment. Goodness is the work of ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
104:I do not believe you can threaten people into goodness. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
105:I know no other sign of superiority than Goodness. ~ Ludwig van Beethoven, #NFDB
106:Once you savor God's goodness, sin holds no lasting appeal. ~ Judah Smith, #NFDB
107:Woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
108:Abashed the Devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
109:An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. ~ Maurice Maeterlinck, #NFDB
110:Never give up. Goodness will always outrun evil in the end. ~ Anne Fortier, #NFDB
111:No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand. ~ Bertolt Brecht, #NFDB
112:Remember the goodness of God in the frost of adversity. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
113:The only word for goodness is goodness, and it is not enough. ~ Pat Conroy, #NFDB
114:Woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
115:25 The mark of a heart filled with goodness is a cheerful face, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
116:Abash'd the Devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is,..... ~ John Milton, #NFDB
117:A man who has no conscience, no goodness does not suffer! ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
118:Goodness could be found sometimes in the middle of hell. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
119:I loved writing Dumbledore and he is the epitome of goodness. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
120:Man's nature is evil; goodness is the result of conscious activity. ~ Xunzi, #NFDB
121:True goodness is an inward grace, not an outward necessity. ~ Ellen Glasgow, #NFDB
122:You are my Lord, because You have no need of my goodness. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
123:A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
124:It is not goodness that leads me to tithe, but gratitude. ~ Kim Vogel Sawyer, #NFDB
125:Just like osmosis, the goodness in you will always attract evil. ~ G P Ching, #NFDB
126:People are simply incapable of prolonged, sustained goodness. ~ Diane Frolov, #NFDB
127:Any walk towards the reason and goodness is a holy walk! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
128:Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity. ~ Xunzi, #NFDB
129:I followed Him for His wisdom. But served Him for His goodness. ~ Chuck Black, #NFDB
130:If you look after truth and goodness, beauty looks after herself. ~ Eric Gill, #NFDB
131:If you must know, he said 'my goodness me, a walking potato ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
132:The largest part of goodness is the will to become good. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
133:The moment good taste knows itself, some of its goodness is lost. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
134:When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness' sake. ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
135:Character survives; goodness lives; love is immortal. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll, #NFDB
136:goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
137:Goodness can endure a few moments; holiness is life-defining. ~ Ravi Zacharias, #NFDB
138:Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness. ~ Athenaeus, #NFDB
139:Goodness, real goodness, has it's own sort of cruelty to it. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
140:Goodness-real goodness- has its own sort of cruelty to it... ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
141:Happiness requires both complete goodness and a complete lifetime. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
142:His goodness was always there, even when I didn’t want to see it, ~ Staci Hart, #NFDB
143:A person who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
144:Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
145:Goodness - real goodness - has its own sort of cruelty to it. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
146:Let us allow God to fill our hearts with his goodness and mercy. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
147:Thank goodness modern convenience is a thing of the remote future. ~ Walt Kelly, #NFDB
148:The goodness of the mother is written in the gaiety of the child. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
149:the goodness of the mother is written in the gayety of the child; ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
150:the goodness of the mother is written on the gaiety of the child. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
151:This is true faith, a living confidence in the goodness of God. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
152:We can be wise from goodness and good from wisdom. ~ Marie von Ebner Eschenbach, #NFDB
153:What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
154:Beauty is part of the finished language by which goodness speaks. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
155:Evil forges a tornado.
But goodness battles in a straight line. ~ Caris Roane,#NFDB
156:God's grace, quite simply, is God's mercy and goodness toward us. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
157:I am reclaiming myself. Trusting my goodness and my divine mission. ~ Matisyahu, #NFDB
158:Let you look sometimes for the goodness in me, and judge me not. ~ Arthur Miller, #NFDB
159:Oh, my goodness gracious! I've been bamboozled!
-Jason Todd ~ Judd Winick,#NFDB
160:The purpose of life is to bring forth goodness. Now, in this life. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
161:True goodness springs from a man's own heart. All men are born good. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
162:What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
163:Beauty is the radiance of truth, and the frangrance of goodness. ~ Vincent McNabb, #NFDB
164:Goodness me, the clock has struck-
Alackday, and fuck my luck. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,#NFDB
165:It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
166:It is certain that an atom of goodness on the path of faith is never lost. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
167:It is the way of the world that goodness is often repaid by badness. ~ Alex Haley, #NFDB
168:Only a writer who has the sense of evil can make goodness readable. ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
169:Religions are many and diverse, but reason and goodness are one. ~ Elbert Hubbard, #NFDB
170:The whole universe is but the footprint of the Divine goodness. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
171:YOU ARE NOT ONLY GOOD TO YOURSELF, BUT THE CAUSE OF GOODNESS IN OTHERS ~ Socrates, #NFDB
172:Your goodness must have some edge to it -- else it is none. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
173:After all, Goodness is a state of grace. Evil, is a state of mind. ~ Greg F Gifune, #NFDB
174:Goodness shapes our will, and truth shapes our understanding. ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, #NFDB
175:Goodness will find the little boy. It always has. It will again. ~ Cormac McCarthy, #NFDB
176:If you look after goodness and truth, beauty will take care of itself. ~ Eric Gill, #NFDB
177:Jesus is the culmination of the greatness and the goodness of God. ~ Matt Chandler, #NFDB
178:Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
179:Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
180:One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
181:Thank goodness God is still faithful even when we’re faithless. ~ Terri Blackstock, #NFDB
182:The trust of a people comes from the goodness of their leaders. ~ Melina Marchetta, #NFDB
183:Well goodness knows, goodness knows what historians will write. ~ Alexander Downer, #NFDB
184:We would like to picture goodness as being synonymous with safety. ~ John Eldredge, #NFDB
185:Without imagination, there is no goodness, no wisdom. ~ Marie von Ebner Eschenbach, #NFDB
186:A man's goodness is truly measured by what he is, not what he does. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
187:Artists are indeed unlikely to be good, goodness would silence them. ~ Iris Murdoch, #NFDB
188:for those who notice, his face wears his goodness quite handsomely. ~ Elinor Lipman, #NFDB
189:I have good looking kids. Thank goodness my wife cheats on me. ~ Rodney Dangerfield, #NFDB
190:Jesus Christ was an extremist for love, truth and goodness. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
191:One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
192:The fourth Mrs. Jake Spear? Good God. And strip club? My goodness! ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
193:[T]here is no goodness that is not bodily and realistic and local. ~ Rowan Williams, #NFDB
194:There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth are absent ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
195:Believe in the immortality and everlasting effects of your goodness. ~ Robert Muller, #NFDB
196:Every time you do goodness, you rise to the summit of humanity! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
197:Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!' 'Goodness had nothing to do with it'. ~ Mae West, #NFDB
198:In society one needs a flexible virtue; too much goodness can be blamable. ~ Moliere, #NFDB
199:I think the nature of faith is love an love of the goodness in man. ~ Tobsha Learner, #NFDB
200:Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished ~ Nelson Mandela, #NFDB
201:People forget to understand your goodness, teach them something new. ~ M F Moonzajer, #NFDB
202:Thank goodness, I can always find something funny to keep me up. ~ Louisa May Alcott, #NFDB
203:Thank goodness there is such a good face on soda. Vaccinists euthenists. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
204:The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
205:Truly good people are not aware of their goodness, And are therefore good. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
206:You are my Lord, because You have no need of my goodness. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #NFDB
207:Goodness is not kindness, and there is nothing crueler than virtue. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
208:Goodness, think of what trouble they’d be in if Folly hadn’t practiced. ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
209:My father had never spoken of goodness this way before. It disarmed me. ~ Andr Aciman, #NFDB
210:So I caution you, beware of those who mock goodness and self-discipline. ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
211:Straightforwardness and simplicity are in keeping with goodness. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
212:The inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature of man. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
213:There is goodness as well as greatness in simplicity, not in wealth. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
214:There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
215:I close my eyes, think positive thoughts, and breathe goodness in and out ~ Louise Hay, #NFDB
216:In worship we are ascribing greatness, goodness, and glory to God. It ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
217:Jihad is nothing but making efforts to realise goodness in life. ~ Asghar Ali Engineer, #NFDB
218:A guy who advertises his own goodness is just another kind of asshole. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
219:Constant acts of goodness are worth far more than rare acts of greatness. ~ Ron Kaufman, #NFDB
220:goodness—what defines a good person. Keep to it in everything you do. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
221:Happiness is a certain activity of soul in conformity with perfect goodness ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
222:I am larger, better than I thought, I did not know I held so much goodness. ~ Amy Cuddy, #NFDB
223:One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it." "I ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
224:Only those few people who practice it believe in goodness. ~ Marie von Ebner Eschenbach, #NFDB
225:Our language is primarily for expressing human goodness and beauty. ~ Yasunari Kawabata, #NFDB
226:There is an essential goodness in Americans. They love this country. ~ Kellyanne Conway, #NFDB
227:There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
228:There is within human nature an amazing potential for goodness. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
229:The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
230:We were created to be expressions of the goodness and wholeness of God. ~ Erwin McManus, #NFDB
231:Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
232:Happiness is in its highest degree the sister of goodness. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, #NFDB
233:If goodness can't come from bad things, it makes bad things unbearable. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
234:I have never lost faith in America's essential goodness and greatness. ~ Hillary Clinton, #NFDB
235:I temporarily lost my hope in love, and it was temporary, thank goodness. ~ Shania Twain, #NFDB
236:It must be that evil had its own attractions, just as goodness did. Vance ~ Lisa Kleypas, #NFDB
237:it’s a very hard thing to resist, real goodness, in a tough man. ~ Gregory David Roberts, #NFDB
238:Never for a moment allow your greatness to interfere with your goodness. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
239:Our starting place was always original goodness,10 not original sin. This ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
240:People’s goodness or badness exists within not them but our minds. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
241:There are heroes of wickedness, as there are of goodness. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
242:God is not merely good, but goodness; goodness is not merely divine, but God. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
243:If you never want to be criticized, for goodness sake don't do anything new. ~ Jeff Bezos, #NFDB
244:It takes courage for people to listen to their own goodness and act on it. ~ Pablo Casals, #NFDB
245:One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it. ~ Elizabeth Bennett, #NFDB
246:There is no excess of goodness. You cannot go too far in the right direction. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
247:There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
248:You crown your year with your goodness
and your paths drip with abundance ~ Anonymous,#NFDB
249:And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more ... ~ Banana Yoshimoto, #NFDB
250:Goodness comes out of sadness. Strength comes out of difficult situations. ~ Rashmi Bansal, #NFDB
251:I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness. ~ Walt Whitman, #NFDB
252:I do not believe you can threaten people into goodness.” - Jem Carstairs ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
253:If I lose you, I lose everything. You are the only goodness in my world. ~ Sylvain Reynard, #NFDB
254:If you never want to be criticized, for goodness' sake don't do anything new. ~ Jeff Bezos, #NFDB
255:I have always believed that there is more goodness than evil in the world. ~ Kathryn Lasky, #NFDB
256:It felt as if her goodness could actually be enough to heal my ugliness. ~ Jessica Hawkins, #NFDB
257:I've never had any desire to be good. I don't like goodness particularly. ~ Hanif Kureishi, #NFDB
258:Morality itself requires transcendence, the existence of a “real” goodness. ~ James W Sire, #NFDB
259:My contrariness kept Char laughing, and his goodness kept me in love. ~ Gail Carson Levine, #NFDB
260:She has more goodness in her little finger than he has in his whole body. ~ Jonathan Swift, #NFDB
261:She's a good woman, he thought. The kind of woman whose goodness is oppressive. ~ Han Kang, #NFDB
262:six fundamental virtues: love, wisdom, truth, goodness, mercy and justice ~ Gena Showalter, #NFDB
263:The grace that saves them is the free undeserved goodness and favor of God. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
264:Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
265:All the goodness of a good egg cannot make up for the badness of a bad one. ~ Charles A Dana, #NFDB
266:Bars can't build better men and misery can only break what goodness remains. ~ Stuart Turton, #NFDB
267:Being born with a talent or an inclination for goodness is the aberration. ~ Gregory Maguire, #NFDB
268:Goodness, my nose is enormous,' she exclaimed. 'Why didn't anyone tell me? ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
269:Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. ~ Anne Frank, #NFDB
270:If goodness does exist, then I'm the opposite of it. I'm evil, and I revel in it ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
271:Old age robs you of every last illusion, even the belief in your own goodness. ~ Jill Ciment, #NFDB
272:Thank goodness air and salvation are still free...and so is laughter. ~ Lucy Maud Montgomery, #NFDB
273:There is so much goodness in real life- do let us keep it out of our books. ~ Norman Douglas, #NFDB
274:There was goodness in the world still, even if you couldn't always see it. ~ Jenny Valentine, #NFDB
275:When you're wide awake say it for goodness sake, it's gonna be a great day. ~ Paul McCartney, #NFDB
276:Writing is the starting point from which all goodness (and crappiness) flows. ~ Guy Kawasaki, #NFDB
277:A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God. ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
278:As peace is of all goodness, so war is an emblem, a hieroglyphic, of all misery. ~ John Donne, #NFDB
279:Goodness means telling good lies, so that people won't get hurt by true words. ~ Sue Townsend, #NFDB
280:If we deny our anger, our pain, our ambition, or our goodness, we will suffer. ~ M Scott Peck, #NFDB
281:In my family, goodness is just badness before its had something to drink. ~ Christopher Titus, #NFDB
282:Mere goodness can achieve little against the power of nature. ~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, #NFDB
283:Never mind. Thank goodness air and salvation are still free," said Aunt Jamesina. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
284:The goodness of your true pun is in the direct ratio of its intolerability. ~ Edgar Allan Poe, #NFDB
285:The more goodness you gave to me, the more darkness I gave back. I was changing you.. ~ Tijan, #NFDB
286:To be acutely conscious is a disease, a real, honest-to-goodness disease. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #NFDB
287:Your first responsibility is to yourself and to your own goodness of heart. ~ George Saunders, #NFDB
288:I am larger, better than I thought;
I did not know I held so much goodness. ~ Walt Whitman,#NFDB
289:I don’t like it, but I’m a person, thank goodness, who can do what I don’t like. ~ Henry James, #NFDB
290:It's better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a terrific cost. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
291:Men are apt to offend ('tis true) where they find most goodness to forgive. ~ William Congreve, #NFDB
292:Never wish the death of anyone or you will lose your goodness inside you! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
293:The Infinite Goodness has such wide arms that it takes whatever turns to it. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
294:To count - really and truly to count - a woman must have goodness or brains. ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
295:Truth, and goodness, and beauty, are but different faces of the same All ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
296:Truth, and goodness, and beauty are but different faces of the same all. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
297:Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile; Filths savour but themselves. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
298:badness cannot succeed even in being bad in the same way in which goodness is good. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
299:...bars can't build better men and misery can only break what goodness remains. ~ Stuart Turton, #NFDB
300:Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man. ~ Anthony Burgess, #NFDB
301:How did the supposed goodness of God not get overpowered by the world's darkness? ~ Beth K Vogt, #NFDB
302:If you never want to be criticized,
for goodness' sake, don't do anything new. ~ Jeff Bezos,#NFDB
303:I too believe in the intrinsic goodness of human beings, but it means nothing. ~ Roberto Bola o, #NFDB
304:Just as darkness cannot put out a candle, evil has no real power over goodness. ~ Vernon Howard, #NFDB
305:Live the life that unfolds before you- love goodness more than you fear evil. ~ Jonathan Rogers, #NFDB
306:My only wickedness is that I love you; my only goodness, the same. ~ Constance Fenimore Woolson, #NFDB
307:No one can appropriate God, goodness, the Bible or Jesus. It just seems that way. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
308:People forget your goodness; teach thing something so they can always remember. ~ M F Moonzajer, #NFDB
309:Real 'imaan' is faith in humanity, so those who deny goodness are kafirs. ~ Asghar Ali Engineer, #NFDB
310:Seek goodness and be goodness. Seek beauty and be beauty. Seek love and be love ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
311:They all sat, nodding and rocking, entranced by a vision of the warm goodness of ~ Rebecca West, #NFDB
312:Truth, and goodness, and beauty, are but different faces of the same All. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
313:Visit the port of goodness often; if you can, cast your anchor over there! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
314:Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of one's own goodness. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #NFDB
315:Goodness, a girl steps out of the office for a couple days and the whole world ends! ~ A J Lauer, #NFDB
316:In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness ~ Bessel A van der Kolk, #NFDB
317:It’s better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a tremendous cost. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
318:My goodness, everyone is planting grapes, even a neighbor with only five acres. ~ Doc Severinsen, #NFDB
319:Only evil grows of itself, while for goodness we want effort and courage. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel, #NFDB
320:Secrecy is the element of all goodness; even virtue, even beauty is mysterious. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
321:Seek goodness and be goodness. Seek beauty and be beauty. Seek love and be love. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
322:striking—a guy who advertises his own goodness is just another kind of asshole. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
323:The goodness you receive from God is a treasure for you to share with others. ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
324:The measure of your holiness is proportionate to the goodness of your will. ~ John of Ruysbroeck, #NFDB
325:Wikipedia represents a belief in the supremacy of reason and goodness of others. ~ Daniel H Pink, #NFDB
326:Along with judging myself harshly, I'd also always seen the truth of goodness in me. ~ Tara Brach, #NFDB
327:I have neither friends nor relatives, thank goodness. I’m as lonely as a stone. ~ Sholom Aleichem, #NFDB
328:It is not from reason that justice springs, but goodness is born of wisdom. ~ Maurice Maeterlinck, #NFDB
329:Love and goodness and the world’s beauty and humanity are the reasons we have hope. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
330:Plato stands for the union of truth and goodness in the supreme idea of God. ~ James Mark Baldwin, #NFDB
331:"We all have the seeds of basic goodness within us. We only have to nourish them." ~ Pema Chödron, #NFDB
332:All of the goodness in the world doesn't amount to a hill of beans without courage ~ Dennis Prager, #NFDB
333:God's love is an exercise of his goodness toward sinners who merit only condemnation. ~ J I Packer, #NFDB
334:Goodness knows the Republican electorate is a pretty narrow slice of the population. ~ David Price, #NFDB
335:He who loves goodness harbors angels, reveres reverence, and lives with God. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
336:If we can feel confident in our goodness, it will illuminate our life and society ~ Sakyong Mipham, #NFDB
337:No. I have plenty of reason. But without honor and goodness, reason isn’t worth much. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
338:[On the birth of son William:] Thank goodness he hasn't got ears like his father. ~ Princess Diana, #NFDB
339:Serve the dinner backward, do anything - but for goodness sake, do something weird. ~ Elsa Maxwell, #NFDB
340:Thank goodness we don't have only serious problems, but ridiculous ones as well. ~ Edsger Dijkstra, #NFDB
341:The pleasures of this world are rather from God's goodness than our own merit. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
342:There can be no true goodness, nor true love, without the utmost clear-sightedness. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
343:We are kept all as securely in Love in woe as in weal, by the Goodness of God. ~ Julian of Norwich, #NFDB
344:We must learn and then teach our children that niceness does not equal goodness. ~ Gavin de Becker, #NFDB
345:What irritates me most about him is his natural goodness, his inborn selflessness. ~ Veronica Roth, #NFDB
346:A love that is based on the goodness of those whom you love is a mercenary affair. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
347:Goodness knows what the world is coming to when park rangers carry service revolvers. ~ Bill Bryson, #NFDB
348:[It was] a beauty that sours if it isn't nourished by some goodness within. ~ Gregory David Roberts, #NFDB
349:Order is not goodness; but perhaps it is the indispensable road to arrive at it. ~ Maria Montessori, #NFDB
350:To be honest I'm the only one really who's a cowboy. Like an honest to goodness cowboy. ~ Tim Rozon, #NFDB
351:What is the scent of water?" "Renewal. The goodness of God coming down like dew. ~ Elizabeth Goudge, #NFDB
352:Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile;
Filths savour but themselves... ~ William Shakespeare,#NFDB
353:A love that is based on the goodness of those whom you love is a mercenary affair. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
354:Man has two great spiritual needs. One is for forgiveness. The other is for goodness. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
355:People, they all have the word goodness on lips a bloody knife between their teeth. ~ Eug ne Ionesco, #NFDB
356:six fundamental virtues: love, wisdom, truth, goodness, mercy and justice. “Through ~ Gena Showalter, #NFDB
357:Thank goodness we don't have only serious problems, but ridiculous ones as well. ~ Edsger W Dijkstra, #NFDB
358:This religion that scorned the beauty and goodness of this world was a puzzle to me. ~ Wendell Berry, #NFDB
359:For God is good - or rather, of all goodness He is the Fountainhead. ~ Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, #NFDB
360:For my son, born of a dragon and a phoenix. Fight not for greatness, but for goodness. ~ Ren e Ahdieh, #NFDB
361:For the glory born of Goodness Never dies, And its flag is not half-masted In the skies. ~ Bret Harte, #NFDB
362:For the sake of goodness and love, man shall grant death no dominion over his thoughts. ~ Thomas Mann, #NFDB
363:Free time is death to the anxious, and thank goodness I don't have any of it right now. ~ Jon Stewart, #NFDB
364:How lovely goodness is in those who, stepping lightly, go smiling through the world. ~ Virginia Woolf, #NFDB
365:I believe in goodness, mercy and charity. I believe in casting bread upon the waters. ~ Leonard Nimoy, #NFDB
366:If goodness is its own reward, shouldn't we get a little something for being naughty? ~ Lauren Bacall, #NFDB
367:If you're a good person, the goodness will continue through your descendants. ~ Diane von Furstenberg, #NFDB
368:intention alone isn’t sufficient. Goodness is proved through action rather than ideas. ~ Claudia Gray, #NFDB
369:I think the message of goodness over beauty is a valuable one. I wish the world knew it. ~ Alex Flinn, #NFDB
370:Raju Hirani films are filled with simplicity and goodness. I really love such films. ~ Anushka Sharma, #NFDB
371:Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #NFDB
372:Forever all goodness will be most charming; forever all wickedness will be most odious. ~ Thomas Sprat, #NFDB
373:Gina. I wish to goodness that detestable thing had never set his foot inside our doors! ~ Henrik Ibsen, #NFDB
374:Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed. ~ Reinhold Niebuhr, #NFDB
375:Goodness does not more certainly make men happy than happiness makes them good. ~ Walter Savage Landor, #NFDB
376:Goodness is achieved not in a vacuum, but in the company of other men, attended by love. ~ Saul Bellow, #NFDB
377:...goodness is not the absence of evil - it's the light that pushes back the darkness... ~ John Geddes, #NFDB
378:Goodness is sparked by a caution for the sake of what is good, not a fear of what is bad. ~ Criss Jami, #NFDB
379:How could anyone endure what we had known and still be capable of so much goodness? ~ Jacqueline Carey, #NFDB
380:I think the biggest lie the devil ever told was that beauty and goodness are the same. ~ Daniel Nayeri, #NFDB
381:It is difficult to bring people to goodness with lessons, but it is easy to do so by example. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
382:One's sanctions for truth and goodness are established largely by individual preferences. ~ Ken Wilber, #NFDB
383:there are people who added goodness to the world and people who lived to destroy it. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
384:The true master lives in truth,In goodness and restraint,Non-violence, moderation and purity. ~ Buddha, #NFDB
385:What is the scent of water?"
"Renewal. The goodness of God coming down like dew. ~ Elizabeth Goudge,#NFDB
386:Could it be that goodness waxes and wanes like the moon, and that only evil is constant? ~ Alan Bradley, #NFDB
387:Goodness by its nature is lovable and love finds it impossible not to pursue goodness. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
388:I believe firmly that it was the Almighty's goodness, to check my consummate vanity. ~ Lord Mountbatten, #NFDB
389:I do not believe in goodness in the world anymore. What is good either dies or is killed. ~ Scott Frost, #NFDB
390:Love is not getting, but giving; It is goodness, and honor, and peace and pure living. ~ Henry Van Dyke, #NFDB
391:Only a life of goodness and honesty leaves us feeling spiritually healthy and human. ~ Harold S Kushner, #NFDB
392:Put together every little bit of goodness that you have known and you have your being. ~ John de Ruiter, #NFDB
393:The most basic and somehow forgettable thing is this: Love is not pain. Love is goodness. ~ Deb Caletti, #NFDB
394:there were people who added goodness to the world and people who lived to destroy it. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
395:God has a way of removing what looks permanent by showing us an explosion of His goodness. ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
396:Goodness consists not in the outward things we do, but in the inward thing we are. ~ Edwin Hubbel Chapin, #NFDB
397:Goodness—real goodness—has its own sort of cruelty to it,” said Jem, looking past her. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
398:I believe in divinity. Like the goodness that works through people. The God inside humanity. ~ Aryn Kyle, #NFDB
399:I seem to have fallen for women with missing parents. Goodness knows what it signifies. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
400:Report followeth not all goodness, except difficulty and rarity be joined thereto. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #NFDB
401:What evil does first in the world, maybe, is distract us from our pursuit of goodness. ~ George Saunders, #NFDB
402:What makes a man stand up and work? Strength. Strength is goodness, weakness is sin. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
403:You must never forget that greatness does not guarantee happiness but goodness always does ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
404:Basic goodness is the experience that you are primordially whole. That is who you are. ~ Meggan Watterson, #NFDB
405:... But for goodness sake, Frank— forget you're an engineer, and simply enjoy the view. ~ Arthur C Clarke, #NFDB
406:For Aristotle, goodness is a kind of prospering in the precarious affair of being human. ~ Terry Eagleton, #NFDB
407:Goodness is no part of the definition of the God Hypothesis, merely a desirable add-on. ~ Richard Dawkins, #NFDB
408:He was officially good, and I enjoyed berating myself for not appreciating his goodness. ~ Rebecca Schiff, #NFDB
409:If there be any one whose power is in beauty, in purity, in goodness, it is a woman. ~ Henry Ward Beecher, #NFDB
410:I still believe in the nonviolent Jesus and the basic human goodness present in all of us. ~ Martin Sheen, #NFDB
411:Let our Fathers and Grandfathers be valued for their Goodness, ourselves for our own. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
412:None of us could live with an habitual truth-teller; but thank goodness none of us has to. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
413:...there are people who added goodness to the world and people who lived to destroy it. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
414:There is no creature so small and abject, that it representeth not the goodness of God. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #NFDB
415:This is evidence that goodness and wickedness in the bible have nothing to do with morality. ~ Dan Barker, #NFDB
416:Whatever you do, for goodness sake, don’t change the name of your corporation to initials. ~ David Ogilvy, #NFDB
417:Your spiritual developement is a divine path that leads to truth, goodness and beauty; ~ Morihei Ueshiba, #NFDB
418:if Christianity is true, then the end of our exploring will be joy and goodness and life. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
419:I think goodness is about how person behaves to person, and also person to world, to nature. ~ Vikram Seth, #NFDB
420:One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts. ~ Molly Ivins, #NFDB
421:There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distill it out. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
422:"True freedom comes when we follow our Buddha nature, the natural goodness of our heart." ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
423:What would have happened to me if I would not have believed I would see the goodness of God? ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
424:Because I'm not writing all the time (thank goodness), my mind is sometimes pleasantly blank. ~ Lydia Davis, #NFDB
425:But I hope you will heed this: A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
426:Celebration is best done in the company of others who can rejoice with us over God's goodness. ~ Max Anders, #NFDB
427:Do you know how hard it is to play a character where youre always in heels? Oh, my goodness! ~ Serinda Swan, #NFDB
428:Every man had his personal habits, passions, and impulses toward goodness, beauty, and truth. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
429:For the sake of goodness and love, man shall let death have no sovereignty over his thoughts. ~ Thomas Mann, #NFDB
430:Goodness makes greatness truly valuable, and greatness make goodness much more serviceable. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
431:In the world there exists no aesthetic plane, not even the aesthetic plane of goodness. ~ Clarice Lispector, #NFDB
432:It is not badness, it is the absence of goodness, which, in Art as in Life, is so depressing. ~ Freya Stark, #NFDB
433:No one can rob us of our own soul, and our spirit is already one with the eternal goodness. ~ Ernest Holmes, #NFDB
434:Riches and power are but gifts of blind fate, whereas goodness is the result of one's own merits. ~ Heloise, #NFDB
435:So beauty is the base of literature, also truth is the base of science and goodness is the base of ethics ~, #NFDB
436:The world seemed to me fine because you were in it, and goodness more real because you lived. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
437:Though we love goodness and not stealing, yet also we love freedom and not preaching. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
438:What sort of a world is it where evil is born of an act of goodness?
-Vancha March ~ Darren Shan,#NFDB
439:Mornin', ladies. My goodness, don't you look happy. Must be cuttin' somebody up pretty good. ~ Andy Griffith, #NFDB
440:that there were people who added goodness to the world and people who lived to destroy it. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
441:There are many sources of happiness. Doing goodness is one of them and one of the best! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
442:Faith is a free surrenderand a joyous wager on the unseen, unknown, untested goodness of God. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
443:God is all that is good, as to my sight, and the goodness that each thing hath, it is He. ~ Julian of Norwich, #NFDB
444:Goodness in words creates trust, goodness in thinking creates depth, goodness in giving creates love. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
445:Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality. ~ Beatrix Potter, #NFDB
446:There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
Would men observingly distill it out. ~ William Shakespeare,#NFDB
447:Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart must hold both sisters, never seen apart. ~ William Dean Howells, #NFDB
448:But as far as true goodness was concerned, that didn't exist - not in the land of cowardly men. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
449:Cat lovers display an intensity lacking — thank goodness — in most human relationships. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer, #NFDB
450:Every great risk in God’s name begins with confidence in the goodness and trustworthiness of God. ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
451:Goodness, what a nasty suspicious mind the boy has, I thought. He must have got it from me. ~ Elizabeth Peters, #NFDB
452:I was strong from losing them, maybe, but any goodness in me came from having them." (p. 124) ~ Dan Gemeinhart, #NFDB
453:not long ago, Atticus would have done it simply from his goodness, he would have done it for Cal. ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
454:Power without goodness is unmitigated tyranny, and without wisdom it is destruction, not government. ~ Erasmus, #NFDB
455:The first condition of human goodness is something to love; the second, something to reverence. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
456:Was I in here last night and did I spend a $20 bill? Oh, thank goodness... I thought I'd lost it. ~ W C Fields, #NFDB
457:When we are using this term 'basic goodness,' we are talking about our inherent completeness. ~ Sakyong Mipham, #NFDB
458:Always radiate positive currents of... Light, Goodness, Love, Kindness, Hope and Determination. ~ Robert Muller, #NFDB
459:Beauty endures only for as long as it can be seen; goodness, beautiful today, will remain so tomorrow. ~ Sappho, #NFDB
460:Beauty, I believe, comes from God; therefore, there can be no beauty without goodness. ~ Baldassare Castiglione, #NFDB
461:He was a good boy and ‘projected’ goodness – which later would be the downfall of many a person. ~ Edmund White, #NFDB
462:Nobody deserves to be praised for goodness unless he is strong enough to be bad. ~ Fran ois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
463:We're all basically made of the same stuff: generosity and selfishness, goodness and greed. ~ Madeleine M Kunin, #NFDB
464:When too much cynicism threatens to engulf us, it is buoying to remember how pervasive goodness is ~ Carl Sagan, #NFDB
465:You're good, Bobbi-- really, really good. And lately, I've had a hard time believing in goodness. ~ Dean Hughes, #NFDB
466:A good heart is a universal key that opens the door of the unthinkable gate of goodness ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
467:But for I am a woman should I therefore live that I should not tell you the goodness of God? ~ Julian of Norwich, #NFDB
468:Evil is the voltage of good; the urge to goodness, without the potential of evil, is trivial. ~ James Tiptree Jr, #NFDB
469:Goodness, generosity, or love does not come into being save through the search for reality. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #NFDB
470:He was aloe vera, rough and prickly on the outside, but the inside held all the gooey goodness. ~ Mariana Zapata, #NFDB
471:His blessings and His provisions for us are based entirely on HIS GOODNESS and HIS FAITHFULNESS. ~ Joseph Prince, #NFDB
472:I am good to people who are good. I am also good to people who are not good. Because Virtue is goodness. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
473:I have had some trouble in regarding evil as having been intended by infinite Goodness. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll, #NFDB
474:Love is a taste of goodness that relentlessly and perseveringly pursues another for the sake of God. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
475:My goodness', thought Milo. 'Everybody is so terribly sensitive about the things they know best. ~ Norton Juster, #NFDB
476:My goodness,” thought Milo, “everybody is so terribly sensitive about the things they know best. ~ Norton Juster, #NFDB
477:Never repent of your own goodness, child. To stay true in the face of evil is a feat of strength. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
478:Pacing doesn’t matter if you are sacrificing mastery and love for truth, goodness, and beauty. ~ Sarah Mackenzie, #NFDB
479:Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
480:Truth is the first thing to be sought for, and Beauty and Goodness will then be added unto you. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
481:Well, if I came any earlier, I would have missed the nudie-show. Thank goodness for good timing. ~ Ashlan Thomas, #NFDB
482:When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness’ sake. But don’t make a production of it. ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
483:Wherever you go, madam, it will matter little what you carry. You will always carry your goodness. ~ Henry James, #NFDB
484:You should also appreciate the goodness around you, and surround yourself with positive people. ~ Nadia Comaneci, #NFDB
485:Communications requires study, preparation, and a special attention to truth, goodness and beauty. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
486:good people have no business being so bad. Goodness is about what you do. Not what you pray to. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
487:It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.” —Leo Tolstoy, The Kreutzer Sonata ~ L J Shen, #NFDB
488:Man must behave like a lighthouse; he must shine day and night for the goodness of everyman. ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
489:Mercy, though crucial, brings us through, but grace adds an extra touch of God's goodness. ~ Linda Evans Shepherd, #NFDB
490:(N)either a man's greatness nor his goodness can be measured by the happiness he has attained. ~ James A Michener, #NFDB
491:Thank goodness it only lasted a minute or so.
The inhalant, that is. The sex was rather longer ~ Belle de Jour,#NFDB
492:The true master lives in truth, in goodness and restraint, non-violence, moderation, and purity. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
493:Very few editors worry about heresy - their goals are much too commercial, thank goodness. ~ Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, #NFDB
494:What in me demanded that goodness in her? And what was the cost, the cost to her of such goodness? ~ Tillie Olsen, #NFDB
495:Above all, it is not decency or goodness of gentleness that impresses the Middle East, but strength. ~ Meir Kahane, #NFDB
496:An appeal to a goodness which is not in him is, to a vain and sensitive soul, a stinging insult. ~ Frederick Rolfe, #NFDB
497:But a faithful believer will in all circumstances mediate on the mercy and fatherly goodness of God. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
498:Illness is the most heeded of doctors: to goodness and wisdom we only make promises; pain we obey. ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
499:It is difficult to bring people to goodness with lessons, but it is easy to do so by example. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
500:John turned to her, with streaks of dried blood along his face. “Thank goodness we got the easy job. ~ Julie James, #NFDB
501:Nonviolence is a way of life, where the task is to awaken the underlying goodness of every human being. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
502:PSA52.1 Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
503:...the goodness of God is the highest object of prayer and it reaches down to our lowest need. ~ Julian of Norwich, #NFDB
504:The man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
505:We are supposed to be on the side of goodness in the sense that we need it, not that we are it. ~ Francis Spufford, #NFDB
506:We’re not crazy. We’re just not in the dark anymore. And my goodness, we can see you so clearly now. ~ Saeed Jones, #NFDB
507:What you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
508:22But e the fruit of the Spirit is f love, joy, peace, patience, g kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
509:And Goodness knows
The Wicked's lives are lonely
Goodness knows
The Wicked die alone ~ Stephen Schwartz,#NFDB
510:Free will, though it makes evil possible, also makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
511:God has so ordered this world that no one can keep his goodness or badness exclusively to himself. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
512:Goodness, I was already a dork most of the times. I didn't need to be a drunk or high dork. ~ Jennifer L Armentrout, #NFDB
513:Goodness, I was already a dork most of the times. I didn’t need to be a drunk or high dork. ~ Jennifer L Armentrout, #NFDB
514:Idealism in the young, I guess I'm saying, is curiosity as well as goodness trying to express itself. ~ Dorothy Day, #NFDB
515:I learned very early that people need to have a good grasp of God's goodness and God's sovereignty. ~ Matt Chandler, #NFDB
516:I will see beauty and goodness in all things. From all that is unlovely shall my vision be immune. ~ Walter Russell, #NFDB
517:Oh, this isn’t proper,” Anne said as she held me. “For goodness’ sake, give it a rest,” Mary retorted. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
518:Perhaps there simply is no grain of goodness in the heart of man, waiting to be brought to the light, ~ Paul Murray, #NFDB
519:There was so much goodness in my life.So much happiness. I wondered whether I deserved any of it. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
520:Well, evolution's just a theory.' And, I'm thinking to myself, 'Well, thank goodness gravity's a law.' ~ Marc Maron, #NFDB
521:Whoever invented adding melted cheese over starchy goodness was surely the most brilliant human ever. ~ Rachel Cohn, #NFDB
522:Be a true representative of the goodness in your heart, and don't expect it to be easy or even noticed. ~ Adyashanti, #NFDB
523:Goodness is weakness, pleasantness is poisonous, serenity is mediocrity, and kindness is for losers. ~ Jasper Fforde, #NFDB
524:I will think of you every time I need to be reminded that there is beauty and goodness in the world. ~ Arthur Golden, #NFDB
525:Oh, the wickedness of man is very great," said Villefort, "since it surpasses the goodness of God. ~ Alexandre Dumas, #NFDB
526:There was so much goodness in my life. So much happiness. I wondered whether I deserved any of it. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
527:When you find yourself on a vicious cycle, for goodness sakes, stop peddling!” — Swami Beyondananda ~ Bruce H Lipton, #NFDB
528:Good people avoid sin because they love goodness, Wicked people avoid sin because they fear punishment. ~ John Wesley, #NFDB
529:Living a good life leads to enduring happiness. Goodness in and of itself is the practice AND the reward. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
530:There is no straight line to Goodness, to Love, or to God. And thank God, Grace is always retroactive. ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
531:Try your best to make goodness attractive. That's one of the toughest assignments you'll ever be given. ~ Fred Rogers, #NFDB
532:Try your best to make goodness attractive. That’s one of the toughest assignments you’ll ever be given. ~ Fred Rogers, #NFDB
533:Was I in here last night and did I spend a $20 bill?
Oh, thank goodness... I thought I'd lost it. ~ W C Fields,#NFDB
534:We don't have stomachs for the things of this world because we have feasted on the goodness of our God. ~ David Platt, #NFDB
535:We have to replace beauty, which is a cultural concept, with goodness, which is a humanist concept. ~ Philippe Starck, #NFDB
536:What happens in a fantasy can be more involving than what happens in life, and thank goodness for that. ~ Roger Ebert, #NFDB
537:Woe, woe is me that I am a sinner, that I grieve this blessed God, who is infinite in goodness and grace! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
538:each carry within us the bud of true goodness as well as evil. Which we nourish determines our destiny. ~ Jeff Wheeler, #NFDB
539:Evil is committed without effort, naturally, fatally; goodness is always the product of some art. ~ Charles Baudelaire, #NFDB
540:geology demonstrates the existence, wisdom and goodness of an Almighty Creator with irresistible evidence. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
541:Goodness cannot be imposed externally, from the top down; it must grow internally, from the bottom up. ~ Philip Yancey, #NFDB
542:Goodness,' Myrnin said quietly. 'I don't think I should be watching this. I don't think I'm old enough. ~ Rachel Caine, #NFDB
543:It is only the goodness of God sensibly experienced by us which opens our mouth to celebrate His praise. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
544:Joy is a quiet gladness of heart as one contemplates the goodness of God's saving grace in Christ Jesus. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
545:Morely: You're trying to make me [i]Amelie[/i]
Oliver: Goodness, no. You'd look terrible in a skirt ~ Rachel Caine,#NFDB
546:Not one man in a thousand has either strength of mind or goodness of heart to be an atheist. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, #NFDB
547:Or whatever politically correct spiritual representation of universal goodness you happen to believe in. ~ R J Palacio, #NFDB
548:The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with joy are goodness, beauty, and truth. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
549:There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
550:There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness. ~ Fran ois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
551:There is always a beautiful light around the compassionate people: The shining light of goodness! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
552:There was never law, or sect, or opinion did so much magnify goodness, as the Christian religion doth. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
553:True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
554:But in goodness there is no safety: virtue could cut like a knife, and the fire of heaven is blinding ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
555:"Conquer the angry man by love. Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness. Conquer the liar with truth." ~ The Dhammapada, #NFDB
556:I never seen good come o' goodness yet. Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead men don't bite. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
557:I wonder at the goodness of God, the generosity of my friends, the bounty of my lot. I do not repine. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
558:Morley laughed. "You're trying to make me Amelie."
"Goodness, no. You'd look terrible in a skirt. ~ Rachel Caine,#NFDB
559:Not one man in a thousand has the strength of mind or the goodness of heart to be an atheist. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, #NFDB
560:Our first responsibility in all things is to preserve our goodness of heart - then and only then act. ~ George Saunders, #NFDB
561:The surest way to bring goodness to yourself is to make it your intention to do good for somebody else. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
562:To walk into the unknown with a God of unqualified power and unfailing goodness is safer than a known way. ~ D A Carson, #NFDB
563:We as people have a purpose here to contribute to the Earth, to contribute to people's goodness and good life. ~ Common, #NFDB
564:A traitor is no fit king. Live the life that unfold before you. Love goodness more than you fear evil. ~ Jonathan Rogers, #NFDB
565:Faith doesn’t mean an absence of fear. It means facing fear and trusting that God’s goodness is greater. ~ Matt Chandler, #NFDB
566:God is waiting to satisfy us, yet His goodness will not satisfy us if we are already full of other things. ~ John Bevere, #NFDB
567:I wish to goodness you had no further need to borrow. I did think that things were settled last year. ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
568:Most of the time, thank goodness, we suffer quite stupidly and unreflectingly, like the animals. ~ Christopher Isherwood, #NFDB
569:Never esteem men on account of their riches or their station. Respect goodness, find it where you may. ~ William Cobbett, #NFDB
570:Now I know the full power of evil. It makes ugliness seem beautiful and goodness seem ugly and weak. ~ August Strindberg, #NFDB
571:Right now, I have to admit, that I'm more interested in giving people a little bit of hope and goodness. ~ Aaron Eckhart, #NFDB
572:The very fact that we protest evil means that we recognize the reality and ultimate priority of goodness. ~ Holly Ordway, #NFDB
573:we based God’s goodness to us on what we deserved, then how would any of us ever know happiness, or love? ~ Nicole Deese, #NFDB
574:What a sublime doctrine it is, that goodness cherished now is eternal life already entered on! ~ William Ellery Channing, #NFDB
575:And for goodness’ sake put some of the county back where it belongs, the soil erosion’s bad enough as it is. ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
576:Dig deep; the water- goodness- is down there. And as long as you keep digging, it will keep bubbling up ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
577:Doing goodness, but doing goodness only is the best and the most superior religion of all the times! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
578:Doing goodness creates shining; he who does goodness shines in the eyes and in the hearts of others! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
579:I had no interest in forgiveness. Hate and betrayal had burned any goodness, any honor, right out of me. ~ Natasha Knight, #NFDB
580:I love Frank Capra. He believed in the goodness of people and one man's ability to fight and often triumph. ~ Tom Shadyac, #NFDB
581:I want people to come away from my book with questions. Questions about virtue and goodness. Not answers. ~ Veronica Roth, #NFDB
582:Just take the music, the goodness, because it's the very best, and it's the part I give most willingly. ~ George Harrison, #NFDB
583:Nothing that was worthy in the past departs; no truth or goodness realized by man ever dies, or can die. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
584:Spiritual awakening is the process of recognizing our essential goodness, our natural wisdom and compassion. ~ Tara Brach, #NFDB
585:The goodness you do might fail; but keep doing it, because the real failure is never doing goodness! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
586:Beauty is about picturing God’s unchanging goodness and daring to bring it into my own small, dusty days. ~ Sally Clarkson, #NFDB
587:Each day can bring more joy than sorrow when our mortal and spiritual eyes are open to God's goodness. ~ Jeffrey R Holland, #NFDB
588:Friendship is the medicine for all misfortune; but ingratitude dries up the fountain of all goodness. ~ Cardinal Richelieu, #NFDB
589:her essential goodness, telling her that “self-knowledge is the foundation of Religion,” not self-hatred. ~ Megan Marshall, #NFDB
590:I am good. I live good. I think good. I don't have to feel good to be good, I take my goodness wherever I go. ~ Peter Tosh, #NFDB
591:Oh my goodness the mystery that has prompted my objective. My quality lies exclusively in my tirelessness. ~ Louis Pasteur, #NFDB
592:Thank Goodness I have nearly
unlearned
folding my desire into itself
being afraid to claim it. ~ Yrsa Daley Ward,#NFDB
593:The moral?” Hermes asked. “Goodness, you act like it’s a fable. It’s a true story. Does truth have a moral? ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
594:The purpose of U.S. foreign policy is protecting the security of Americans, not crusading for goodness abroad. ~ Don Feder, #NFDB
595:There are some things more important than your own life. Like friendship, and love, and trust, and goodness. ~ David Estes, #NFDB
596:There can be something cruel about people who have had good fortune. They equate it with personal goodness. ~ Ann Patchett, #NFDB
597:Through daily yoga practice we can become present to our own fundamental goodness and the goodness of others ~ Donna Farhi, #NFDB
598:am larger, better than I thought, I did not know I held so much goodness. —Walt Whitman, “Song of the Open Road ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
599:But there’s a kind of vanity in thinking you can nurse the world. There’s a kind of vanity in goodness. ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
600:Every act of loving affirms the goodness of the lover just because he is capable of loving and being loved. ~ John Dufresne, #NFDB
601:Humility is the flip side of giving God all the glory. Humility means reveling in his grace, not our goodness. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
602:I think the most that I've learned has been, how do I put this? The innate goodness inside of all of us. ~ Brian Behlendorf, #NFDB
603:It is always far easier to have faith in your own goodness than to confront others ad fight for your rights. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
604:It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
605:I was a lifeguard. It was my summer job growing up, and I never saved anyone. I never had to, thank goodness. ~ Amber Heard, #NFDB
606:My goodness, my hair's been talked about by a million people, you know? It sort of goes with the territory. ~ Carly Fiorina, #NFDB
607:That is what a shadow is, and empty space, a hole in the light. Evil is this - a hole in the goodness of God. ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
608:Despair did not suit her looks. Goodness cannot cope with badness—it’s too good, you see, too stupidly good. ~ Carol Shields, #NFDB
609:Dig inside yourself. Inside there is a spring of goodness ready to gush at any moment if you keep digging. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
610:God's goodness is the root of all goodness; and our goodness, if we have any, springs out of His goodness. ~ William Tyndale, #NFDB
611:How sweet Japanese woman is! All the possibilities of the race for goodness seem to be concentrated in her. ~ Lafcadio Hearn, #NFDB
612:i am sending my love to your eyes. may they always see goodness in people. and may you always practice kindness. ~ Rupi Kaur, #NFDB
613:It does the sheep no good to preach the goodness of a diet of grass, if the wolves are of a different mind. ~ Terry Goodkind, #NFDB
614:The judge is not the knight-errant, roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness. ~ Benjamin Cardozo, #NFDB
615:This isn't a Christmas special! This is my life. In the real world, miracles and goodness just don't happen. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
616:We aren't where we want to be; we aren't where we ought to be; but thank goodness we aren't where we used to be. ~ Lou Holtz, #NFDB
617:When beauty is defined, illusions of non-beauty manifest
When goodness is identified, badness becomes an option ~ Lao Tzu,#NFDB
618:But I believe we all have an inner goodness; a little flame that stays alight through the worst of trials. ~ Juliet Marillier, #NFDB
619:Don’t ever let your door to be a wall! Let your door be a door, opening wide and inviting with goodness! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
620:Goodness was not a trait you acquired; it was a value you practiced when you were on the verge of doing evil. ~ Julius Lester, #NFDB
621:Had he once been a normal son, brother, and friend—then lost sight of his goodness and embraced bad instead? ~ Pepper Winters, #NFDB
622:his conscience was clear and he had faith in the essential goodness of the universe and so felt cradled by it. ~ Peter Heller, #NFDB
623:I am little acquainted with politeness, but I know a good deal of benevolence of temper and goodness of heart. ~ Robert Burns, #NFDB
624:I have always wanted to be a catalyst for bringing about positive change, inspiring others to choose goodness. ~ Shari Arison, #NFDB
625:I never could be so happy as you. Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
626:integrity means both personal wholeness and adherence to values outside yourself - especially goodness and truth ~ John Adair, #NFDB
627:It is always far easier to have faith in your own goodness than to confront others ad fight for your rights... ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
628:Shambhala teachings say we all have the potential to accomplish our enlightened nature - our basic goodness. ~ Sakyong Mipham, #NFDB
629:Thank goodness I had made the right choice by picking the absolute wrong guy to love and perfect guy to hate. ~ Jay Crownover, #NFDB
630:Thank goodness, we can choose our friends. We have to take our relatives as they are, and be thankful. ~ Lucy Maud Montgomery, #NFDB
631:There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
632:There's a reason you can learn from everything: you have basic wisdom, basic intelligence, and basic goodness. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
633:There was the potential for evil everywhere, and the only way to combat it was if more people chose goodness. ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
634:This supreme instance of Troy's goodness fell upon Gabriel's ears like the thirteenth stroke of a crazy clock. ~ Thomas Hardy, #NFDB
635:We expect rewards for goodness, and punishments for the bad things which we do. Often, they are not immediately ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
636:If love is not married to wisdom (or if goodness is not married to truth), it cannot accomplish anything. ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, #NFDB
637:In matters of goodness, never expect any compliment or appreciation; just do your goodness and disappear! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
638:I think some people would say that I do overwhelm the words with the music, and sometimes thank goodness I do. ~ Dave Matthews, #NFDB
639:I've got great faith in the essential fairness and decency - you may say goodness - of the human being. ~ Norman Vincent Peale, #NFDB
640:Knowing God’s love, knowing God’s goodness, and learning to embrace those attributes of God prompt us to pray. ~ Scot McKnight, #NFDB
641:Spider-Man has always been a symbol of goodness and doing the right thing and looking after your fellow man. ~ Andrew Garfield, #NFDB
642:The goodness of our intentions was in direct correlation to the heights from which we condescended to each other. ~ Adam Levin, #NFDB
643:Those that hate goodness are sometimes nearer than those that know nothing at all about it and think they have it. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
644:True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. ~ Milan Kundera, #NFDB
645:We can't do anything on our own to be righteous. But that when we turn to Him, He'll fill us with His goodness. ~ Jody Hedlund, #NFDB
646:We really don’t get all the government we pay for, and thank goodness. Lord protect us on the day that we do. ~ Jeffrey Tucker, #NFDB
647:When you don’t understand what’s going on, run to God’s goodness rather than questioning whether it exists. ~ Paul David Tripp, #NFDB
648:Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss ~ John Milton, #NFDB
649:Augustine concludes, pour out your heart’s desire, but remember the wisdom and goodness of God as you do so. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
650:Have Faith! Have faith in the Eternal Goodness. Believe that the core of the Universe is sound and sweet. ~ Anna Garlin Spencer, #NFDB
651:It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique.” Thank goodness. ~ Austin Kleon, #NFDB
652:It was ...
a love engendering
gentleness and goodness
that moved me
and that I saw in you ~ William Carlos Williams,#NFDB
653:I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
654:Magic can't exist without goodness. Goodness can't exist without wickedness. And Oz can't exist without magic. ~ Danielle Paige, #NFDB
655:niceness was something anyone could be, whether they meant it or not. But goodness was another thing altogether. ~ Brit Bennett, #NFDB
656:For Kant one can be both good and stupid; but for Aristotle stupidity of a certain kind precludes goodness. ~ Alasdair MacIntyre, #NFDB
657:Goodness works in mysterious ways. Even in the deepest dark, you’ll find a light to shine your way through. ~ Melissa de la Cruz, #NFDB
658:I do always try to find the goodness in somebody. I can't possibly believe in somebody if they don't have a core. ~ Kelli O Hara, #NFDB
659:Of course it does not apply to me. I am the soul of honor, kindness, mercy and goodness. Trust me in all things. ~ Roger Zelazny, #NFDB
660:Possessions are not God's blessing and goodness, but the opportunities of service which he entrusts to us. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
661:So will I turn her virtue into pitch, And out of her own goodness make the net That shall enmesh them all. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
662:The egg is white though the hen is black as coal...Out of evil comes good, through the great goodness of God. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
663:Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is none. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
664:Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it--else it is none. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
665:Everything in life has some good in it. And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more—it ~ Banana Yoshimoto, #NFDB
666:Goodness is a process of becoming, not of being. What we do over and over again is what we become in the end. ~ Joan D Chittister, #NFDB
667:Protect your space and circle. Invest in people who you know will feed you just as much goodness as you do them. ~ Alexandra Elle, #NFDB
668:Serve to goodness and to nothing else, to no other power! And how can you do this? Very simple: Do kindness! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
669:Snape was a bully who loved the goodness he sensed in Lily without being able to emulate her. That was his tragedy. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
670:Stairs elevate you; ethics elevates you; goodness elevates you; awareness elevates you; wisdom elevates you. ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
671:There's always something going on, but thank goodness these days it's with a clear head, which helps me massively. ~ Phil Anselmo, #NFDB
672:The trouble is that goodness dies, and lies buried in the earth. Cleverness passes on and becomes degenerate. ~ Daphne du Maurier, #NFDB
673:Ubuntu tells us that we can create a more peaceful world by striving for goodness in each moment, wherever we are. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
674:When devils do the worst sins, they first put on the pretense of goodness and innocence, as I am doing now. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
675:13I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD †In the land of the living. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
676:Be like the honeybee who gathers only nectar wherever it goes. Seek the goodness that is found in everyone. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
677:By your grace, I will not despair. I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. ~ James MacDonald, #NFDB
678:Even in that time of utter darkness, somewhere deep inside me the memory of love and goodness had stayed alive. ~ Juliet Marillier, #NFDB
679:God is displeased when he is distrusted, and when an arm of flesh is relied on, more than his power and goodness. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
680:God is full of love, for "God is love." God is full of goodness; the very name "God" is short for "good. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
681:greatest enemy of ordinary daily goodness and joy is not imperfection, but the demand for some supposed perfection. ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
682:If you set out to meditate, it will not be meditation. If you set out to be good, goodness will never flower. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #NFDB
683:I hate purity, I hate goodness! I don't want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones. ~ George Orwell, #NFDB
684:It is better to live poorly upon the fruits of God's goodness than live plentifully upon the products of our own sin. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
685:It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
686:Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. To these I commit my day. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
687:People always try to find base motives behind every good action. We are afraid of pure goodness and of pure evil. ~ Eugene Ionesco, #NFDB
688:You cannot do anything good for a dead man! Whatever goodness you want to do for him, do it when he is alive! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
689:Doing goodness is good only when you don’t expect anything in return; not a medal, not even a simple thanking! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
690:Don't, for goodness' sake, keep on saying 'Don't'; I hear so much of it, and it's monotonous, and makes me tired. ~ Kenneth Grahame, #NFDB
691:Every germ of goodness will at last struggle into bloom and fruitage...true success follows every right step. ~ Orison Swett Marden, #NFDB
692:Faith was a gift of God whose main function was to create in man a certain knowledge of God’s goodness toward us. The ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
693:Forgive yourself first. Let go of past hurts and direct your spirit to goodness and hope by having gratitude. ~ Janet Taylor Spence, #NFDB
694:I can't think of a greater single vehicle to goodness and a better world than if everyone battled their own natures ~ Dennis Prager, #NFDB
695:We must repay goodness and wickedness: but why exactly to the person who has done us a good or a wicked turn? ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
696:Ah darling, goodness, I think, never brought any one out. Goodness, when it's real, precisely, rather keeps people IN. ~ Henry James, #NFDB
697:Being in humaneness is good. If we select other goodness and thus are far apart from humaneness, how can we be the wise? ~ Confucius, #NFDB
698:But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. ~ Latita Vistara, #NFDB
699:Forbidden Generosity.—There is not enough of love and goodness in the world to throw any of it away on conceited people. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
700:Goodness comes from within, 6655321. Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man. ~ Anthony Burgess, #NFDB
701:Humans are capable of so much creativity and goodness and at the same time they are destructive and cruel. (Leta) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
702:I do hope your friend is not as annoying as you are.” “Goodness, why on earth would I have a friend who wasn’t? ~ Victoria Alexander, #NFDB
703:I looked at you...saw your goodness, your hope, and your faith. Those are what make you beautiful. So, so beautiful. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
704:Loving-kindness is the better part of goodness. It lends grace to the sterner qualities of which this consists. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
705:So, while there are still good things in this world, the world is no longer a perfect reflection of God’s goodness. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
706:The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
707:Then I learned that God was going to judge me by His standard of goodness, not my own standard or the world’s ~ Candace Cameron Bure, #NFDB
708:The path which we believe in is the path of love; it has all the goodness of God in it-calmness and kindness. ~ Harbhajan Singh Yogi, #NFDB
709:The ways of the Lord are not easy, but we were not created for an easy life, but for great things, for goodness. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
710:But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin. ~ Aldous Huxley, #NFDB
711:But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
712:Franca breathed the tranquility of the house, yet it was not tranquil, she breathed its goodness, but it was not good. ~ Iris Murdoch, #NFDB
713:God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth ~ J I Packer, #NFDB
714:I do believe that God is with us even when we're at our craziest and that this goodness guides, provides, and protects. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
715:I guess it simply goes to show that stuff will come and stuff will go. But do we cry? Goodness, NO! We keep on singing. ~ Eric Litwin, #NFDB
716:Kindness to children, love for children, goodness to children-- these are the only investments that never fail. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
717:Poppy – she’s like…all this goodness wrapped up in one person. I want to have that … I want to deserve to have that. ~ Helena Hunting, #NFDB
718:The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction. ~ Chanakya, #NFDB
719:The goodness you do when you are very happy is not as valuable as the goodness you do when you are very unhappy! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
720:There is sorrow in the world, but goodness too; and goodness that is not greenness, either, no more than sorrow is. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
721:We always pray for you that our God will … fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith. 2 Thessalonians 1:11 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
722:Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
723:I felt sure that [Oyarsa] was what we call "good," but I wasn't sure whether I liked "goodness" so much as I had supposed. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
724:If someone would have the goodness to inform me whether I am assisting at a tragedy or a farce I should be grateful, ~ Georgette Heyer, #NFDB
725:I love goodness and hate evil. My favorite verse in the Bible is ‘Those of you who love God—hate evil’ (Psalms 97:10). ~ Dennis Prager, #NFDB
726:It sure looks good to see an honest-to-goodness audience after looking at you all for so long from the silver screen ~ Hattie McDaniel, #NFDB
727:My goodness, they were like hand grenades of testosterone rolling in the door, sucking all the air out of the room. ~ Jennifer Bernard, #NFDB
728:Oh. To be filled with goodness then shattered by goodness, so beautifully mosaically fragmented by such shocking goodness. ~ Ali Smith, #NFDB
729:So will I turn her virtue into pitch,
And out of her own goodness make the net
That shall enmesh them all. ~ William Shakespeare,#NFDB
730:The harvested fields bathed in the autumn mist speak of God and his goodness far more vividly than any human lips. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
731:Those that hate goodness are sometimes nearer than those that know nothing at all about it and think they have it already. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
732:We have to love our freedom, not just for the private opportunities it provides, but for the goodness it makes possible. ~ John McCain, #NFDB
733:Whether you received brokenness or goodness from your own father, you are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 17). ~ Tony Evans, #NFDB
734:With goodness one can feel secure; why wasn’t I satisfied with goodness, why did I always ask her the wrong questions? ~ Graham Greene, #NFDB
735:You miss the living because you are waiting for perfect, and so you let goodness and blessings pass you right on by. ~ Emily P Freeman, #NFDB
736:Dearest says that is the best kind of goodness; not to think about yourself, but to think about other people. ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett, #NFDB
737:For table-talk, I prefer the pleasant and witty before the learned and the grave; in bed, beauty before goodness. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #NFDB
738:goodness is existence and the cause of existence, but wickedness is the negation of goodness, that is, of existence. ~ John of Damascus, #NFDB
739:Goodness,” Miss Gard said, her voice quiet and rough, her face pale. “You’d think you never saw anyone disemboweled before. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
740:I am inspired when I see goodness in other people. I am inspired by hard work and honesty. And I am inspired by nature. ~ Tricia Helfer, #NFDB
741:It is difficult in life to be good, and difficult in art to portray goodness. Perhaps we don't know much about goodness. ~ Iris Murdoch, #NFDB
742:My goodness, she certainly was nice about it,” said Mrs. Wiggins to Freddy. “Maybe you’re right about her, after all. ~ Walter R Brooks, #NFDB
743:No pretensions of goodness, of trying to do the right thing. We’d both wanted to embrace this fucked-up thing between us. ~ Leah Raeder, #NFDB
744:Oh, my goodness,” said Louisiana. “I’m just all filled up with feathers and regrets. And fears. I have a lot of fears. ~ Kate DiCamillo, #NFDB
745:...she thought of him as a person who did not have a normal spine, but had instead, a firm reed of goodness. ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, #NFDB
746:The egg is white though the hen is black as coal...Out of evil comes good, through the great goodness of God. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
747:The riches of His goodness are unsearchable; you will never be able to convey them or even conceive them. Oh, ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
748:The way to goodness," Borden had said, "is one of sacrifice. He who sacrifices will have it a hundred times returned. ~ Michelle Hoover, #NFDB
749:True goodness is like the glow-worm in this, that it shines most when no eyes except those of heaven are upon it. ~ Julius Charles Hare, #NFDB
750:wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the state ~ Socrates, #NFDB
751:When goodness removes itself, the space it occupies corrodes and becomes evil, and maybe splits apart and multiplies. ~ Gregory Maguire, #NFDB
752:...and gentle happy and peaceful, tasting the mean goodness of their living like the last of their suppers in their mouths. ~ James Agee, #NFDB
753:If we do not believe in ourselves- neither in our efficacy nor in our goodness- the universe is a frightening place. ~ Nathaniel Branden, #NFDB
754:I have a disproportionate amount of faith in the goodness of the world and that everything will actually work out okay. ~ Sloane Crosley, #NFDB
755:Is not life in itself a thing of goodness, irrespective of whether the course it takes for us can be called a 'happy' one? ~ Thomas Mann, #NFDB
756:I was going to get myself recognized at any price. If I could not win fame by goodness, I was ready to do it by badness. ~ Mary McCarthy, #NFDB
757:Living to glorify God means doing everything... for Him, His way, to point to His greatness and to reflect His goodness. ~ Joshua Harris, #NFDB
758:Maisy Holt was pure joy. She was goodness personified. She was a beam of sunshine breaking through the clouds in my life. ~ Devney Perry, #NFDB
759:Out of love, No regrets-- Though the goodness Be wasted forever. Out of love, No regrets-- Though the return Be never. ~ Langston Hughes, #NFDB
760:Society conspires to make a newly wed couple feel virtuous. Marriage is a symbol of goodness, though it is only a symbol. ~ Iris Murdoch, #NFDB
761:The weight of great power crushes the goodness of the man who rules and the honesty of those who are ruled. ~ Roman Baldorioty de Castro, #NFDB
762:Young men pray for different things, of course, but some young men pray to honor the goodness of the men who raised them, ~ Mohsin Hamid, #NFDB
763:A person’s general goodness is in direct correlation to the force, or quality, of the kind thoughts he or she generates. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
764:For me, nonviolence was not a moral principle but a strategy; there is no moral goodness in using an ineffective weapon. ~ Nelson Mandela, #NFDB
765:If you do goodness, do it in the name of goodness, not in the name of a religion! All goodnesses should be nameless! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
766:It is strong language, but true. None of us could live with an habitual truthteller; but thank goodness none of us has to. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
767:I will break obstacles to happiness, to goodness - yes, goodness. I wish to be a better man than I have been, than I am ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
768:Our Lord is pleased to deprive us of temporal goods; may it please His Divine Goodness to give us spiritual ones! ~ Saint Vincent de Paul, #NFDB
769:the fruit of the Spirit k is love, l joy, m peace, patience, n kindness, o goodness, faith, B 23 gentleness, p self-control. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
770:There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
771:We want to infuse our day with good habits so that we can turn seemingly mundane situations into a ceremony of goodness. ~ Sakyong Mipham, #NFDB
772:What is God?—I cannot see Him or hear Him.—God is only an idea.” ‘“God is Infinite Wisdom, and Power, and Goodness—and Love; ~ Anne Bront, #NFDB
773:You lead me and keep me from falling. You carry me close to Your heart. And surely Your goodness and mercy will follow me. ~ Chris Tomlin, #NFDB
774:...but I believed in the existence of other and more vivid kinds of goodness, and what I believed in I wished to behold. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
775:Harry Potter asks if he can help Dobby . . . Dobby has heard of your greatness, sir, but of your goodness, Dobby never knew. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
776:If I spend every moment, for the rest of my days, thanking God for all his goodness to us, that would still not be enough. ~ Johanna Spyri, #NFDB
777:Now she had taken off her goodness and left it behind her like a heap of rain-sodden clothes, and she only felt joy. ~ Elizabeth von Arnim, #NFDB
778:Our goodness is our wealth and when we close our eyes to the tragedies of the hard lives, we start losing our wealth! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
779:the path of goodness had a name it is called Love in it we find the key to every hope and has it's root in God Himself ~ Pope John Paul II, #NFDB
780:To be frank, I suspect that today there is little respect for Christianity as source of moral teaching about goodness. ~ Timothy Radcliffe, #NFDB
781:Unfortunately, goodness and honor are rather the exception than the rule among exceptional men, not to speak of geniuses ~ Cesare Lombroso, #NFDB
782:What needs our time are kinder beings, not more intelligent beings. Intelligence without goodness is a failed mutation. ~ Claudio Naranjo, #NFDB
783:You tend to close your eyes to truth, beauty and goodness because they give no scope to your sense of the ridiculous. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
784:Ah the three-day blues, all new mothers cry on the third day.” And I remember thinking, But my goodness, who wouldn't cry? ~ Liane Moriarty, #NFDB
785:All the goodness, beauty, and perfection of a human being belong to the one who knows how to recognize these qualities. ~ Georgette Leblanc, #NFDB
786:Compassion toward animals is essentially bound up with goodness of character. Whoever is cruel to them cannot be good to men ~ Sehopenhauer, #NFDB
787:Conquer anger with non-anger;
Conquer wickedness with goodness;
Conquer stinginess with giving,
And a liar with truth. ~ Anonymous,#NFDB
788:In other words, this world is not a sin; forgetting that “this world” is the radiance and Goodness of Spirit—there is the sin. ~ Ken Wilber, #NFDB
789:It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, 'the greatest', but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is. ~ Sydney J Harris, #NFDB
790:I wish I could protect him from the people who refuse to see beyond his skin, who will never know the goodness of his heart. ~ Trish Doller, #NFDB
791:Know yourself. Be yourself. Love yourself. Seek goodness and be goodness. Seek beauty and be beauty. Seek love and be love. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
792:Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger—according to the way you react to it. And we have reacted the wrong way. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
793:Goodness," Marcella said at last. "I know you'd do anything to avoid Tullia's dinner party, but suicide seems a little extreme. ~ Kate Quinn, #NFDB
794:Only God may be adored, because only God is unlimited goodness, truth, and beauty, and thus only God deserves unlimited love. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
795:She’s got zero interest in honest-to-goodness human-on-human action. No. It’s magic farmyard creatures or nothing for her. ~ Charlie Brooker, #NFDB
796:A truly good man is not aware of his goodness and is therefore good. A foolish man tries to be good and is therefore not good. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
797:contentment is an expression of faith in the goodness of God. It says, “God, I believe you love me and know what’s best for me. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
798:Fine,” snapped Mrs. Weasley. “Go naked. And, Harry, make sure you get a picture of him. Goodness knows I could do with a laugh. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
799:He wanted to taste the goodness Carissa could put in a pie. There probably was a lot. So much that pie could win awards. But ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
800:He who believes in goodness has the essence of all faith. He is a man of cheerful yesterdays and confident to-morrows. ~ James Freeman Clarke, #NFDB
801:How great is Your goodness that You have stored up for those who fear You and accomplished in the sight of everyone. Psalm 31:19 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
802:If your attitude is one of gratefully searching for God’s truth & goodness in any situation, it will change your life. ~ Stormie Omartian, #NFDB
803:Know yourself. Be yourself. Love yourself. Seek goodness and be goodness. Seek beauty and be beauty. Seek love and be love. ~ Bryant H McGill, #NFDB
804:The greatness of the world in which we live is the accumulated goodness of many small and seemingly inconsequential acts. ~ Gordon B Hinckley, #NFDB
805:we’re all creatures of light and darkness. Embracing your darkness won’t kill the light. Goodness is stronger than that. ~ Laurell K Hamilton, #NFDB
806:We were given appetites, not to consume the world and forget it, but to taste its goodness and hunger to make it great. ~ Robert Farrar Capon, #NFDB
807:When man spoke his first word he became the thread that quivers eternally between evil and goodness, Heaven and Hell. ~ J n Kalman Stef nsson, #NFDB
808:Amid all the bangs and the drama and the grand passions, it's kindness and just ordinary goodness that stands out in the end. ~ Grant Morrison, #NFDB
809:A person who lacks the verdancy of justice is dry, totally without tender goodness, totally without illuminating virtue. ~ Hildegard of Bingen, #NFDB
810:Jem is nothing but goodness. That he struck you last night only shows how capable you are of driving even saints to madness. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
811:May you find great value in these You may call God love, you may call God goodness. But the best name for God is compassion. ~ Meister Eckhart, #NFDB
812:O Lord, if I could fly to my people and tell them of your goodness at the top of my voice, oh how many souls would be won! ~ Josephine Bakhita, #NFDB
813:The danger in trying to do good is that the mind comes to confuse the intent of goodness with the act of doing things well. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
814:There's a deal of goodness that the world never sees," said Tussler in conclusion, "as there's a deal of viciousness it never guesses. ~ Ouida, #NFDB
815:The wise ruler treats the good with goodness;
and treats the not-so-good with goodness, too—
for goodness is its own reward. ~ Lao Tzu,#NFDB
816:To preserve one notion of goodness and righteousness you destroy another. To uphold one principle you sacrifice another. ~ Krishna Udayasankar, #NFDB
817:Everyone thinks that my goodness comes easily to me, that it hardly counts because I do not struggle with it, but I do. ~ Robin LaFevers, #NFDB
818:God invisible,...say not so; for who is more apparent than He? That is the goodness of God, that is His virtue, to be apparent in all. ~ Hermes, #NFDB
819:He felt the greatness and goodness of his purpose so sincerely: others who heard him plead for it, could not but feel it too. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
820:I'll be singing hymns to the rafters, be praising His goodness so loud they're going to have to turn down the volume in Heaven. ~ Diane Hammond, #NFDB
821:the goodness of money floats free of any particular evaluations that could engage our attention and energize our activity. ~ Matthew B Crawford, #NFDB
822:The greatest enemy of ordinary daily goodness and joy is not imperfection, but the demand for some supposed perfection or order. ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
823:You can believe that you are a good and caring person, but if you don't treat others with goodness and care, where is the proof? ~ Nick Vujicic, #NFDB
824:All the great feelings like goodness, love or compassion eliminate the gravity and thus the wingless man rises like a bird. ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
825:As all our wickedness consists in turning away from our Creator, so all our goodness consists in uniting ourselves with Him. ~ Alphonsus Liguori, #NFDB
826:Goodness is, so to speak, itself; badness is only spoiled goodness. And there must be something good first before it can be spoiled. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
827:Love is an image of God, and not a lifeless image, but the living essence of the divine nature which beams full of all goodness. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
828:Overcome the angry by non-anger; overcome the wicked by goodness; overcome the miser by generosity; overcome the liar by truth. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
829:performing service is not something you do out of the goodness of your heart but as a debt you are repaying for the gift of life. ~ David Brooks, #NFDB
830:Sometimes, though, when God calls us to be set apart for another purpose, it’s difficult to believe God’s goodness in the hurt. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
831:The fruit of the light results in all goodness, righteousness, and truth— discerning what is pleasing to the Lord. Ephesians 5:9–10 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
832:The gratitude that we encounter helps us believe in the goodness of the world, and strengthens us thereby to do what's good. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
833:those who see the nightly splendor of the moon are possessed by perverse ingratitude if they do not recognize the goodness of God. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
834:Try to have a more expanded sense of that which you are. Feel that you are eternity. There's only goodness. There's only light. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
835:We can work together for a better world with men and women of goodwill, those who radiate the intrinsic goodness of humankind. ~ Wangari Maathai, #NFDB
836:Being part of the natural world reminds me that innocence isn't ever lost completely; we just need to maintain our goodness to regain it. ~ Jewel, #NFDB
837:Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. ~ Willa Cather, #NFDB
838:So what’s the moral?” “The moral?” Hermes asked. “Goodness, you act like it’s a fable. It’s a true story. Does truth have a moral? ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
839:That reservoir of goodness beyond and of another kind that we are able to do for each other in the ordinary cause of things. ~ Marilynne Robinson, #NFDB
840:There should never be enough ‘going on’ that we forget about the needs of others. That, essentially, is the essence of goodness. ~ David Baldacci, #NFDB
841:Till I have your disposition, your goodness, I never can have your happiness.” ~ Jane Austen Jane Austen (Pride & Prejudice) ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
842:we should go to God in our prayers not on the ground of any goodness in ourselves, but on the ground of Jesus Christ’s claims. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
843:When the will is enchained as the slave of sin, it cannot make a movement towards goodness, far less steadily pursue it. John Calvin ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
844:God is the embodiment of compassion. He watches for a grain of goodness or humility so that He can reward it with tons of grace. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
845:How can two people who both have good intentions end up with feelings, derived from all the goodness, that are so incredibly bad? ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
846:If I were an angel, I'd know I came to just the right place. The goodness and beauty here would draw an angel, don't you think? ~ Shayne McClendon, #NFDB
847:If you know in your heart that you are a good person, you should surround yourself with goodness—whatever or whoever that may be. ~ Alexandra Elle, #NFDB
848:I think goodness is very powerful, but often evil is made more attractive in films. It's a challenge to make goodness appealing. ~ Pauline Collins, #NFDB
849:I was brought up a Catholic, so I suppose I have to believe in the goodness of human beings. I think we're not so bad after all. ~ Pauline Collins, #NFDB
850:My earnest wish is to paint in true colors the goodness of God to me, and the depth of my own ingratitude ~ Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, #NFDB
851:People confuse goodness with weakness. It is weak people, not good people (goodness demands strength), who are taken advantage of. ~ Dennis Prager, #NFDB
852:Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. PSALM 23:6 NKJV ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
853:We simply do not find anything in the laws of nature that in any way corresponds to ideas of goodness, justice, love, or strife, ~ Steven Weinberg, #NFDB
854:All loves should be simply stepping stones to the love of God. So it was with me; and blessed be his name for his great goodness and mercy. ~ Plato, #NFDB
855:I just thought: Oh goodness, you can wear nice clothes and get your hair done and still be a feminist and a serious intellectual. ~ Jacqueline Rose, #NFDB
856:Nor is faith meritorious; it is simply confidence in the goodness of God, and the lack of it is a reflection upon God’s holy character. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
857:She was sweetness and light, gentleness and goodness, and the burning and searing goal of all his earthly hunts and fascinations. ~ Sylvain Reynard, #NFDB
858:States have no goodness. They suppress these villains here and promote those villains there, with no aim but self-aggrandizement. ~ Nuala O Faolain, #NFDB
859:We signal that good can be achieved amongst human beings who are prepared to trust, prepared to believe in the goodness of people. ~ Nelson Mandela, #NFDB
860:You are a pug! Master of the universe! King of the curly tails! You can do anything! You can lick your own nose, for goodness sake. ~ Gemma Correll, #NFDB
861:God lives, but not as we. His creatures live but to die. But God is life. Therefore, goodness is not an attribute. Goodness is God. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
862:Goodness and simplicity are indissolubly united.-The bad are the most sophisticated, all the world over, and the good the least. ~ Harriet Martineau, #NFDB
863:If we are going to bring about change, then men, for goodness sake, stand up and stand for the right. And I say, ‘power to the women. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
864:In O’Brien’s words, “It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique.” Thank goodness. ~ Austin Kleon, #NFDB
865:Living to glorify God means doing everything...
for Him,
His way,
to point to His greatness
and to reflect His goodness. ~ Joshua Harris,#NFDB
866:We are each made for goodness, love and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
867:We cannot bring the good old days back but, if we must eat mass-made foods, get laws passed to insist upon its goodness and purity. ~ Flora Thompson, #NFDB
868:a community does not depend on a religion to exist and to be supportive; it merely depends on the goodness and civility of its members. ~ L H Thomson, #NFDB
869:Enlightened Society is all about nurturing the human spirit - waking up to the goodness, kindness and strength that we already have. ~ Sakyong Mipham, #NFDB
870:I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given. I believed in myself, and I believe in the goodness of others. ~ Muhammad Ali, #NFDB
871:If you had only truth, goodness, and harmony on your side, and the complete absence of the other, there would be no creative impulse. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
872:It is often hard to determine whether a clear, open, and honorable proceeding is the result of goodness or of cunning. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
873:True "volunteering," then, obeys no law, seeks no returns, pays no debts, plans no praise for yourself, nor proves your goodness ~ Walter Wangerin Jr, #NFDB
874:Trust, practice, and then release yourself into the goodness of Existence and your life will prove that what you believe, you see. ~ Michael Beckwith, #NFDB
875:Well, all I can say is thank goodness I had 15 years of theater before ever I did film roles. You build technique that you can rely on ~ Chris Cooper, #NFDB
876:As all our wickedness consists in turning away from our Creator, so all our goodness consists in uniting ourselves with Him. ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori, #NFDB
877:Everyone wants to know where evil comes from and why the world is riddled with it. Why doesn't anyone ask where goodness comes from? ~ Sylvain Reynard, #NFDB
878:His goodness must not be a partial and transitory act, but a constant superfluity, which costs him nothing and of which he is unconscious. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
879:Holy fu-" he starts then catches himself."Yes,this tithe will be most pleasing to her Goodness." Me and Magnus exchange amused glances. ~ Mari Mancusi, #NFDB
880:Men are a bunch of prancing fools when it comes to matters of the heart. Goodness knows what self-inflicted drama he has cast himself into. ~ K M Shea, #NFDB
881:Please enter where You already abide. May my mind and heart be pure and true, and may I not deviate from the things of goodness. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
882:Racism is not simply about one man's irrational hatred of another but his self-hatred, doubting his own moral goodness and purpose. ~ Michael R French, #NFDB
883:The Country is both the Philosopher's Garden and his Library, in which he Reads and Contemplates the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God. ~ William Penn, #NFDB
884:The first link between my soul and Christ is not my goodness but my badness, not my merit but my misery, not my riches but my need. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
885:The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. ~ Charlie Chaplin, #NFDB
886:With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
887:Every beauty must be completed by another beauty: Windows with flowers, trees with birds, mountains with fogs, life with goodness… ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
888:Fortunately, Luke's unwavering faith in his father's innate goodness had proved to be a stronger force than the power of the dark side. ~ Ryder Windham, #NFDB
889:God seeth different abilities and frailties of men, which may move His goodness to be merciful to their different improvements in virtue. ~ William Law, #NFDB
890:Goodness me, no,’ he replied with perhaps not quite the tone of veracity in his voice he’d hoped for, ‘you can leave whenever you want. ~ Jasper Fforde, #NFDB
891:If you put too many things in your need category, you will end up frustrated with life, hurt by others, and doubting God’s goodness. ~ Paul David Tripp, #NFDB
892:I used to be very revolutionary, but now I think that nothing can be gained by brute force. People must be drawn to good by goodness. ~ Boris Pasternak, #NFDB
893:Our job as conscious humans is to bring the beauty and goodness of everything to full consciousness, to full delight, to full awareness. ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
894:Perfect goodness can never debate about the end to be attained, and perfect wisdom cannot debate about the means most suited to achieve it. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
895:There is always more goodness in the world than there appears to be, because goodness is of its very nature modest and retiring. ~ Evelyn Beatrice Hall, #NFDB
896:We must not wish anything other than what happens from moment to moment, all the while, however, exercising ourselves in goodness. ~ Catherine of Genoa, #NFDB
897:When we learn to see goodness in people, we appreciate them naturally. People who appreciate little also see little goodness in others. ~ Awdhesh Singh, #NFDB
898:God really is in the business of blessing his people in unusual ways so his goodness and his greatness will be declared among all peoples. ~ David Platt, #NFDB
899:How can two good people both have such good intentions end up with feelings, derived from all the goodness, that are so incredibly bad? ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
900:I am miracle ingredient Z-247. I'm immense. I'm a real, slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger. I'm a bona fide supraman. ~ Joseph Heller, #NFDB
901:I believed then as I do now, in the goodness of the published word: it seemed to contain an essential goodness, like the smell of leaf mold. ~ E B White, #NFDB
902:My goodness carina mia, you are so thin. You do not eat enough. Mangia, mangia, mangia! [Alicia's Italian mother's view of her daughter.] ~ Celia Conrad, #NFDB
903:She thought there were no Gods; no one was to blame; and so she evolved this atheist's religion of doing good for the sake of goodness. ~ Virginia Woolf, #NFDB
904:sometimes goodness and nobility aren’t enough. Sometimes, when the monsters come, you need a dark, monstrous thing to pit against them. ~ Brian Staveley, #NFDB
905:The appearances of goodness and merit often meet with a greater reward from the world than goodness and merit themselves. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
906:as I get older there is nothing more constantly astonishing to me than the goodness of the Bad; - unless it is the badness of the Good. ~ Margaret Deland, #NFDB
907:Goodness deliberately chooses to do the right thing and firmly resists what is wrong. Merely avoiding bad things doesn’t make women good. ~ Paul Coughlin, #NFDB
908:Goodness exists independently of our conception of it. The good is out there and it always has been out there, even before we began to exist. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
909:It is absolutely right that President Reagan considers SDI and thank goodness people considered nuclear research before the last war. ~ Margaret Thatcher, #NFDB
910:It's perhaps significant that God declares His completed Creation "very good" and that Adam is an afterthought, his goodness unspecified. ~ Peter Manseau, #NFDB
911:Karna is a good man, but he sees good even in what is bad. His seeing it as good doesn't make the bad good, but makes his goodness look bad. ~ Kavita Kan, #NFDB
912:Radical transparency fosters goodness in so many ways for the same reasons that bad things are more likely to take place behind closed doors. ~ Ray Dalio, #NFDB
913:The moral duty of man consists of imitatingthe moral goodness and beneficence of God,manifested in the creation, toward all His creatures. ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
914:Though we may get our hearts broken from the effects of sin in this in-between time, God’s goodness will eventually set the world right. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
915:You can deny, if you like, nearly all abstractions: justice, beauty, truth, goodness, mind, God. You can deny seriousness, but not play. ~ Johan Huizinga, #NFDB
916:Christians don't believe that goodness gets you to heaven. Christians believe it's exhausting to rely on your own goodness to please God. ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
917:Do not disregard the accumulation of goodness, saying, 'This will come to nothing.' By the gradual falling of raindrops, a jar is filled. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
918:Everybody's got the seam of goodness in them, Kit," said Grandpa. "Just a matter of whether it can be found and brought out into the light. ~ David Almond, #NFDB
919:God is all that is good, as to my sight, and the goodness that each thing hath, it is He. ~ Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love (c. 1393), Ch. 8, #NFDB
920:Her goodness had limits. She could have easily gone her whole life without knowing those limits, but now she knew exactly where they lay. ~ Liane Moriarty, #NFDB
921:He smelled like smoke too, and under it was the edge of apple pies-spice and goodness. Jesus. Even after all that he smelled like a bakery. ~ Lili St Crow, #NFDB
922:If good people would but make goodness agreeable, and smile instead of frowning in their virtue, how many they would win to the good cause. ~ James Ussher, #NFDB
923:Strength and strength's will are the supreme ethic. All else are dreams from hospital beds, the sly, crawling goodness of sneaking souls. ~ Elbert Hubbard, #NFDB
924:terrible. I don’t know if there is a person who can have that kind of power and possess the goodness of character to break it.” Rakel shivered. ~ K M Shea, #NFDB
925:There's always going to be evil, but the way we unite, regardless of class, race, religion, or gender, empowers the goodness in the world. ~ Haley Bennett, #NFDB
926:To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind. ~ William Hazlitt, #NFDB
927:We are all born with a divine fire in us. Our efforts should be to give wings to this fire and fill the world with the glow of its goodness. ~ Abdul Kalam, #NFDB
928:When you start to question or forget the grace of God and the goodness of God, you will find it much easier to disobey the will of God. ~ Warren W Wiersbe, #NFDB
929:Within humanity is goodness that is alive and fully intact but, in these times, it is surrounded by the darkness of uncertainty and fear. ~ Sakyong Mipham, #NFDB
930:You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
931:As the Greek and the Christian philosophers could have told me, love and reason are inseparable because goodness and truth are inseparable. ~ Joseph Pearce, #NFDB
932:Bleed, bleed, poor country!Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure;For goodness dares not check thee!His title is affear’d.Shakesp.Macbeth. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
933:But it seems that in the end all that matters is finding a way to survive the grief and trusting in the goodness of life beyond the pain. ~ Cindy Woodsmall, #NFDB
934:Christians are those who let God clothe them with goodness and mercy, with Christ, so as to become, like Christ, servants of God and others. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
935:Goodness is not in the backyard of the individual nor in the open field of the collective; goodness flowers only in freedom from both. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #NFDB
936:How can two good people who both have such good intentions end up with feelings derived from all the goodness, that are so incredibly bad. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
937:It is the music in our conscience, the dance in our spirit, to which Puritan litanies, moral sermons, and goody goodness won’t chime. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
938:Many people with secondary greatness—that is, social recognition for their talents—lack primary greatness or goodness in their character. ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
939:Not this one." Adam's eyes were shining. "You don't know this Eve. She'll celebrate my choice. I don't think anyone can know her goodness. ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
940:Ordinary goodness is fraught with veins of vanity and self-interest and above all with pleasure--because goodness makes you feel more alive. ~ Susan Neiman, #NFDB
941:The realization that truth, forgiveness, and goodness are more important than revenge, condemnation, and cruelty gives me courage and certainty. ~ Lisa See, #NFDB
942:There was the potential for evil everywhere, and the only way to combat it was if more people chose goodness. If more people chose heroism. ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
943:All mythologies become outdated as the concept of goodness keeps evolving. Every ‘good’ of a particular time becomes ‘evil’ as time changes. ~ Awdhesh Singh, #NFDB
944:Be a true representative of the goodness in your heart, and don’t expect it to be easy or even noticed. ~ ADYASHANTI 🙏🏻❤️#adyashanti #quote #heart #goodness, #NFDB
945:Do not talk to me of goodness, of abstract justice, of nature law. Necessity is the highest law, public welfare is the highest justice. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #NFDB
946:Goodness and love mould the form into their own image, and cause the joy and beauty of love to shine forth from every part of the face. ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, #NFDB
947:How can two good people who both have such good intentions end up with feelings, derived from all the goodness, that are so incredibly bad. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
948:How can two good people who both have such good intentions end up with feelings, derived from all the goodness, that are so incredibly bad? ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
949:I don't think goodness is something that you learn. If you're left adrift in the world to learn goodness from it, you would be in trouble. ~ Cormac McCarthy, #NFDB
950:My goodness, there's nothing that feels better than to meditate, than to get quiet, and then to be at peace, and to tell someone you love them. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
951:that opening position in every negotiation. The one that said, out of the goodness of my heart I'm going to agree to rob you blind. ~ Jon Courtenay Grimwood, #NFDB
952:The goodness of a thing created is the perfection of its fitness for the use which it serves. Now that use is either particular or universal. ~ William Ames, #NFDB
953:War is rarely black and white, rarely goodness fighting evil; we are all different shades of gray. There are no pure means, only pure ends. ~ David Dalglish, #NFDB
954:we have complete control over our character. We are, he says, the only ones who can stop ourselves from attaining goodness and integrity. ~ William B Irvine, #NFDB
955:When it comes to understanding and appreciating grace, our biggest problem is our so-called goodness...not our self-perceived badness. ~ Tullian Tchividjian, #NFDB
956:You are. Your confidence is intimidating, because it’s entirely valid. And your goodness. And,” his gaze blazed over my body, “the rest of you. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
957:He who cannot see the beautiful side is a bad painter, a bad friend, a bad lover; he cannot lift his mind and his heart so high as goodness. ~ Joseph Joubert, #NFDB
958:I keep working because I am quite sure that no particle of goodness or truth is ever really lost, however appearances may be to the contrary. ~ Lydia M Child, #NFDB
959:Inej was stronger than he would ever be. She'd kept her faith, her goodness, even when the world tried to take it from her with greedy hands. ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
960:In spite of his clumsiness and rough manner, he was a peaceable man, of infinite kindliness and goodness of heart, always ready to be of use. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
961:I've been a perfect lady my entire life, and somebody just tried to shoot me, anyway. Grandmother was wrong. Goodness is not its own reward. ~ Susan Andersen, #NFDB
962:My goodness, Freddy,” she said angrily. “That’s a fine thing to do! Come to visit a sick friend, and try to scare her to death! I must say— ~ Walter R Brooks, #NFDB
963:Oh, my goodness, Lord Dryden. You should have seen your face when you said the word work. It’s not counted among the deadly sins, you know. ~ Julie Anne Long, #NFDB
964:Safely connected to my life, and reassured of my essential goodness, I feel at ease, at home, really in the most sublime of homes. [p. 58] ~ Sylvia Boorstein, #NFDB
965:The most basic and somehow forgettable thing is this: Love is not pain. Love is goodness. And real love--it's less shiny than solid and simple. ~ Deb Caletti, #NFDB
966:treat everyone, without exception, with goodness and kindness, as all of those whom we revere as spiritual masters taught us by their example. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
967:...all "months" work together for the good of those who love the Lord! ...all the days of this month will work together for your goodness! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
968:Everything in life has some good in it And when something awful happens, the goodness stands our even more- it's sad, but that's the truth. ~ Banana Yoshimoto, #NFDB
969:For a water drop, the most beautiful house is a leaf; and for a man: The goodness! Let the goodness be your home you permanently live in! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
970:Goodness provokes bitchiness. It's mathematical. It's somewhere in the human genes. Any number of lovely people are married to horrible ones. ~ Niall Williams, #NFDB
971:If I complain about the difficult circumstances of my life, I impugn the sovereignty and goodness of God and tempt my listener to do the same. ~ Jerry Bridges, #NFDB
972:I looked at you... and saw your goodness, your hope, and your faith. Those are what make you beautiful. So, so beautiful. So it was't my hair? ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
973:"In the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love." ~ Dwight D Eisenhower, #NFDB
974:I trust that as He shall further open the way, I will be ready to walk therein, relying on His help and trusting in His goodness and wisdom. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
975:It’s so easy to get mired in the all too obvious cruelty of the world. It’s natural. But to really heal, we need to recognize the goodness too. ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
976:No, I thought. Not just Hell. Really, Heaven was just as guilty. What kind of group could advocate goodness and not allow its members to love? ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
977:the driving force behind such behaviors is the nature of the possessed information; or more precisely, its practical, contextual goodness-of-fit…. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
978:... when things get too good and too right and too perfect, it's only because the ugly twist hasn't yet infiltrated the goodness of it all... ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
979:When you are going through a test, just remember it WILL become your testimony to glorify God. Stay faithful and see the goodness of God!! ~ Alisa Hope Wagner, #NFDB
980:Everything in life has some good in it. And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more--it's sad, but that's the truth. ~ Banana Yoshimoto, #NFDB
981:Goodness," Tessa said. "If you keep seeing six-fingered Nigel like this, he'll expect you to declare your intentions." Jem choked on his tea. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
982:Goodness," Tessa said to the back of his head. "If you keep seeing Six-Fingered Nigel like this, he'll expect you to declare your intentions. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
983:Goodness,” Tessa said to the back of his head. “If you keep seeing Six-Fingered Nigel like this, he’ll expect you to declare your intentions. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
984:How can you go wrong with two people in love? Goodness has nothing to do with sexual orientation. Love is love, and there will never be too much. ~ Fiona Apple, #NFDB
985:It is only from the belief of the goodness and wisdom of a supreme being, that our calamities can be borne in the manner which becomes a man. ~ Henry Mackenzie, #NFDB
986:I wanted to be an honest writer and show my ugliness as much as I showed my hopes or goodness. And that really sculpted the type of artist I've become. ~ Jewel, #NFDB
987:One needs to be either more brave or more good, because if courage is lacking goodness can substitute, while cowardice is the deficiency of both. ~ Neel Burton, #NFDB
988:Religion … denies goodness as a quality of human nature; man is wicked, corrupt, incapable of good; … on the other hand, God is only good[.] ~ Ludwig Feuerbach, #NFDB
989:The greatest historian should also be a great moralist. It is no proof of impartiality to treat wickedness and goodness on the same level. ~ Theodore Roosevelt, #NFDB
990:We require from buildings two kinds of goodness: first, the doing their practical duty well: then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it. ~ John Ruskin, #NFDB
991:We too often forget that not only is there 'a soul of goodness in things evil,' but very generally also, a soul of truth in things erroneous. ~ Herbert Spencer, #NFDB
992:When good men die their goodness does not perish, But lives though they are gone. As for the bad, All that was theirs dies and is buried with them. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
993:You’ll always be the girl that radiates happiness and goodness, the one with no fuckin’ filter, and a brain that comes out with craziest of shit. ~ Anne Malcom, #NFDB
994:You´re going to have to learn how to pat yourself on the back eventually. Start now. It´s not gloating.It´s taking pleasure in life´s goodness ~ Ellyn Spragins, #NFDB
995:An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it. ~ Maurice Maeterlinck, #NFDB
996:For it is goodness that God is looking for; it is being and character and personality that God is looking for, not the ability to do amazing things. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
997:God's dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
998:If anyone or anything tries to curse or kill the Goodness at the Center of all things, it will just keep coming back to life. Forever Easter. ~ David Housholder, #NFDB
999:O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1000:We are all born with a divine fire in us. Our efforts should be to give wings to this fire and fill the world with the glow of its goodness. ~ A P J Abdul Kalam, #NFDB
1001:What you see in other people is a reflection of yourself. A person of goodness sees goodness in others and a person of evil sees evil in others. ~ Omar Suleiman, #NFDB
1002:Blessed is the man who knows his own weakness, because this knowledge becomes to him the foundation, root, and beginning of all Goodness. ~ Saint Isaac of Syria, #NFDB
1003:But how shall we educate men to goodness, to a sense of one another, to a love of truth? And more urgently, how shall we do this in a bad time? ~ Daniel Berrigan, #NFDB
1004:For goodness sakes, beware of curls… It is a great art to do them so that the girls not only look modern - but do not suddenly look very vulgar. ~ Diana Vreeland, #NFDB
1005:How I loved him. Wih every cell in my body and every breath I took. Thank goodness he was there today to share my worst moment and joke about it. ~ Ednah Walters, #NFDB
1006:I think when you don't know where you stand with someone, they can surprise you in their goodness and their badness, and that makes them human. ~ David Morrissey, #NFDB
1007:Out of love,
No regrets--
Though the goodness
Be wasted forever.
Out of love,
No regrets--
Though the return
Be never. ~ Langston Hughes,#NFDB
1008:People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil... Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
1009:The pursuit of beauty is much more dangerous nonsense than the pursuit of truth or goodness, because it affords a stronger temptation to the ego. ~ Northrop Frye, #NFDB
1010:Goodness gracious, no,” Angie said, horrified. “Is that four inches? Girl, you’re going to tower over him as it is. No need emphasizing the flaws. ~ Jessica Clare, #NFDB
1011:How can two good people who both have such
good intentions end up with feelings, derived from
all the goodness, that are so incredibly bad? ~ Colleen Hoover,#NFDB
1012:I’d just like to say,” he said, “if we don’t get out of this, that…I’ll have known, deep down inside, that there was a spark of goodness in you. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
1013:If children are allowed free development and given occupation to correspond with their unfolding minds their natural goodness will shine forth. ~ Maria Montessori, #NFDB
1014:I'm rather pro-prostitution, I admire people who do it. It can't be much fun. Thank goodness for it. People need relief or they become murderers. ~ Karl Lagerfeld, #NFDB
1015:saying Daphne was a worrywart was like saying soccer players’ legs were a thing of jaw-dropping, panty-melting goodness. It was just a fact of life. ~ Avery Flynn, #NFDB
1016:Similarly, it is the vision of life in God’s kingdom and its goodness that provides an adequate basis for the steadfast intention to obey Christ. ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
1017:The world seems to me excruciatingly, almost painfully beautiful at times, and the goodness and kindness of people often exceed that which even I expect. ~ Lois W, #NFDB
1018:This is the Easter message, that awakening is possible, to the goodness of God, the sacredness of human life, the sisterhood and brotherhood of all. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
1019:What goodness she might hold in her heart had been overshadowed by her actions, again and again, She wasn’t a bad person, but she might was well be. ~ Sonja Yoerg, #NFDB
1020:What goodness she might hold in her heart had been overshadowed by her actions, again and again. She wasn’t a bad person, but she might was well be. ~ Sonja Yoerg, #NFDB
1021:You were true to her, even if she was not to you. Never repent of your own goodness, child. To stay true in the face of evil is a feat of strength. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
1022:18We have a special role in His plan. He calls us to life by His message of truth so that we will show the rest of His creatures His goodness and love. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1023:Conquer the angry one by not getting angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and the liar by speaking the truth. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
1024:Eternity to a child offers goodness, and eternal life to a man is essentially corrupting because it involves a certain amount of vanity to embrace it. ~ Anna Friel, #NFDB
1025:He was a man in the prime of his life, his fifties...broad forehead, aquiline nose, penetrating gaze, the very soul of rectitude and goodness. ~ Mario Vargas Llosa, #NFDB
1026:I am lucky to be what I am! Thank goodness I'm not just a clam or ham or a dirty jar of sour gooseberry jam! I am what I am. That's a great thing to be. ~ Dr Seuss, #NFDB
1027:I don't need the fillers, additives, excessive amounts of sugars, fats, salts and other measures taken to taint the natural goodness of real food. ~ Mark Hyman M D, #NFDB
1028:I felt as if I were riding a pendulum. Just as I would swing into the abyss of hopelessness, the pendulum would swing back with some small goodness. ~ Ruta Sepetys, #NFDB
1029:It emphasized that performing service is not something you do out of the goodness of your heart but as a debt you are repaying for the gift of life. ~ David Brooks, #NFDB
1030:Sometimes goodness doesn't tell everything it knows. Sometimes goodness waits for the appropriate time and does the best it can with what it has. ~ Sylvain Reynard, #NFDB
1031:[T]hey know they’re being good when they thank the troops and their eyes shimmer with love for themselves and this tangible proof of their goodness. ~ Ben Fountain, #NFDB
1032:We all know that men and women can be good without faith. And we also know that faith is an incredibly important source of goodness in our country. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
1033:When you assume the goodness in one group is an exception but believe the goodness in your group is the norm, you're probably being prejudiced. ~ Jamie Arpin Ricci, #NFDB
1034:You were not put on this earth just to get in touch with God. That sort of thing could sap all the strength and the goodness out of a chelloveck. ~ Anthony Burgess, #NFDB
1035:And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill Where no ill seems. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
1036:Central to America's rise to global leadership is our Judeo-Christian tradition with the vision of the goodness and possibilities of every human life. ~ Mitt Romney, #NFDB
1037:Children show me in their playful smiles the divine in everyone. This simple goodness shines straight from their hearts and only asks to be loved. ~ Michael Jackson, #NFDB
1038:Do not doubt your own basic goodness. In spite of all confusion and fear, you are born with a heart that knows what is just, loving, and beautiful. ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
1039:God, I like him so much. Drown in his goodness. His kind spirit and pure heart. The romance of his second language. Sweet brown eyes and beautiful smile. ~ Sara Ney, #NFDB
1040:I am free to choose my own actions. Indeed, like everyone else, I must be so. A good act that is compelled is not goodness at all, but merely force. ~ Cameron Dokey, #NFDB
1041:I told my nephew that if he wanted to get on in motor racing, the first thing he should do was master English. Thank goodness he now speaks it. ~ Juan Manuel Fangio, #NFDB
1042:My goodness!” said Mrs. Wiggins. “I didn’t know fighting was so much fun! Strenuous, of course. But I don’t know when I’ve enjoyed myself so much. ~ Walter R Brooks, #NFDB
1043:Our goodness comes solely from thinking on goodness; our wickedness from thinking on wickedness. We too are the victims of our own contemplation. ~ John Jay Chapman, #NFDB
1044:Perhaps evil is the crucible of goodness... and perhaps even Satan - Satan, in spite of himself - somehow serves to work out the will of God. ~ William Peter Blatty, #NFDB
1045:Real education should consist of drawing the goodness and the best out of our own students. What better books can there be than the book of humanity? ~ Cesar Chavez, #NFDB
1046:The Law saith, Where is thy righteousness, goodness, and satisfaction? The Gospel saith, Christ is thy righteousness, goodness, and satisfaction. ~ Patrick Hamilton, #NFDB
1047:We are all born with a divine fire in us. Our efforts should be to give wings to this fire and fill the world with the glow of its goodness. May ~ A P J Abdul Kalam, #NFDB
1048:Babette looked too good for the place tonight, but then goodness is only relative after all ("Steps Going Up" aka "Guillotine" aka "Men Must Die") ~ Cornell Woolrich, #NFDB
1049:But the pride of those who live as if they believed they were better than anyone else is rooted in a secret failure to believe in their own goodness. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
1050:I ignored the teachings of our Messenger, that all men are brothers, and that there is no difference among them save in the goodness of their actions. ~ Laila Lalami, #NFDB
1051:I looked at you... and saw your goodness, your hope, and your faith. Those are what make you beautiful. So, so beautiful.
So it was't my hair? ~ Richelle Mead,#NFDB
1052:In this world goodness is destined to be defeated. But a man must go down fighting. That is the victory. To do anything less is to be less than a man. ~ Walker Percy, #NFDB
1053:It is not so important that many should be good as you, as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
1054:I wish the Lord would just knock me over with kindness and goodness and simple purity, because I don't seem to be getting the knack of it on my own. ~ Nancy E Turner, #NFDB
1055:Judge the goodness of a book by the energy of the punches it has given you. I believe the greatest characteristic of genius, is, above all, force. ~ Gustave Flaubert, #NFDB
1056:Often the soul is ripened into fuller goodness while age has spread an ugly film, so that mere glances can never divine the preciousness of the fruit. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
1057:The wonder is not that there should be obstacles and sufferings in this world, but that there should be law and order, beauty and joy, goodness and love. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1058:Today we stand together all around the world, joined in a common purpose - to remake the planet into a haven of joy and understanding and goodness. ~ Michael Jackson, #NFDB
1059:Trungpa Rinpoche talked about holding the sadness of life in our heart while never forgetting the beauty of the world and the goodness of being alive. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
1060:Unlike Job's comforters he believed there was a supreme goodness that could renew his own soul beyond this wasting sorrow of human life and death. ~ Elizabeth Goudge, #NFDB
1061:When we disobey God we defy His authority and despise His holiness. But when we fail to trust God we doubt His sovereignty and question His goodness. ~ Jerry Bridges, #NFDB
1062:You think they are kind, that the Nephilim are kind, because they are good, but goodness is not kindness, and there is nothing crueler than virtue. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
1063:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1064:I had been allowed to believe in man's innate goodness for the twenty-two years of my life, and I had hoped to carry the belief with me to my grave. ~ Charlotte Rogan, #NFDB
1065:It was as if we knew goodness knows how many specimens, whereas in reality there was still only one, which admittedly weighted seventeen billion tons. ~ Stanis aw Lem, #NFDB
1066:Some people are like that: they are made of goodness, their every look spreads tenderness, and from their hands caresses fall all the year round. ~ Patrick Chamoiseau, #NFDB
1067:Sometimes people, when left alone, can hear their own hatefulness for themselves. Sometimes goodness is enough to expose evil for what it really is. ~ Sylvain Reynard, #NFDB
1068:The mathematical method is disinterested in the efficient cause and the final cause or the goodness of a thing and it should not be so disinterested. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
1069:C'mon, Amy, cinnamon rolls are calling us." Dan put a hand to his ear. "Do you hear? 'Amy? Dan?'" he squeaked. "'Come and get my sugary, sticky goodness! ~ Jude Watson, #NFDB
1070:Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. Goodness, remembrance and love have no end, and the Lord of life holds all who die and all who mourn. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
1071:I don’t see how a man is to be good for much unless he has some one woman to love him dearly.’ ‘I think the goodness should come before he expects that. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
1072:If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1073:I never know what will happen. I have fallen on my face - not literally, thank goodness! - many times. But I always survive. And I don't let it stop me. ~ China Forbes, #NFDB
1074:Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice. Goodness is the only investment that never fails. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
1075:The greatness of God rouses fear within us, but His goodness encourages us not to be afraid of Him. To fear and not be afraid—that is the paradox of faith. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1076:Blessed are You, Adonai our God, ruler of all things great and small, who has sanctified us with Your goodness, who has given us Your righteousness. ~ Jill Eileen Smith, #NFDB
1077:Christ is no Moses, no exactor, no giver of laws, but a giver of grace, a Savior; he is infinite mercy and goodness, freely and bountifully given to us. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
1078:Excellent anthology... a celebration of our goodness and our potential for growth. The sense of celebration is stretched by the beautiful photographs. ~ Joseph C Zinker, #NFDB
1079:I see the goodness and beauty in everyone, and everything is a gift given for me and for all of us. If you don't love it, question your mind until you do. ~ Byron Katie, #NFDB
1080: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. ~ Roger Scruton, #NFDB
1081:Laughter springs from the lawless part of our nature, and is purifying only in so far as there is a natural and unschooled goodness in the human heart. ~ Agnes Repplier, #NFDB
1082:Nature will not forgive those who fail to fulfill the law of their being. The law of human beings is wisdom and goodness, not unlimited acquisition. ~ Robert M Hutchins, #NFDB
1083:Thank goodness for whatever hormones make women so agreeable after you’ve laid them right, because that’s all it took to get her to agree. Also… pancakes. ~ C J Roberts, #NFDB
1084:The fact that faith has motivated many people to do good things does not suggest that faith is itself a necessary (or even a good) motivation for goodness. ~ Sam Harris, #NFDB
1085:Whatever there is of God and goodness in the universe, it must work itself out and express itself through us. We cannot stand aside and let God do it. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
1086:Animal experiments are no joke. Thank goodness scientists are finding better, more humane ways to develop treatments for cancer and other killer diseases. ~ Carol Leifer, #NFDB
1087:Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn't marry a girl just because she's pretty, but my goodness, doesn't it help? ~ Marilyn Monroe, #NFDB
1088:Food is the daily sacrament of unnecessary goodness, ordained for a continual remembrance that the world will always be more delicious than useful. ~ Robert Farrar Capon, #NFDB
1089:Not to be daily mortifying sin, is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love of God, who hath furnished us with a principle of doing it. ~ John Owen, #NFDB
1090:Some patients, though conscious that their condition is perilous, recover their health simply through their contentment with the goodness of the physician. ~ Hippocrates, #NFDB
1091:The boy I fell madly in love with – the boy made entirely of goodness and light – has been snuffed out by the bloodthirsty creature that glowers before me. ~ Alyson Noel, #NFDB
1092:The greatness of God rouses fear within us, but His goodness encourages us not to be afraid of Him. To fear and not be afraid - that is the paradox of faith. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1093:There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1094:We, the human beings in this world, if there is a spark of goodness or kindness in our hearts, avoid judging people. We prefer forgiving to judging. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, #NFDB
1095:But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil. ~ Robert A Heinlein, #NFDB
1096:Don't allow the opinions of other people to shape your concept of him. Get to know him yourself, and let the goodness of God change you from the inside out. ~ Judah Smith, #NFDB
1097:God gives us the freedom to do great evil, if we choose. Then he uses his own freedom to create goodness out of that evil, for that is what he chooses. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
1098:He used to wonder how such a frail little body could house so much joy, so much goodness. It couldn't. It spilled out of her, came pouring out her eyes. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
1099:He used to wonder how such a frail little body could house so much joy, so much goodness. It couldn’t. It spilled out of her, came pouring out her eyes. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
1100:How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you. Psalm 31:19 ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1101:I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
1102:I just think I’m not the best person to demonstrate all the goodness humanity has to offer. I don’t want you to be too disappointed when you realize that. ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
1103:In employing fiction to make truth clear and goodness attractive, we are only following the example which every Christian ought to propose to himself. ~ Thomas B Macaulay, #NFDB
1104:more needful that my heart should swell with loving admiration at some trait of gentle goodness in the faulty people who sit at the same hearth with me, or ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
1105:Remember, your goodness as a person isn’t based on how much you give in relationships, and it isn’t selfish to set limits on people who keep on taking. ~ Lindsay C Gibson, #NFDB
1106:Thank Goodness I have walked in circles long enough to wear the soles of my shoes so thin that the diamonds on which I stand can now get my attention ~ Anne Wilson Schaef, #NFDB
1107:The good want power, but to weep barren tears. The powerful goodness want: worse need for them. The wise want love; and those who love want wisdom. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, #NFDB
1108:There aren’t many sure things in this world. But God’s love and goodness are something we can absolutely count on to be there with us . . . to follow us. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
1109:There was never law, or sect, or opinion did so much magnify goodness, as the Christian religion doth. ~ Francis Bacon, Essays. Of Goodness, and Goodness of Nature (1625), #NFDB
1110:We live in an age which is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy, as if it were a crime. ~ Franz Kafka, #NFDB
1111:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1112:Anybody who gets into bed and turns out the lights the first night in the White House probably feels a little bit of a start, where you say, "Goodness ... " ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
1113:Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses to be bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him? ~ Anthony Burgess, #NFDB
1114:For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, for love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1115:Goodness me, Charlotte," she went on, much her old self again, "who on earth ever fell in love with anyone who looked handsome? What a ghastly bore handsome is. ~ Eva Rice, #NFDB
1116:Oh my goodness, Luke’s massaging your arm! Isn’t that sweet? Good Ava trilled in my ear.
Jump him! Rip his pants off! Bad Ava shouted in my other ear. ~ Kristen Ashley,#NFDB
1117:the truth of who we are is innate goodness, and the whole journey is really about removing any obstacle or false belief that keeps us from knowing that ~ Alanis Morissette, #NFDB
1118:We plunge into love with a naivete that ignores all prior humiliations. Thank goodness, I guess. Because we never learn, we reach for love again and again. ~ Michael Perry, #NFDB
1119:Dear and most respected bookcase! I welcome your existence, which has for over one hundred years been devoted to the radiant ideals of goodness and justice. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
1120:Is this how you repay my goodness--with badness?” cried the boy. “Of course,” said the crocodile out of the corner of his mouth. “That is the way of the world. ~ Alex Haley, #NFDB
1121:It would be nice to feel that we are a better world, a world of more compassion and a world of more humanity, and to believe in the basic goodness of man. ~ Barbara Walters, #NFDB
1122:Knowing belongs to man's intellect or reason; loving belongs to his will. The object of the intellect is truth; the object of the will is goodness or love. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
1123:Other blessings may be taken away, but if we have acquired a good friend by goodness, we have a blessing which improves in value when others fail. ~ William Ellery Channing, #NFDB
1124:That day has come. God is now dealing with us in a new way. Our badness is no longer the obstacle to blessing. Nor is our goodness the condition for blessing. ~ Larry Crabb, #NFDB
1125:There was human goodness in the world, she thought-all caught up with desires and dreams, regrets and bitterness, resentments and power, but it was there. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
1126:Thou who art the soul of all things, Thy universal diffusion witnesses to Thy power and goodness. It is in thee, in others, in all creatures, in all worlds. ~ Vishnu Purana, #NFDB
1127:What is the real relation between happiness and goodness? It is only within a few generations that men have found courage to say that there is none. ~ William Graham Sumner, #NFDB
1128:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1129:Do not compromise yourself and put your goodness in the same impermanent category as whatever circumstance happening. Be the best you in every circumstance. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
1130:If you make it a habit not to blame others, you will feel the growth of the ability to love in your soul, and you will see the growth of goodness in your life. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1131:In debates over the death penalty, liberals rank Absolute Goodness over Retribution, and conservatives tend to prefer Retribution: a life for a life. Suppose ~ George Lakoff, #NFDB
1132:Our Lord God shewed that a deed shall be done, and Himself shall do it, and I shall do nothing but sin, and my sin shall not hinder His Goodness working. ~ Julian of Norwich, #NFDB
1133:Thank goodness I started getting movie roles and then television shows came along. So I was very fortunate to be able to do all three and I like all of them. ~ Victor Garber, #NFDB
1134:The higher the sun ariseth, the less shadow doth he cast; even so the greater is the goodness, the less doth it covet praise; yet cannot avoid its rewards in honors. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1135:There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it." "I ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1136:If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness. ~ Nelson Mandela, #NFDB
1137:I think he likes it. He fits in with our ethos. He's a good worker and is an excellent pro. Thank goodness he likes his training or else he wouldn't settle here. ~ Iain Dowie, #NFDB
1138:the Many returning to and embracing the One is Good, and is known as wisdom; the One returning to and embracing the Many is Goodness, and is known as compassion. ~ Ken Wilber, #NFDB
1139:Elijah looks angelic but his beauty of spirit is what makes his Frodo leap out of the screen. Unalloyed goodness is one of the most difficult attributes to act. ~ Ian Mckellen, #NFDB
1140:Every child needs to see the possibilities of being human, watch the consequence of choices, and have their hearts stretched by goodness and courage in action. ~ Gladys M Hunt, #NFDB
1141:Goodness that comes out of hiding and assumes a public role is no longer good, but corrupt in its own terms and will carry its own corruption wherever it goes. ~ Hannah Arendt, #NFDB
1142:How did forgiveness work? The divine interacting with the less-than of mankind. How did the supposed goodness of God not get overpowered by the world’s darkness? ~ Beth K Vogt, #NFDB
1143:I'm a fool, to confuse this with goodness. I am not good. I know too much to be good. I know myself. I know myself to be vengeful, greedy, secretive and sly. ~ Margaret Atwood, #NFDB
1144:In the darkest night to be certain of the dawn...to go through Hell and to continue to trust in the goodness of God-this is the challenge and the way. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, #NFDB
1145:None deserve praise for being good who have not the spirit to be bad: goodness, for the most part, is nothing but indolence or weakness of will. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
1146:There are two things that men should never weary of, goodness and humility; we get none too much of them in this rough world among cold, proud people. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
1147:You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain, too much love drives a man insane. You broke my will, but what a thrill. Goodness gracious, great balls of fire. ~ Jerry Lee Lewis, #NFDB
1148:Even in his greatest dedication to science he had never managed to forget that people's goodness and beauty come from what they believe, not from what they know. ~ Robert Musil, #NFDB
1149:For goodness sake, will they hear, will white people hear what we are trying to say? Please, all we are asking you to do is to recognize that we are humans, too. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
1150:For the grace of bearing life's inevitable evils is itself a
good, and makes goodness arise even from evils by
opposing them or enduring them with courage. ~ A C Grayling,#NFDB
1151:Goodness. I didn't expect you to be quite this enthusiastic about my advances. If I don't play hard to get, how will I ever know whether or not you respect me? ~ Kiersten White, #NFDB
1152:Goodness in other people and what they contribute inspire me. I love it when someone is gifted and shares it in some way so that it has a trickle-down effect. ~ Renee Zellweger, #NFDB
1153:I always believed evil could be seen, sometimes in the smallest, quietest places. But those quiet places were also where you could see courage, strength, goodness. ~ Staci Hart, #NFDB
1154:I do not show My goodness by creating only what you call perfection all around you. I do not demonstrate My love by not allowing you to demonstrate yours. ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
1155:Seeking Heaven through righteousness is not seeking righteousness, but something else;--it is not loving goodness for goodness' sake, but for its rewards. ~ Edwin Hubbel Chapin, #NFDB
1156:The longer the trial to which God subjects you, the greater the goodness in comforting you during the time of trial and in the exaltation after the combat. ~ Pio of Pietrelcina, #NFDB
1157:This is going to be a great day. God is guiding and directing my steps. His favor is surrounding me. Goodness and mercy are following me. I’m excited about today! ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
1158:To want other people to grow. To want other people to have all the good things that you have. And to spare them the bad things if you can. That was goodness. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
1159:A man in the view of absolute goodness, adores, with total humility. Every step downward, is a step upward. The man who renounceshimself, comes to himself. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1160:Badness can be got easily and in shoals; the road to her is smooth, and she lives very near us. But between us and Goodness the gods have placed the sweat of our brows; ~ Hesiod, #NFDB
1161:Fearlessness comes with the birth of this new understanding: The only reason life changes as it does is to reveal the secret Goodness underlying those same changes. ~ Guy Finley, #NFDB
1162:For God is good — or rather, of all goodness He is Fountainhead, and it is impossible for one who is good to be mean or grudging about anything. ~ Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, #NFDB
1163:I believe we're brutes, but then, miraculously, there are those among us who stand up against that brutishness and remind us of the goodness we're capable of. ~ Julianna Baggott, #NFDB
1164:Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
1165:Oh! how amazing it is that people can talk so much about men's power and goodness, when if God did not hold us back every moment, we should be devils incarnate! ~ David Brainerd, #NFDB
1166:There was human goodness in the world, she thought—all caught up with desires and dreams, regrets and bitterness, resentments and powers, but it was there, and ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
1167:Well, now I tell you, I never seen good come o' goodness yet. Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead men don't bite; them's my views—amen, so be it. And ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
1168:Well, then, with Miss Temple you are good?"
"Yes, in a passive way: I make no effort; I follow as inclination guides me. There is no merit in such goodness. ~ Charlotte Bront,#NFDB
1169:You can enlarge the conversation by taking your focus off the negative and noticing all the things that are going right, taking a stand for the goodness of humanity. ~ Pam Grout, #NFDB
1170:All badness is spoiled goodness. A bad apple is a good apple that became rotten. Because evil has no capital of its own, it is a parasite that feeds on goodness. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
1171:Be sure to live up to your reputation for honesty and goodness, because many souls who believe you to be honest and good have placed themselves in your hands. ~ Nikos Kazantzakis, #NFDB
1172:Evil is not a thing. It cannot take possession of you. It’s the opposite; it’s a void, an absence of goodness. The only thing you can be frightened of here is yourself. ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
1173:Evil is not a thing, it cannot take possession of you. It’s the opposite; it’s a void, an absence of goodness. The only thing you can be frightened of here is yourself. ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
1174:He looks like somebody wandering in a dark maze, clutching his little bit of goodness, knowing it’s all he’s got but not remembering what it is or how to use it. ~ Mary Gaitskill, #NFDB
1175:I give her back an honest-to-goodness smile, the old Ben Parish smile, the one that got me practically everything I wanted. Well, not practically; I'm being modest. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
1176:I just want to serve up the goodness and grace that's been given to me because I made a choice that lined up with my passion. And that's what I tell my kids. ~ Giancarlo Esposito, #NFDB
1177:Love is energy: it can neither be created nor destroyed. It just is and always will be, giving meaning to life and direction to goodness... Love will never die. ~ Bryce Courtenay, #NFDB
1178:No matter where life takes you...the place where you stand at any moment is holy ground. Love hard and love wide and love long, and you will find goodness in it. ~ Susan Vreeland, #NFDB
1179:The material universe is both an essential display of the greatness and goodness of God and the arena of the eternal life of finite spirits, including the human. ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
1180:When there is life and mankind, a person will live striving for good deeds, liberty and a bright life, and wish that goodness and justice will reign in the world. ~ Islom Karimov, #NFDB
1181:Be fresh and new when perceiving the other. Always look for the highest first, look for the intrinsic beauty and goodness, for the essence of spirit in your partner. ~ John Friend, #NFDB
1182:But her life on this earth had taught her this: that love, in the end, was all that mattered. Friends, families, suitors, husbands: Goodness abounded in all of them. ~ Luanne Rice, #NFDB
1183:How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? ~ Dr Seuss, #NFDB
1184:I believe in the goodness of people, sir, and the power of young folks like us to overcome what grown-ups like you might not be able to.
―Sylvia Patterson ~ Sharon M Draper,#NFDB
1185:If evil is contagious, so is good:therefore, we must allow good to abound in us, more and more;let us be infected by goodness, and let us spread the good contagion. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1186:In literature, the best authors help us see and appreciate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22–23). ~ Tony Reinke, #NFDB
1187:Pay bad people with your goodness; fight their hatred with your kindness. Even if you do not achieve a victory over other people, you will conquer yourself. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel, #NFDB
1188:Since God is the highest good, he would not allow any evil to exist in his works unless his omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
1189:Thank goodness there were people who were happy with nothing, thought Julia, so that people like her (and everyone else she had ever met) could have more. ~ Edward St Aubyn, #NFDB
1190:True goodness is like water. Water helps the ten thousand things without itself striving. Water flows down into the low places men despise, for water is in the Way, ~ Marge Piercy, #NFDB
1191:Admiral Croft's manners were not quite of the tone to suit Lady Russell, but they delighted Anne. His goodness of heart and simplicity of character were irresistible. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1192:But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required, too, for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom invariably accomplishes evil. ~ Robert A Heinlein, #NFDB
1193:For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#NFDB
1194: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. ~ Dennis Prager, #NFDB
1195:He has written about equality, the perfectibility of human nature, and the essential goodness of mankind for many years -- he judges others by himself, poor soul. ~ Patrick O Brian, #NFDB
1196:No, how do you know I'm good? Can you really just tell by looking at someone?' What if someone could see the goodness inside people, in colors, how I see electricity? ~ Leah Thomas, #NFDB
1197:Perhaps evil is the crucible of goodness,” he brooded. “And perhaps even Satan—Satan, in spite of himself—somehow serves to work out the will of God.” Merrin ~ William Peter Blatty, #NFDB
1198:So great was my joy in God that I took no heed of looking at the angels and the saints, because all their goodness and all their beauty was from Him and in Him. ~ Angela of Foligno, #NFDB
1199:Truly, if ignorance is the foundation of any man's goodness, it is not worth the wind that upsets it, but in its mere self, ignorance of evil is a negative good. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
1200:But mostly I just think I’m not the best person to demonstrate all the goodness humanity has to offer. I don’t want you to be too disappointed when you realize that. ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
1201:I think the universe has a certain…grace. A goodness, a sense of…style. It’s beautiful out there. I just don’t think that beauty is tied to any one deity, any one ruler. ~ Seth King, #NFDB
1202:It is goodness that gives to a neighborhood its beauty. One who is free to choose, yet does not prefer to dwell among the good - how can he be accorded the name of wise? ~ Confucius, #NFDB
1203:Literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others - because it's a tool to help us live and die with a little bit more wisdom, goodness, and sanity. ~ Alain de Botton, #NFDB
1204:Our wickedness shall not overpower the unspeakable goodness and mercy of God; our dullness shall not overpower God's wisdom, nor our infirmity God's omnipotence. ~ John of Kronstadt, #NFDB
1205:Patriotism, often a thinly veiled form of collective self-worship, celebrates our goodness, our ideals, our mercy and bemoans the perfidiousness of those who hate us. ~ Chris Hedges, #NFDB
1206:Pay bad people with your goodness; fight their hatred with your kindness. Even if you do not achieve victory over other people, you will conquer yourself. —HENRI AMIEL ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1207:She smiled at and spoke to each person. It was as though she couldn't come into contact with anyone or anything without imparting some of her goodness onto them. ~ Michelle Leighton, #NFDB
1208:Thank goodness for the U.S. Navy. I can at least put off telling Logan. The last thing I need is for my boyfriend to pick a fight with an international crime syndicate. ~ Rob Thomas, #NFDB
1209:the highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe! ~ Nikos Kazantzakis, #NFDB
1210:Because it's so hard to be kind to the world when all you've ever felt is hate. Because it's so hard to see goodness in the world when all you've ever known is terror. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
1211:Because we don't see the evil destroyed now and thus experience the suffering that evil inevitably inflicts, we are tempted to doubt God's existence and goodness. ~ William A Dembski, #NFDB
1212:But mostly I just think I'am not the best person to demonstrate all the goodness humanity has to offer. I don't want you to be too disappointed when you realize that. ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
1213:For each new morning with its light, for rest and shelter of the night, for health and food, for love and friends, for everything your goodness sends. We thank you, Lord. ~ K C Wells, #NFDB
1214:I know not where His islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier, The Eternal Goodness, Stanza 20, #NFDB
1215:Moral Law is not any one instinct or set of instincts: it is something which makes a kind of tune (the tune we call goodness or right conduct) by directing the instincts. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1216:Nobody deserves to be praised for goodness unless he is strong enough to be bad, for any other goodness is usually merely inertia or lack of will-power ~ Fran ois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
1217:Pretended grace from natural goodness, fancied grace from priestly hands, or imaginary grace from outward ceremonies will never serve the true saint of God; ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1218:The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1219:There is small merit in mocking goodness, tweaking charity; it is much more comic to deprive people of their petty little existence for no reason at all, for a lark. ~ Jacques Rigaut, #NFDB
1220:Fear is a tool, one that often tells us that what we are doing is the right path. The easy path is the one of least resistance, the one that is all light and goodness. ~ Shannon Mayer, #NFDB
1221:God wants us to lament. Complaint doesn't see the goodness of the character of God. Lament is authentic about the feelings but knows the goodness and benevolence of God. ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
1222:I believe in one God, the first and great cause of goodness. I also believe in Jesus Christ, the rebirth of the world. I also believe in the Holy Ghost, the comforter. ~ Daniel Morgan, #NFDB
1223:I guess what I get excited about when I'm thinking about projects is that toothy, complex area of goodness and badness and the gray areas of human behavior and existence. ~ Liz Garbus, #NFDB
1224:I inhale great draught of space...the east and west are mine...and the north and south are mine...I am grandeur than I thought...I did not know i held so much goodness. ~ Walt Whitman, #NFDB
1225:I'm cynical about society, politics, newspapers, government. But I'm not cynical about life, love, goodness, death. That's why I really don't want to be labeled a cynic. ~ John Lennon, #NFDB
1226:It is instead the realization that the tragic irrationalities of life must be counterbalanced by an equally irrational commitment to the essential goodness of Being. ~ Jordan Peterson, #NFDB
1227:It was almost as if he had become, in his inveterate goodness, a little bit of a simpleton as is bound to happen, I think, if and when one gives oneself absolutely to God. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
1228:Most of the time a spark of beauty or truth will start a fire of a song but fires rarely produce goodness on their own ... you need to control them and put them to work. ~ Jon Foreman, #NFDB
1229:You will learn a lot about yourself if you stretch in the direction of goodness, of bigness, of kindness, of forgiveness, of emotional bravery. Be a warrior for love. ~ Cheryl Strayed, #NFDB
1230:Buddha was once asked to describe the essence of his teachings," Rinpoche said. "Do you know what he replied? 'Abandon harmfulness. Cultivate goodness. Subdue your mind. ~ David Michie, #NFDB
1231:Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth. ~ Robert A Heinlein, #NFDB
1232:Dharma, the word at the heart of the epic, is in fact untranslatable. Duty, goodness, justice, law and custom all have something to do with it, but they all fall short. ~ Gurcharan Das, #NFDB
1233:How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you. Psalm 31:19
There ~ Anonymous,#NFDB
1234:Soap looked pale. Sophronia hadn’t thought that possible. Normally her Soap was dark as Christmas cake and just as full of nutty goodness. He seemed flat and empty now. ~ Gail Carriger, #NFDB
1235:When I'm given an opportunity with music and goodness, then I want to do that [play that role]. I want to go all the way to the edge of that and make it as big as I can. ~ Kelli O Hara, #NFDB
1236:A good disposition I far prefer to gold; for gold is the gift of fortune; goodness of disposition is the gift of nature. I prefer much rather to be called good than fortunate. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
1237:Because it's so hard to be kind to the world when all you've ever felt is hate.
Because it's so hard to see goodness in the world when all you've ever known is terror. ~ Tahereh Mafi,#NFDB
1238:How lonely were these silent hills! How reaching out for the sounds of men, for I believe a land needs people to nurse its flesh and bring from it the goodness of crops. ~ Louis L Amour, #NFDB
1239:It is instead the realization that the tragic irrationalities of life must be counterbalanced by an equally irrational commitment to the essential goodness of Being. ~ Jordan B Peterson, #NFDB
1240:It is very likely that, in thirty years, people will be saying to each other, ‘Goodness gracious, why did we ever set fire to hydrocarbons to create heat and energy? ~ Peter H Diamandis, #NFDB
1241:Man seeks, in his manhood, not orders, not laws and peremptory dogmas, but counsel from one who is earnest in goodness and faithful in friendship, making man free. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
1242:So let us not worry, and look instead as it has been taught us to do, as the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, keeping complete faith in Our Father's goodness. ~ Franz Liszt, #NFDB
1243:The Infinite, from which comes the impulse that lead us to activity, is not the highest Reason, but higher than reason; not the highest Goodness, but higher than goodness. ~ Felix Adler, #NFDB
1244:The inward working of God’s goodness tends to produce an uncontrollable wildfire when He takes the helm of clinical, religious sobriety—when He turns our water into wine. ~ John Crowder, #NFDB
1245:There are men who work hard, digging for gold: he worked hard, digging for pity. The misery of the world was his mine. Pain everywhere was an occasion for goodness always. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
1246:The value of culture is its effect on character. It avails nothing unless it ennobles and strengthens that. Its use is for life. Its aim is not beauty but goodness. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
1247:To begin with, if existence arose out of a need for goodness, then it must be essentially mental. In other words, existence must ultimately consist of mind, of consciousness. ~ Jim Holt, #NFDB
1248:We must learn and then teach our children that niceness does not equal goodness. Niceness is a decision, a strategy of social interaction; it is not a character trait. ~ Gavin de Becker, #NFDB
1249:All men begin as good men. What they are taught as children, what is expected of them as young men, is either the armor about that goodness or the flaw that allows evil in. ~ David Weber, #NFDB
1250:Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
1251:even if you do the best you can in all things, your human nature must often fall short; so entrust yourself to God's goodness, for his goodness is greater than your failures. ~ Hadewijch, #NFDB
1252:Goodness knows she is too fierce for you
Goodness knows she has eyes for a lord
Goodness knows she yet will prove untrue
Her cheek's blush is as false as her word ~ Shannon Hale,#NFDB
1253:The capacity for emotional sobriety belongs to everybody in the human family and leads to a fully human response to the adventure and goodness of the gift of human life. ~ Thomas Keating, #NFDB
1254:The great gift of Easter is hope - Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake. ~ Basil Hume, #NFDB
1255:The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1256:Through service to others, we develop a Christlike love and we experience joy. Service teaches patience and long-suffering as well as gentleness, goodness, and faith. ~ Merrill J Bateman, #NFDB
1257:While tenderness of feeling and susceptibility to generous emotions are accidents of temperament, goodness is an achievement of the will and a quality of the life. ~ James Russell Lowell, #NFDB
1258:Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1259:Either teach them better if it be in thy power; or if it be not, remember that for
this use, to bear with them patiently, was mildness and goodness granted unto thee. ~ Marcus Aurelius,#NFDB
1260:Fishing poles. The weapon of choice for the traveler in distress. We also had lots and lots of marshmallows. Maybe we could immobilize these guys with sticky gooey goodness. ~ Jeff Strand, #NFDB
1261:My objectives are very limited. I want to do the best I can with the talent God gave me. I hope to goodness that every novel I do gets better and better, not worse and worse. ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
1262:The general goodness, which is nourished in noble hearts makes every one think that strength of virtue to be in another whereof they find assured foundation in themselves. ~ Philip Sidney, #NFDB
1263:The more conscious I was of goodness and of all that was 'sublime and beautiful,'the more deeply I sank into my mire and the more ready I was to sink in it altogether. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #NFDB
1264:While men define themselves by deeds, women simply "are" beauty, grace, faith and goodness. Men tend to be rational and objective, women subjective, intuitive and emotional. ~ Henry Makow, #NFDB
1265: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. ~ John Updike, #NFDB
1266:Conquer the angry one by not getting angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and the liar by speaking the truth.
[Verse 223] ~ Gautama Buddha,#NFDB
1267:Don't misunderstand me. I am not scoffing at goodness, which is far more difficult to explain than evil, and far more complicated. But sometimes it's hard to put up with. ~ Margaret Atwood, #NFDB
1268:I smiled back and I thought
how incredible that was, that they would find the time to smile. There was goodness in the world still, even if you couldn’t always see it. ~ Jenny Valentine,#NFDB
1269:Let us therefore rely on the goodness of the cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions. ~ George Washington, #NFDB
1270:Love casts out fear; but conversely fear casts out love. And not only love. Fear also casts out intelligence, casts out goodness, casts out all thought of beauty and truth. ~ Aldous Huxley, #NFDB
1271:Since God is the highest good, he would not allow any evil to exist in his works unless his omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #NFDB
1272:The activities of drawing, eating and drinking, all involve assimilations by the self of desirable elements from the world, a transfer of goodness from without to within. ~ Alain de Botton, #NFDB
1273:The more conscious I was of goodness and of all that was 'sublime and beautiful,'the more deeply I sank into my mire and the more ready I was to sink in it altogether. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1274:Young men pray for different things, of course, but some young men pray to honour the goodness of the men who raised them, and Saeed was very much a young man of this mould. ~ Mohsin Hamid, #NFDB
1275:22But e the fruit of the Spirit is f love, joy, peace, patience, g kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 h gentleness, i self-control; j against such things there is no law. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1276:He was a handsome man even when he was brooding, but when he was happy it was like a piece of his soul was shining through his eyes and piercing me with his goodness. “Are ~ Catherine Gayle, #NFDB
1277:I choose goodness... I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one. I will be overlooked before I will boast. I will confess before I will accuse. I choose goodness. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
1278:Intellect, without heart, is infinitely cruel. . . . So that, after all, the real aristocracy must be that of goodness where the intellect is directed by the heart. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll, #NFDB
1279:Perpetual inspiration from the Holy Spirit is as necessary to a life of goodness, holiness, and happiness as the perpetual respiration of air is necessary to animal life. It ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1280:Val,” said Mother, “goodness trumps greatness any day.” “Not in the history books,” said Valentine. “Then the wrong people are writing history, aren’t they?” said Father. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
1281:We care about moral issues, nobility, decency, happiness, goodness—the issues that matter in the real world, but which can only be addressed, in their purity, in fiction. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
1282:What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him? ~ Anthony Burgess, #NFDB
1283:But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. GALATIANS 5:22–23 ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
1284:Dedication to goodness-dedication in response to an inner moral mandate rather than external restraint-was both the antidote to the pain and the source of great happiness. ~ Sylvia Boorstein, #NFDB
1285:Enrich your soul in the great goodness of God: The Father is your table, the Son is your food, and the Holy Spirit waits on you and then makes His dwelling in you. ~ Saint Catherine of Siena, #NFDB
1286:Have not all theists painted their Deity as the god of love and goodness? Yet after thousands of years of such preachments the gods remain deaf to the agony of the human race. ~ Emma Goldman, #NFDB
1287:I had no idea there'd be so many Sherpas aboard!" exclaimed Miss Simpkins.
"I'm not a Sherpa," Nadira said. "I'm a gypsy."
"Oh, my goodness!" said the chaperone. ~ Kenneth Oppel,#NFDB
1288:It wasn’t always about bravery or some shining inner goodness. It could just as easily be about the position of your name in the alphabet, the chemistry of your blood, or ~ Alastair Reynolds, #NFDB
1289:The highest form of prayer is to the goodness of God. . . . God only desires that our soul cling to him with all of its strength, in particular, that it clings to his goodness. ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
1290:The true past departs not, no truth or goodness realized by man ever dies, or can die; but all is still here, and, recognized or not, lives and works through endless change. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
1291:True, He is infinite Majesty, but He is also infinite Goodness and infinite Love. There can be no greater Lord than God; neither can there be a more ardent lover than He. ~ Alphonsus Liguori, #NFDB
1292:We don’t care whether you are Christian or Muslim or Jew or Hindu; all we care is the goodness inside you because only the goodness inside you can make you a good human! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1293:When goodness removes itself, the space it occupies corrodes and becomes evil, and maybe splits apart and multiplies. So every evil thing is a sign of the absence of deity. ~ Gregory Maguire, #NFDB
1294:I do think that, at one time, being an actress was the equivalent almost of being a prostitute. It garnered roughly the same respect. That's changed a lot, thank goodness. ~ Michelle Pfeiffer, #NFDB
1295:People of our time are so formed for agitation and ostentation that goodness, moderation, equability, constancy, and such quiet and obscure qualities are no longer felt. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #NFDB
1296:Sometimes she thought she could see that good heart beating, and realized that more often now she looked for goodness in a person, sought it out and found it comforting. ~ Jacqueline Winspear, #NFDB
1297:Strength and power are the words Cal has been raised to know. Not goodness. Not kindness. Not empathy or bravery or equality or anything else that a ruler should strive for ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
1298:When we merely say that we are bad, the ‘wrath’ of God seems a barbarous doctrine; as soon as we perceive our badness, it appears inevitable, a mere corollary from God’s goodness. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1299:You are not the clouds or even the blue sky where clouds live. You are the sun behind them, giving light to all, and the sun is made up of goodness and kindness and light. ~ Francisco X Stork, #NFDB
1300:Goodness represents the detachment of our spirit from the exclusiveness of our egoism; in goodness we identify ourselves with the universal humanity. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, The Religion of Man, #NFDB
1301:Here at home, for goodness's sakes, we have to finally pass a law prohibiting people on the terrorist watch list from being able to buy a gun in the United States of America. ~ Hillary Clinton, #NFDB
1302:That's the way life works: gratitude and appreciation just bring more goodness. Remember: Everything we give out comes back. Gratitude has all sorts of little, surprising rewards. ~ Louise Hay, #NFDB
1303:The Heart and core of everything here is good, that whatever may be the surface waves, deep down and underlying everything, there is an infinite basis of Goodness and Love. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1304:We live in a culture that encourages us to be big about ourselves, and I think the starting point of trying to build inner goodness is to be a little bit smaller about yourself. ~ David Brooks, #NFDB
1305:Working out what it would take to program goodness into a robot shows not only how much machinery it takes to be good but how slippery the concept of goodness is to start with. ~ Steven Pinker, #NFDB
1306:22Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, egoodness, †if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise †you also will be cut off. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1307:Certainly there are spots which inevitably attach to themselves an atmosphere of holiness and goodness; it might not then be too fanciful to say that some houses are born bad. ~ Shirley Jackson, #NFDB
1308:I know for an absolute honest-to-goodness fact that life can kick you to pieces, break you into a thousand little shards, and that you can get up again and mend yourself. I promise. ~ Nick Lake, #NFDB
1309:It is written that in the last days the earth will tremble at the goodness of God. So then I ask you, what kind of goodness would make you weak in the knees with gratitude and awe? ~ Ted Dekker, #NFDB
1310:I've always believed in people's capacity for goodness. I still believe that people are good. What I'm not so trusting about anymore is their relationship to their own goodness. ~ Anne Hathaway, #NFDB
1311:No matter where life takes you,’ she said, ‘the place where you stand at any moment is holy ground. Love hard and love wide and love long, and you will find the goodness in it. ~ Susan Vreeland, #NFDB
1312:Thank goodness you're okay.' Preston opened his arms and stepped towards me, but Zach lunged between us. 'That's close enough,' he said, and Preston laughed. Yes, actual laughage. ~ Ally Carter, #NFDB
1313:There was no bond, but she reached him in ways no one else ever had. "If you ever find your true mate," he said, "I won't allow you freedom." He didn't have such goodness in him. ~ Nalini Singh, #NFDB
1314:Under the law, all you will have is religion, not a relationship with God. But God is after a relationship with us, one that is dependent on His goodness and His goodness alone. ~ Joseph Prince, #NFDB
1315:Any polis which is truly so called, and is not merely one in name, must devote itself to the end of encouraging goodness. Otherwise, political association sinks into a mere alliance. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
1316:Even if people laughed at the notion of goodness, if they found it sentimental, or nostalgic, it didn't matter -- it was non ov those things, he said, and it had to be fought for. ~ Colum McCann, #NFDB
1317:For as much as to understand and to be mighty are great qualities, the higher that they be, they are so much the less to be esteemed if goodness also abound not in the possessor. ~ Philip Sidney, #NFDB
1318:He is good, but he is not safe.1 We must never forget that. Absolute goodness makes God absolutely dangerous, for the only ones who are safe are the ones who are good like he is. ~ Gregory Koukl, #NFDB
1319:Here’s a salute to a long life: goodness that outlives the grave, love that outlasts the final breath. May you live in such a way that your death is just the beginning of your life. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
1320:How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? Dr. Seuss ~ Jed McKenna, #NFDB
1321:Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
1322:Making the truth public is a form of justice. This is a moral universe and you've got to take account of the fact that truth and lies and goodness and evil are things that matter. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
1323:When we merely say that we are bad, the ‘wrath’ of God seems a barbarous doctrine; as soon as we perceive our badness, it appears inevitable, a mere corollary from God’s goodness. To ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1324:With stones, you can build walls to separate people or build bridges to unite them! Do the second thing in the name of ethics and honour, for the glory of love and goodness! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1325:237.—No one should be praised for his goodness if he has not strength enough to be wicked. All other goodness is but too often an idleness or powerlessness of will. ~ Fran ois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
1326:But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. GALATIANS 5:22–23 NIV, ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
1327:Even if people laughed at the notion of goodness, if they found it sentimental, or nostalgic, it didn't matter -- it was none of those things, he said, and it had to be fought for. ~ Colum McCann, #NFDB
1328:Everyone will say I'm insane, but I don't care, Rose. Is it insane to marry the girl I love? A girl with golden brown hair, with gifts of beauty and goodness and storytelling? ~ Melanie Dickerson, #NFDB
1329:Families have a citizenship which is divine. The identity card they have is given to them by God. So that within the heart of the family, truth, goodness and beauty may truly grow. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1330:I believe that each of us can make a difference. That what is wrong can be made right. That people possess the basic wisdom and goodness to govern themselves without conflict. ~ Hubert H Humphrey, #NFDB
1331:In all our dealings with God, free grace anticipates us with the blessings of goodness, and all our comfort is owing, not to our knowing God, but rather to our being known of him, ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
1332:It's about the stories. If I write 14 stories that I love, then the next step is to get the environment of music around it to best envelop the story and all kinds of sonic goodness. ~ Frank Ocean, #NFDB
1333:It sickens me that humans, who are capable of such goodness and love, can also be the tools of horrifying atrocities, as if possessed by the very demons they claim to hate and fear. ~ David Estes, #NFDB
1334:My advice to writers: thank goodness we can revise and adjust and tighten and rethink before going public with our words. Revision is our friend. Our best friend. I love revision. ~ Dinty W Moore, #NFDB
1335:She had only to stand in the orchard, to put her hand on a little crab tree and look up at the apples, to make you feel the goodness of planting and tending and harvesting at last. ~ Willa Cather, #NFDB
1336:The more I see the world, most dislike, and the time confirms my belief in the inconsistency of human nature and how little can one trust the appearances of goodness or intelligence ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1337:There is within each one of us a potential for goodness beyond our imagining; for giving which seeks no reward; for listening without judgment; for loving unconditionally. ~ Elisabeth K bler Ross, #NFDB
1338:There is within each one of us a potential for goodness beyond our imagining; for giving which seeks no reward; for listening without judgment; for loving unconditionally. ~ Elisabeth Kubler Ross, #NFDB
1339:Val," said Mother, "goodness trumps greatness any day."
"Not in the history books," said Valentine.
"Then the wrong people are writing history, aren't they?" said Father. ~ Orson Scott Card,#NFDB
1340:But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
1341:Goodness is to do good to the deserving and love the good and hate the wicked, and not to be eager to inflict punishment or take vengeance, but to be gracious and kindly and forgiving. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
1342:Hell means torture; torture means badness. Goodness cannot create or produce badness. Hell does not belong to God; it has been invented by the horrific and sick minded people. ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1343:I believe the purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1344:Spiritual humility is not about getting small, not about debasing oneself, but about approaching everything and everyone else with a readiness to see goodness and to be surprised. ~ Krista Tippett, #NFDB
1345:Taking off your shoes is a sacred ritual. It is a hallowed moment of remembering the goodness of space and time. It is a way of celebrating the holy ground on which you stand. ~ Macrina Wiederkehr, #NFDB
1346:The first thing you have to do is acknowledge the basic and fundamental goodness of all beings. If you don't, then you are going to have conflict. That's at the core of Shambhala. ~ Sakyong Mipham, #NFDB
1347:The gods, (if gods to goodness are inclined If acts of mercy touch their heavenly mind), And, more than all the gods, your generous heart, Conscious of worth, requite its own desert! ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
1348:True, He is infinite Majesty, but He is also infinite Goodness and infinite Love. There can be no greater Lord than God; neither can there be a more ardent lover than He. ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori, #NFDB
1349:Trust in Him Faith in Jesus is “the leaning of your entire personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness” (Col. 1:4). Are you leaning on Him? ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
1350:We were made for God. Only by being in some respect like Him, only by being a manifestation of His beauty, lovingkindness, wisdom or goodness, has any earthly Beloved excited our love. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1351:When we see the secret beauty of anyone, including ourselves, we see past our judgment and fear into the core of who we truly are - not an entrapped self but the radiance of goodness. ~ Tara Brach, #NFDB
1352:.] Yesterday you said there were flaws in my goodness. Won’t you tell me what they are so that I may accentuate them? In that knowledge lies my salvation. Save me from goodness, Henry. ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
1353:Goodness knows I have spent more than my fair share of days with a naked face and rat’s nest hair while still feeling good about life, but tonight I am claustrophobic in my own skin. ~ Angie Martin, #NFDB
1354:In order to obtain and hold power a man must love it. Thus the effort to get it is not likely to be coupled with goodness, but with the opposite qualities of pride, craft and cruelty. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1355:It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
1356:It is a symbol evoking a reality that touches the depths of the person ... the light of goodness that vanquishes evil, of love that overcomes hatred, of life that defeats death. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
1357:I used to think that your calling was about doing something good in this world. Now I understand it’s about becoming someone good—and letting that goodness impact the world around you. ~ Jeff Goins, #NFDB
1358:Meditation is a process of lightening up, of trusting the basic goodness of what we have and who we are, and of realizing that any wisdom that exists, exists in what we already have. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
1359:She said most people were good on the inside, where it mattered. You have to give them a chance to show their goodness, she used to say. Some people need more time, that’s all. ~ Elizabeth Brundage, #NFDB
1360:The higher a man’s conception of God, the better will he know Him. And the better he knows God, the nearer will he draw to Him, imitating His goodness, His mercy, and His love of man. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1361:There is no finer company than inspiration, but its very goodness will leave you heartsick when it goes. So do not waste time asking it to wipe its feet. Embrace it at the treshold. ~ Benjamin Wood, #NFDB
1362:Trump’s need to destroy everything that Obama achieved derives from the paranoid character’s hatred of goodness in others whose achievements he cannot attain, understand, or tolerate. ~ Bandy X Lee, #NFDB
1363:He was the kind of good human being whose goodness derived from knowing the precise degree to which he was a shitty human being but not letting it cancel out the degree to which he wasn ~ Saul Black, #NFDB
1364:I wasn’t as untrusting. I had faith in the goodness of people, the perfection of love.
What happened?
Everything ends. And it’s how they end that leaves the lasting effect. ~ Zia Haider Rahman,#NFDB
1365:Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. To these I commit my day. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek his grace. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
1366:More and more people are able to access information - thank goodness we have the Internet and if you are interested you can find things. Which is different than even 20 years ago. ~ Edwidge Danticat, #NFDB
1367:Thank God, I never was cheerful. I come from the happy stock of the Mathers, who, as you remember, passed sweet mornings reflecting on the goodness of God and the damnation of infants. ~ Henry Adams, #NFDB
1368:the room. ‘Do you ever pick anything up when you drop it? Goodness, what’s this mess on the carpet – something stuck to it?’ ‘Oh – so that’s where my nougat went!’ said Peter, scraping ~ Enid Blyton, #NFDB
1369:After the knowledge of, and obedience to, the will of God, the next aim must be to know something of His attributes of wisdom, power and goodness as evidenced by His handiwork. ~ James Prescott Joule, #NFDB
1370:As far as one knows of heroines from history. I'm capable of a great jerk, an effort, and then a relaxation—but steady every-day goodness is beyond me. I must be a moral kangaroo! ~ Elizabeth Gaskell, #NFDB
1371:I tell you this: Compassion never ends, love never stops, patience never runs out in God’s World. Only in the world of man is goodness limited. In My World, goodness is endless. ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
1372:It is by the goodness of god that in our country we have those 3 unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
1373:Morality is not just any old topic in psychology but close to our conception of the meaning of life. Moral goodness is what gives each of us the sense that we are worthy human beings. ~ Steven Pinker, #NFDB
1374:My goodness, why is this woman [ Hillary Clinton ] at 46%? She's like the magic 46. She's 46% in the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, she's 46% in a lot of these swing states. ~ Anderson Cooper, #NFDB
1375:Oh, gentle feelings, soft sounds, the goodness and the gradual stilling of a soul that has been moved; the melting happiness of the first tender, touching joys of love- where are you? ~ Ivan Turgenev, #NFDB
1376:Step number six to receiving answered prayer is in your every waking moment, think on the greatness of God and His goodness, and count your blessings. This will increase your faith. ~ Kenneth E Hagin, #NFDB
1377:The spiritual idea of distances of space is the same as of distances of good or distances of truth, which are affinities and likenesses according to states of goodness and truth. ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, #NFDB
1378:The third-century Persian prophet Mani preached that the visible world is the battleground between the forces of light (absolute goodness) and the forces of darkness (absolute evil). ~ Jonathan Haidt, #NFDB
1379:The time that passes with goodness will not return with evil; and nothing experienced in life later on can make one day wither or erase one hour of the life that has been lived. ~ Jens Peter Jacobsen, #NFDB
1380:Those of us who did make it have an obligation to build again. To teach to others what we know, and to try with what's left of our lives to find a goodness and a meaning to this life. ~ Charlie Sheen, #NFDB
1381:With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1382:And the Republican Party especially associates the market with the idea of progress, goodness, family, and points us toward the mall as an answer to all our personal dreams. ~ Arlie Russell Hochschild, #NFDB
1383:For us, with the rule of right and wrong given us by Christ, there is nothing for which we have no standard. And there is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1384:I don’t know how to talk to you, Mrs. Huntingdon . . . you are only half a woman--your nature must be half human, half angelic. Such goodness overawes me; I don’t know what to make of it. ~ Anne Bront, #NFDB
1385:Lord
I thank you for creating the world beautiful and various
and for allowing me in Your fathomless goodness to visit places which were not the sites of my daily torments ~ Zbigniew Herbert,#NFDB
1386:May your mind be thoroughly impressed with the absolute necessity of universal virtue and goodness, as the only sure road to happiness, and may you walk therein with undeviating steps. ~ Abigail Adams, #NFDB
1387:much as I’d enjoyed Sir Collin’s bantering and easy ways, as much as I liked his goodness and generosity, my feelings for him weren’t yet deep enough to take something so extraordinary. ~ Jody Hedlund, #NFDB
1388:Now I realize that everything you need for measuring a person can be found in the nature of what he chooses to hide from everyone else. That's all you need to know to gauge his goodness. ~ Jamie Mason, #NFDB
1389:ROM11.22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1390:She was like the boy who held his breath until he turned blue. Chimps are just as silly and absurd as human beings. Thank goodness we’re not the only ridiculous species in the world! ~ Douglas Preston, #NFDB
1391:Thank goodness for all the things you are not, thank goodness you're not something someone forgot, and left all alone in some punkerish place, like a rusty tin coat hanger hanging in space. ~ Dr Seuss, #NFDB
1392:The sanguine assurance that men and nations can be legislated into goodness, that pressure from without is equivalent to a moral change within, needs a strong backing of inexperience. ~ Agnes Repplier, #NFDB
1393:Was he really having an honest-to-goodness conversation about a town full of bachelors and bachelorettes and magical cake batter? What kind of drugs were they doing in Buttermilk Falls? ~ Robyn Neeley, #NFDB
1394:When people lose faith in the natural goodness of the human character, the lack of trust in spiritual goodness, that is one reason why corruption has become so widespread today. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #NFDB
1395: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. ~ John Updike, #NFDB
1396:How did it get so late so soon?” he wrote. “It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? ~ Arianna Huffington, #NFDB
1397:I believe all religions pursue the same goals, that of cultivating human goodness and bringing happiness to all human beings. Though the means might appear different the ends are the same. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1398:...in the tiny 'unhistoric acts' of goodness which she performs within her limited circle a ripple of influence has been set in motion which may eventually lap the edge of the world. ~ Holly Chamberlin, #NFDB
1399:The focus of tolerance education is to deal with the concept of equality and fairness. We need to establish confidence with children that there is more goodness than horror in this world. ~ Morris Dees, #NFDB
1400:the Many returning to and embracing the One is Good, and is known as wisdom; the One returning to and embracing the Many is Goodness, and is known as compassion. ~ Ken Wilber, Sex Ecology Spirituality, #NFDB
1401:The question is whether such a technique can really make a man good. Goodness comes from within, 6655321. Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man. ~ Anthony Burgess, #NFDB
1402:The women in the play were really men, of course. The clock had just struck midnight and Cinderella was lamenting
'Goodness me, the clock has struck- Alackaday, and fuck my luck. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,#NFDB
1403:Three Pines is a state of mind. When we choose tolerance over hate. Kindness over cruelty. Goodness over bullying. When we choose to be hopeful, not cynical. Then we live in Three Pines. ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
1404:You both think I know not what,' said I. 'Have the goodness to make me as little the subject of your mutual talk and thoughts as possible. I have my own sort of life apart from yours. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
1405:A good man will find that there is goodness in the world; an honest man will find that there is honesty in the world; and a man of principle will find principle and integrity in the hearts ~ Albert Pike, #NFDB
1406:All good that you have done for the humanity, keep it like a secret; do your goodness in the shadow! Let one day others find this secret, preferably long after you have passed away! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1407:Beauty adds to goodness a relation to the cognitive faculty: so that "good" means that which simply pleases the appetite; while the "beautiful" is something pleasant to apprehend. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
1408:Heaven doesn't need dusting. The only tidying that remains is to continue growing in goodness, and goodness knows, for most of us there is always room for improvement.
- Bailey Ruth ~ Carolyn G Hart,#NFDB
1409:If we go through this thing and it changes us so much, you have to hope that it changes us for the better, right? If goodness can't come from bad things, it makes bad things unbearable. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
1410:I valued what was good in Mrs Fairfax, and what was good in Adèle; but I believed in the existence of other and more vivid kinds of goodness, and what I believed in I wished to behold. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
1411:Our only reliable source of strength is the goodness of our hearts. Our only foundation for coming to terms with the suffering of the times is our innate need to be decent human beings. ~ Sakyong Mipham, #NFDB
1412:Our starting place was always original goodness,10 not original sin. This makes our ending place—and everything in between—possessing an inherent capacity for goodness, truth, and beauty. ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
1413:Simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us. ~ Louisa May Alcott, #NFDB
1414:The demands of Jesus are difficult because they require us to do something extraordinary. At the same time He asks us to regard these [acts of goodness] as something usual, ordinary. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
1415:The Elements of Prayer|Its ground: God, by whose goodness it springeth in us. |Its use: to turn our will to His will. |Its end: to be made one with Him and like to Him in all things. ~ Julian of Norwich, #NFDB
1416:The question is whether such a technique can really make a man good. Greatness comes from within, 6655321. Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man. ~ Anthony Burgess, #NFDB
1417:The Twelve Powers of the Mother manifested for Her Work: Sincerity, Peace, Equality, Generosity, Goodness, Courage, Progress, Receptivity, Aspiration, Perserverance, Gratitude, Humility
~ The Mother?,#NFDB
1418:We have to put in our time every day to try and achieve and learn so that we can develop our talents and each of you, thank goodness, have special talents; each of you are special persons. ~ Bruce Vento, #NFDB
1419:But they were capable of greatness. Destined for it, even.”
“Then do not aim for greatness. Aim for goodness. And however you get there will be the right path for you, my sweet Radu. ~ Kiersten White,#NFDB
1420:I don’t see what that has to do with it. I hope you don’t think I waited a year after the earl passed on to take a lover. Goodness, no. A woman has needs every bit as strong as a man’s. ~ Johanna Lindsey, #NFDB
1421:It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
1422:...Nick gave a sharp nod. "Fair point". Rising, he stepped toward the desk and stole a chip off Marz's plate.
"Dude," Marz said, holding out his hands, "get your own crunchy goodness. ~ Laura Kaye,#NFDB
1423:No man deserves to be praised for his goodness unless he has strength of character to be wicked. All other goodness is generally nothing but indolence or impotence of will. ~ Fran ois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
1424:People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don't know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
1425:People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don’t know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
1426:The only biblical prosperity gospel is a posterity gospel—the promise that generation after generation will know the goodness of God through the properly stewarded abundance of God’s world. ~ Andy Crouch, #NFDB
1427:Worthiness is what gives meaning and fulfillment. Success without fulfillment is empty. That’s like good looks without goodness. In life we need substance over form, not form over substance. ~ Shiv Khera, #NFDB
1428:You can walk through life believing in the goodness of the world, or walk through life afraid of anyone who thinks different than you and trying to convert them to your way of thinking. ~ Rosie O Donnell, #NFDB
1429:God’s purposes are not always easy to understand, but I have found that his methods are not as indirect as ours. We complicate God because we do not see that goodness is so very simple. ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
1430:Holiness is a disposition of the heart that makes us humble and little in the arms of God, aware of our weakness, and confident - in the most audacious way - in His Fatherly goodness. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #NFDB
1431:It is the artist's job to revere beauty without being enchanted by it, to aim for it but also to aim for truth and goodness - just in case they, and not beauty, are the real things of value. ~ Eric Maisel, #NFDB
1432:Not the way it’s supposed to be.” Evil is exactly that—a fundamental and troubling departure from goodness. The Bible uses the word evil to describe anything that violates God’s moral will. ~ Randy Alcorn, #NFDB
1433:Thank goodness for the first snow, it was a reminder--no matter how old you became and how much you'd seen, things could still be new if you were willing to believe they still mattered. ~ Candace Bushnell, #NFDB
1434:The puckered-up face of the newly-born child, old as the world, wise as the roots of trees. Sin was there and goodness, love, pity and horror, and even beauty for his eyes were pure violet. ~ Mervyn Peake, #NFDB
1435:There is in every wilful sin an interpretative contempt of the goodness of God; it is spurning at his bowels, particularly the goodness of his patience, his forbearance and long-suffering, ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
1436:Where are you going?” she asked him. “Somewhere beautiful,” he said. “Where all wars cease, where God sees goodness, not religion. Where the grass is as ever green as that I knew in Eire. ~ Heather Graham, #NFDB
1437:Wherever goodness lay, it did not lie in ritual, unthinking obeisance before a deity but rather, perhaps, in the slow clumsy, error-strewn working out of an individual or collective path. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
1438:In fact, one might make the case that New York would not have shone without its legions of contrary devils polishing the lights of goodness with their inexplicable opposition and resistance. ~ Mark Helprin, #NFDB
1439:Spirituality is natural goodness. God is not a person; God is a presence personified in us. Spirituality is not a thing; it is the atmosphere of God's Presence, goodness, truth, and beauty. ~ Ernest Holmes, #NFDB
1440:The question is whether such a technique can really make a man good. Greatness comes from within, 6655321. Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man. ~ Jeffrey M Schwartz, #NFDB
1441:These are just dreams created by her ardent fever.” “None of this is true,” said Fritz. “My red Hussars aren’t such cowards! Goodness, gracious me! Darn it all! How else would I come down? ~ E T A Hoffmann, #NFDB
1442:When she said that we’d say “thanks” and it might have sounded as if we were thanking her for seeing us that way but actually we were thanking her for giving us whatever goodness was in us. ~ Helen Oyeyemi, #NFDB
1443:Yet “to love” can also mean “to will goodness to something.” In this sense it can be fittingly ascribed to God since he freely does this insofar as he brings about the existence of anything. ~ Brian Davies, #NFDB
1444:Badness cannot succeed even in being bad in the same way in which goodness is good. Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness. Evil is a parasite, not an original thing. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1445:Beloved, God has never failed to act but in goodness and love. When all means fail-his love prevails. Hold fast to your faith. Stand fast in his Word. There is no other hope in this world. ~ David Wilkerson, #NFDB
1446:Goodness, beauty, truthfulness, honesty, and being virtuous are the essence of the world. Whatever happens, the world will one day find this essence, for no one can prevent such an event ~ M Fethullah G len, #NFDB
1447:If there were no goodness in people, mankind would still be confined to loping across a Savannah somewhere on Earth, watching the elephants rule, or some other more compassionate species. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
1448:I’m never wearing them," Ron was saying stubbornly. "Never."
"Fine," snapped Mrs. Weasley. "Go naked. And, Harry, make sure you get a picture of him. Goodness knows I could do with a laugh. ~ J K Rowling,#NFDB
1449:I would never describe Charlotte as a prude. Maybe at the start, but that was in comparison to the other girls. She wasn't willing to do the stuff they were doing and I mean, thank goodness! ~ Kristin Davis, #NFDB
1450:Truth, Goodness, Beauty - those celestial thrins,Continually are born; e'en now the Universe,With thousand throats, and eke with greener smiles,Its joy confesses at their recent birth. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
1451:V maintained that our only obligation was to be authentic to the scientific story and to tell it uncompromisingly. I’d never met someone so successful who was also so committed to goodness. ~ Paul Kalanithi, #NFDB
1452:Because I lacked a vision for goodness, I also lacked discernment. And without discernment, I had little chance of finding the security and happiness that I wanted—that I think we all want. ~ Hannah Anderson, #NFDB
1453:Gary Snyder's The Practice of the Wild is an exquisite, far-sighted articulation of what freedom, wildness, goodness, and grace mean, using the lessons of the planet to teach us how to live. ~ Gretel Ehrlich, #NFDB
1454:Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness. ~ Anne Frank, #NFDB
1455:[I had fainted], unless I had believed to see the goodness of Jehovah In the land of the living. [27:14] Wait for Jehovah: Be strong, and let thy heart take courage; Yea, wait thou for Jehovah. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1456:It is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself. ~ Corrie ten Boom, #NFDB
1457:VICTORY IS OURS Goodness is stronger than evil; Love is stronger than hate; Light is stronger than darkness; Life is stronger than death; Victory is ours through Him who loves us. DESMOND TUTU ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
1458:What if I gave thanks in the trouble, for the trouble, because the trouble is a gift that causes me to turn? What if I loved God not for His goods but for His love itself that is goodness enough? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1459:What makes saintliness in my view, as distinguished from ordinary goodness, is a certain quality of magnanimity and greatness of soul that brings life within the circle of the heroic. ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe, #NFDB
1460:Without goodness a man cannot endure adversity for long, nor can he enjoy prosperity for long. The good man is naturally at ease with goodness. The wise man cultivates goodness for its advantage. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
1461:Even before baptism, a child or an adult can have the Holy Ghost testify to their hearts of sacred truth. They must act on that testimony to retain it, but it will guide them toward goodness. ~ Henry B Eyring, #NFDB
1462:God's greatest gift to man
In all the bounty He was moved to make
Throughout creation-the one gift the most
Close to his goodness and the one He calls
Most precious-is free will. ~ Dante Alighieri,#NFDB
1463:More importantly, one could make the opposite argument to Leithart and Grant--that if good is guaranteed to win, then goodness becomes merely a means to an end rather than an end unto itself. ~ Joseph Laycock, #NFDB
1464:No selfishness or insecurity kept him from seeing the full extent of her goodness, as it so often does with the rest of us. That kind of love may only be possible in Abnegation. I do not know. ~ Veronica Roth, #NFDB
1465:She heard Neel upstairs, stirring in his crib. In another minute he would cry out, wanting her, expecting breakfast; he was young enough so that Sudha was still only goodness to him, nothing else. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1466:We are fundamentally good. The aberration is not the good person; the aberration is the bad person. We are made for goodness. And when we get opportunities, we mostly respond with generosity. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1467:463.—There is often more pride than goodness in our grief for our enemies' miseries; it is to show how superior we are to them, that we bestow on them the sign of our compassion. ~ Fran ois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
1468:And the New Testament says you can never be good enough: goodness is the thing, and you can never live up to it. The main message of Jesus, I believed, is that mercy trumps justice every time. ~ Paul Kalanithi, #NFDB
1469:Here's a salute to a long good life: goodness that outlives the grave. love that outlasts the final breath. May you live your life in such a way that your death is just the beginning of your life. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
1470:It is not on our forgiveness anymore than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself. ~ Corrie ten Boom, #NFDB
1471:Meditation practice is how we discover basic goodness and learn to cultivate bodhichitta. With this view, practice, and activity, even the most mundane situation becomes a vehicle for awakening. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
1472:The increasing influence of the Bible is marvelously great, penetrating everywhere. It carries with it a tremendous power of freedom and justice guided by a combined force of wisdom and goodness. ~ Thomas More, #NFDB
1473:And it’s there, always, embedded in the hearts of children. Kids wake up each day believing in the goodness of things, in the magic of what might be. They’re uncynical, believers at their core. ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
1474:But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22 ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
1475:For some reason we human beings seem to learn best how to love when we're a bit broken, when our plans fall apart, when our myths of our self-sufficiency and goodness and safety are shattered. ~ Kathleen Norris, #NFDB
1476:He had the unlucky capacity many men have of seeing and believing in the possibility of goodness and truth, but of seeing the evil and falsehood of life too clearly to take any serious part in it. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1477:Holiness is a disposition of the heart that makes us humble and little in the arms of God, aware of our weakness, and confident - in the most audacious way - in His Fatherly goodness. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #NFDB
1478:on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything because I’m afraid it could be taken away. That’s when I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I’ve seen someone do. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
1479:The longer the trial to which God subjects you, the greater the goodness in comforting you during the time of the trial and in the exaltation after the combat.” ~ Danielle BeanSt. Padre Pio Pray ~ Danielle Bean, #NFDB
1480:To be young and in love. Isn’t it remarkable that something like that can happen in the middle of a war? It says something about the inherent goodness of life, despite all the evil we’ve seen. ~ Mark T Sullivan, #NFDB
1481:Whatever mitigates the woes, or increases the happiness of others, is a just criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, is a criterion of iniquity. ~ Oliver Goldsmith, #NFDB
1482:You may not understand what all's happening in your life right now, but any possible explanation pales in comparison to what you do know because of your faith in God's goodness and assurance. ~ Priscilla Shirer, #NFDB
1483:I didn't know much about the world, but there was something about you I was immediately drawn to. It's like I just wanted to be near you, like you had this- this goodness I never found in my life. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
1484:In every age there are plenty of people around to remind you what you cannot possibly do. Thank goodness, for these naysayers provide a priceless service: They spur...us to achieve great things. ~ Jerry Spinelli, #NFDB
1485:I wondered if we were put on this earth only to destroy every beautiful thing, to make chaos. Or were we meant to overcome this? Did bad things happen so that goodness could show through in people? ~ Silas House, #NFDB
1486:Let no man turn aside, ever so slightly, from the broad path of honour, on the plausible pretence that he is justified by the goodness of his end. All good ends can be worked out by good means. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
1487:No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
1488:Politeness does not always inspire goodness, equity, complaisance, and gratitude; it gives at least the appearance of these qualities, and makes man appear outwardly, as he should be within. ~ Jean de la Bruyere, #NFDB
1489:So what did I do? I crawled back into my bed and ate another gallon of ice creamy goodness and tried to forget the tattooed bartender who had bulldozed his way into my life. Stupid dick wad. ~ A Meredith Walters, #NFDB
1490:Three things are necessary to make every man great,every nation great1.Conviction of the powers of goodness.2.Absence of jealousy and suspicion.3.Helping all who are trying to be and do good. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1491:Well, you do have all those gray hairs." I point to the few silver strands coming through.
"They're not gray," Mom barks at me as she opens her door. "They're strands of glittery goodness. ~ Margaret McHeyzer,#NFDB
1492:Craving clarity, we attempt to eliminate the risk of trusting God. Fear of the unknown path stretching ahead of us destroys childlike trust in the Father's active goodness and unrestricted love. ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
1493:Craving clarity, we attempt to eliminate the risk of trusting God. Fear of the unknown path stretching ahead of us destroys childlike trust in the Father’s active goodness and unrestricted love. ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
1494:Inviting people to inquiry is much more powerful to me than describing my experience... When people hear me tell the story, they often say, "Oh my goodness, I get it. I get it!" But it's not enough. ~ Byron Katie, #NFDB
1495:Oh, my goodness, will you get a load of those eyes? Mmm-mmm-mmm, aren’t you just the most viciously gorgeous thing I’ve seen in a long, long time? Come here, precious ... let us have a look at you. ~ Elle Casey, #NFDB
1496:Will you continue doing goodness even if you know that no one will know them? Will you continue doing kindness even if you know that no one will remember them? Then, you are truly a holy man! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1497:Always having what we want
may not be the best good fortune
Health seems sweetest
after sickness, food
in hunger, goodness
in the wake of evil, and at the end
of daylong labor sleep. ~ Heraclitus,#NFDB
1498:humanity held certain goodness, certain decency; that by treating others fairly, the same fairness would be bestowed upon him. Over the past few years, this notion had done nothing but betray him. ~ T W Piperbrook, #NFDB
1499:If you want my goodness to stay with you then serve your neighbour, for in him God comes to you himself; such a man sees in his neighbour the material and spiritual need he is called to meet. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
1500:In our pursuit of discernment, the first question we must answer is whether the sacrifice of pursuing it is even worth it. And a lot of that depends on whether goodness exists in the first place. ~ Hannah Anderson, #NFDB
58 Integral Yoga
50 Philosophy
49 Christianity
46 Poetry
17 Islam
11 Hinduism
9 Kabbalah
8 Psychology
8 Occultism
7 Yoga
7 Fiction
3 Sufism
2 Theosophy
2 Science
2 Mythology
2 Mysticism
2 Cybernetics
1 Philsophy
1 Education
1 Alchemy
49 The Mother
27 Satprem
19 Saint Augustine of Hippo
17 Plotinus
17 Muhammad
12 Aldous Huxley
9 William Wordsworth
9 Vyasa
9 Rabbi Moses Luzzatto
8 Carl Jung
7 Sri Aurobindo
7 Nolini Kanta Gupta
7 Friedrich Nietzsche
6 Walt Whitman
6 Plato
6 Anonymous
5 Sri Ramakrishna
4 Saint Teresa of Avila
4 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
4 Percy Bysshe Shelley
4 H P Lovecraft
4 Aleister Crowley
3 Thubten Chodron
3 Swami Vivekananda
3 Robert Browning
3 Ibn Arabi
2 Saint John of the Cross
2 Saint John of Climacus
2 Rudolf Steiner
2 Norbert Wiener
2 Jordan Peterson
2 Jacopone da Todi
2 Henry David Thoreau
2 Aristotle
17 Quran
15 City of God
12 The Perennial Philosophy
10 Agenda Vol 10
9 Wordsworth - Poems
9 Vishnu Purana
9 The Bible
9 General Principles of Kabbalah
6 Whitman - Poems
6 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
5 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01
4 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
4 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
4 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
4 Shelley - Poems
4 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
4 Lovecraft - Poems
3 Twilight of the Idols
3 The Secret Doctrine
3 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
3 Questions And Answers 1956
3 Questions And Answers 1955
3 Prayers And Meditations
3 Magick Without Tears
3 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
3 Browning - Poems
3 Arabi - Poems
3 Aion
3 Agenda Vol 13
3 Agenda Vol 09
3 Agenda Vol 04
3 Agenda Vol 01
2 Words Of Long Ago
2 Walden
2 The Way of Perfection
2 Theosophy
2 The Life Divine
2 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
2 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
2 The Future of Man
2 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
2 Talks
2 Some Answers From The Mother
2 Raja-Yoga
2 Poetics
2 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03
2 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
2 Mysterium Coniunctionis
2 Maps of Meaning
2 Hymn of the Universe
2 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
2 Cybernetics
2 Agenda Vol 08
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
The real organizer of the Samaj was Devendranath Tagore (1817-1905), the father of the poet Rabindranath. His physical and spiritual beauty, aristocratic aloofness, penetrating intellect, and poetic sensibility made him the foremost leader of the educated Bengalis. These addressed him by the respectful epithet of Maharshi, the "Great Seer". The Maharshi was a Sanskrit scholar and, unlike Raja Rammohan Roy, drew his inspiration entirely from the Upanishads. He was an implacable enemy of image worship ship and also fought to stop the infiltration of Christian ideas into the Samaj. He gave the movement its faith and ritual. Under his influence the Brahmo Samaj professed One Self-existent Supreme Being who had created the universe out of nothing, the God of Truth, Infinite Wisdom, Goodness, and Power, the Eternal and Omnipotent, the One without a Second. Man should love Him and do His will, believe in Him and worship Him, and thus merit salvation in the world to come.
By far the ablest leader of the Brahmo movement was Keshab Chandra Sen (1838-1884). Unlike Raja Rammohan Roy and Devendranath Tagore, Keshab was born of a middle-class Bengali family and had been brought up in an English school. He did not know Sanskrit and very soon broke away from the popular Hindu religion. Even at an early age he came under the spell of Christ and professed to have experienced the special favour of John the Baptist, Christ, and St. Paul. When he strove to introduce Christ to the Brahmo Samaj, a rupture became inevitable with Devendranath. In 1868 Keshab broke with the older leader and founded the Brahmo Samaj of India, Devendra retaining leadership of the first Brahmo Samaj, now called the Adi Samaj.
0.02 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
way, for I know the Goodness of your heart.
My blessings are with you.
0.07 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
its enrapturing beauty and Goodness and sweetness, so
that all my impurities be washed out, and restlessness
--
in her child, that only speaks of the Goodness of the
Mother's heart.
--
the soul of truth and love and Goodness?
My dear child,
01.05 - The Nietzschean Antichrist, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Nietzsche as the apostle of force is a name now familiar to all the world. The hero, the warrior who never tamely accepts suffering and submission and defeat under any condition but fights always and fights to conquersuch is the ideal man, according to Nietzsche,the champion of strength, of greatness, of mightiness. The dominating personality infused with the supreme "will to power"he is Ubermensch, the Superman. Sentiment does not move the mountains, emotion diffuses itself only in vague aspiration. The motive power, the creative fiat does not dwell in the heart but somewhere higher. The way of the Cross, the path of love and charity and pity does not lead to the kingdom of Heaven. The world has tried it for the last twenty centuries of its Christian civilisation and the result is that we are still living in a luxuriant abundance of misery and sordidness and littleness. This is how Nietzsche thinks and feels. He finds no virtue in the old rgimes and he revolts from them. He wants a speedy and radical remedy and teaches that by violence only the Kingdom of Heaven can be seized. For, to Nietzsche the world is only a clash of forces and the Superman therefore is one who is the embodiment of the greatest force. Nietzsche does not care for the good, it is the great that moves him. The good, the moral is of man, conventional and has only a fictitious value. The great, the non-moral is, on the other hand, divine. That only has a value of its own. The good is nothing but a sort of makeshift arrangement which man makes for himself in order to live commodiously and which changes according to his temperament. But the great is one with the Supreme Wisdom and is absolute and imperative. The good cannot create the great; it is the great that makes for the good. This is what he really means when he says, "They say that a good cause sanctifies war but I tell thee it is a good war that sanctifies all cause." For the Goodness of your cause you judge by your personal predilections, by your false conventionalities, by a standard that you set up in your ignoranceBut a good war, the output of strength in any cause is in itself a cause of salvation. For thereby you are the champion of that ultimate verity which conduces to the ultimate good. Do not shrink, he would say, to be even like the cyclone and the avalanche, destructive, indeed, but grand and puissant and therefore truer emblems of the BeyondJenseitsthan the weak, the little, the pitiful that do not dare to destroy and by that very fact cannot hope to create.
This is the Nietzsche we all know. But there is another aspect of his which the world has yet been slow to recognise. For, at bottom, Nietzsche is not all storm and fury. If his Superman is a Destroying Angel, he is none the less an angel. If he is endowed with a supreme sense of strength and power, there is also secreted in the core of his heart a sense of the beautiful that illumines his somewhat sombre aspect. For although Nietzsche is by birth a Slavo-Teuton, by culture and education he is pre-eminently Hellenic. His earliest works are on the subject of Greek tragedy and form what he describes as an "Apollonian dream." And to this dream, to this Greek aesthetic sense more than to any thing else he sacrifices justice and pity and charity. To him the weak and the miserable, the sick and the maimed are a sort of blot, a kind of ulcer on the beautiful face of humanity. The herd that wallow in suffering and relish suffering disfigure the aspect of the world and should therefore be relentlessly mowed out of existence. By being pitiful to them we give our tacit assent to their persistence. And it is precisely because of this that Nietzsche has a horror of Christianity. For compassion gives indulgence to all the ugliness of the world and thus renders that ugliness a necessary and indispensable element of existence. To protect the weak, to sympathise with the lowly brings about more of weakness and more of lowliness. Nietzsche has an aristocratic taste par excellencewhat he aims at is health and vigour and beauty. But above all it is an aristocracy of the spirit, an aristocracy endowed with all the richness and beauty of the soul that Nietzsche wants to establish. The beggar of the street is the symbol of ugliness, of the poverty of the spirit. And the so-called aristocrat, die millionaire of today is as poor and ugly as any helpless leper. The soul of either of them is made of the same dirty, sickly stuff. The tattered rags, the crouching heart, the effeminate nerve, the unenlightened soul are the standing ugliness of the world and they have no place in the ideal, the perfect humanity. Humanity, according to Nietzsche, is made in order to be beautiful, to conceive the beautiful, to create the beautiful. Nietzsche's Superman has its perfect image in a Grecian statue of Zeus cut out in white marble-Olympian grandeur shedding in every lineament Apollonian beauty and Dionysian vigour.
01.08 - Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The characteristic then of the path is a one-pointed concentration. Great stress is laid upon "oneliness", "onedness":that is to say, a perfect and complete withdrawal from the outside and the world; an unmixed solitude is required for the true experience and realisation to come. "A full forsaking in will of the soul for the love of Him, and a living of the heart to Him. This asks He, for this gave He." The rigorous exclusion, the uncompromising asceticism, the voluntary self-torture, the cruel dark night and the arid desert are necessary conditions that lead to the "onlyness of soul", what another prophet (Isaiah, XXIV, 16) describes as "My privity to me". In that secreted solitude, the "onlistead"the graphic language of the author calls itis found "that dignity and that ghostly fairness which a soul had by kind and shall have by grace." The utter beauty of the soul and its absolute love for her deity within her (which has the fair name of Jhesu), the exclusive concentration of the whole of the being upon one point, the divine core, the manifest Grace of God, justifies the annihilation of the world and life's manifold existence. Indeed, the image of the Beloved is always within, from the beginning to the end. It is that that keeps one up in the terrible struggle with one's nature and the world. The image depends upon the consciousness which we have at the moment, that is to say, upon the stage or the degree we have ascended to. At the outset, when we can only look through the senses, when the flesh is our master, we give the image a crude form and character; but even that helps. Gradually, as we rise, with the clearing of our nature, the image too slowly regains its original and true shape. Finally, in the inmost soul we find Jesus as he truly is: "an unchangeable being, a sovereign might, a sovereign soothfastness, sovereign Goodness, a blessed life and endless bliss." Does not the Gita too say: "As one approaches Me, so do I appear to him."Ye yath mm prapadyante.
Indeed, it would be interesting to compare and contrast the Eastern and Western approach to Divine Love, the Christian and the Vaishnava, for example. Indian spirituality, whatever its outer form or credal formulation, has always a background of utter unity. This unity, again, is threefold or triune and is expressed in those great Upanishadic phrases,mahvkyas,(1) the transcendental unity: the One alone exists, there is nothing else than theOneekamevdvityam; (2) the cosmic unity: all existence is one, whatever exists is that One, thereare no separate existences:sarvam khalvidam brahma neha nnsti kincaa; (3) That One is I, you too are that One:so' ham, tattvamasi; this may be called the individual unity. As I have said, all spiritual experiences in India, of whatever school or line, take for granted or are fundamentally based upon this sense of absolute unity or identity. Schools of dualism or pluralism, who do not apparently admit in their tenets this extreme monism, are still permeated in many ways with that sense and in some form or other take cognizance of the truth of it. The Christian doctrine too says indeed, 'I and my Father in Heaven are one', but this is not identity, but union; besides, the human soul is not admitted into this identity, nor the world soul. The world, we have seen, according to the Christian discipline has to be altogether abandoned, negatived, as we go inward and upward towards our spiritual status reflecting the divine image in the divine company. It is a complete rejection, a cutting off and casting away of world and life. One extreme Vedantic path seems to follow a similar line, but there it is not really rejection, but a resolution, not the rejection of what is totally foreign and extraneous, but a resolution of the external into its inner and inmost substance, of the effect into its original cause. Brahman is in the world, Brahman is the world: the world has unrolled itself out of the Brahmansi, pravttiit has to be rolled back into its, cause and substance if it is to regain its pure nature (that is the process of nivitti). Likewise, the individual being in the world, "I", is the transcendent being itself and when it withdraws, it withdraws itself and the whole world with it and merges into the Absolute. Even the Maya of the Mayavadin, although it is viewed as something not inherent in Brahman but superimposed upon Brahman, still, has been accepted as a peculiar power of Brahman itself. The Christian doctrine keeps the individual being separate practically, as an associate or at the most as an image of God. The love for one's neighbour, charity, which the Christian discipline enjoins is one's love for one's kind, because of affinity of nature and quality: it does not dissolve the two into an integral unity and absolute identity, where we love because we are one, because we are the One. The highest culmination of love, the very basis of love, according to the Indian conception, is a transcendence of love, love trans-muted into Bliss. The Upanishad says, where one has become the utter unity, who loves whom? To explain further our point, we take two examples referred to in the book we are considering. The true Christian, it is said, loves the sinner too, he is permitted to dislike sin, for he has to reject it, but he must separate from sin the sinner and love him. Why? Because the sinner too can change and become his brother in spirit, one loves the sinner because there is the possibility of his changing and becoming a true Christian. It is why the orthodox Christian, even such an enlightened and holy person as this mediaeval Canon, considers the non-Christian, the non-baptised as impure and potentially and fundamentally sinners. That is also why the Church, the physical organisation, is worshipped as Christ's very body and outside the Church lies the pagan world which has neither religion nor true spirituality nor salvation. Of course, all this may be symbolic and it is symbolic in a sense. If Christianity is taken to mean true spirituality, and the Church is equated with the collective embodiment of that spirituality, all that is claimed on their behalf stands justified. But that is an ideal, a hypothetical standpoint and can hardly be borne out by facts. However, to come back to our subject, let us ow take the second example. Of Christ himself, it is said, he not only did not dislike or had any aversion for Judas, but that he positively loved the traitor with a true and sincere love. He knew that the man would betray him and even when he was betraying and had betrayed, the Son of Man continued to love him. It was no make-believe or sham or pretence. It was genuine, as genuine as anything can be. Now, why did he love his enemy? Because, it is said, the enemy is suffered by God to do the misdeed: he has been allowed to test the faith of the faithful, he too has his utility, he too is God's servant. And who knows even a Judas would not change in the end? Many who come to scoff do remain to pray. But it can be asked, 'Does God love Satan too in the same way?' The Indian conception which is basically Vedantic is different. There is only one reality, one truth which is viewed differently. Whether a thing is considered good or evil or neutral, essentially and truly, it is that One and nothing else. God's own self is everywhere and the sage makes no difference between the Brahmin and the cow and the elephant. It is his own self he finds in every person and every objectsarvabhtsthitam yo mm bhajati ekatvamsthitah"he has taken his stand upon oneness and loves Me in all beings."2
0 1958-11-04 - Myths are True and Gods exist - mental formation and occult faculties - exteriorization - work in dreams, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The gods of the Puranas are merciless gods who respect only power and have nothing of the true love, charity or profound Goodness that the Divine has put into the human consciousness and which compensate psychically for all the outer defects. They themselves have nothing of this, they have no psychic.1 The Puranic gods have no psychic, so they act according to their power. They are restrained only when their power is not all-powerful, thats all.
But what does Anusuya represent?2
0 1959-06-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
During my last existence, the monk succeeded in making me a sannyasi, and when my wife came to plead with me, I told her, Too late, now I am a sannyasi. So she threw herself into the void, and horror-stricken by the sudden revelation of all these dramas and of my wifes Goodness (for it seems she was a great soul), I threw myself in turn into the void.
As for this last existence, you already know.
0 1960-06-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And just imagine! The other day, in the middle of the night, I suddenly found myself inside you. Ah, so thats what hes like, I said. I woke up in the middle of the night with that. And right away I said to myself, But (laughing) but why is he like that!? And this lasted perhaps one or two minutes, maybe more. I was I felt like kicking out in every direction in a kind of rage. And the next second, I thought, But why all this? My Goodness, its so easy; the remedy is simply to do this and immediately (I did what I always do, you seeits how I am constantly), quite simply, I melted into the Supreme. Enough of all thisand the very next second, everything was all right.
So then I thought, This surely must have had some effect (on the disciple). What has happened? I am I was literally in peace.
0 1961-01-10, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The second step is to be POSITIVELY conscious of the supreme Goodness and Beauty behind all things and supporting all things, permitting them to exist. Once you have seen Him, you can perceive Him behind the mask and the distortioneven ugliness, even cruelty, even evil are a disguise for that Something which is essentially good or beautiful, luminous, pure.
With this comes TRUE collaboration. For when you have this vision, this awareness, when you live in this consciousness, you also get the power to PULL That into the manifestation on earth and put it into contact with what, for the time being, distorts and disguises; thus the deformation and disguise are gradually transformed by the influence of the Truth behind.
0 1963-07-31, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And now the body KNOWS (in the beginning it didnt, it thought it was attacks from the outside, adverse forces; and it can always be explained like that, it was true in a certain way, but it wasnt the true truth, the deepest truth), now the body KNOWS where it all comes from, and its so marvelous! A marvel of wisdom. It puts everything in its place, it makes you REALIZE that all that play of the adverse forces is a way of seeing things (a necessary way at a given time, maybeby necessary, I mean practical), but its still an illusion; illnesses are a necessary way of seeing things to enable you to resist properly, to fight properly, but its still an illusion. And now, the BODY itself knows all thisas long as it was only the mind that knew it, it was a remote notion in the realm of ideas, but now the body itself knows it. And it is full not only of goodwill but also of an infinite gratitudeit always wonders (thats its first movement), Do I have the capacity? And it always gets the same answer, It isnt YOUR capacity. Will I have the strength?It isnt YOUR strength. Even that sense of infirmity disappears in the joy of infinite gratitude the thing is done with such Goodness, such insight, such thoughtfulness, such care to maintain, as far as possible, a progressive balance.
It came with a certitude, an OBVIOUSNESS: this is the process of transformation.
0 1963-08-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Physical Matter, physical substance the very elementary consciousness thats in physical substancehas been so ill-treated (since mans presence on earth, I suppose, because before man, there probably wasnt enough self-consciousness to be aware of being ill-treated; the substance wasnt conscious enough, I suppose, to make a distinction between a normal peaceful state and unfavorable conditions; but anyway, that goes back quite long time), so ill-treated that it finds it very hard to believe things can be different. That consciousness has an aspirationan aspiration especially for a LUMINOUS peace, something that isnt the dark peace of Unconsciousness, which it doesnt like (I dont know if it ever liked it, but it no longer does). It aspires to a luminous peace; not to a consciousness full of various things, not that: simply to a peaceful consciousness, very peaceful, very quiet, very luminous thats what it wants. Yet at the same time, it has some difficulty believing that its possible. I am experiencing it: the concrete and absolutely tangible intervention of the supreme Power, supreme Light and supreme Goodnessit [the consciousness in physical substance] has the experience of that, and every time it has a new sense of wonder, but in that sense of wonder I can see something like: Is it really possible?
It gives me the impression, you know, of a dog that has been beaten so much that it expects nothing but blows.
0 1963-10-16, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
At first I thought, My Goodness! Who does he take me for? (Laughing) A fool who can be made to believe that the moon is made of green cheese? Then I decided I wouldnt say anything until he left: I wanted to wait till I saw him a second time. Then I made a very strong formation and I said to Sri Aurobindo, If there was really anything of you in that, well, let it occur again next time. And yesterday, I kept watching all the time, attentively, very carefullyabsolutely nothing happened.
I didnt like that very much.
You understand, I know those things, I have seen thousands of them! Only, as it happens, for more than half a century I have sensed the difference in a most sharp way. I think I told you already that when I returned here from Japan, there were difficulties: once, I was in danger and I called Sri Aurobindo; he appeared, and the danger went away2he appeared, meaning, he came, something from him came, an EMANATION of him came, living, absolutely concrete. The next day (or rather later the same day), I told him my experience and how I saw him; that worried him (it was an unceasing danger, you see), and he very strongly thought that he should concentrate on me to protect me. And the next day, I saw him but it was an image, a mental formation! I told him, Yes, you came in a mental formation, it wasnt the same thing. Then he told me that this capacity of discernment is an extremely rare thing. But I always had it, even when I was small. Its a sensitiveness in the perception. And indeed I believe that very few people can sense the difference. So with X, my first impression was, My Goodness, to do this to me! Well, really, I have some experience of the world, I cant be so easily made to believe that the moon is made of green cheese!
And yesterday, it was all very peaceful: X was there all the time with nobody in front of him, not pretending anything. But the first time, as he expected some result, he stayed on for ten minutesprobably he was expecting some reaction (I never told him that Sri Aurobindo is with me all the time, that we talk to each other every night). Anyhow, he was probably expecting some enthusiasm on my part (!) There you are.
0 1964-07-15, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When I wrote it, it was such a wonderful thing! We are all so silly, so ignorant, so stupid, we cry out and say, Oh! (people who believe in God), Oh, he is cruel, he is an implacable judgethey dont understand a thing! Its just the opposite! A Goodness, an infinite grace that leads you there, just like that, right to the end, prrt! Straight.
***
0 1967-09-13, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(After a silence) No, he went back, he didnt stay. He doesnt have a glorified body, he left. He went back to the higher regions, he doesnt have a glorified body. He may be glorified up there, thats his business (laughing), but here He went back. Of course, Sri Aurobindo himself said Christ was an Avatar. An avatar in the line of Krishna, the line that represented yes, Goodness, charity, love, harmony. He belongs to that line.
***
0 1967-09-30, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is something inexorablewhy? I dont understand. Because Christ came, on the contrary, to speak of brotherhood, Goodness, charity, compassion. Yet this expression has something inexorableyes, there is no other word: thin-lipped and the mouth in a straight line like this (same blade-like gesture). It gives the appearance of a terrible nastiness, something inexorable (which found expression in the Inquisition, tortures and so on). Why is it there? But that German, for instance, the light was there when he was a baby, the day after his birthhe didnt have an inexorable mouth at that time!
But the difficulty with all those people the Pope, this German, those Rosicruciansis that basically they only think in terms of a Church.
0 1968-01-12, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There may be here some debate on this true sense: some, along with the religions we know, will tell you that the true sense isnt here, but in Goodness knows what heaven beyond. Its a point of view, but if this material evolution does not hold its own sense within itself, it means we are in the presence of a sinister farce invented by Goodness knows what divine masochist. If God exists, he must be a little less foolish than that, and we are entitled to think that this material evolution has a divine sense and that it is the field of a divine manifestation in Matter. Our spiritual discipline must therefore aim at gaining this divine man or perhaps that other, still unknown being who will emerge from us just as we emerged from hominid infancy. What is the place of the sexual function in this evolution? Until now, the progress of consciousness has made use of the progress of species, which means that sexual reproduction has been the key to the proliferation of species so as to reach the form most fit for the manifestation of consciousness. Since the appearance of man two or three million years ago, Nature hasnt produced new species, as if she had found in man the fittest mode of expression. But evolution cannot remain stagnant, or else it no longer is evolution. So it means that the key of evolution no longer lies in the proliferation of species by means of sexual reproduction, but directly in the very power of consciousness. Before man, consciousness was still too buried in its material support; with man, it has disengaged itself sufficiently to assume its true mastery over material Nature and work out its own mutations by itself. From the standpoint of evolutionary biology, this is the end of sexuality. We have reached the stage at which we can switch from natural evolution through sexual power to spiritual evolution through the power of consciousness. Nature generally does not let organs linger that no longer serve her evolutionary design, so we can foresee that the sexual function will atrophy in those who will be able to channel their energy no longer for reproduction but to develop their consciousness. Quite obviously, not all of us have reached that stage, and for a long time Nature will still need sexual power to pursue her evolution in the midst of the human species, that is to say, to lead the rather brute man we still are to a more conscious man, more capable of grasping the true sense of his evolution, and finally wholly capable of switching from natural to spiritual evolution. The inequality of development in individuals is the obvious reason why we cannot make general rules or hand out infallible prescriptions. To each stage its law. But after however long a time, it is equally obvious that, from the point of view of evolutionary biology, the sexual function comes to its end when it has fulfilled its purpose, that is, when it has succeeded in giving birth to a sufficiently conscious man. So we cannot reasonably base a spiritual discipline of accelerated evolution on a principle that runs counter to evolution. Moreover, anyone who has even barely crossed the difficult line, the point X of the transition from natural to spiritual evolution, cannot but realize that all the pseudo-mystic attempts to prettify the sexual relations between man and woman are shams. I have nothing against sexual relations (God knows!), but trying to coat them with a yogic or mystic phraseology is a deceitful illusion, a self-deception. Therefore, in that sense, there is no key to be recoveredit does not exist.
There is a key in the relationship between man and woman, but not in their sexual relations. The so-called left-hand Tantrics (of the Vama Marga) are to true Tantrism what Boccaccios tales are to Christianity, or what the sodden Roman Bacchus is to Dionysos of the Greek mysteries. I know Tantrism, to say the least. As for the Cathars, whom I hold in the highest esteem, it would be doing them little honor to believe that they followed a sort of yoga of sexuality. Through my own experience I have often had the feeling of reliving the Cathars experience, and I see plainly that if some of them attempted to mix sexual relations into the true relationship between man and woman, they soon realized their error. It is a dead-end road, or rather its only end is to show you that it leads you nowhere forward. The Cathars were too sincere and conscious men to persist in a burdening experience. For ultimately, and that is the crux of the matter, the sexual experience in its very nature (whether or not there is backward flow or whatever its mode) automatically fastens you again to the old animal vibrations there is nothing you can do about it: however much love you may put into it, the very function is tied to millennia of animality. It is as if you wanted to plunge into a swamp without stirring up any mudit cannot be done, the milieu is like that. And when one knows how much transparency, clarification and inner stillness it takes to slowly rise to a higher consciousness, or to allow a higher light to enter our waters without being instantly darkened, one fails to see how sexual activity can help you attain that still limpidity in which things can start happening??? The union, the oneness of two beings, the true and complete meeting of two beings does not take place at that level or through those means. That is all I can say. But I have seen that in the silent tranquillity of two beings who have the same aspiration, who have overcome the difficult transition, something quite unique slowly takes place, of which one can have no inkling as long as one is still stuck in the struggles of the flesh, to use a preachers language! I think the Cathars experience begins after that transition. After it, the man-woman couple assumes its true meaning, its effectiveness, if I may say so. Sex is only a first mode of meeting, the first device invented by Nature to break the shell of individual egosafterwards, one grows and discovers something else, not through inhibition or repression, but because something different and infinitely richer takes over. Those who are so eager to preserve sex and to mystify it in order to move on to the second stage of evolution are very much like children clinging to their scootersit isnt more serious than that. There is nothing in it to do a yoga with, nothing also to be indignant about or raise ones eyebrows at. So I have nothing to criticize, I am merely observing and putting things in their place. All depends on the stage one has reached. As for those who want to use sex for such and such a sublime or not-so-sublime reason, well, let them have their experience. As Mother told me on the very same subject no later than yesterday, To tell the truth, the Lord makes use of everything. One is always on the way towards something. One is always on the way, through any means, but what is necessary is, as much as possible, to keep ones lucidity and not to deceive oneself.
0 1968-05-29, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We must face integral life with all that it still entails in terms of ugliness, falsehood and cruelty, but while taking care to discover in ourselves the source of all Goodness, all beauty, all light and all truth, in order to consciously put that source in contact with the world so it may transform it.
That is infinitely more difficult than fleeing or closing ones eyes so as not to see but it is the only really effective way, the way of those who are truly strong and pure and capable of manifesting the Truth.
0 1968-09-21, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its like this: the body is absolutely convinced that there is only one Willone Consciousness, one Will. Consequently, whatever happens is part of that Consciousness and that Will. Thats how it is, you understand. So it cant get angry. It has one spontaneous tendency: let the aspiration be more intense, the surrender more complete, the trust more total. It gets formulated like this: ThatThat which is everything and is oneis nevertheless, despite all appearances, it is nevertheless the Supreme Goodness, the Supreme Beauty, the Supreme Harmony everything reaches out towards That. That is it. And we too reach out towards That. There, thats the bodys philosophy. But not in the manner of the other parts of the being: quite spontaneous, and with a sort of indisputability.
(silence)
0 1969-02-15, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The cells themselves were saying their effort to be transformed, and there was a Calm. (How can I explain this?) The body was saying its aspiration and will to prepare itself, and, not asking but striving to be what it should be; all that always with this question (its not the body that asks it, its the environment, those around the world, as if the world were asking the question): Will it continue, or will it have to dissolve? The body is like this (gesture of abandon, hands open upward), it says, What You will, Lord. But then, it knows the question is decided, and One doesnt want to tell itit accepts. It doesnt lose patience, it accepts, it says, Very well, it will be as You will. But That which knows and That which doesnt answer is something that cant be expressed. It is yes, I think the only word that can describe the sensation it gives is an Absolutean Absolute. Absolute. Thats the sensation: of being in the presence of the Absolute. The Absolute: absolute Knowledge, absolute Will, absolute Power Nothing, nothing can resist. And then this Absolute (theres this sensation, concrete) is so merciful! But if we compare it with all that we regard as Goodness, mercy ugh! thats nothing at all. Its THE Mercy with the absolute power and its not Wisdom, not Knowledge, its It has nothing to do with our process. And That is everywhere, its everywhere. Its the bodys experience. And to That it has given itself entirely, totally, without asking anythinganything. A single aspiration (same gesture, hands open upward), To be capable of being That, what That wills, of serving Thatnot even serving, of BEING That.
But that state, which lasted for several hours never had this body, in the ninety-one years its been on earth, felt such happiness: freedom, absolute power, and no limits (gesture here and there and everywhere), no limits, no impossibilities, nothing. It was all other bodies were itself. There was no difference, it was only a play of the consciousness (gesture like a great Rhythm) moving about.
0 1969-02-19, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Some even (as I have said) spontaneously repeat the mantra. Spontaneously, the mantra goes on and on being repeated, sometimes with a very great intensity; sometimes there is a sort of (do you know the English word shyness?), a shyness to invoke the Divine, so strongly That is felt. But it meltsit melts in an awareness, a conscious perception of such a Clemency! Unbelievableunbelievable, unthinkable, its so wonderful. (In its very small human manifestation, thats what has become Goodness, but thats a distortion.) A marvel! The cells are in ecstasy before this vibration. But then, you see and hear this CLAMOR of protest, misery, sufferingits a clamor all over the earth, and that makes the cells feel a little ashamed.
(silence)
0 1969-04-23, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, it was someone who wrote to me I dont remember, it was about consecration. But I remember that when I answered, I looked, and I saw (what should I call it?) the curve, but its not exactly a curve. You understand, consecration, self-giving, surrender (not submission), all that still implies a separate self giving itself. And I sawin fact, I saw in the bodys experience that the body is on the verge of its just in an intermediary state, because all the parts havent exactly reached the same stage (I dont know why, but thats how it is). So I might say (but this is a simplification), I could say that overall, the bodys self-giving is total, the consecration almost total in the sense that theres everywhere an active collaboration, but with an intense aspiration, and at times a moment when it goes like this (gesture expressing a swelling in the cells). I dont know what happens, its something going on in the cells, and then theres no self-giving anymore or anything neither a consecration nor listening to the command: its a state, a state of intense vibration, with at the same time a sense of all-powerfulness, even in here (Mother pinches the skin of her hands), in this old thing, and a luminous all-powerfulness, always with this something in the line of Goodness, of benevolence, but much above that (those things look like ridiculous distortions). It goes like this (same gesture of swelling), and static, that is, with the sense of eternity in the cells.
It doesnt lastit lasts for a few minutes at the most; yes, a few minutes, but it comes back. It comes back. its something COMPLETELY new for the body.
--
With people, unless (this is rare), unless they are quite unbearable (but thats very rare), with people, this [body] no longer exists: whats there is the Divine Consciousness at work, observing, working, answering, and (laughing) sometimes full of mischief! A mischief so full of Goodness, but quite mischievous. And an extraordinary sense of humor.
Well, there you are. So its all right. In a way, its all right. I feel its still Lets see, let me try to mentalize a bit: the impression is as if the supreme Consciousness had undertaken the work of transformation of the body and were doing it thoroughly, but also without hesitation, without compromise or anything of the sort, and the question is whether the body will hold out. Thats how it is. The body knows itit knows and doesnt have a shadow of fear, I must sayits all the same to it: What You want will be fine. At times it feels a little suffering for one thing or another, a little friction (a pain here or there some pains arent too pleasant), and at such times it always says (Mother opens her hands): As You will, Lord. And within a few minutes at the most, the thing calms down. But it has stopped wondering whether or not it will last, whether or not it will succeedall that is over, gone: Its as You will, as You will. It uses those words because we can use only one language, which is quite incapable of expressing things; we dont know anything else, so we use that language. When it says, As You will, theres this movement of (gesture of dilation and expansion) what should I call it? Its like an easing in all the cellsthey ease up. They ease up in the supreme Light, in the supreme Consciousness, like that. Then you feel the form is about to disappear, but (Mother looks at the skin of her hands) it must be the consciousness contained in the cells [that spreads about]; I dont think its the substance, because (Mother looks at the skin of her hands) so far it has remained as it is! But that [easing] stays there for a rather long time.
0 1969-04-30, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This Consciousness is truly extraordinary, and with such a sense of humor, you know! Its educating this body, beginning with sweeping away all moral notions. The body is spontaneously in a sort of adoration, and all of a sudden this Consciousness showed it a big, huge serpent, with two formidable fangs, which was like this (gesture erect in front of Mother). And at the same time it gave the explanation: The poisoned fangs Its the Supreme Goodness that invented them, of course. You know, it was so Its irresistible. And this poor body remained like that, a little flabbergasted. It realized it had never thought of that! It had taken things as they are, the world as it is, it had never thought about that: How can this exist? How can it? (Laughing) It needed a good fifteen minutes to find its poise again.
Its constantly like that. Its a relentless struggle against ALL possible conventions. At the same time, this consciousness seems to inculcate the sense of an irresistible power. Which isnt a personal power, not at all, it has nothing to do with the person; only one must be in accord with the Consciousness that rules the world, and this Consciousness has irresistible power. But it sweeps away all notionsALL notionsand makes you see the stupidity of the notions you hold together [within the same consciousness], naturally in contradiction with one another. All that. And then, as soon as you are tranquil (after an experience like that serpent: it lasts for one minute, or two, or ten minutes, five minutesit depends on the case), but once you remain like that, peaceful, there comes a sort of sense of limitless immensity, of in English they say ease, that is, something extremely peaceful, and at the same time vibrant, in which you feel that everything, but everything, is harmonious, like thateverything. And its like that in a great intensity of light which tends to be golden (its not golden, I dont know what that color is, but it tends to be like that), a light like that. Then, if you remain there, everything is fineEVERYTHING is fine: the body is fine, everything is fine. And as soon as you go out of that state and get into other movements, you see that all, but all is a world of contradictions, everything is a contradiction: chaos and contradiction. But there, everything is perfectly harmonious.
0 1969-05-31, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And all the methodswhich we may call artificial, Nirvana includedall the methods to get out of it are worthless. Beginning with the fool who kills himself to Put an end to his life: thats of all stupidities, that one is the biggest, it makes his case still worse. From that up to Nirvana (where one imagines one can get out of it), all of it, all of it is worth NOTHING. Those are different stages, but theyre worth NOTHING. And then, after that, when you really have a sense of perpetual hell, all of a sudden (nothing but a state of consciousness, its nothing but that), all of a sudden, a state of consciousness in which all is light, splendor, beauty, happiness, Goodness. And all that is inexpressible. It comes like that: Oh, here it is, and then pfft! It shows itself, and hop! its gone. Then the Consciousness, which sees, imposes itself, and says, Now, the next step. So its in the presence of all this that the body had never, never in its whole life had it felt such a sorrow, and even now (Mother touches her heart).
Is this, is this the lever? I dont know. But salvation is PHYSICALnot at all mental, but PHYSICAL. I mean its not in escape: its HERE. That I felt very strongly.
0 1969-06-25, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And above all, above all, the chatter of words For instance, it has become very hard for me to read a letter: there are always at least a hundred times too many words. And its easy to see its in the head that it goes like this (gesture of a jumble). But then, here (gesture to the forehead), it has remained mar-vel-ous-ly tranquil and calm and white and oh, thats really a Grace. It has remained like that. So all those things that come and try to entertheres no response, they are kept at a distance. And then, the Solicitude, the Care taken to make the thing as easy as we permit it to beits wonderful! Wonderful Naturally, from time to time, one is crushed under the weight of stupidity, but behind, there is nevertheless a benevolent Goodness, smiling and so TREMENDOUS that nothing matters, no worry There. So
The body has the sensation of hanging between two states: one which people call life, and the other which people call death. The body feels its hanging between the two: neither alive nor (laughing) dead, like that, neither one nor the other. Its between the two. And thats very odd. Very odd. There is an impression (not an impression, its a perception) that the slightest disorder (gesture of tipping over to the left) would be enough to fling it to the other side, and that this very slight movement this way (gesture of tipping over to the right, into life) is made impossible by something one doesnt understand. And it takes very little to
0 1969-08-27, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, he didnt want to. He was all compassion, Goodness, patience.
Twice I saw him get angry with hertwice. But he instantly got a grip on himself.
0 1969-11-12, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, thats right. But recently (quite recently, once yesterday, and once last Friday), I had that sort of (whats the word? I dont know what they call it, but he thinks1 its a disease I said, I have no diseases!) its the nerves, the nerves which are nervously attacked by others nervous atmosphere it results in almost intolerable sufferings. Since I settled here, I had never had that, it was Sri Aurobindo who took it away from me (I had explained it to him: it had happened to me when I went back from India to France, and it was rather serious). But since I came here, never. And it came back the other day through someone who was here and who caused it. Yet that someone doesnt know at all and has no CONSCIOUS ill will. And yesterday again, with someone else, it was the same thing. So I had to put the Lord on the nerves forcefullyit took me more than half or three quarters of an hour to succeed in restoring order. Then I said to myself, Goodness! The battle is getting serious.
Its a disease. They call it a disease of the nerves: all the nerves are sensitized and suffer terribly. When I first had it, I could no longer eat, no longer sleep, no longer move, no longer And that was because2 I had done something mad: I went back to France after leaving my psychic being here; so it seized me as soon as I was far enough from the atmosphere; as soon as I entered the Mediterranean, it began. And it was very serious.
0 1969-11-19, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
How did it come? There are really no words to express it, that sense of wonder towards the Grace. The Grace, the Grace is a thing that exceeds all understanding in its clear-sighted Goodness.
Naturally, the body had the experience. Something took place which I wont tell, and it had the true reaction; it didnt have the old reaction, it had the true one: it smiled, you know, with this Smile of the supreme Lordit smiled. That remained there for a day and a half. And that difficulty was what let the body make the last progress, let it live in that Consciousness; if everything had been harmonious, things might have dragged on for yearsits wonderful, you know, wonderful!
0 1969-12-13, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Mother gave this comment on the last of these Aphorisms: "It means that gentleness without strength and Goodness without power are incomplete and cannot entirely express the Divine. I might say that the charity and generosity of a converted Asura are infinitely more effective than those of an innocent angel."
When Satprem later published this part of the conversation in the "Notes on the Way," Mother added the following comment: "In this Consciousness where the two contraries, the two opposites are joined, the nature of both changes. They don't remain as they are. it's not that they are joined and remain the same: the nature of both changes. And that's most important. Their nature, their action, their vibration are wholly different the minute they are joined. it's separation that makes them what they are. Separation must be done away with, and then their very nature changes: it's no longer 'good' and 'evil,' but something else, which is complete. It's complete."
0 1970-01-07, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
T.F. has prepared a big scenario for a film (its remarkable). She has read me half of it (really remarkable), and shes just read a description of the vital world, of life. Mon petit, its certainly beyond the human consciousness: its the consciousness of a vital being that can write thatit gave me a fever. Its gone; now its completely gone, but it gave me a fever. And I didnt feel any discomfort, nothing: I just admired, saying to myself, Goodness, it takes some skill to describe that (it was unbelievably accurate, you understand, certainly beyond the human). And she herself told me, Oh, but I gave you a fever! And its true, I had a fever. Now its gone, its all over.
Things are like that, you understand, they become real.
0 1972-01-12, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then Courage. Then Prudence, Charity, Justice, Goodness, Patience, Sweetness, Thoughtfulness. And then Gratitude.
Yes.
--
Goodness.
No.
--
Mother later ordered the list of the twelve powers or "qualities" in the following sequence: Sincerity, Humility, Gratitude, Perseverance, Aspiration, Receptivity, Progress, Courage, Goodness, Generosity, Equanimity, Peace.
The experience of joining the vision of the whole together with the vision of all the details.
0 1972-01-19, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
9) Goodness
10) Generosity
0 1972-07-19, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We must we must put this at the service of the Divinealways. Always. With faith, an absolute faith: whatever happens is what the Divine wants to see happen. The Divine I say Divine because I know what I mean by that word, I mean supreme Knowledge, supreme Beauty, supreme Goodness, supreme Willall all that must be manifested in order to express what must be expressed.
(long silence)
07.04 - The Triple Soul-Forces, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
His Goodness is a laxity in the nerves,
His kindness an investment for return,
08.17 - Psychological Perfection, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The next item which is also obviously necessary for all progress is Faith. There is also another word for it which although seemingly limited, possesses for me at least a greater importance; I mean, trust. If your faith is not made of a complete trust in the Divine or if you begin to lose the trust, then you gradually lose faith in the Divine Power or in the Divine Goodness or in the trust that the Divine has in you. These are the three great stumbling-blocks.
It happens at times, if not quite often, that starting with a faith which you describe unshakable, the faith that the Divine alone does everything and can do everything, that whatever occurs in me or in others, everywhere, is the work of the Divine and of none other than the Divine and you continue to the logical end, apparently at least, till after a time you begin to accuse the Divine of the most frightful misdeeds, make him a veritable demon being the author or abettor of all the evils in the world.
1.002 - The Heifer, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
148. To every community is a direction towards which it turns. Therefore, race towards Goodness. Wherever you may be, God will bring you all together. God is capable of everything.
149. And wherever you come from, turn your face towards the Sacred Mosque. This is the truth from your Lord, and God is not heedless of what you do.
--
184. For a specified number of days. But whoever among you is sick, or on a journey, then a number of other days. For those who are able: a ransom of feeding a needy person. But whoever volunteers Goodness, it is better for him. But to fast is best for you, if you only knew.
185. Ramadan is the month in which the Quran was revealed. Guidance for humanity, and clear portents of guidance, and the Criterion. Whoever of you witnesses the month, shall fast it. But whoever is sick, or on a journey, then a number of other days. God desires ease for you, and does not desire hardship for you, that you may complete the number, and celebrate God for having guided you, so that you may be thankful.
--
201. And among them is he who says, “Our Lord, give us Goodness in this world, and Goodness in the Hereafter, and protect us from the torment of the Fire.”
202. These will have a share of what they have earned. God is swift in reckoning.
1.003 - Family of Imran, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
26. Say, “O God, Owner of Sovereignty. You grant sovereignty to whom You will, and You strip sovereignty from whom you will. You honor whom you will, and You humiliate whom you will. In Your hand is all Goodness. You are Capable of all things.”
27. “You merge the night into the day, and You merge the day into the night; and you bring the living out of the dead, and You bring the dead out of the living; and You provide for whom you will without measure.”
1.004 - Women, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
95. Not equal are the inactive among the believers—except the disabled—and the strivers in the cause of God with their possessions and their persons. God prefers the strivers with their possessions and their persons above the inactive, by a degree. But God has promised Goodness to both. Yet God favors the strivers, over the inactive, with a great reward.
96. Degrees from Him, and forgiveness, and mercy. God is Forgiving and Merciful.
--
113. Were it not for God’s grace towards you, and His mercy, a faction of them would have managed to mislead you. But they only mislead themselves, and they cannot harm you in any way. God has revealed to you the Scripture and wisdom, and has taught you what you did not know. God’s Goodness towards you is great.
114. There is no good in much of their private counsels, except for him who advocates charity, or kindness, or reconciliation between people. Whoever does that, seeking God’s approval, We will give him a great compensation.
1.006 - Livestock, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
158. Are they waiting for anything but for the angels to come to them, or for your Lord to arrive, or for some of your Lord’s signs to come? On the Day when some of your Lord’s signs come, no soul will benefit from its faith unless it had believed previously, or had earned Goodness through its faith. Say, “Wait, we too are waiting.”
159. As for those who divided their religion and became sects—you have nothing to do with them. Their case rests with God; then He will inform them of what they used to do.
1.007 - The Elevations, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
156. “And inscribe for us Goodness in this world, and in the Hereafter. We have turned to You.” He said, “My punishment—I inflict it upon whomever I will, but My mercy encompasses all things. I will specify it for those who act righteously and practice regular charity, and those who believe in Our signs.”
157. Those who follow the Messenger, the Unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel in their possession. He directs them to righteousness, and deters them from evil, and allows for them all good things, and prohibits for them wickedness, and unloads the burdens and the shackles that are upon them. Those who believe in him, and respect him, and support him, and follow the light that came down with him—these are the successful.
1.010 - Jonah, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
26. For those who have done good is Goodness, and more. Neither gloom nor shame will come over their faces. These are the inhabitants of Paradise, abiding therein forever.
27. As for those who have earned evil deeds: a reward of similar evil, and shame will cover them. They will have no defense against God—as if their faces are covered with dark patches of night. These are the inmates of the Fire, abiding therein forever.
1.016 - The Bee, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
30. And it will be said to those who maintained piety, “What has your Lord revealed?” They will say, “ Goodness.” To those who do good in this world is Goodness, and the Home of the Hereafter is even better. How wonderful is the residence of the pious.
31. The Gardens of Perpetuity, which they will enter, beneath which rivers flow, where they will have whatever they desire. Thus God rewards the pious.
--
62. And they attribute to God what they themselves dislike, while their tongues utter the lie that theirs is the Goodness. Without a doubt, for them is the Fire, and they will be neglected.
63. By God, We sent messengers to communities before you, but Satan made their deeds appear alluring to them. He is their master today, and they will have a painful punishment.
--
90. God commands justice, and Goodness, and generosity towards relatives. And He forbids immorality, and injustice, and oppression. He advises you, so that you may take heed.
91. Fulfill God’s covenant when you make a covenant, and do not break your oaths after ratifying them. You have made God your guarantor, and God knows what you do.
--
122. And We gave him Goodness in this world, and in the Hereafter he will be among the righteous.
123. Then We inspired you: “Follow the religion of Abraham, the Monotheist. He was not an idol-worshiper.”
1.01 - A NOTE ON PROGRESS, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
the forms of life, or the genius of Man or even his Goodness. Thus
far practical experimentation has failed to modify the fundamental
1.01 - Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
she had convinced Adam of the Goodness of the forbidden apple.
Were it not for the leaping and twinkling of the soul, man
1.01 - Description of the Castle, #The Interior Castle or The Mansions, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
4.: Let us imagine, as I said, that there are many rooms in this castle, of which some are above, some below, others at the side; in the centre, in the very midst of them all, is the principal chamber in which God and the soul hold their most secret intercourse.7' Think over this comparison very carefully; God grant it may enlighten you about the different kinds of graces He is pleased to bestow upon the soul. No one can know all about them, much less a person so ignorant as I am. The knowledge that such things are possible will console you greatly should our Lord ever grant you any of these favours; people themselves deprived of them can then at least praise Him for His great Goodness in bestowing them on others. The thought of heaven and the happiness of the saints does us no harm, but cheers and urges us to win this joy for ourselves, nor will it injure us to know that during this exile God can communicate Himself to us loathsome worms; it will rather make us love Him for such immense Goodness and infinite mercy.
5.: I feel sure that vexation at thinking that during our life on earth God can bestow these graces on the souls of others shows a want of humility and charity for one's neighbour, for why should we not feel glad at a brother's receiving divine favours which do not deprive us of our own share? Should we not rather rejoice at His Majesty's thus manifesting His greatness wherever He chooses?8' Sometimes our Lord acts thus solely for the sake of showing His power, as He declared when the Apostles questioned whether the blind man whom He cured had been suffering for his own or his parents' sins.9' God does not bestow soul speaks of that sovereign grace of God in taking it into the house of His love, which is the union or transformation of love in God . . . The cellar is the highest degree of love to which the soul can attain in this life, and is therefore said to be the inner. It follows from this that there are other cellars not so interior; that is, the degrees of love by which souls reach to this, the last. These cellars are seven in number, and the soul has entered them all when it has in perfection the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, so far as it is possible for it. . . . Many souls reach and enter the first cellar, each according to the perfection of its love, but the last and inmost cellar is entered by few in this world, because therein is wrought the perfect union with God, the union of the spiritual marriage.' A Spiritual Canticle, stanza xxvi. 1-3. Concept. ch. vi. (Minor Works of St. Teresa.) these favours on certain souls because they are more holy than others who do not receive them, but to manifest His greatness, as in the case of St. Paul and St. Mary Magdalen, and that we may glorify Him in His creatures.
1.01 - Economy, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
There is no odor so bad as that which arises from Goodness tainted. It is human, it is divine, carrion. If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life, as from that dry and parching wind of the
African deserts called the simoom, which fills the mouth and nose and ears and eyes with dust till you are suffocated, for fear that I should get some of his good done to me,some of its virus mingled with my blood. No,in this case I would rather suffer evil the natural way. A man is not a good _man_ to me because he will feed me if I should be starving, or warm me if I should be freezing, or pull me out of a ditch if I should ever fall into one. I can find you a Newfoundl and dog that will do as much. Philanthropy is not love for ones fellow-man in the broadest sense. Howard was no doubt an exceedingly kind and worthy man in his way, and has his reward; but, comparatively speaking, what are a hundred Howards to _us_, if their philanthropy do not help _us_ in our best estate, when we are most worthy to be helped? I never heard of a philanthropic meeting in which it was sincerely proposed to do any good to me, or the like of me.
--
I would not subtract any thing from the praise that is due to philanthropy, but merely demand justice for all who by their lives and works are a blessing to mankind. I do not value chiefly a mans uprightness and benevolence, which are, as it were, his stem and leaves. Those plants of whose greenness withered we make herb tea for the sick, serve but a humble use, and are most employed by quacks. I want the flower and fruit of a man; that some fragrance be wafted over from him to me, and some ripeness flavor our intercourse. His Goodness must not be a partial and transitory act, but a constant superfluity, which costs him nothing and of which he is unconscious. This is a charity that hides a multitude of sins. The philanthropist too often surrounds mankind with the remembrance of his own cast-off griefs as an atmosphere, and calls it sympathy. We should impart our courage, and not our despair, our health and ease, and not our disease, and take care that this does not spread by contagion. From what southern plains comes up the voice of wailing? Under what latitudes reside the hea then to whom we would send light? Who is that intemperate and brutal man whom we would redeem? If any thing ail a man, so that he does not perform his functions, if he have a pain in his bowels even,for that is the seat of sympathy,he forthwith sets about reforming the world.
Being a microcosm himself, he discovers, and it is a true discovery, and he is the man to make it,that the world has been eating green apples; to his eyes, in fact, the globe itself is a great green apple, which there is danger awful to think of that the children of men will nibble before it is ripe; and straightway his drastic philanthropy seeks out the Esquimaux and the Patagonian, and embraces the populous
1.01 - Maitreya inquires of his teacher (Parashara), #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
[5]: The three qualities, to which we shall have further occasion to advert, are, Satya, Goodness or purity, knowledge, quiescence; Rajas, foulness, passion, activity; and Tamas, darkness, ignorance, inertia.
[6]: Pradhānabuddhyādisū. This predicate of the Deity distinguishes most of the Purāṇas from several of the philosophical systems, which maintain, as did the earliest Grecian systems of cosmogony, the eternal and independent existence of the first principle of things, as nature, matter, or chaos. Accordingly, the commentator notices the objection. Pradhāna being without beginning, it is said how can Viṣṇu be its parent? To which he replies, that this is not so, for in a period of worldly destruction (Pralaya), when the Creator desists from creating, nothing is generated by virtue of any other energy or parent. Or, if this be not satisfactory, then the text may be understood to imply that intellect (Buddhi) &c. are formed through the materiality of crude nature, or Pradhāna.
1.01 - Newtonian and Bergsonian Time, #Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, #Norbert Wiener, #Cybernetics
outside world to the Goodness and honesty of God.
The role attributed to God in this matter is unstable. Either
1.01 - Soul and God, #The Red Book Liber Novus, #unset, #Zen
From a good heart you will know Goodness.
So that your understanding becomes perfect, consider that your heart is both good and evil. You ask, What? Should I also live evil?
1.01 - THAT ARE THOU, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
All this sheds some lightdim, it is true, and merely inferentialon the problem of the perennialness of the Perennial Philosophy. In India the scriptures were regarded, not as revelations made at some given moment of history, but as eternal gospels, existent from everlasting to everlasting, inasmuch as coeval with man, or for that matter with any other kind of corporeal or incorporeal being possessed of reason. A similar point of view is expressed by Aristotle, who regards the fundamental truths of religion as everlasting and indestructible. There have been ascents and falls, periods (literally roads around or cycles) of progress and regress; but the great fact of God as the First Mover of a universe which partakes of His divinity has always been recognized. In the light of what we know about prehistoric man (and what we know amounts to nothing more than a few chipped stones, some paintings, drawings and sculptures) and of what we may legitimately infer from other, better documented fields of knowledge, what are we to think of these traditional doctrines? My own view is that they may be true. We know that born contemplatives in the realm both of analytic and of integral thought have turned up in fair numbers and at frequent intervals during recorded history. There is therefore every reason to suppose that they turned up before history was recorded. That many of these people died young or were unable to exercise their talents is certain. But a few of them must have survived. In this context it is highly significant that, among many contemporary primitives, two thought-patterns are foundan exoteric pattern for the unphilosophic many and an esoteric pattern (often monotheistic, with a belief in a God not merely of power, but of Goodness and wisdom) for the initiated few. There is no reason to suppose that circumstances were any harder for prehistoric men than they are for many contemporary savages. But if an esoteric monotheism of the kind that seems to come natural to the born thinker is possible in modern savage societies, the majority of whose members accept the sort of polytheistic philosophy that seems to come natural to men of action, a similar esoteric doctrine might have been current in prehistoric societies. True, the modern esoteric doctrines may have been derived from higher cultures. But the significant fact remains that, if so derived, they yet had a meaning for certain members of the primitive society and were considered valuable enough to be carefully preserved. We have seen that many thoughts are unthinkable apart from an appropriate vocabulary and frame of reference. But the fundamental ideas of the Perennial Philosophy can be formulated in a very simple vocabulary, and the experiences to which the ideas refer can and indeed must be had immediately and apart from any vocabulary whatsoever. Strange openings and theophanies are granted to quite small children, who are often profoundly and permanently affected by these experiences. We have no reason to suppose that what happens now to persons with small vocabularies did not happen in remote antiquity. In the modern world (as Vaughan and Traherne and Wordsworth, among others, have told us) the child tends to grow out of his direct awareness of the one Ground of things; for the habit of analytical thought is fatal to the intuitions of integral thinking, whether on the psychic or the spiritual level. Psychic preoccupations may be and often are a major obstacle in the way of genuine spirituality. In primitive societies now (and, presumably, in the remote past) there is much preoccupation with, and a widespread talent for, psychic thinking. But a few people may have worked their way through psychic into genuinely spiritual experiencejust as, even in modern industrialized societies, a few people work their way out of the prevailing preoccupation with matter and through the prevailing habits of analytical thought into the direct experience of the spiritual Ground of things.
Such, then, very briefly are the reasons for supposing that the historical traditions of oriental and our own classical antiquity may be true. It is interesting to find that at least one distinguished contemporary ethnologist is in agreement with Aristotle and the Vedantists. Orthodox ethnology, writes Dr. Paul Radin in his Primitive Man as Philosopher, has been nothing but an enthusiastic and quite uncritical attempt to apply the Darwinian theory of evolution to the facts of social experience. And he adds that no progress in ethnology will be achieved until scholars rid themselves once and for all of the curious notion that everything possesses a history; until they realize that certain ideas and certain concepts are as ultimate for man, as a social being, as specific physiological reactions are ultimate for him, as a biological being. Among these ultimate concepts, in Dr. Radins view, is that of monotheism. Such monotheism is often no more than the recognition of a single dark and numinous Power ruling the world. But it may sometimes be genuinely ethical and spiritual.
1.01 - To Watanabe Sukefusa, #Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin, #unset, #Zen
Obsession with these seductions is a serious disease, and it is one that neither the wise nor the foolish can escape. A wise person blinded by delusion is like a tiger that falls into a well and yet has sufficient strength to claw its way out without losing its skin. When a foolish man is similarly blinded, he is like a tired, skinny old fox that falls in but perishes miserably at the bottom of the well because he lacks the strength to clamber out. Even a person who is just tolerably clever will, once he has fallen victim to these seductions and begins behaving in an unfilial manner, heed the warnings of his elders and the advice of the good and virtuous, immediately change his ways and become a kind and considerate son to his parents. Receiving heaven's favor and the gods' hidden assistance, he will be blessed with great happiness and long life. When he dies, he will leave a sterling reputation for wisdom and Goodness behind him.
Not so a foolish man, for once he engages in unfilial behavior he neither fears the warnings of his elders nor heeds the advice of good, upright people. He defies the sun, he opposes the moon, and in the end he receives the punishment of heaven and the dire verdict of the gods. In this state, self-redemption is no longer possible.
1.021 - The Prophets, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
101. As for those who deserved Goodness from Us—these will be kept away from it.
102. They will not hear its hissing, and they will forever abide in what their hearts desire.
1.022 - The Pilgrimage, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
36. We have made the animal offerings emblems of God for you. In them is Goodness for you. So pronounce God’s name upon them as they line up. Then, when they have fallen on their sides, eat of them and feed the contented and the beggar. Thus We have subjected them to you, that you may be thankful.
37. Neither their flesh, nor their blood, ever reaches God. What reaches Him is the righteousness from you. Thus He subdued them to you, that you may glorify God for guiding you. And give good news to the charitable.
1.023 - The Believers, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
61. It is they who race towards Goodness. It is they who will reach it first.
62. We never burden any soul beyond its capacity. And with Us is a record that tells the truth, and they will not be wronged.
1.027 - The Ant, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
11. But whoever has done wrong, and then substituted Goodness in place of evil. I am Forgiving and Merciful.
12. Put your hand inside your pocket, and it will come out white, without blemish—among nine miracles to Pharaoh and his people, for they are immoral people.”
1.02 - MAPS OF MEANING - THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
of meaning can easily lead us to conclude that the Goodness or badness of things or situations is something
more or less fixed. However, the fact of subjective interpretation and its effects on evaluation and
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belief in the essential Goodness of things necessary to voluntary maintenance of life and culture. The
beneficial sister has in consequence acquired breadth and depth of metaphoric mythic representation
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and an image of his Goodness.
Though she is but one, she can do all things,
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is holding the position believes in the rightness (justice, Goodness) of his or her stance. The integrative
strength of beliefs of this type can be determined, accurately, through challenge (since the capacity to
1.02 - Meditating on Tara, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
people objectively. But this is not necessarily the case. There are other people with different denitions of Goodness and kindness.
In Buddhist practice, we try to develop a love for others that goes beyond
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The fourth, rejoicing in our own and others virtues, cuts jealousy and develops delight in the Goodness and attainments of others. The fth and sixth
limbs, requesting the Buddhas and our spiritual mentors to remain in our
1.02 - Prayer of Parashara to Vishnu, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
Then from that equilibrium of the qualities (Pradhāna), presided over by soul[21], proceeds the unequal developement of those qualities (constituting the principle Mahat or Intellect) at the time of creation[22]. The Chief principle then invests that Great principle, Intellect, and it becomes threefold, as affected by the quality of Goodness, foulness, or darkness, and invested by the Chief principle (matter) as seed is by its skin. From the Great principle (Mahat) Intellect, threefold Egotism, (Aha
kāra)[23], denominated Vaikarīka, 'pure;' Taijasa, 'passionate;' and Bhūtādi, 'rudimental,'[24] is produced; the origin of the (subtile) elements, and of the organs of sense; invested, in consequence of its three qualities, by Intellect, as Intellect is by the Chief principle. Elementary Egotism then becoming productive, as the rudiment of sound, produced from it Ether, of which sound is the characteristic, investing it with its rudiment of sound. Ether becoming productive, engendered the rudiment of touch; whence originated strong wind, the property of which is touch; and Ether, with the rudiment of sound, enveloped the rudiment of touch. Then wind becoming productive, produced the rudiment of form (colour); whence light (or fire) proceeded, of which, form (colour) is the attribute; and the rudiment of touch enveloped the wind with the rudiment of colour. Light becoming productive, produced the rudiment of taste; whence proceed all juices in which flavour resides; and the rudiment of colour invested the juices with the rudiment of taste. The waters becoming productive, engendered the rudiment of smell; whence an aggregate (earth) originates, of which smell is the property[25]. In each several element resides its peculiar rudiment; thence the property of tanmātratā,[26] (type or rudiment) is ascribed to these elements. Rudimental elements are not endowed with qualities, and therefore they are neither soothing, nor terrific, nor stupifying[27]. This is the elemental creation, proceeding from the principle of egotism affected by the property of darkness. The organs of sense are said to be the passionate products of the same principle, affected by foulness; and the ten divinities[28] proceed from egotism affected by the principle of Goodness; as does Mind, which is the eleventh. The organs of sense are ten: of the ten, five are the skin, eye, nose, tongue, and ear; the object of which, combined with Intellect, is the apprehension of sound and the rest: the organs of excretion and procreation, the hands, the feet, and the voice, form the other five; of which excretion, generation, manipulation, motion, and speaking, are the several acts.
Then, ether, air, light, water, and earth, severally united with the properties of sound and the rest, existed as distinguishable according to their qualities, as soothing, terrific, or stupifying; but possessing various energies, and being unconnected, they could not, without combination, create living beings, not having blended with each other. Having combined, therefore, with one another, they assumed, through their mutual association, the character of one mass of entire unity; and from the direction of spirit, with the acquiescence of the indiscrete Principle[29], Intellect and the rest, to the gross elements inclusive, formed an egg[30], which gradually expanded like a bubble of water. This vast egg, O sage, compounded of the elements, and resting on the waters, was the excellent natural abode of Viṣṇu in the form of Brahmā; and there Viṣṇu, the lord of the universe, whose essence is inscrutable, assumed a perceptible form, and even he himself abided in it in the character of Brahmā[31]. Its womb, vast as the mountain Meru, was composed of the mountains; and the mighty oceans were the waters that filled its cavity. In that egg, O Brahman, were the continents and seas and mountains, the planets and divisions of the universe, the gods, the demons, and mankind. And this egg was externally invested by seven natural envelopes, or by water, air, fire, ether, and Aha
--
Affecting then the quality of activity, Hari, the lord of all, himself becoming Brahmā, engaged in the creation of the universe. Viṣṇu with the quality of Goodness, and of immeasurable power, preserves created things through successive ages, until the close of the period termed a Kalpa; when the same mighty deity, Janārddana[32], invested with the quality of darkness, assumes the awful form of Rudra, and swallows up the universe. Having thus devoured all things, and converted the world into one vast ocean, the Supreme reposes upon his mighty serpent couch amidst the deep: he awakes after a season, and again, as Brahmā, becomes the author of creation.
Thus the one only god, Janārddana, takes the designation of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva, accordingly as he creates, preserves, or destroys[33].
--
kara Siva. The Viṣṇu who is the subject of our text is the supreme being in all these three divinities or hypostases, in his different characters of creator, preserver and destroyer. Thus in the Mārkaṇḍeya: 'Accordingly, as the primal all-pervading spirit is distinguished by attributes in creation and the rest, so he obtains the denomination of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva. In the capacity of Brahmā he creates the worlds; in that of Rudra he destroys them; in that of Viṣṇu he is quiescent. These are the three Avasthās (ht. hypostases) of the self-born. Brahmā is the quality of activity; Rudra that of darkness; Viṣṇu, the lord of the world, is Goodness: so, therefore, the three gods are the three qualities. They are ever combined with, and dependent upon one another; and they are never for an instant separate; they never quit each other.' The notion is one common to all antiquity, although less philosophically conceived, or perhaps less distinctly expressed, in the passages which have come down to us. The τρεῖς ἀρχικὰς ὑποστάσεις of Plato are said by Cudworth (I. 111), upon the authority of Plotinus, to be an ancient doctrine, παλαιὰ δόξα: and he also observes, "Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato have all of them asserted a trinity of divine hypostases; and as they unquestionably derived much of their doctrine from the Egyptians, it may reasonably be suspected that the Egyptians did the like before them." As however the Grecian accounts, and those of the Egyptians, are much more perplexed and unsatisfactory than those of the Hindus, it is most probable that we find amongst them the doctrine in its most original as well as most methodical and significant form.
[2]: This address to Viṣṇu pursues the notion that he, as the supreme being, is one, whilst he is all: he is Avikāra, not subject to change; Sadaikarūpa, one invariable nature: he is the liberator (tāra), or he who bears mortals across the ocean of existence: he is both single and manifold (ekānekarūpa): and he is the indiscrete (avyakta) cause of the world, as well as the discrete (vyakta) effect; or the invisible cause, and visible creation.
--
khyas and Paurāṇics, nothing more than the three qualities in equilibrio, or Goodness, foulness, and darkness neutralising each other; (Sā
khya p. 13 Kārikā, p. 52;) so in the Matsya P.: ###. This state is synonymous with the non-evolution of material products, or with dissolution; implying, however, separate existence, and detached from spirit This being the case, it is asked who. should sustain matter and spirit whilst separate, or renew their combination so as to renovate creation? It is answered, Time, which is when every thing else is not; and which, at the end of a certain interval, unites Matter, Pradhāna, and Puruṣa, and produces creation. Conceptions of this kind are evidently comprised in the Orphic triad, or the ancient notion of the cooperation of three such principles in creation; as Phanes or Eros, which is the Hindu spirit or Puruṣa; Chaos, matter or Pradhāna; and Chronos, or Kāla, time.
--
khya Kārikā, p. 92. Vaikārika, that which is productive, or susceptible of production, is the same as the Sātwika, or that which is combined with the property of Goodness. Taijasa Aha
kāra is that which is endowed with Tejas, heat' or energy,' in consequence of its having the property of Rajas, 'passion' or 'activity;' and the third kind, Bhūtādi, or 'elementary,' is the Tāmasa, or has the property of darkness. From the first kind proceed the senses; from the last, the rudimental unconscious elements; both kinds, which are equally of themselves inert, being rendered productive by the cooperation of the second, the energetic or active modification of Aha
--
[27]: The properties here alluded to are not those of Goodness &c., but other properties assigned to perceptible objects by the Sā
khya doctrines, or Śānti, 'placidity;' Ghoratā, 'terror;' and Moha, 'dulness' or 'stupefaction.' S. Kārikā, V.38. p, 119.
1.02 - THE NATURE OF THE GROUND, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
The Absolute Ground of all existence has a personal aspect. The activity of Brahman is Isvara, and Isvara is further manifested in the Hindu Trinity and, at a more distant remove, in the other deities or angels of the Indian pantheon. Analogously, for Christian mystics, the ineffable, attributeless Godhead is manifested in a Trinity of Persons, of whom it is possible to predicate such human attri butes as Goodness, wisdom, mercy and love, but in a supereminent degree.
Finally there is an incarnation of God in a human being, who possesses the same qualities of character as the personal God, but who exhibits them under the limitations necessarily imposed by confinement within a material body born into the world at a given moment of time. For Christians there has been and, ex hypodiesi, can be but one such divine incarnation; for Indians there can be and have been many. In Christendom as well as in the East, contemplatives who follow the path of devotion conceive of, and indeed directly perceive the incarnation as a constantly renewed fact of experience. Christ is for ever being begotten within the soul by the Father, and the play of Krishna is the pseudo-historical symbol of an everlasting truth of psychology and metaphysics the fact that, in relation to God, the personal soul is always feminine and passive.
--
Like St. Augustine, Eckhart was to some extent the victim of his own literary talents. Le style cest Ihomme. No doubt. But the converse is also partly true. Lhomme cest le style. Because we have a gift for writing in a certain way, we find ourselves, in some sort, becoming our way of writing. We mould ourselves in the likeness of our particular brand of eloquence. Eckhart was one of the inventors of German prose, and he was tempted by his new-found mastery of forceful expression to commit himself to extreme positionsto be doctrinally the image of his powerful and over-emphatic sentences. A statement like the foregoing would lead one to believe that he despised what the Vedantists call the lower knowledge of Brahman, not as the Absolute Ground of all things, but as the personal God. In reality he, like the Vedantists, accepts the lower knowledge as genuine knowledge and regards devotion to the personal God as the best preparation for the unitive knowledge of the Godhead. Another point to remember is that the attri buteless Godhead of Vedanta, of Mahayana Buddhism, of Christian and Sufi mysticism is the Ground of all the qualities possessed by the personal God and the Incarnation. God is not good, I am good, says Eckhart in his violent and excessive way. What he really meant was, I am just humanly good; God is supereminently good; the Godhead is, and his isness (istigkeit, in Eckharts German) contains Goodness, love, wisdom and all the rest in their essence and principle. In consequence, the Godhead is never, for the exponent of the Perennial Philosophy, the mere Absolute of academic metaphysics, but something more purely perfect, more reverently to be adored than even the personal God or his human incarnationa Being towards whom it is possible to feel the most intense devotion and in relation to whom it is necessary (if one is to come to that unitive knowledge which is mans final end) to practise a discipline more arduous and unremitting than any imposed by ecclesiastical authority.
There is a distinction and differentiation, according to our reason, between God and the Godhead, between action and rest. The fruitful nature of the Persons ever worketh in a living differentiation. But the simple Being of God, according to the nature thereof, is an eternal Rest of God and of all created things.
1.02 - The Objects of Imitation., #Poetics, #Aristotle, #Philosophy
Since the objects of imitation are men in action, and these men must be either of a higher or a lower type (for moral character mainly answers to these divisions, Goodness and badness being the distinguishing marks of moral differences), it follows that we must represent men either as better than in real life, or as worse, or as they are. It is the same in painting. Polygnotus depicted men as nobler than they are, Pauson as less noble, Dionysius drew them true to life.
Now it is evident that each of the modes of imitation above mentioned will exhibit these differences, and become a distinct kind in imitating objects that are thus distinct. Such diversities may be found even in dancing, flute-playing, and lyre-playing. So again in language, whether prose or verse unaccompanied by music. Homer, for example, makes men better than they are; Cleophon as they are; Hegemon the Thasian, the inventor of parodies, and Nicochares, the author of the Deiliad, worse than they are. The same thing holds good of Dithyrambs and Nomes; here too one may portray different types, as Timotheus and Philoxenus differed in representing their Cyclopes. The same distinction marks off Tragedy from Comedy; for Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life.
1.039 - Throngs, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
10. Say, “O My devotees who have believed, keep your duty to your Lord. For those who do good in this world, is Goodness. And God’s earth is vast. The steadfast will be paid their wages in full, without reckoning.”
11. Say, “I was commanded to serve God, devoting my religion exclusively to Him.
1.03 - APPRENTICESHIP AND ENCULTURATION - ADOPTION OF A SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
existence was inconvenient to him (and, we must presuppose, to the flowering of his intrinsic Goodness).
Anyway the fervent hope of every undisciplined person (even an undisciplined genius) is that his current
1.03 - Bloodstream Sermon, #The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, #Bodhidharma, #Buddhism
the Goodness of others. There's no advantage in deceiving yourself.
Good and bad are distinct. Cause and effect are clear. Heaven and
1.03 - PERSONALITY, SANCTITY, DIVINE INCARNATION, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
The separate creaturely life, as opposed to life in union with God, is only a life of various appetites, hungers and wants, and cannot possibly be anything else. God Himself cannot make a creature to be in itself, or in its own nature, anything else but a state of emptiness. The highest life that is natural and creaturely can go no higher than this; it can only be a bare capacity for Goodness and cannot possibly be a good and happy life but by the life of God dwelling in and in union with it. And this is the twofold life that, of all necessity, must be united in every good and perfect and happy creature.
William Law
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Souls which have come to the unitive knowledge of God, are, in Benet of Canfields phrase, almost nothing in themselves and all in God. This vanishing residue of selfness persists because, in some slight measure, they still identify their being with some innate psycho-physical idiosyncrasy, some acquired habit of thought or feeling, some convention or unanalyzed prejudice current in the social environment. Jesus was almost wholly absorbed in the esential will of God; but in spite of this, he may have retained some elements of selfness. To what extent there was any I associated with the more-than-personal, divine Not-I, it is very difficult, on the basis of the existing evidence, to judge. For example, did Jesus interpret his experience of divine Reality and his own spontaneous inferences from that experience in terms of those fascinating apocalyptic notions current in contemporary Jewish circles? Some eminent scholars have argued that the doctrine of the worlds imminent dissolution was the central core of his teaching. Others, equally learned, have held that it was attributed to him by the authors of the Synoptic Gospels, and that Jesus himself did not identify his experience and his theological thinking with locally popular opinions. Which party is right? Goodness knows. On this subject, as on so many others, the existing evidence does not permit of a certain and unambiguous answer.
The moral of all this is plain. The quantity and quality of the surviving biographical documents are such that we have no means of knowing what the residual personality of Jesus was really like. But if the Gospels tell us very little about the I which was Jesus, they make up for this deficiency by telling us inferentially, in the parables and discourses, a good deal about the spiritual not-I, whose manifest presence in the mortal man was the reason why his disciples called him the Christ and identified him with the eternal Logos.
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When Goodness grows weak,
When evil increases,
--
Then the Blessed One spoke and said: Know, Vasetha, that from time to time a Tathagata is born into the world, a fully Enlightened One, blessed and worthy, abounding in wisdom and Goodness, happy with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to erring mortals, a teacher of gods and men, a Blessed Buddha. He thoroughly understands this universe, as though he saw it face to face The Truth does he proclaim both in its letter and in its spirit, lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its consummation. A higher life doth he make known in all its purity and in all its perfectness.
Tevigga Sutta
1.03 - .REASON. IN PHILOSOPHY, #Twilight of the Idols, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
highest concepts--that of Being, of the Absolute, of Goodness, of
Truth, and of Perfection; all these things cannot have been evolved,
1.03 - Supernatural Aid, #The Hero with a Thousand Faces, #Joseph Campbell, #Mythology
nificence, in thee whatever of Goodness is in any creature, are
united."
1.03 - Tara, Liberator from the Eight Dangers, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
It has the power to burn down forests of Goodness:
The re of angerplease protect us from this danger!
--
jealousy poisons the happiness and Goodness of both ourselves and others.
While we say, Love thy neighbor as thyself and May all beings be happy,
--
great positive potential to progress along the path, rejoicing at others Goodness and happiness is denitely worthwhile. It spurs us along the path to
enlightenment and also makes us happy right now.
1.03 - The Sephiros, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
A parallel conception is found in that section of the Zohar entitled Idra Zuia : Tipharas is " the highest manifestation of ethical life, the sum of all Goodness ; in short, the Ideal
Hari, the Hindu attri bution, is another name for Shri
1.03 - Time Series, Information, and Communication, #Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, #Norbert Wiener, #Cybernetics
of Goodness of prediction. We can compute the merit of the pre-
diction, using any desired statistical basis of this merit-mean
1.042 - Consultation, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
23. That is the good news God gives to His servants who believe and do good deeds. Say, “I ask of you no wage for it, except affection among the near of kin.” Whoever does a good deed, We will increase its Goodness for him. God is Forgiving and Appreciative.
24. Or do they say, “He forged a lie about God.” If God so willed, He could have sealed your heart. But God obliterates the false, and confirm the true by His Words. He knows what is in the hearts.
1.04 - Body, Soul and Spirit, #Theosophy, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
The I becomes ever more and more ruler of body and soul. This also comes to visible expression in the aura. The more the I is lord over body and soul, the more numerous and complex are its members, and the more varied and rich are the colors of the aura. This effect of the I on the aura can be seen by the "seeing" person. The I itself is invisible, even to him. This remains truly within the "veiled holy of holies of a man." But the I absorbs into itself the rays of the light which flames forth in a man as eternal light. As he gathers together the experiences of body and soul in the I, he also causes the thoughts of truth and Goodness to stream into the I. The phenomena of the senses reveal themselves to the I from the one side, the spirit reveals itself from the other. Body and soul yield themselves up to the I in order to serve it; but the I yields itself up to the spirit in order that
p. 45
1.04 - GOD IN THE WORLD, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Looking backwards across the carnage and the devastation, we can see that Vigny was perfectly right. None of those gay travellers, of whom Victor Hugo was the most vociferously eloquent, had the faintest notion where that first, funny little Puffing Billy was taking them. Or rather they had a very clear notion, but it happened to be entirely false. For they were convinced that Puffing Billy was hauling them at full speed towards universal peace and the brotherhood of man; while the newspapers which they were so proud of being able to read, as the train rumbled along towards its Utopian destination not more than fifty years or so away, were the guarantee that liberty and reason would soon be everywhere triumphant. Puffing Billy has now turned into a four-motored bomber loaded with white phosphorus and high explosives, and the free press is everywhere the servant of its advertisers, of a pressure group, or of the government. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, the travellers (now far from gay) still hold fast to the religion of Inevitable Progresswhich is, in the last analysis, the hope and faith (in the teeth of all human experience) that one can get something for nothing. How much saner and more realistic is the Greek view that every victory has to be paid for, and that, for some victories, the price exacted is so high Uiat it outweighs any advantage that may be obtained! Modern man no longer regards Nature as being in any sense divine and feels perfectly free to behave towards her as an overweening conqueror and tyrant. The spoils of recent technological imperialism have been enormous; but meanwhile nemesis has seen to it that we get our kicks as well as halfpence. For example, has the ability to travel in twelve hours from New York to Los Angeles given more pleasure to the human race than the dropping of bombs and fire has given pain? There is no known method of computing the amount of felicity or Goodness in the world at large. What is obvious, however, is that the advantages accruing from recent technological advancesor, in Greek phraseology, from recent acts of hubris directed against Natureare generally accompanied by corresponding disadvantages, that gains in one direction entail losses in other directions, and that we never get something except for something. Whether the net result of these elaborate credit and debit operations is a genuine Progress in virtue, happiness, charity and intelligence is something we can never definitely determine. It is because the reality of Progress can never be determined that the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have had to treat it as an article of religious faith. To the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy, the question whether Progress is inevitable or even real is not a matter of primary importance. For them, the important thing is that individual men and women should come to the unitive knowledge of the divine Ground, and what interests them in regard to the social environment is not its progressiveness or non-progressiveness (whatever those terms may mean), but the degree to which it helps or hinders individuals in their advance towards mans final end.
next chapter: 1.05 - CHARITY
1.04 - Magic and Religion, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
ideal of God's Goodness and holiness, were never weary of
inculcating. Thus Micah says: "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is
1.04 - Narayana appearance, in the beginning of the Kalpa, as the Varaha (boar), #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
At the close of the past (or Pādma) Kalpa, the divine Brahmā, endowed with the quality of Goodness, awoke from his night of sleep, and beheld the universe void. He, the supreme Nārāyaṇa, the incomprehensible, the sovereign of all creatures, invested with the form of Brahmā, the god without beginning, the creator of all things; of whom, with respect to his name Nārāyaṇa, the god who has the form of Brahmā, the imperishable origin of the world, this verse is repeated, "The waters are called Nārā, because they were the offspring of Nara (the supreme spirit); and as in them his first (Ayana) progress (in the character of Brahmā) took place, he is thence named Nārāyaṇa (he whose place of moving was the waters)[2]." He, the lord, concluding that within the waters lay the earth, and being desirous to raise it up, created another form for that purpose; and as in preceding Kalpas he had assumed the shape of a fish or a tortoise, so in this he took the figure of a boar. Having adopted a form composed of the sacrifices of the Vedas[3], for the preservation of the whole earth, the eternal, supreme, and universal soul, the great progenitor of created beings, eulogized by Sanaka and the other saints who dwell in the sphere of holy men (Janaloka); he, the supporter of spiritual and material being, plunged into the ocean. The goddess Earth, beholding him thus descending to the subterrene regions, bowed in devout adoration, and thus glorified the god:-
Prīthivī (Earth).-Hail to thee, who art all creatures; to thee, the holder of the mace and shell: elevate me now from this place, as thou hast upraised me in days of old. From thee have I proceeded; of thee do I consist; as do the skies, and all other existing things. Hail to thee, spirit of the supreme spirit; to thee, soul of soul; to thee, who art discrete and indiscrete matter; who art one with the elements and with time. Thou art the creator of all things, their preserver, and their destroyer, in the forms, oh lord, of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Rudra, at the seasons of creation, duration, and dissolution. When thou hast devoured all things, thou reposest on the ocean that sweeps over the world, meditated upon, oh Govinda, by the wise. No one knoweth thy true nature, and the gods adore thee only in the forms it bath pleased thee to assume. They who are desirous of final liberation, worship thee as the supreme Brahmā; and who that adores not Vāsudeva, shall obtain emancipation? Whatever may be apprehended by the mind, whatever may be perceived by the senses, whatever may he discerned by the intellect, all is but a form of thee. I am of thee, upheld by thee; thou art my creator, and to thee I fly for refuge: hence, in this universe, Mādhavī (the bride of Mādhava or Viṣṇu) is my designation. Triumph to the essence of all wisdom, to the unchangeable, the imperishable: triumph to the eternal; to the indiscrete, to the essence of discrete things: to him who is both cause and effect; who is the universe; the sinless lord of sacrifice[4]; triumph. Thou art sacrifice; thou art the oblation; thou art the mystic Omkāra; thou art the sacrificial fires; thou art the Vedas, and their dependent sciences; thou art, Hari, the object of all worship[5]. The sun, the stars, the planets, the whole world; all that is formless, or that has form; all that is visible, or invisible; all, Puruṣottama, that I have said, or left unsaid; all this, Supreme, thou art. Hail to thee, again and again! hail! all hail!
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The Yogis.-Triumph, lord of lords supreme; Keśava, sovereign of the earth, the wielder of the mace, the shell, the discus, and the sword: cause of production, destruction, and existence. THOU ART, oh god: there is no other supreme condition, but thou. Thou, lord, art the person of sacrifice: for thy feet are the Vedas; thy tusks are the stake to which the victim is bound; in thy teeth are the offerings; thy mouth is the altar; thy tongue is the fire; and the hairs of thy body are the sacrificial grass. Thine eyes, oh omnipotent, are day and night; thy head is the seat of all, the place of Brahma; thy mane is all the hymns of the Vedas; thy nostrils are all oblations: oh thou, whose snout is the ladle of oblation; whose deep voice is the chanting of the Sāma veda; whose body is the hall of sacrifice; whose joints are the different ceremonies; and whose ears have the properties of both voluntary and obligatory rites[7]: do thou, who art eternal, who art in size a mountain, be propitious. We acknowledge thee, who hast traversed the world, oh universal form, to be the beginning, the continuance, and the destruction of all things: thou art the supreme god. Have pity on us, oh lord of conscious and unconscious beings. The orb of the earth is seen seated on the tip of thy tusks, as if thou hadst been sporting amidst a lake where the lotus floats, and hadst borne away the leaves covered with soil. The space between heaven and earth is occupied by thy body, oh thou of unequalled glory, resplendent with the power of pervading the universe, oh lord, for the benefit of all. Thou art the aim of all: there is none other than thee, sovereign of the world: this is thy might, by which all things, fixed or movable, are pervaded. This form, which is now beheld, is thy form, as one essentially with wisdom. Those who have not practised devotion, conceive erroneously of the nature of the world. The ignorant, who do not perceive that this universe is of the nature of wisdom, and judge of it as an object of perception only, are lost in the ocean of spiritual ignorance. But they who know true wisdom, and whose minds are pure, behold this whole world as one with divine knowledge, as one with thee, oh god. Be favourable, oh universal spirit: raise up this earth, for the habitation of created beings. Inscrutable deity, whose eyes are like lotuses, give us felicity. Oh lord, thou art endowed with the quality of Goodness: raise up, Govinda, this earth, for the general good. Grant us happiness, oh lotus-eyed. May this, thy activity in creation, be beneficial to the earth. Salutation to thee. Grant us happiness, oh lotus-eyed. arāśara said:-
The supreme being thus eulogized, upholding the earth, raised it quickly, and placed it on the summit of the ocean, where it floats like a mighty vessel, and from its expansive surface does not sink beneath the waters. Then, having levelled the earth, the great eternal deity divided it into portions, by mountains: he who never wills in vain, created, by his irresistible power, those mountains again upon the earth which had been consumed at the destruction of the world. Having then divided the earth into seven great portions or continents, as it was before, he constructed in like manner the four (lower) spheres, earth, sky, heaven, and the sphere of the sages (Maharloka). Thus Hari, the four-faced god, invested with the quality of activity, and taking the form of Brahmā, accomplished the creation: but he (Brahmā) is only the instrumental cause of things to be created; the things that are capable of being created arise from nature as a common material cause: with exception of one instrumental cause alone, there is no need of any other cause, for (imperceptible) substance becomes perceptible substance according to the powers with which it is originally imbued[8].
1.04 - On blessed and ever-memorable obedience, #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
From obedience comes humility, as we have already said earlier. From humility comes discernment as the great Cassian has said with beautiful and sublime philosophy in his chapter on discernment.2 From discernment comes insight, and from insight comes foresight. And who would not follow this fair way of obedience, seeing such blessings in store for him? It was of this great virtue of obedience that the good Psalmist said: Thou hast in Thy Goodness prepared for the poor3 obedient soul, O God, Thy presence in his heart.
Throughout your life remember that great athlete who for eighteen whole years never heard with his outward ears his superior say the words, May you be saved, but inwardly heard daily from the Lord, not merely, May you be saved (which is an uncertain wish), but You are saved (which is definite and sure).
1.04 - SOME REFLECTIONS ON PROGRESS, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
sionment with human Goodness in recent years, there are stronger
scientific reasons than ever before for believing that we do really
1.055 - The Compassionate, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
60. Is the reward of Goodness anything but Goodness?
61. So which of your Lord’s marvels will you deny?
1.057 - Iron, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
11. Who is he who will lend God a loan of Goodness, that He may double it for him, and will have a generous reward?
12. On the Day when you see the believing men and believing women—their light radiating ahead of them, and to their right: “Good news for you today: gardens beneath which rivers flow, dwelling therein forever. That is the great triumph.”
1.05 - Christ, A Symbol of the Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
others and the Goodness of the less good adds to the glory of the
better. . . . Those things we call evil, then, are defects in good
--
do so only by diminishing that thing's Goodness. Evil therefore is
nothing but the privation of good. And thus it can have no existence
--
they do damage something, they diminish its Goodness; and if they
damage it still more, it is because it still has some Goodness which
they diminish; and if they swallow it up altogether, nothing of its
--
it can be damaged, since there is then no nature left whose Goodness
any damage can diminish. 38
--
created the heat is also responsible for the cold ("the Goodness
of the less good"). We can certainly hand it to Augustine that
--
the unanimous decision in favour of God's Goodness 56 - did not
satisfy the conservative Jews. In this respect, therefore, it is sig-
--
thy Goodness and gentleness come before thee." 68 God is prop-
erly exhorted to remember his good qualities. There is even a
1.05 - Qualifications of the Aspirant and the Teacher, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
When you see that in your teacher these conditions are all fulfilled, you are safe; if they are not, it is unsafe to allow yourself to be taught by him, for there is the great danger that, if he cannot convey Goodness to your heart, he may convey wickedness. This danger must by all means be guarded against.
"He who is learned in the scriptures, sinless, unpolluted by lust, and is the greatest knower of the Brahman" is the real teacher.
--
Those who come to seek truth with such a spirit of love and veneration, to them the Lord of Truth reveals the most wonderful things regarding truth, Goodness, and beauty.
next chapter: 1.06 - Incarnate Teachers and Incarnation
1.05 - Vishnu as Brahma creates the world, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
Beholding this creation also imperfect, Brahmā again meditated, and a third creation appeared, abounding with the quality of Goodness, termed Ūrddhasrotas[6]. The beings thus produced in the Ūrddhasrotas creation were endowed with pleasure and enjoyment, uneñcumbered internally or externally, and luminous within and without. This, termed the creation of immortals, was the third performance of Brahmā, who, although well pleased with it, still found it incompetent to fulfil his end. Continuing therefore his meditations, there sprang, in consequence of his infallible purpose, the creation termed Arvāksrotas, from indiscrete nature. The products of this are termed Arvāksrotasas[7], from the downward current (of their nutriment). They abound with the light of knowledge, but the qualities of darkness and of foulness predominate. Hence they are afflicted by evil, and are repeatedly impelled to action. They have knowledge both externally and internally, and are the instruments (of accomplishing the object of creation, the liberation of soul). These creatures were mankind.
I have thus explained to you, excellent Muni, six[8] creations. The first creation was that of Mahat or Intellect, which is also called the creation of Brahmā[9]. The second was that of the rudimental principles (Tanmātras), thence termed the elemental creation (Bhūta serga). The third was the modified form of egotism, termed the organic creation, or creation of the senses (Aindrīyaka). These three were the Prākrita creations, the developements of indiscrete nature, preceded by the indiscrete principle[10]. The fourth or fundamental creation (of perceptible things) was that of inanimate bodies. The fifth, the Tairyag yonya creation, was that of animals. The sixth was the Ūrddhasrotas creation, or that of the divinities. The creation of the Arvāksrotas beings was the seventh, and was that of man. There is an eighth creation, termed Anugraha, which possesses both the qualities of Goodness and darkness[11]. Of these creations, five are secondary, and three are primary[12]. But there is a ninth, the Kaumāra creation, which is both primary and secondary[13]. These are the nine creations of the great progenitor of all, and, both as primary and secondary, are the radical causes of the world, proceeding from the sovereign creator. What else dost thou desire to hear?
MAITREYA. Thou hast briefly related to me, Muni, the creation of the gods and other beings: I am desirous, chief of sages, to hear from thee a more ample account of their creation.
--
Created beings, although they are destroyed (in their individual forms) at the periods of dissolution, yet, being affected by the good or evil acts of former existence, they are never exempted from their consequences; and when Brahmā creates the world anew, they are the progeny of his will, in the fourfold condition of gods, men, animals, or inanimate things. Brahmā then, being desirous of creating the four orders of beings, termed gods, demons, progenitors, and men, collected his mind into itself[14]. Whilst thus concentrated, the quality of darkness pervaded his body; and thence the demons (the Asuras) were first born, issuing from his thigh. Brahmā then abandoned that form which was, composed of the rudiment of darkness, and which, being deserted by him, became night. Continuing to create, but assuming a different. shape, he experienced pleasure; and thence from his mouth proceeded the gods, endowed with the quality of Goodness. The form abandoned by him, became day, in which the good quality predominates; and hence by day the gods are most powerful, and by night the demons. He next adopted another person, in which the rudiment of Goodness also prevailed; and thinking of himself, as the father of the world, the progenitors (the Pitris) were born from his side. The body, when he abandoned, it, became the Sandhyā (or evening twilight), the interval between day and night. Brahmā then assumed another person, pervaded by the quality of foulness; and from this, men, in whom foulness (or passion) predominates, were produced. Quickly abandoning that body, it became morning twilight, or the dawn. At the appearance of this light of day, men feel most vigour; while the progenitors are most powerful in the evening season. In this manner, Maitreya, Jyotsnā (dawn), Rātri (night), Ahar (day), and Sandhyā (evening), are the four bodies of Brahmā invested by the three qualities[15].
Next from Brahmā, in a form composed of the quality of foulness, was produced hunger, of whom anger was born: and the god put forth in darkness beings emaciate with hunger, of hideous aspects, and with long beards. Those beings hastened to the deity. Such of them as exclaimed, Oh preserve us! were thence called Rākṣasas[16]: others, who cried out, Let us eat, were denominated from that expression Yakṣas[17]. Beholding them so disgusting, the hairs of Brahmā were shrivelled up, and first falling from his head, were again renewed upon it: from their falling they became serpents, called Sarpa from their creeping, and Ahi because they had deserted the head[18]. The creator of the world, being incensed, then created fierce beings, who were denominated goblins, Bhūtas, malignant fiends and eaters of flesh. The Gandharvas were next born, imbibing melody: drinking of the goddess of speech, they were born, and thence their appellation[19]. The divine Brahmā, influenced by their material energies, having created these beings, made others of his own will. Birds he formed from his vital vigour; sheep from his breast; goats from his mouth; kine from his belly and sides; and horses, elephants, Sarabhas, Gayals, deer, camels, mules, antelopes, and other animals, from his feet: whilst from the hairs of his body sprang herbs, roots, and fruits.
--
[1]: The terms here employed are for qualities, Gunas; which, as we have already noticed, are those of Goodness, foulness, and darkness. The characteristics, or Swabhāvas, are the inherent properties of the qualities, by which they act, as, soothing, terrific, or stupifying: and the forms, Svarūpas, are the distinctions of biped, quadruped, brute, bird, fish, and the like.
[2]: Or Tamas, Moha, Mahāmoha, Tamisra, Andhatamisra; they are the five kinds of obstruction, viparyyaya, of soul's liberation, according to the Sā
1.06 - BOOK THE SIXTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
His reign one scene of princely Goodness shew'd.
Four hopeful youths, as many females bright,
1.06 - MORTIFICATION, NON-ATTACHMENT, RIGHT LIVELIHOOD, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
As to their nature, considered in themselves, they have nothing of Goodness or holiness, nor are any real part of our sanctification, they are not the true food or nourishment of the Divine Life in our souls, they have no quickening, sanctifying power in them; their only worth consists in this, that they remove the impediments of holiness, break down that which stands between God and us, and make way for the quickening, sanctifying spirit of God to operate on our souls, which operation of God is the one only thing that can raise the Divine Life in the soul, or help it to the smallest degree of real holiness or spiritual life. Hence we may learn the reason why many people not only lose the benefit, but are even the worse for all their mortifications. It is because they mistake the whole nature and worth of them. They practice them for their own sakes, as things good in themselves; they think them to be real parts of holiness, and so rest in them and look no further, but grow full of self-esteem and self-admiration for their own progress in them. This makes them self-sufficient, morose, severe judges of all those that fall short of their mortifications. And thus their self-denials do only that for them which indulgences do for other people: they withstand and hinder the operation of God upon their souls, and instead of being really self-denials, they streng then and keep up the kingdom of self.
William Law
--
We must not wish anything other than what happens from moment to moment, all the while, however, exercising ourselves in Goodness.
St. Catherine of Genoa
1.06 - Origin of the four castes, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
Formerly, oh best of Brahmans, when the truth-meditating Brahmā was desirous of creating the world, there sprang from his mouth beings especially endowed with the quality of Goodness; others from his breast, pervaded by the quality of foulness; others from his thighs, in whom foulness and darkness prevailed; and others from his feet, in whom the quality of darkness predominated. These were, in succession, beings of the several castes, Brahmans, Kṣetriyas, Vaisyas, and Śūdras, produced from the mouth, the breast, the thighs, and the feet of Brahmā[2]. These he created for the performance of sacrifices, the four castes being the fit instruments of their celebration. By sacrifices, oh thou who knowest the truth, the gods are nourished; and by the rain which they bestow, mankind are supported[3]: and thus sacrifices, the source of happiness, are performed by pious men, attached to their duties, attentive to prescribed obligations, and walking in the paths of virtue. Men acquire (by them) heavenly fruition, or final felicity: they go, after death, to whatever sphere they aspire to, as the consequence of their human nature. The beings who were created by Brahmā, of these four castes, were at first endowed with righteousness and perfect faith; they abode wherever they pleased, unchecked by any impediment; their hearts were free from guile; they were pure, made free from soil, by observance of sacred institutes. In their sanctified minds Hari dwelt; and they were filled with perfect wisdom, by which they contemplated the glory of Viṣṇu[4]. After a while (after the Tretā age had continued for some period), that portion of Hari which has been described as one with Kāla (time) infused into created beings sin, as yet feeble though formidable, or passion and the like: the impediment of soul's liberation, the seed of iniquity, sprung from darkness and desire. The innate perfectness of human nature was then no more evolved: the eight kinds of perfection, Rasollāsā and the rest, were impaired[5]; and these being enfeebled, and sin gaining strength, mortals were afflicted with pain, arising from susceptibility to contrasts, as heat and cold, and the like. They therefore constructed places of refuge, protected by trees, by mountains, or by water; surrounded them by a ditch or a wall, and formed villages and cities; and in them erected appropriate dwellings, as defences against the sun and the cold[6]. Having thus provided security against the weather, men next began to employ themselves in manual labour, as a means of livelihood, (and cultivated) the seventeen kinds of useful grain-rice, barley, wheat, millet, sesamum, panic, and various sorts of lentils, beans, and pease[7]. These are the kinds cultivated for domestic use: but there are fourteen kinds which may be offered in sacrifice; they are, rice, barley, Māṣa, wheat, millet, and sesamum; Priya
gu is the seventh, and kulattha, pulse, the eighth: the others are, Syāmāka, a sort of panic; Nīvāra, uñcultivated rice; Jarttila, wild sesamum; Gavedukā (coix); Markata, wild panic; and (a plant called) the seed or barley of the Bambu (Venu-yava). These, cultivated or wild, are the fourteen grains that were produced for purposes of offering in sacrifice; and sacrifice (the cause of rain) is their origin also: they again, with sacrifice, are the great cause of the perpetuation of the human race, as those understand who can discriminate cause and effect. Thence sacrifices were offered daily; the performance of which, oh best of Munis, is of essential service to mankind, and expiates the offences of those by whom they are observed. Those, however, in whose hearts the dross of sin derived from Time (Kāla) was still more developed, assented not to sacrifices, but reviled both them and all that resulted from them, the gods, and the followers of the Vedas. Those abusers of the Vedas, of evil disposition and conduct, and seceders from the path of enjoined duties, were plunged in wickedness[8]. The means of subsistence having been provided for the beings he had created, Brahmā prescribed laws suited to their station and faculties, the duties of the several castes and orders[9], and the regions of those of the different castes who were observant of their duties. The heaven of the Pitris is the region of devout Brahmans. The sphere of Indra, of Kṣetriyas who fly not from the field. The region of the winds is assigned to the Vaisyas who are diligent in their occupations and submissive. Śūdras are elevated to the sphere of the Gandharvas. Those Brahmans who lead religious lives go to the world of the eighty-eight thousand saints: and that of the seven Ṛṣis is the seat of pious anchorets and hermits. The world of ancestors is that of respectable householders: and the region of Brahmā is the asylum of religious mendicants[10]. The imperishable region of the Yogis is the highest seat of Viṣṇu, where they perpetually meditate upon the supreme being, with minds intent on him alone: the sphere where they reside, the gods themselves cannot behold. The sun, the moon, the planets, shall repeatedly be, and cease to be; but those who internally repeat the mystic adoration of the divinity, shall never know decay. For those who neglect their duties, who revile the Vedas, and obstruct religious rites, the places assigned after death are the terrific regions of darkness, of deep gloom, of fear, and of great terror; the fearful hell of sharp swords, the hell of scourges and of a waveless sea[11].
1.072 - The Jinn, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
10. We do not know whether ill is intended for those on earth, or if their Lord intends Goodness for them.
11. Some of us are righteous, but some of us are less than that; we follow divergent paths.
1.07 - A Song of Longing for Tara, the Infallible, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
created the causes for Goodness. Real refuge comes down to our own practice. Its not about asking others to protect our reputation, worldly power,
or property. Thats why His Holiness has been discouraging people from propitiating spirits.
1.07 - Of imperfections with respect to spiritual envy and sloth., #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
WITH respect likewise to the other two vices, which are spiritual envy and sloth, these beginners fail not to have many imperfections. For, with respect to envy, many of them are wont to experience movements of displeasure at the spiritual good of others, which cause them a certain sensible grief at being outstripped upon this road, so that they would prefer not to hear others praised; for they become displeased at others' virtues and sometimes they cannot refrain from contradicting what is said in praise of them, depreciating it as far as they can; and their annoyance thereat grows53 because the same is not said of them, for they would fain be preferred in everything. All this is clean contrary to charity, which, as Saint Paul says, rejoices in Goodness.54 And, if charity has any envy, it is a holy envy, comprising grief at not having the virtues of others, yet also joy because others have them, and delight when others outstrip us in the service of God, wherein we ourselves are so remiss.
2. With respect also to spiritual sloth, beginners are apt to be irked by the things that are most spiritual, from which they flee because these things are incompatible with sensible pleasure. For, as they are so much accustomed to sweetness in spiritual things, they are wearied by things in which they find no sweetness. If once they failed to find in prayer the satisfaction which their taste required (and after all it is well that God should take it from them to prove them), they would prefer not to return to it: sometimes they leave it; at other times they continue it unwillingly. And thus because of this sloth they abandon the way of perfection (which is the way of the negation of their will and pleasure for God's sake) for the pleasure and sweetness of their own will, which they aim at satisfying in this way rather than the will of God.
1.08 - The Historical Significance of the Fish, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
of Goodness. The Bahman Yast calls the fourth Iron Age "the
evil sovereignty of the demons with dishevelled hair of the race
--
ment and confusion. Christianity has insisted on God's Goodness
as a loving Father and has done its best to rob evil of substance.
1.08 - The Three Schools of Magick 3, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
This prophet of the White School, chosen by its Masters and his brethren, to save the Theory and Practice, is armed with a sword far mightier than Excalibur. He has been entrusted with a new Magical formula, one which can be accepted by the whole human race. Its adoption will streng then the Yellow School by giving a more positive value to their Theory; while leaving the postulates of the Black School intact, it will transcend them and raise their Theory and Practice almost to the level of the Yellow. As to the White School, it will remove from them all taint of poison of the Black, and restore vigour to their central formula of spiritual alchemy by giving each man an independent ideal. It will put an end to the moral castration involved in the assumption that each man, whatever his nature, should deny himself to follow out a fantastic and impracticable ideal of Goodness. Incidentally, this formula will save Physical Science itself by making negligible the despair of futility, the vital scepticism which has emasculated it in the past. It shows that the joy of existence is not in a goal, for that indeed is clearly unattainable, but in the going itself.
This law is called the Law of Thelema. It is summarized in the four words, "Do what thou wilt."
1.092 - The Night, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
6. And confirms Goodness.
7. We will ease his way towards ease.
--
9. And denies Goodness.
10. We will ease his way towards difficulty.
1.09 - Concentration - Its Spiritual Uses, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
What is the result of constant practice of this higher concentration? All old tendencies of restlessness and dullness will be destroyed, as well as the tendencies of Goodness too. The case is similar to that of the chemicals used to take the dirt and alloy off gold. When the ore is smelted down, the dross is burnt along with the chemicals. So this constant controlling power will stop the previous bad tendencies, and eventually, the good ones also. Those good and evil tendencies will suppress each other, leaving alone the Soul, in its own splendour untrammelled by either good or bad, the omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. Then the man will know that he had neither birth nor death, nor need for heaven or earth. He will know that he neither came nor went, it was nature which was moving, and that movement was reflected upon the soul. The form of the light reflected by the glass upon the wall moves, and the wall foolishly thinks it is moving. So with all of us; it is the Chitta constantly moving making itself into various forms, and we think that we are these various forms. All these delusions will vanish. When that free Soul will comm and not pray or beg, but comm and then whatever It desires will be immediately fulfilled; whatever It wants It will be able to do. According to the Sankhya philosophy, there is no God. It says that there can be no God of this universe, because if there were one, He must be a soul, and a soul must be either bound or free. How can the soul that is bound by nature, or controlled by nature, create? It is itself a slave. On the other hand, why should the Soul that is free create and manipulate all these things? It has no desires, so it cannot have any need to create. Secondly, it says the theory of God is an unnecessary one; nature explains all. What is the use of any God? But Kapila teaches that there are many souls, who, though nearly attaining perfection, fall short because they cannot perfectly renounce all powers. Their minds for a time merge in nature, to re-emerge as its masters. Such gods there are. We shall all become such gods, and, according to the Sankhyas, the God spoken of in the Vedas really means one of these free souls. Beyond them there is not an eternally free and blessed Creator of the universe. On the other hand, the Yogis say, "Not so, there is a God; there is one Soul separate from all other souls, and He is the eternal Master of all creation, the ever free, the Teacher of all teachers." The Yogis admit that those whom the Sankhyas call "the merged in nature" also exist. They are Yogis who have fallen short of perfection, and though, for a time, debarred from attaining the goal, remain as rulers of parts of the universe.
- -
1.09 - Legend of Lakshmi, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
"We glorify him who is all things; the lord supreme over all; unborn, imperishable; the protector of the mighty ones of creation; the unperceived, indivisible Nārāyaṇa; the smallest of the smallest, the largest of the largest, of the elements; in whom are all things, from whom are all things; who was before existence; the god who is all beings; who is the end of ultimate objects; who is beyond final spirit, and is one with supreme soul; who is contemplated as the cause of final liberation by sages anxious to be free; in whom are not the qualities of Goodness, foulness, or darkness, that belong to undeveloped nature. May that purest of all pure spirits this day be propitious to us. May that Hari be propitious to us, whose inherent might is not an object of the progressive chain of moments or of days, that make up time. May he who is called the supreme god, who is not in need of assistance, Hari, the soul of all embodied substance, be favourable unto us. May that Hari, who is both cause and effect; who is the cause of cause, the effect of effect; he who is the effect of successive effect; who is the effect of the effect of the effect himself; the product of the effect of the effect of the effect, or elemental substance; to him I bow[5]. The cause of the cause; the cause of the cause of the cause; the cause of them all; to him I bow. To him who is the enjoyer and thing to be enjoyed; the creator and thing to be created; who is the agent and the effect; to that supreme being I bow. The infinite nature of Viṣṇu is pure, intelligent, perpetual, unborn, undecayable, inexhaustible, inscrutable, immutable; it is neither gross nor subtile, nor capable of being defined: to that ever holy nature of Viṣṇu I bow. To him whose faculty to create the universe abides in but a part of but the ten-millionth part of him; to him who is one with the inexhaustible supreme spirit, I bow: and to the glorious nature of the supreme Viṣṇu, which nor gods, nor sages, nor I, nor Śa
kara apprehend; that nature which the Yogis, after incessant effort, effacing both moral merit and demerit, behold to be contemplated in the mystical monosyllable Om: the supreme glory of Viṣṇu, who is the first of all; of whom, one only god, the triple energy is the same with Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva: oh lord of all, great soul of all, asylum of all, undecayable, have pity upon thy servants; oh Viṣṇu, be manifest unto us."
--
"I bow down to Śrī, the mother of all beings, seated on her lotus throne, with eyes like full-blown lotuses, reclining on the breast of Viṣṇu. Thou art Siddhi (superhuman power): thou art Swadhā and Svāhā: thou art ambrosia (Sudhā), the purifier of the universe: thou art evening, night, and dawn: thou art power, faith, intellect: thou art the goddess of letters (Sarasvatī). Thou, beautiful goddess, art knowledge of devotion, great knowledge, mystic knowledge, and spiritual knowledge[9]; which confers eternal liberation. Thou art the science of reasoning, the three Vedas, the arts and sciences[10]: thou art moral and political science. The world is peopled by thee with pleasing or displeasing forms. Who else than thou, oh goddess, is seated on that person of the god of gods, the wielder of the mace, which is made up of sacrifice, and contemplated by holy ascetics? Abandoned by thee, the three worlds were on the brink of ruin; but they have been reanimated by thee. From thy propitious gaze, oh mighty goddess, men obtain wives, children, dwellings, friends, harvests, wealth. Health and strength, power, victory, happiness, are easy of attainment to those upon whom thou smilest. Thou art the mother of all beings, as the god of gods, Hari, is their father; and this world, whether animate or inanimate, is pervaded by thee and Viṣṇu. Oh thou who purifiest all things, forsake not our treasures, our granaries, our dwellings, our dependants, our persons, our wives: abandon not our children, our friends, our lineage, our jewels, oh thou who abidest on the bosom of the god of gods. They whom thou desertest are forsaken by truth, by purity, and Goodness, by every amiable and excellent quality; whilst the base and worthless upon whom thou lookest favourably become immediately endowed with all excellent qualifications, with families, and with power. He on whom thy countenance is turned is honourable, amiable, prosperous, wise, and of exalted birth; a hero of irresistible prowess: but all his merits and his advantages are converted into worthlessness from whom, beloved of Viṣṇu, mother of the world, thou avertest thy face. The tongues of Brahmā, are unequal to celebrate thy excellence. Be propitious to me, oh goddess, lotus-eyed, and never forsake me more." Being thus praised, the gratified Śrī, abiding in all creatures, and heard by all beings, replied to the god of a hundred rites (Śatakratu); "I am pleased, monarch of the gods, by thine adoration. Demand from me what thou desirest: I have come to fulfil thy wishes." "If, goddess," replied Indra, "thou wilt grant my prayers; if I am worthy of thy bounty; be this my first request, that the three worlds may never again be deprived of thy presence. My second supplication, daughter of ocean, is, that thou wilt not forsake him who shall celebrate thy praises in the words I have addressed to thee." "I will not abandon," the goddess answered, "the three worlds again: this thy first boon is granted; for I am gratified by thy praises: and further, I will never turn my face away from that mortal who morning and evening shall repeat the hymn with which thou hast addressed me."
Parāśara proceeded:-
1.09 - ON THE PREACHERS OF DEATH, #Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
be evil, that would be their real Goodness. But they
want to get out of life: what do they care that with
1.09 - SELF-KNOWLEDGE, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
My daughter, build yourself two cells. First a real cell, so that you do not run about much and talk, unless it is needful, or you can do it out of love for your neighbour. Next build yourself a spiritual cell, which you can always take with you, and that is the cell of true self-knowledge; you will find there the knowledge of Gods Goodness to you. Here there are really two cells in one, and if you live in one you must also live in the other; otherwise the soul will either despair or be presumptuous. If you dwelt in self-knowledge alone, you would despair; if you dwelt in the knowledge of God alone, you would be tempted to presumption. One must go with the other, and thus you will reach perfection.
St. Catherine of Siena
1.10 - Concentration - Its Practice, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
It is the same with the Samskaras, the fine roots of all our works; they are the causes which will again bring effects, either in this life, or in the lives to come. In exceptional cases when these Samskaras are very strong, they bear fruit quickly; exceptional acts of wickedness, or of Goodness, bring their fruits even in this life. The Yogis hold that men who are able to acquire a tremendous power of good Samskaras do not have to die, but, even in this life, can change their bodies into god-bodies. There are several such cases mentioned by the Yogis in their books. These men change the very material of their bodies; they re-arrange the molecules in such fashion that they have no more sickness, and what we call death does not come to them. Why should not this be? The physiological meaning of food is assimilation of energy from the sun. The energy has reached the plant, the plant is eaten by an animal, and the animal by man. The science of it is that we take so much energy from the sun, and make it part of ourselves. That being the case, why should there be only one way of assimilating energy? The plant's way is not the same as ours; the earth's process of assimilating energy differs from our own. But all assimilate energy in some form or other. The Yogis say that they are able to assimilate energy by the power of the mind alone, that they can draw in as much of it as they desire without recourse to the ordinary methods. As a spider makes its web out of its own substance, and becomes bound in it, and cannot go anywhere except along the lines of that web, so we have projected out of our own substance this network called the nerves, and we cannot work except through the channels of those nerves. The Yogi says we need not be bound by that.
Similarly, we can send electricity to any part of the world, but we have to send it by means of wires. Nature can send a vast mass of electricity without any wires at all. Why cannot we do the same? We can send mental electricity. What we call mind is very much the same as electricity. It is clear that this nerve fluid has some amount of electricity, because it is polarised, and it answers all electrical directions. We can only send our electricity through these nerve channels. Why not send the mental electricity without this aid? The Yogis say it is perfectly possible and practicable, and that when you can do that, you will work all over the universe. You will be able to work with any body anywhere, without the help of the nervous system. When the soul is acting through these channels, we say a man is living, and when these cease to work, a man is said to be dead. But when a man is able to act either with or without these channels, birth and death will have no meaning for him. All the bodies in the universe are made up of Tanmtras, their difference lies in the arrangement of the latter. If you are the arranger, you can arrange a body in one way or another. Who makes up this body but you? Who eats the food? If another ate the food for you, you would not live long. Who makes the blood out of food? You, certainly. Who purifies the blood, and sends it through the veins? You. We are the masters of the body, and we live in it. Only we have lost the knowledge of how to rejuvenate it. We have become automatic, degenerate. We have forgotten the process of arranging its molecules. So, what we do automatically has to be done knowingly. We are the masters and we have to regulate that arrangement; and as soon as we can do that, we shall be able to rejuvenate just as we like, and then we shall have neither birth nor disease nor death.
1.10 - GRACE AND FREE WILL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
All our Goodness is a loan; God is the owner. God works and his work is God.
St. John of the Cross
Perpetual inspiration is as necessary to the life of Goodness, holiness and happiness as perpetual respiration is necessary to animal life.
William Law
Conversely, of course, the life of Goodness, holiness and beatitude is a necessary condition of perpetual inspiration. The relations between action and contemplation, ethics and spirituality, are circular and reciprocal. Each is at once cause and effect.
It was when the Great Way declined that human kindness and morality arose.
--
Lord, Thou has given me my being of such a nature that it can continually make itself more able to receive thy grace and Goodness. And this power, which I have of Thee, wherein I have a living image of thine almighty power, is free will. By this I can either enlarge or restrict my capacity for Thy grace.
Nicholas of Cusa
1.11 - Higher Laws, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instants truce between virtue and vice. Goodness is the only investment that never fails. In the music of the harp which trembles round the world it is the insisting on this which thrills us. The harp is the travelling patterer for the Universes Insurance Company, recommending its laws, and our little Goodness is all the assessment that we pay. Though the youth at last grows indifferent, the laws of the universe are not indifferent, but are forever on the side of the most sensitive. Listen to every zephyr for some reproof, for it is surely there, and he is unfortunate who does not hear it. We cannot touch a string or move a stop but the charming moral transfixes us. Many an irksome noise, go a long way off, is heard as music, a proud sweet satire on the meanness of our lives.
We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual, and perhaps cannot be wholly expelled; like the worms which, even in life and health, occupy our bodies. Possibly we may withdraw from it, but never change its nature. I fear that it may enjoy a certain health of its own; that we may be well, yet not pure. The other day I picked up the lower jaw of a hog, with white and sound teeth and tusks, which suggested that there was an animal health and vigor distinct from the spiritual. This creature succeeded by other means than temperance and purity. That in which men differ from brute beasts, says Mencius, is a thing very inconsiderable; the common herd lose it very soon; superior men preserve it carefully. Who knows what sort of life would result if we had attained to purity? If I knew so wise a man as could teach me purity I would go to seek him forthwith. A comm and over our passions, and over the external senses of the body, and good acts, are declared by the Ved to be indispensable in the minds approximation to God. Yet the spirit can for the time pervade and control every member and function of the body, and transmute what in form is the grossest sensuality into purity and devotion. The generative energy, which, when we are loose, dissipates and makes us unclean, when we are continent invigorates and inspires us. Chastity is the flowering of man; and what are called Genius, Heroism, Holiness, and the like, are but various fruits which succeed it. Man flows at once to God when the channel of purity is open. By turns our purity inspires and our impurity casts us down. He is blessed who is assured that the animal is dying out in him day by day, and the divine being established. Perhaps there is none but has cause for shame on account of the inferior and brutish nature to which he is allied. I fear that we are such gods or demigods only as fauns and satyrs, the divine allied to beasts, the creatures of appetite, and that, to some extent, our very life is our disgrace.
1.11 - The Broken Rocks. Pope Anastasius. General Description of the Inferno and its Divisions., #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
Goodness divine, and disengage the knot."
"Philosophy," he said, "to him who heeds it,
1.11 - The Kalki Avatar, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
reign of universal Goodness, peace and prosperity, reno-
vate the creation with an era of purity, a Krita Yuga. The
1.12 - Dhruva commences a course of religious austerities, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
[7]: In life, or living beings, perception depends not, according to Hindu metaphysics, upon the external senses, but the impressions made upon them are communicated to the mental organ or sense, and by the mind to the understanding-Samvid in the text-by which they are distinguished as pleasurable, painful, or mixed. But pleasure depends upon the quality of Goodness, pain on that of darkness, and their mixture on that of foulness, inherent in the understanding; properties belonging to Jīveśvara, or god, as one with life, or to embodied spirit, but not as Parameśvara, or supreme spirit.
[8]: The station or sphere is that of the north pole, or of the polar star. In the former case, the star is considered to be Sunīti, the mother of Dhruva. The legend, although as it is related in our text it differs in its circumstances from the story told by Ovid of Callisto and her son Areas, whom Jove
1.12 - TIME AND ETERNITY, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Selfishness and partiality are very inhuman and base qualities even in the things of this world; but in the doctrines of religion they are of a baser nature. Now, this is the greatest evil that the division of the church has brought forth; it raises in every communion a selfish, partial orthodoxy, which consists in courageously defending all that it has, and condemning all that it has not. And thus every champion is trained up in defense of their own truth, their own learning and their own church, and he has the most merit, the most honour, who likes everything, defends everything, among themselves, and leaves nothing uncensored in those that are of a different communion. Now, how can truth and Goodness and union and religion be more struck at than by such defenders of it? If you ask why the great Bishop of Meaux wrote so many learned books against all parts of the Reformation, it is because he was born in France and bred up in the bosom of Mother Church. Had he been born in England, had Oxford or Cambridge been his Alma Mater, he might have rivalled our great Bishop Stillingfleet, and would have wrote as many learned folios against the Church of Rome as he has done. And yet I will venture to say that if each Church could produce but one man apiece that had the piety of an apostle and the impartial love of the first Christians in the first Church at Jerusalem, that a Protestant and a Papist of this stamp would not want half a sheet of paper to hold their articles of union, nor be half an hour before they were of one religion. If, therefore, it should be said that churches are divided, estranged and made unfriendly to one another by a learning, a logic, a history, a criticism in the hands of partiality, it would be saying that which each particular church too much proves to be true. Ask why even the best amongst the Catholics are very shy of owning the validity of the orders of our Church; it is because they are afraid of removing any odium from the Reformation. Ask why no Protestants anywhere touch upon the benefit or necessity of celibacy in those who are separated from worldly business to preach the gospel; it is because that would be seeming to lessen the Roman error of not suffering marriage in her clergy. Ask why even the most worthy and pious among the clergy of the Established Church are afraid to assert the sufficiency of the Divine Light, the necessity of seeking only the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit; it is because the Quakers, who have broke off from the church, have made this doctrine their corner-stone. If we loved truth as such, if we sought for it for its own sake, if we loved our neighbour as ourselves, if we desired nothing by our religion but to be acceptable to God, if we equally desired the salvation of all men, if we were afraid of error only because of its harmful nature to us and our fellow-creatures, then nothing of this spirit could have any place in us.
There is therefore a catholic spirit, a communion of saints in the love of God and all Goodness, which no one can learn from that which is called orthodoxy in particular churches, but is only to be had by a total dying to all worldly views, by a pure love of God, and by such an unction from above as delivers the mind from all selfishness and makes it love truth and Goodness with an equality of affection in every man, whether he is Christian, Jew or Gentile. He that would obtain this divine and catholic spirit in this disordered, divided state of things, and live in a divided part of the church without partaking of its division, must have these three truths deeply fixed in his mind. First, that universal love, which gives the whole strength of the heart to God, and makes us love every man as we love ourselves, is the noblest, the most divine, the Godlike state of the soul, and is the utmost perfection to which the most perfect religion can raise us; and that no religion does any man any good but so far as it brings this perfection of love into him. This truth will show us that true orthodoxy can nowhere be found but in a pure disinterested love of God and our neighbour. Second, that in this present divided state of the church, truth itself is torn and divided asunder; and that, therefore, he can be the only true catholic who has more of truth and less of error than is hedged in by any divided part. This truth will enable us to live in a divided part unhurt by its division, and keep us in a true liberty and fitness to be edified and assisted by all the good that we hear or see in any other part of the church. Thirdly, he must always have in mind this great truth, that it is the glory of the Divine Justice to have no respect of parties or persons, but to stand equally disposed to that which is right and wrong as well in the Jew as in the Gentile. He therefore that would like as God likes, and condemn as God condemns, must have neither the eyes of the Papist nor the Protestant; he must like no truth the less because Ignatius Loyola or John Bunyan were very zealous for it, nor have the less aversion to any error, because Dr. Trapp or George Fox had brought it forth.
William Law
1.13 - SALVATION, DELIVERANCE, ENLIGHTENMENT, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
In the theologies of the various religions, salvation is also regarded as a deliverance out of folly, evil and misery into happiness, Goodness and wisdom. But political and economic means are held to be subsidiary to the cultivation of personal holiness, to the acquiring of personal merit and to the maintenance of personal faith in some divine principle or person having power, in one way or another, to forgive and sanctify the individual soul. Moreover the end to be achieved is not regarded as existing in some Utopian future period, beginning, say, in the twenty-second century or perhaps even a little earlier, if our favourite politicians remain in power and make the right laws; the end exists in heaven. This last phrase has two very different meanings. For what is probably the majority of those who profess the great historical religions, it signifies and has always signified a happy posthumous condition of indefinite personal survival, conceived of as a reward for good behaviour and correct belief and a compensation for the miseries inseparable from life in a body. But for those who, within the various religious traditions, have accepted the Perennial Philosophy as a theory and have done their best to live it out in practice, heaven is something else. They aspire to be delivered out of separate selfhood in time and into eternity as realized in the unitive knowledge of the divine Ground. Since the Ground can and ought to be unitively known in the present life (whose ultimate end and purpose is nothing but this knowledge), heaven is not an exclusively posthumous condition. He only is completely saved who is delivered here and now. As to the means to salvation, these are simultaneously ethical, intellectual and spiritual and have been summed up with admirable clarity and economy in the Buddhas Eightfold Path. Complete deliverance is conditional on the following: first, Right Belief in the all too obvious truth that the cause of pain and evil is craving for separative, ego-centred existence, with its corollary that there can be no deliverance from evil, whether personal or collective, except by getting rid of such craving and the obsession of I, me, mine"; second, Right Will, the will to deliver oneself and others; third, Right Speech, directed by compassion and charity towards all sentient beings; fourth, Right Action, with the aim of creating and maintaining peace and good will; fifth, Right Means of Livelihood, or the choice only of such professions as are not harmful, in their exercise, to any human being or, if possible, any living creature; sixth, Right Effort towards Self-control; seventh, Right Attention or Recollectedness, to be practised in all the circumstances of life, so that we may never do evil by mere thoughtlessness, because we know not what we do"; and, eighth, Right Contemplation, the unitive knowledge of the Ground, to which recollectedness and the ethical self-naughting prescribed in the first six branches of the Path give access. Such then are the means which it is within the power of the human being to employ in order to achieve mans final end and be saved. Of the means which are employed by the divine Ground for helping human beings to reach their goal, the Buddha of the Pali scriptures (a teacher whose dislike of footless questions is no less intense than that of the severest experimental physicist of the twentieth century) declines to speak. All he is prepared to talk about is sorrow and the ending of sorrow the huge brute fact of pain and evil and the other, no less empirical fact that there is a method, by which the individual can free himself from evil and do something to diminish the sum of evil in the world around him. It is only in Mahayana Buddhism that the mysteries of grace are discussed with anything like the fulness of treatment accorded to the subject in the speculations of Hindu and especially Christian theology. The primitive, Hinayana teaching on deliverance is simply an elaboration of the Buddhas last recorded words: Decay is inherent in all component things. Work out your own salvation with diligence. As in the well-known passage quoted below, all the stress is upon personal effort.
Therefore, Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be ye a refuge to yourselves. Betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the Truth as a lamp; hold fast to the Truth as a refuge. Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves. And those, Ananda, who either now or after I am dead shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, but holding fast to the Truth as their lamp, and holding fast to the Truth as their refuge, shall not look for refuge to anyone beside themselves it is they who shall reach the very topmost Height. But they must be anxious to learn.
--
We should mark and know of a very truth that all manner of virtue and Goodness, and even that Eternal Good, which is God Himself, can never make a man virtuous, good or happy so long as it is outside the soul, that is, so long as the man is holding converse with outward things through his senses and reason, and doth not withdraw into himself and learn to understand his own life, who and what he is.
Theologia Germanica
1.14 - The Structure and Dynamics of the Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
of light, Goodness, and healing. 72 Even in the New Testament
it is simultaneously an allegory of Christ and of the devil, just
1.15 - SILENCE, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
The spiritual life is nothing else but the working of the Spirit of God within us, and therefore our own silence must be a great part of our preparation for it, and much speaking or delight in it will be often no small hindrance of that good which we can only have from hearing what the Spirit and voice of God speaketh within us Rhetoric and fine language about the things of the spirit is a vainer babble than in other matters; and he that thinks to grow in true Goodness by hearing or speaking flaming words or striking expressions, as is now much the way of the world, may have a great deal of talk, but will have little of his conversation in heaven.
William Law
1.15 - The element of Character in Tragedy., #Poetics, #Aristotle, #Philosophy
Thirdly, character must be true to life: for this is a distinct thing from Goodness and propriety, as here described. The fourth point is consistency: for though the subject of the imitation, who suggested the type, be inconsistent, still he must be consistently inconsistent. As an example of motiveless degradation of character, we have Menelaus in the Orestes: of character indecorous and inappropriate, the lament of
Odysseus in the Scylla, and the speech of Melanippe: of inconsistency, the Iphigenia at Aulis,--for Iphigenia the suppliant in no way resembles her later self.
1.16 - ON LOVE OF THE NEIGHBOUR, #Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
completed, a bowl of Goodness-the creating friend
who always has a completed world to give away.
1.16 - PRAYER, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
The aim and end of prayer is to revere, to recognize and to adore the sovereign majesty of God, through what He is in Himself rather than what He is in regard to us, and rather to love his Goodness by the love of that Goodness itself than for what it sends us.
Bourgoing
1.19 - Dialogue between Prahlada and his father, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
On hearing this, Hiraṇyakaśipu started up from his throne in a fury, and spurned his son on the breast with his foot. Burning with rage, he wrung his hands, and exclaimed, "Ho Viprachitti! ho Rāhu! ho Bali[2]! bind him with strong bands[3], and cast him into the ocean, or all the regions, the Daityas and Dānavas, will become converts to the doctrines of this silly wretch. Repeatedly prohibited by us, he still persists in the praise of our enemies. Death is the just retribution of the disobedient." The Daityas accordingly bound the prince with strong bands, as their lord had commanded, and threw him into the sea. As he floated on the waters, the ocean was convulsed throughout its whole extent, and rose in mighty undulations, threatening to submerge the earth. This when Hiraṇyakaśipu observed, he commanded the Daityas to hurl rocks into the sea, and pile them closely on one another, burying beneath their iñcumbent mass him whom fire would not burn, nor weapons pierce, nor serpents bite; whom the pestilential gale could not blast, nor poison nor magic spirits nor incantations destroy; who fell from the loftiest heights unhurt; who foiled the elephants of the spheres: a son of depraved heart, whose life was a perpetual curse. "Here," he cried, "since he cannot die, here let him live for thousands of years at the bottom of the ocean, overwhelmed by mountains. Accordingly the Daityas and Dānavas hurled upon Prahlāda, whilst in the great ocean, ponderous rocks, and piled them over him for many thousand miles: but he, still with mind undisturbed, thus offered daily praise to Viṣṇu, lying at the bottom of the sea, under the mountain heap. "Glory to thee, god of the lotus eye: glory to thee, most excellent of spiritual things: glory to thee, soul of all worlds: glory to thee, wielder of the sharp discus: glory to the best of Brahmans; to the friend of Brahmans and of kine; to Kṛṣṇa, the preserver of the world: to Govinda be glory. To him who, as Brahmā, creates the universe; who in its existence is its preserver; be praise. To thee, who at the end of the Kalpa takest the form of Rudra; to thee, who art triform; be adoration. Thou, Achyuta, art the gods, Yakṣas, demons, saints, serpents, choristers and dancers of heaven, goblins, evil spirits, men, animals, birds, insects, reptiles, plants, and stones, earth, water, fire, sky, wind, sound, touch, taste, colour, flavour, mind, intellect, soul, time, and the qualities of nature: thou art all these, and the chief object of them all. Thou art knowledge and ignorance, truth and falsehood, poison and ambrosia. Thou art the performance and discontinuance of acts[4]: thou art the acts which the Vedas enjoin: thou art the enjoyer of the fruit of all acts, and the means by which they are accomplished. Thou, Viṣṇu, who art the soul of all, art the fruit of all acts of piety. Thy universal diffusion, indicating might and Goodness, is in me, in others, in all creatures, in all worlds. Holy ascetics meditate on thee: pious priests sacrifice to thee. Thou alone, identical with the gods and the fathers of mankind, receivest burnt-offerings and oblations[5]. The universe is thy intellectual form[6]; whence proceeded thy subtile form, this world: thence art thou all subtile elements and elementary beings, and the subtile principle, that is called soul, within them. Hence the supreme soul of all objects, distinguished as subtile or gross, which is imperceptible, and which cannot be conceived, is even a form of thee. Glory be to thee, Puruṣottama; and glory to that imperishable form which, soul of all, is another manifestation[7] of thy might, the asylum of all qualities, existing in all creatures. I salute her, the supreme goddess, who is beyond the senses; whom the mind, the tongue, cannot define; who is to be distinguished alone by the wisdom of the truly wise. Om! salutation to Vāsudeva: to him who is the eternal lord; he from whom nothing is distinct; he who is distinct from all. Glory be to the great spirit again and again: to him who is without name or shape; who sole is to be known by adoration; whom, in the forms manifested in his descents upon earth, the dwellers in heaven adore; for they behold not his inscrutable nature. I glorify the supreme deity Viṣṇu, the universal witness, who seated internally, beholds the good and ill of all. Glory to that Viṣṇu from whom this world is not distinct. May he, ever to be meditated upon as the beginning of the universe, have compassion upon me: may he, the supporter of all, in whom every thing is warped and woven[8], undecaying, imperishable, have compassion upon me. Glory, again and again, to that being to whom all returns, from whom all proceeds; who is all, and in whom all things are: to him whom I also am; for he is every where; and through whom all things are from me. I am all things: all things are in me, who am everlasting. I am undecayable, ever enduring, the receptacle of the spirit of the supreme. Brahma is my name; the supreme soul, that is before all things, that is after the end of all. ootnotes and references:
[1]: These are the four Upāyas, 'means of success,' specified in the Amera-koṣa.
1.19 - GOD IS NOT MOCKED, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Horizontally and vertically, in physical and temperamental kind as well as in degree of inborn ability and native Goodness, human beings differ profoundly one from another. Why? To what end and for what past causes? Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. The man of science, on the contrary, would say that the responsibility rested with the parents who had caused the blindness of their child either by having the wrong kind of genes, or by contracting some avoidable disease. Hindu or Buddhist believers in reincarnation according to the laws of karma (the destiny which, by their actions, individuals and groups of individuals impose upon themselves, one another and their descendants) would give another answer and say that, owing to what he had done in previous existences, the blind man had predestined himself to choose the sort of parents from whom he would have to inherit blindness.
These three answers are not mutually incompatible. The parents are responsible for making the child what, by heredity and upbringing, he turns out to be. The soul or character incarnated in the child is of such a nature, owing to past behaviour, that it is forced to select those particular parents. And collaborating with the material and efficient causes is the final cause, the teleological pull from in front. This teleological pull is a pull from the divine Ground of things acting upon that part of the timeless now, which a finite mind must regard as the future. Men sin and their parents sin; but the works of God have to be manifested in every sentient being (either by exceptional ways, as in this case of supernormal healing, or in the ordinary course of events)have to be manifested again and again, with the infinite patience of eternity, until at last the creature makes itself fit for the perfect and consummate manifestation of unitive knowledge, of the state of not I, but God in me.
1.2.08 - Faith, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is a state which comes when the psychic being is awake and prominent. It is for that reason that I asked you to cleave to the psychic way and not go back to that of vital desire. I have not said that your psychic being was "in front" in such a way as to be proof against all attack. What I said was that it was becoming awake and active, giving you the right attitude and helping you towards the change of your nature. I certainly did not mean a moral but a spiritual change. Freedom from ego is not a moral but a spiritual change - a moral man may be chock full of ego, an ego increased by his sense of Goodness and rectitude. Freedom from ego is spiritually valuable because then one can be centred, no longer in one's personal self, but in the
Divine, and that too is the condition of bhakti.
1.22 - Dominion over different provinces of creation assigned to different beings, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
All these monarchs, and whatever others may be invested with authority by the mighty Viṣṇu, as instruments for the preservation of the world; all the kings who have been, and all who shall be; are all, most worthy Brahman, but portions of the universal Viṣṇu. The rulers of the gods, the rulers of the Daityas, the rulers of the Dānavas, and the rulers of all malignant spirits; the chief amongst beasts, amongst birds, amongst men, amongst serpents; the best of trees, of mountains, of planets; either those that now are, or that shall hereafter be, the most exalted of their kind; are but portions of the universal Viṣṇu. The power of protecting created things, the preservation of the world, resides with no other than Hari, the lord of all. He is the creator, who creates the world; he, the eternal, preserves it in its existence; and he, the destroyer, destroys it; invested severally with the attributes of foulness, Goodness, and gloom. By a fourfold manifestation does Janārddana operate in creation, preservation, and destruction. In one portion, as Brahmā, the invisible assumes a visible form; in another portion he, as Marīci and the rest, is the progenitor of all creatures; his third portion is time; his fourth is all beings: and thus he becomes quadruple in creation, invested with the quality of passion. In the preservation of the world he is, in one portion, Viṣṇu; in another portion he is Manu and the other patriarchs; he is time in a third; and all beings in a fourth portion: and thus, endowed with the property of Goodness, Puruṣottama preserves the world. When he assumes the property of darkness, at the end of all things, the unborn deity becomes in one portion Rudra; in another, the destroying fire; in a third, time; and in a fourth, all beings: and thus, in a quadruple form, he is the destroyer of the world. This, Brahman, is the fourfold condition of the deity at all seasons.
Brahmā, Dakṣa, time, and all creatures are the four energies of Hari, which are the causes of creation. Viṣṇu, Manu and the rest, time, and all creatures are the four energies of Viṣṇu, which are the causes of duration. Rudra, the destroying fire, time, and all creatures are the four energies of Janārddana that are exerted for universal dissolution. In the beginning and the duration of the world, until the period of its end, creation is the work of Brahmā, the patriarchs, and living animals. Brahmā creates in the beginning; then the patriarchs beget progeny; and then animals incessantly multiply their kinds: but Brahmā is not the active agent in creation, independent of time; neither are the patriarchs, nor living animals. So, in the periods of creation and of dissolution, the four portions of the god of gods are equally essential. Whatever, oh Brahman, is engendered by any living being, the body of Hari is cooperative in the birth of that being; so whatever destroys any existing thing, movable or stationary, at any time, is the destroying form of Janārddana as Rudra. Thus Janārddana is the creator, the preserver, and the destroyer of the whole world-being threefold-in the several seasons of creation, preservation, and destruction, according to his assumption of the three qualities: but his highest glory[3] is detached from all qualities; for the fourfold essence of the supreme spirit is composed of true wisdom, pervades all things, is only to be appreciated by itself, and admits of no similitude.
1.23 - FESTIVAL AT SURENDRAS HOUSE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"The idea of responsibility! Goodness gracious! Men like Sankaracharya and Sukadeva kept the 'ego of Knowledge'. It is not for man to show compassion, but for God. One feels compassion as long as one has the 'ego of Knowledge'. And it is God Himself who has become the 'ego of Knowledge'.
Supreme power of dyakti in the relative world "You may feel a thousand times that it is all magic; but you are still under the control of the Divine Mother. You cannot escape Her. You are not free. You must do what She makes you do. A man attains Brahmajnana only when it is given to him by the dyakti, the Divine Mother. Then alone does he see the whole thing as magic; otherwise not.
1.240 - Talks 2, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
D.: How could God Himself wake up the asura element and bring about constant warfare? Is not Pure Goodness the nature of God?
M.: Goodness is only relative. Good always implies bad also; they always co-exist. The one is the obverse of the other.
Talk 327.
1.27 - AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Thou, all Goodness, art the fire, and I, all sin, am but a straw: How shall I ever worship Thee?
The glory of Thy name, they say, redeems those even past redeeming;
1.300 - 1.400 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
D.: How could God Himself wake up the asura element and bring about constant warfare? Is not Pure Goodness the nature of God?
M.: Goodness is only relative. Good always implies bad also; they always co-exist. The one is the obverse of the other.
Talk 327.
13.02 - A Review of Sri Aurobindos Life, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
First of alllet us begin from the very beginning. The very first step or turn he took in his early childhood was in fact a complete about turn the antipodes of what he was and where he was. For, he was almost uprooted from his normal surroundings and removed across far seas to a distant land. From out of an Indian Bengali family he was thrown into the midst of a British Christian family. He was made to forget his native language, his country's traditions, his people's customs and manners, he had to adopt an altogether different mode of life and thinking, a thoroughly Europeanised style and manner. Naturally being a baby this was an occasion, the earliest when he had not his choice, his own deliberate decision but had to follow the choice of his father the choice perhaps of his secret soul and destiny. His father meant well, for he wanted his children to be not only good but great according to his conception of Goodness and greatness. Now, in that epoch when the British were the masters of India and we their slaves, in those days the ideal for a person of intelligence and promise, the ideal of success was to become a high government official, a district magistrate or a district judge; that was the highest ambition of an Indian of that time and naturally Sri Aurobindo's parents and well-wishers thought of Sri Aurobindo in that line, he would become a very famous district magistrate or a Commissioner even, the highest position that an Indian could achieve. So he had to appear at an examination for that purpose, it was calledthose glittering letters to Indian eyes: I.C.S. (Indian Civil Service). Now here was the very first deliberate choice of his own, the first radical turn he tookto cut himself away from the normally developing past. He turned away from that line of growth and his life moved on to a different scale. His parents and friends were mortified such a brilliant boy come to nought but he had pushed away the past as another vision allured him and he stuck to his decision.
Next as you all know, he came to Baroda, entered the State serviceas Secretary to the Maharaja and professor of the College. That life was also externally a very normal and ordinary lifean obscure life, so to say, but he preferred obscurity for the sake of his inner development and growth. Still he continued in that obscure position that was practically what we call the life of a clerk. He continued it for sometime, although sometime meant twelve years, the same length as his previous stage. Then a moment came when he changed all that. Another volte-face. If he continued he might have advanced, progressed in his career, that is to say, become Principal of the College, even the Dewan of Baroda, a very lofty position, a very lofty position indeed for an Indian, become another R. C. Dutt. But he threw all that overboard, wiped off the twelve years of his youthful life and came to Bengal as a national leader, a leader of the new movement that wanted freedom for India, freedom from the domination of Britain. He jumped into this dangerous life the uncertain life of a servant of the country, practically without a home, without resources of his own. He ran the risk of being caught by the British, put into prison or shot or hanged even but he chose that life. That was a great decision he took, a turn about entirely changing the whole mode of his life. Eventually as a natural and inevitable result of his political .activities he was arrested by the British and put into prison. He had to pass a whole year in the prison. And this led to another break from the past, ushering in quite another way of life. The course of his life turned inward and moved from depth to depth.
1.30 - Concerning the linking together of the supreme trinity among the virtues., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
Run, I beseech you, with him who said: Let us hasten until we attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,7 who, when He was baptized in the thirtieth year of His visible age, attained the thirtieth step in the spiritual ladder; since God is indeed love, to whom be praise, dominion, power, in whom is and was and will be the cause of all Goodness throughout infinite ages. Amen.
1.31 - Continues the same subject. Explains what is meant by the Prayer of Quiet. Gives several counsels to those who experience it. This chapter is very noteworthy., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
His Goodness alone, has brought to this state, as I know that this has happened to some of you. First
of all, when such persons experience this joy, without knowing whence it has come to them, but
1.37 - Describes the excellence of this prayer called the Paternoster, and the many ways in which we shall find consolation in it., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
for the heavenly favours which, through the great Goodness of God, may be given to us on earth.
130
14.06 - Liberty, Self-Control and Friendship, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
We are a larger assembly here todaywe have increased in number.... Now, we all want to be good boys and good girls, is it not? Nobody wants to be a bad boy or a bad girl; but the problem is how to be a good boyar girl and how not to be a bad boy or girl. In what does Goodness consist? You all know the fine gesture that Mother taught us once. Gesture means a physical movemen there a physical movement to control yourself; control, self-control is a very important, a very necessary item of our life. So the Mother once said; supposing you are very angry and you are inclined to give a blow to your comrade, then, the Mother's advice is, instead of stretching your hand towards your friend to give him a blow, put it in your pocket; that is a fine gesture and it brings you a fine result: you feel a kind of release, a joy and peace, something new arid fresh comes into you. Your anger is gone, you are almost a new person. That is the lesson Mother taught us in the matter of controlling ourselves. Usually we are moved by our impulses and passions particularly towards wrong things, then what you need is to check yourself, to control yourself. You must note that this control you are taught is self-control, that is to say, it is a thing not forced upon you, you are not compelled to do it. You do it because of your own will, because you like to do it, because it is a fine gesture that attracts you. Usually the control is imposed upon you, out of fear of punishment, because of inconvenient or unpleasant results that might follow your loss of control. So instead of an outsider ruling you, you rule yourself voluntarily. The Mother adds also, illustrating the point: to train, that is to say, to control a wild horse what you do is to put a bridle in its mouth and hold it and check it. That is good for an animal who does not know what he is; for a man, he can do better; he can put the bridle himself in his own mouth, that is what controlling oneself is. It means as a human being you have been given freedom; it is given so that you may choose yourself what is to be done and what is not to be done. Instead of being forced to do the right thing you are given the alternatives either to do the right or do the wrong, to choose between the two and choose the right thing of your free will. Here in the Ashram, the Mother has said very many times, you have been given almost infinite freedom. There are of course certain rules and regulations; naturally when you live in society and have common work to do, there must be some rules and regulations. But the beauty here is that even if you break a rule, even a very important rule, you are not punished. In other words, the choice is left to you, you have broken the rule, you yourself find that you have broken the rule and then you try and rectify yourself, do the right thing. That is the true function of freedomit is not freedom to do anything you like but to discipline yourself, to follow the right of one's own free will. A discipline here is not inflicted upon you, you are not ordered to do one thing and not to do another under pain of punishment, but you find the truth by yourself and for yourself and you do it yourself, and you have the joy, the pleasure of doing the right thing and the happiness of growing, maturing in your consciousness. You have infinite freedom here so that you may grow in your consciousness infinitely.
I was speaking of self-control, self-discipline in your inner being, that is to say, with regard to your desires and impulses and feelings. It is however the same discipline as you follow with regard to your body in the playground. Physical education means nothing else than controlling and disciplining the body. You control and discipline the body through physical exercises and these mean controlled and guided movements. You have to make these movements in a regular, persistent, ordered and a neat way, it is the way to make your body strong and beautiful. As by means of this physical discipline you secure a strong and beautiful body, even so by the inner discipline, by controlling your passions and impulsions you build an inner body strong and beautiful. Yes, even like a physical body you have a subtle body, a body as it were within this material frame. It is not, however, for that reason, something vague and imprecise, on the contrary, it is very concrete and has a definite shape. As I said, by controlled and directed movements you make this outer body strong and beautiful; the inner body also in the same way through controlled and directed inner movements can be made strong and beautiful. In properly doing the physical exercises, you know, two things are needed: first of all, doing the physical movements according to the rules, in other words, exercising the muscles in a given manner, and then along with it relaxation. Relaxation and exercise should alternate. Relaxation restores the muscles, brings repose to the system and serves as a kind of basic support. In the field of the inner discipline, this relaxation corresponds to what I have called freedom. And the muscular exercises correspond to the exercise of your will and consciousness in regard to the inner body.
1.61 - Power and Authority, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
There is another side to this matter which is really approximating to the criminal. There are any number of teachers and masters and bishops and Goodness knows what else running around doing what is little better than peddling grades and degrees and secrets. Such practices are of course no better than common fraud.
Please fix it firmly in you mind that with Us any degree, any position of authority, any kind of rank, is utterly worthless except when it is merely a seal upon the actual attainment or achievement.
1.78 - Sore Spots, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
"My friend Freddy Lyon . . . told me a story . . . of the Volga Famine. Some A.R.A. 'higher-ups' from New York were making a tour of inspection . . . Among them was a worthy but sentimental citizen who gushed about the unhappy Russians and the poor little starving children and what a privilege it was for Mr. Lyon to be doing this noble work for humanity and so on and so forth until Lyon said he was ready to choke him . . . After lunch the visitors suggested they would like to visit the cemetary. It was, said Freddy, a horrid sight, nude, dead bodies piled up ten high like faggots, because the population was so destitute that every stitch of clothing was needed for the living. The visitors were sickened by what they saw, and even the gushing one was silent as they walked back to the cemetery gate. Suddenly he caught Freddy by the arm. 'Look there!' he said, 'Is not that something to restore our faith in the Goodness of God in the midst of all these horrors?' He pointed to a big woolly dog lying asleep on a grave with his head between his paws, and continued impressively. 'Faithful unto death and beyond. I have often heard of a dog refusing to be comforted when his master died, lying desolate on his grave, but I never thought to see such a thing my- self.' That was too much for Freddy Lyon. 'Yes,' he said cruelly, 'but look at the dog's paws and muzzle' they were stiff with clotted blood 'he's not mourning his master, he's sleeping off a meal.'
'At which point,' Lyon concluded his story with gusto, 'that talkative guy did the opposite of sleeping off his lunch in a very thorough manner, and there wasn't another peep out of him until we put him on the train.'"
1914 03 19p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
O Lord, eternal Teacher, Thou whom we can neither name nor understand, but whom we want to realise more and more at every moment, enlighten our intelligence, illumine our hearts, transfigure our consciousness; may everyone awaken to the true life, flee from egoism and its train of sorrow and anguish, and take refuge in Thy divine and pure Love, source of all peace and all happiness. My heart so full of Thee seems to expand into infinity and my intelligence, all illumined with Thy Presence, shines like the purest diamond. Thou art the wonderful magician, he who transfigures all things, from ugliness brings forth beauty, from darkness light, from the mud clear water, from ignorance knowledge and from egoism Goodness.
In Thee, by Thee, for Thee we live and Thy law is the supreme master of our life.
1914 04 08p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
O Lord, how ardently do I call and implore Thy love! Grant that my aspiration may be intense enough to awaken the same aspiration everywhere: oh, may Goodness, justice and peace reign as supreme masters, may ignorant egoism be overcome, darkness be suddenly illuminated by Thy pure Light; may the blind see, the deaf hear, may Thy law be proclaimed in every place and, in a constantly progressive union, in an ever more perfect harmony, may all, like one single being, stretch out their arms towards Thee to identify themselves with Thee and manifest Thee upon earth.
O Lord, with thought rapt within, the heart radiant with sunshine, I give myself to Thee without reservation, and the self disappears in Thee!
1917 01 04p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thy Goodness is unequalled and Thy mercy infinite.
***
19.17 - On Anger, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Conquer anger by freedom from anger. Conquer the evil one by Goodness, the 'miserly by generosity and the false by truth.
[4]
1951-04-09 - Modern Art - Trend of art in Europe in the twentieth century - Effect of the Wars - descent of vital worlds - Formation of character - If there is another war, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It must be said that the art of the end of the last century, the art of the Second Empire, was bad. It was an age of businessmen, above all an age of bankers, financiers, and taste, upon my word, had gone very low. I dont believe that businessmen are people necessarily very competent in art, but when they wanted their portrait, they wanted a likeness! One could not leave out the least detail, it was quite comic: But you know I have a little wrinkle there, dont forget to put it in! and the lady who said, You know, you must make my shoulders quite round, and so on. So the artists made portraits which indeed turned into photography. They were flat, cold, without soul and without vision. I can name a number of artists of that period, it was truly a shame for art. This lasted till about the end of the last century, till about 1875. Afterwards, there started the reaction. Then there was an entire very beautiful period (I dont say this because I myself was painting) but all the artists I then knew were truly artists, they were serious and did admirable things which have remained admirable. It was the period of the impressionists; it was the period of Manet, it was a beautiful period, they did beautiful things. But people tire of beautiful things as they tire of bad ones. So there were those who wanted to found the Salon dAutomne. They wanted to surpass the others, go more towards the new, towards the truly anti-photographic. And my Goodness, they went a little beyond the limit (according to my taste). They began to depreciate RembrandtRembrandt was a dauber, Titian was a dauber, all the great painters of the Italian Renaissance were daubers. You were not to pronounce the name of Raphael, it was a shame. And all the great period of the Italian Renaissance was not worth very much; even the works of Leonardo da Vinci; You know, you must take them and leave them. Then they went a little further; they wanted something entirely new, they became extravagant. And then, from there, there was only one more step to take for the palette-scrapings and then it was finished.
This is the history of art as I knew it.
1953-06-10, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Now I do not know on what grounds one could convert them. What would be the point of support? I do not find it. Even in the greatest. That is, some of these beings will not disappear until hatred disappears from the earth. One might put it the other way round. One might say that hatred will disappear from the earth when those beings disappear; but, for the reason I have just given, the power to make light spring forth in the place of darkness, beauty in the place of ugliness, Goodness instead of evil, that power man possesses, the Asura does not. Therefore it is man who will do that work, it is he who will change, it is he who will transform his earth and it is he who will compel the Asura to flee into other worlds or to dissolve. After that, all will be quiet. There you are.
Any questions?
1954-06-30 - Occultism - Religion and vital beings - Mothers knowledge of what happens in the Ashram - Asking questions to Mother - Drawing on Mother, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I assure you what I am telling you is very serious: if you seat a real god in a chair and oblige him to remain there all the while you are doing puja, he may perhaps have a little fun watching you do it, but it certainly gives him no satisfaction. None at all! He does not feel either flattered or happy or glorified by your pujas You must get rid of that idea There is an entire domain between the spiritual and the material worlds which belongs to vital beings, and it is this domain that is full of all these things, because these beings live upon that, are happy with it, and it immediately gives them importance; and the one who has the greatest number of believers, devotees and worshippers is the happiest and the most puffed up. But how can anyone imagine that the gods could value The gods I am speaking of the true gods, even those of the Overmind, though they are still a bit well, so-so they seem to have taken on many human defects, but still, despite all that, they really have a higher consciousness it does not please them at all. An act of true Goodness, intelligence, unselfishness or a subtle understanding or a very sincere aspiration are for them infinitely higher than a small religious ceremony. Infinitely! There is no comparison. Religious ceremony! For example, there are so many of these entities called Kaliwho are given, besides, quite terrible appearancesso many are even placed in houses as the family-goddess; they are full of a terrible vital force! I knew people who were so frightened of the Kali they had at home that indeed they trembled to make the least mistake, for when catastrophes came they thought it was Kali who sent them! It is a frightful thing, thought. I know them, those entities. I know them very well, but they are vital beings, vital forms which, so to say, are given a form by human thought, and what forms! And to think that men worship such terrible and monstrous things; and whats more that these poor gods are given, are paid the compliment of believing that it is
From this point of view, it is good that for some time men get out of this religious atmosphere, so full of fear, and this sort of blind, superstitious submission of which the hostile forces have taken a dreadful advantage. The period of denial, positivism, is from this viewpoint quite indispensable in order to free men from superstition. It is only when one comes out of that and the abject submission to monstrous vital forces that one can rise to truly spiritual heights and there become the collaborator and true instrument of the forces of Truth, the real Consciousness, the true Power.
1955-02-09 - Desire is contagious - Primitive form of love - the artists delight - Psychic need, mind as an instrument - How the psychic being expresses itself - Distinguishing the parts of ones being - The psychic guides - Illness - Mothers vision, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I dont know when they will show this to youone of these days, unless they have been sent back already, I dont know, I must find out. I know I asked that they should be shown to you. Well, I find this better oh, my Goodness, happily there is no painter here (laughter), better than modern painting. And this is photography. For modern painting has not yet been able to use colours with such transparency and brilliance. Water-colour becomes something completely dull beside this. Oil colour is like mud. The stained glass could perhaps do something; but there, you see, it is the sun playing behind which is the great master. But that is more difficult.
Stained glasses I had thought of making them. You see, what I wanted were visions which I would have liked to give. I tried several times to reproduce visions in paintingit becomes stupid. It becomes stupid because the means of expression is bad. I had thought of stained glass, but you see, stained glassthese are bits of coloured glass and they have to be joined. So they are joined with a small leaden thread; but thats horrible. All these little leaden threads are like that, it is frightful.
1955-02-16 - Losing something given by Mother - Using things well - Sadhak collecting soap-pieces - What things are truly indispensable - Natures harmonious arrangement - Riches a curse, philanthropy - Misuse of things creates misery, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So the first thing to do when one has money is to give it. But as it is said that it should not be given without discernment, dont go and give it like those who practise philanthropy, because that fills them with a sense of their own Goodness, their generosity and their own importance. You must act in a sattwic way, that is, make the best possible use of it. And so, each one must find in his highest consciousness what the best possible use of the money he has can be. And truly money has no value unless it circulates. For each and every one, money is valuable only when one has spent it. If one doesnt spend it I tell you, men take care to choose things which do not deteriorate, that is, goldwhich does not decompose. Otherwise, from the moral point of view it rots. And now that gold has been replaced by paper, if you keep paper for a long time without taking care of it, you will see when you open your drawer that there are small silver-fish which have regaled themselves on your paper-rupees. So they will have left a lace-work which the bank will refuse.
There are countries and religions which always say that God makes those whom He loves poor. I dont know if that is true; but there is one thing which is true, that surely when someone is born rich or has become very rich, in any case when he possesses much from the point of view of material riches, it is certainly not a sign that the Divine has chosen him for His divine Grace, and he must make honourable amends if he wants to walk on the path, the true path, to the Divine.
1955-06-08 - Working for the Divine - ideal attitude - Divine manifesting - reversal of consciousness, knowing oneself - Integral progress, outer, inner, facing difficulties - People in Ashram - doing Yoga - Children given freedom, choosing yoga, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To do the yoga, this yoga of transformation which, of all things, is the most arduous-it is only if one feels that one has come here for that (I mean here upon earth) and that one has to do nothing else but that, and that it is the only reason of one's existence-even if one has to toil hard, suffer, struggle, it is of no importance-"This is what I want, and nothing else"-then it is different. Otherwise I shall say, "Be happy and be good, and that's all that is asked of you. Be good, in the sense of being understanding, knowing that the conditions in which you have lived are exceptional, and try to live a higher, more noble, more true life than the ordinary one, so as to allow a little of this consciousness, this light and its Goodness to express itself in the world. It would be very good." There we are.
But once you have set foot on the path of yoga, you must have a resolution of steel and walk straight on to the goal, whatever the cost.
1956-01-25 - The divine way of life - Divine, Overmind, Supermind - Material body for discovery of the Divine - Five psychological perfections, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is a second, which is obviously, as indispensable if you want to go forward; it is to have faith. Or another word, which seems more limited but is for me more important, because (it is a question of experience) if your faith is not made of a complete trust in the Divine, well, you may very easily remain under the impression that you have faith and yet be losing all trust in the divine Power or divine Goodness, or the Trust the Divine has in you. These are the three stumbling-blocks:
Those who have what they call an unshakable faith in the Divine, and say, It is the Divine who is doing everything, who can do everything; all that happens in me, in others, everywhere, is the work of the Divine and the Divine alone, if they follow this with some kind of logic, after some time they will blame the Divine for all the most terrible wrongs which take place in the world and make of Him a real demon, cruel and frightfulif they have no trust.
1956-06-27 - Birth, entry of soul into body - Formation of the supramental world - Aspiration for progress - Bad thoughts - Cerebral filter - Progress and resistance, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And then there must also be an aspiration for progress: not to be satisfied with what one is, how one is, what one does, what one knows or thinks one knows; but to have a constant aspiration for something more, something better, for a greater light, a vaster consciousness, a truer truth and a more universal Goodness. And over and above all this, a goodwill which never fails.
That cant be done in a few days.
1956-09-05 - Material life, seeing in the right way - Effect of the Supermind on the earth - Emergence of the Supermind - Falling back into the same mistaken ways, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then what is one made of? One is made of shreds? One is made of Goodness knows what, of jelly? It cant be explained. But is there no incentive, no will, nothing? Is there no inner dynamism?
We exploit the Grace!
1957-04-24 - Perfection, lower and higher, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And the lower perfection is to be able to make the human being in his present form and in his body, in his relation with all terrestrial things, do the utmost he can. This is the case of all great men of genius: artistic genius, literary genius, genius in organisation, the great rulers, those who have carried physical capacities to their maximum perfection, human development to the limit of its possibilities; and, for instance, all those who have complete control over their bodies and succeed in doing miraculous things, as we saw, for example, during the war, with the airmen: they made their bodies do things which at first sight seemed quite impossible, they obtained from them an endurance, a skill, a power which were almost unthinkable. And from every point of view: from the point of view of physical strength, of intellectual realisation, of the physical qualities of energy and courage, of disinterestedness, Goodness, charity; all human qualities carried to their utmost limits. That is the lower perfection.
The higher perfection is spiritual and super-human. The lower perfection is human perfection carried to its maximum limits, and this may be quite independent of all spiritual life, all spiritual aspiration. One can be a genius without having any spiritual aspiration. One can have all the most extraordinary moral qualities without having any spiritual life. And even, usually, those who have a very great power of human realisation are satisfiedmore or less satisfiedwith their condition. They feel they are self-sufficient, that they carry in themselves the source of their realisation and their joy, and it is usually very difficult to make them understand and feel that they are not the creators of their own creations, whatever they may be. Most of them, with very rare exceptions, if they were told, You are not the originator of this work you are doing, it is a force higher than you and you are only its instrument, they would dislike it very much and they will send you about your business! Therefore, these two perfections are really divergent in ordinary life. It was said in the old yoga that the first condition for doing yoga was to be disgusted with life. But those who have realised this human perfection are very rarely disgusted with life, unless they have met with personal difficulties such as the ingratitude of people around them, the lack of understanding of their genius which was not sufficiently appreciatedso all this disgusts them, but92@ otherwise, so long as they are in their period of success and creation, they are perfectly satisfied. So, as they are satisfiedabove all, self-satisfied they dont need to seek anything else.
1957-05-08 - Vital excitement, reason, instinct, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Because in the vast majority of cases, what gives interest is vital satisfaction. For you to be interested in training exercises which dont have the stimulus of games, the reason must govern the being. In ordinary men reason is the summit of human consciousness, and this is the part of the being which must govern the rest, for it is orderly and reasonable, that is, it does things with a feeling for order, for Goodness, usefulness, and in accordance with a plan, a specific plan, recognised and used by each one, whereas the vital part of the being likes excitement, the unexpected, adventureall that makes games attractiveabove all, competition, the effort to win, victory over the opponent, all these things; it is the vital impulse, and the vital in man being the seat of enthusiasm, ardour, normal energy, when the attraction of the unexpected, of struggle and victory is not there, it goes to sleep, unless it is in the habit of obeying, regularly and spontaneously, the will of the reason. And this is even one of the first things for which all physical training is useful: the fact that it cannot be done really well unless the body is in the habit of obeying the reason rather than the vital impulse. For instance, the whole development of bodily perfection, of physical culture with dumb-bells and the exercises which have nothing particularly exciting and demand a discipline, habits which must be regular, reasonable, which give no scope to passion, desire, impulseone must order ones life according to a very strict and very regular disciplinewell, in order to do them really well one must be in the habit of governing ones life by the reason.
This is not very common. Usually, unless one has taken good care to make it otherwise, the impulses the impulses of desireall the enthusiasms and passions with all their reactions are the masters of human life. One must already be something of a sage to be able to undergo a rigorous discipline of the body and obtain from it the ordered, regular effort which can perfect it. There is no longer any room there for all the fancies of desire. You see, as soon as one gives way to excesses, to immoderation of any kind and a disorderly life, it becomes quite impossible to control ones body and develop it normally, not to mention that, naturally, one spoils ones health and as a result the most important part of the ideal of a perfect body disappears; for with bad health, impaired health, one is not much good for anything. And it is certainly the satisfaction of desires and impulses of the vital or the unreasonable demands of certain ambitions which make the body suffer and fall ill.
1957-07-31 - Awakening aspiration in the body, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When one is very young and as I say well-born, that is, born with a conscious psychic being within, there is always, in the dreams of the child, a kind of aspiration, which for its childs consciousness is a sort of ambition, for something which would be beauty without ugliness, justice without injustice, Goodness without limits, and a conscious, constant success, a perpetual miracle. One dreams of miracles when one is young, one wants all wickedness to disappear, everything to be always luminous, beautiful, happy, one likes stories which end happily. This is what one should rely on. When the body feels its miseries, its limitations, one must establish this dream in itof a strength which would have no limit, a beauty which would have no ugliness, and of marvellous capacities: one dreams of being able to rise into the air, of being wherever it is necessary to be, of setting things right when they go wrong, of healing the sick; indeed, one has all sorts of dreams when one is very young. Usually parents or teachers pass their time throwing cold water on it, telling you, Oh! its a dream, it is not a reality. They should do the very opposite! Children should be taught, Yes, this is what you must try to realise and not only is it possible but it is certain if you come in contact with the part in you which is capable of doing this thing. This is what should guide your life, organise it, make you develop in the direction of the true reality which the ordinary world calls illusion.
This is what it should be, instead of making children ordinary, with that dull, vulgar common sense which becomes an inveterate habit and, when something is going well, immediately brings up in the being the idea: Oh, that wont last!, when somebody is kind, the impression, Oh, he will change!, when one is capable of doing something, Oh, tomorrow I wont be able to do it so well. This is like an acid, a destructive acid in the being, which takes away hope, certitude, confidence in future possibilities.
1966 09 14, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In fact, intervention is justified only when you are absolutely sure that you have the vision of truth. Not only that, but also a clear vision of the consequences. To intervene in someone elses actions, one must be a propheta prophet. And a prophet with total Goodness and compassion. One must even have the vision of the consequences that the intervention will have in the destiny of the other person. People are always giving each other advice: Do this, dont do that. I see it: they have no idea how much confusion they create, how they increase confusion and disorder. And sometimes they impair the normal development of the individual.
I consider that opinions are always dangerous and most often absolutely worthless.
1969 12 11, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This means that sweetness without strength and Goodness without power are incomplete and cannot totally express the Divine.
I could say in keeping with the kind of image used by Sri Aurobindo, that the charity and generosity of a converted Asura are infinitely more effective than those of an innocent angel.
1.A - ANTHROPOLOGY, THE SOUL, #Philosophy of Mind, #unset, #Zen
But this sensitive nucleus includes not merely the purely unconscious, congenital disposition and temperament, but within its enveloping simplicity it acquires and retains also (in habit, as to which see later) all further ties and essential relationships, fortunes, principles - everything in short belonging to the character, and in whose elaboration self-conscious activity has most effectively participated. The sensitivity is thus a soul in which the whole mental life is condensed. The total individual under this concentrated aspect is distinct from the existing and actual play of his consciousness, his secular ideas, developed interests, inclinations, etc. As contrasted with this looser aggregate of means and methods the more intensive form of individuality is termed the genius, whose decision is ultimate whatever may be the show of reasons, intentions, means, of which the more public consciousness is so liberal. This concentrated individuality also reveals itself under the aspect of what is called the heart and soul of feeling. A man is said to be heartless and unfeeling when he looks at things with self-possession and acts according to his permanent purposes, be they great substantial aims or petty and unjust interests: a good-hearted man, on the other hand, means rather one who is at the mercy of his individual sentiment, even when it is of narrow range and is wholly made up of particularities. Of such good nature or Goodness of heart it may be said that it is less the genius itself than the indulgere genio.
406 (bb) The sensitive life, when it becomes a form or state of the self-conscious, educated, selfpossessed human being is a disease. The individual in such a morbid state stands in direct contact with the concrete contents of his own self, whilst he keeps his self-possessed consciousness of self and of the causal order of things apart as a distinct state of mind. This morbid condition is seen in magnetic somnambulism and cognate states.
--
In habit the human being's mode of existence is 'natural', and for that reason not free; but still free, so far as the merely natural phase of feeling is by habit reduced to a mere being of his, and he is no longer involuntarily attracted or repelled by it, and so no longer interested, occupied, or dependent in regard to it. The want of freedom in habit is partly merely formal, as habit merely attaches to the being of the soul; partly only relative, so far as it strictly speaking arises only in the case of bad habits, or so far as a habit is opposed by another purpose: whereas the habit of right and Goodness is an embodiment of liberty. The main point about Habit is that by its means man gets emancipated from the feelings, even in being affected by them. The different forms of this may be described as follows: (a) The immediate feeling is negated and treated as indifferent. One who gets inured against external sensations (frost, heat, weariness of the limbs, etc., sweet tastes, etc.), and who hardens the heart against misfortune, acquires a strength which consists in this, that although the frost, etc. - or the misfortune - is felt, the affection is deposed to a mere externality and immediacy; the universal psychical life keeps its own abstract independence in it, and the self-feeling as such, consciousness, reflection, and any other purposes and activity, are no longer bothered with it. (b) There is indifference towards the satisfaction: the desires and impulses are by the habit of their satisfaction deadened. This is the rational liberation from them; whereas monastic renunciation and forcible interference do not free from them, nor are they in conception rational. Of course in all this it is assumed that the impulses are kept as the finite modes they naturally are, and that they, like their satisfaction, are subordinated as partial factors to the reasonable will. (c) In habit regarded as aptitude, or skill, not merely has the abstract psychical life to be kept intact per se, but it has to be imposed as a subjective aim, to be made a power in the bodily part, which is rendered subject and thoroughly pervious to it. Conceived as having the inward purpose of the subjective soul thus imposed upon it, the body is treated as an immediate externality and a barrier. Thus comes out the more decided rupture between the soul as simple self-concentration, and its earlier naturalness and immediacy; it has lost its original and immediate identity with the bodily nature, and as external has first to be reduced to that position. Specific feelings can only get bodily shape in a perfectly specific way ( 410); and the immediate portion of body is a particular possibility for a specific aim (a particular aspect of its differentiated structure, a particular organ of its organic system).
To mould such an aim in the organic body is to bring out and express the 'ideality' which is implicit in matter always, and especially so in the specific bodily part, and thus to enable the soul, under its volitional and conceptual characters, to exist as substance in its corporeity. In this way an aptitude shows the corporeity rendered completely pervious, made into an instrument, so that when the conception (e.g. a series of musical notes) is in me, then without resistance and with ease the body gives them correct utterance.
1.ap - The Universal Prayer, #Pope - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Thy Goodness let me bound,
Or think thee Lord alone of man,
--
Or aught thy Goodness lent.
Teach me to feel anothers woe,
1f.lovecraft - The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
it rightly. Have the Goodness to wait six months, and Ill shew you
what will pay your patience well.
1f.lovecraft - The Street, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
which gave them courage and Goodness and helped them by day to subdue
the forest and till the fields. And the children would listen, and
1f.lovecraft - The Tree, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
wrought for him. And then the men of Tegea spoke of the Goodness of
Musides, and of his heavy grief for his friend; and how not even the
1.ia - Modification Of The R Poem, #Arabi - Poems, #Ibn Arabi, #Sufism
If you want all Goodness to appear in you
The councillor is honest, so heed this news:
--
and look with an eye that sees only Goodness and that does not see defects in anyone
And see defects only in you; and have faith
1.ia - Wild Is She, None Can Make Her His Friend, #Arabi - Poems, #Ibn Arabi, #Sufism
unadorned: thou seest in her a radiant Goodness.
Wild is she, none can make her his friend;
1.ia - With My Very Own Hands, #Arabi - Poems, #Ibn Arabi, #Sufism
Save a leader of the spirit surpassing in Goodness or one of the
golden mean.
1.jda - Raga Gujri, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Nirmal Dass Original Language Sanskrit Primal, All-pervasive, Unrivaled, Unchanging, First Mover, Hoard of virtue, All-powerful, Beyond creation, Incomprehensible, Forever present. Only Ram's name can entice the heart. Repeat this always: His name is ambrosia, it is the true reality. Remember His name and suffering shall vanish. Remember His name and birth, old age, death shall not touch you. If you wish to defeat Yama and his hordes, seek honor, peace and Goodness. The present, the past, the future are all transitory and fleeting -- only He is everlasting and infinite. Forsake all lusts; do not look longingly upon what others posses and hold -- it is not fitting. Abandon all evil deeds and all evil thoughts. Go and seek the refuge of Chakradhar. Experience for yourself Hari's love through holiness, through right deeds, through right words. What use is yoga? What good is the world? What good is giving alms, what good penance? Adore Gobind, Gobind, O mortal, for He is the source of all spiritual power. Openly, without hesitation, Jayadeva comes seeking His refuge -- for He existed in the past, He exists today. He abides in all things. [2184.jpg] -- from Songs of the Saints from the Adi Granth, Translated by Nirmal Dass
1.jr - Im neither beautiful nor ugly, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by W. S. Merwin and Talat Halman Original Language Persian/Farsi & Turkish I'm neither beautiful nor ugly neither this nor that I'm neither the peddler in the market nor the nightingale in the rose garden Teacher give me a name so that I'll know what to call myself I'm neither slave nor free neither candle nor iron I've not fallen in love with anyone nor is anyone in love with me Whether I'm sinful or good sin and Goodness come from another not from me Wherever He drags me I go with no say in the matter [2205.jpg] -- from East Window: Poems from Asia, Translated by W. S. Merwin <
1.jt - Love beyond all telling (from Self-Annihilation and Charity Lead the Soul...), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes Original Language Italian Love beyond all telling, Goodness beyond imagining, Light of infinite intensity Glows in my heart. I once thought that reason Had led me to You, And that through feeling I sensed Your presence, Caught a glimpse of You in similitudes, Knew You in Your perfection. I know now that I was wrong, That that truth was flawed. Light beyond metaphor, Why did You deign to come into this darkness? Your light does not illumine those who think they see You And believe they sound Your depths. Night, I know now, is day, Virtue no more to be found. He who witnesses Your splendor Can never describe it. On achieving their desired end Human powers cease to function, And the soul sees that what it thought was right Was wrong. A new exchange occurs At that point where all light disappears; A new and unsought state is needed: The soul has what it did not love, And is stripped of all it possessed, no matter how dear. In God the spiritual faculties Come to their desired end, Lose all sense of self and self-consciousness, And are swept into infinity. The soul, made new again, Marveling to find itself In that immensity, drowns. How this comes about it does not know. [2229.jpg] -- from Jacopone da Todi: Lauds (Classics of Western Spirituality), Translated by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes <
1.jt - When you no longer love yourself (from Self-Annihilation and Charity Lead the Soul...), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes Original Language Italian When you no longer love yourself But love Goodness, You and your Beloved will become one. When you love Him, He must love you in return; In His charity you are drawn to Him And the two are made one. This is true union That admits of no divisions. [2229.jpg] -- from Jacopone da Todi: Lauds (Classics of Western Spirituality), Translated by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes <
1.jwvg - Book Of Proverbs, #Goethe - Poems, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
This had God in His Goodness willed.
-----
1.lovecraft - Theodore Roosevelt, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
With kindness' and with Goodness' warmest fire;
To prince and peasant thy broad friendship flow'd,
1.pbs - Bereavement, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
Unspeakable pleasure, of Goodness the dower,
When woe fades away like the mist of the heath.
1.pbs - Julian and Maddalo - A Conversation, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
Which seeks a "soul of Goodness" in things ill
Or in himself or others, has thus bowed
1.pbs - Prometheus Unbound, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
The powerful Goodness want: worse need for them.
The wise want love; and those who love want wisdom;
1.pbs - The Drowned Lover, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
But, fear not, parting spirit; thy Goodness is saving,
In eternity's bowers, a seat for thee there.
1.rb - Paracelsus - Part III - Paracelsus, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
The glow of general Goodness they disturb?
To make those very defects an endless source
1.rb - Pauline, A Fragment of a Question, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
Of Goodness as of lifethat I would lose
All this gay mastery of mind, to sit
1.rb - Waring, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
And Goodness unrepaid as ever;
The face, accustomed to refusings,
1.rt - Fireflies, #Tagore - Poems, #Rabindranath Tagore, #Poetry
Profit smiles on Goodness
when the good is profitable.
1.rwe - Gnothi Seauton, #Emerson - Poems, #Ralph Waldo Emerson, #Philosophy
Glory to Goodness, to neglect, the moth.
Thou sowst the wind, the whirlwind reapest,
1.sdi - How could I ever thank my Friend?, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Andrew Harvey Original Language Persian/Farsi How could I ever thank my Friend? No thanks could ever begin to be worthy. Every hair of my body is a gift from Him; How could I thank Him for each hair? Praise that lavish Lord forever Who from nothing conjures all living beings! Who could ever describe His Goodness? His infinite glory lays all praise waste. Look, He has graced you a robe of splendor From childhood's first cries to old age! He made you pure in His own image; stay pure. It is horrible to die blackened by sin. Never let dust settle on your mirror's shining; Let it once grow dull and it will never polish. When you work in the world to earn your living Do not, for one moment, rely on your own strength. Self-worshiper, don't you understand anything yet? It is God alone that gives your arms their power. If, by your striving, you achieve something good, Don't claim the credit all for yourself; It is fate that decides who wins and who loses And all success streams only from the grace of God. In this world you never stand by your own strength; It is the Invisible that sustains you every moment.
1.sig - Who could accomplish what youve accomplished, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Peter Cole Original Language Hebrew Who could accomplish what you've accomplished in establishing under the Throne of Glory a level for all who were righteous in spirit? This is the range of pure soul gathered in the bond of all that's vital. For those who've worked to exhaustion -- this is the place of their strength's renewal, where the weary will find repose; these are the children of calm, of pleasure that knows no bound in the mind: this is the World to Come, a place of position and vision for souls that gaze into the mirrors of the palace's servants, before the Lord to see and be seen. They dwell in the halls of the king, and stand alongside his table taking delight in the sweetness of intellect's fruit which offers them majesty's savor. This is the rest and inheritance that knows no bounds in its Goodness and beauty, flowing with milk and honey; this is its fruit and deliverance. [2610.jpg] -- from The Poetry of Kabbalah: Mystical Verse from the Jewish Tradition, Edited by Peter Cole <
1.sjc - I Entered the Unknown, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Ivan M. Granger Original Language Spanish I entered the unknown, and there I remained unknowing, all knowledge transcended. Where I entered I knew not, but seeing myself there, not knowing where, great things then made themselves known. What I sensed I cannot say, for I remained unknowing, all knowledge transcended. In this peace and purity was perfect knowledge. In profoundest solitude I understood with absolute clarity something so secret that I was left stammering, all knowledge transcended. So deep was I within, so absorbed, transported, that all senses fled, and outer awareness fell away. My spirit received the gift of unknowing knowing, all knowledge transcended. He who reaches this realm loses himself, for all he once knew now is beneath his notice, and his mind so expands that he remains unknowing, all knowledge transcended. And the higher he rises the less he knows: That is the dark cloud that shines in the night. The one who knows this always remains unknowing, all knowledge transcended. This knowing by unknowing is of such exalted power, that the disputations of the learned fail to grasp it, for their knowledge does not reach to knowing by unknowing, all knowledge transcended. Of such supreme perfection is this knowledge that no faculty or method of mind can comprehend it; but he who conquers himself with this unknowing knowing, will always transcend. And if you are ready to receive it, this sum of all knowledge is discovered in the deepest ecstasy of the Divine Essence. Goodness and grace grant us this unknowing, all knowledge transcended. [2720.jpg] -- from This Dance of Bliss: Ecstatic Poetry from Around the World, Edited by Ivan M. Granger <
1.sjc - Loves Living Flame, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Ivan M. Granger Original Language Spanish O love's living flame, so softly do you sear the deepest center of my soul! Now that you no longer shy away, end this game, I beg of you, today: Rip open the veil separating us in this sweet rendezvous! O tender burn! O burning boon! O gentle hand! O delicate caress, that infers eternal life and renders all debts paid! Killing, death into life you have made! O beacons of fire, in whose splendor the blind, dark deep grottoes of the senses, with strange and stately art, warm and enlighten, and win my love! How tenderly is your memory cherished in my breast, where you alone reside and in secret rest: Here I taste in your perfumed breath Goodness a-flood with glory-- How gracefully you've won my love! [2652.jpg] -- from The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology), Edited by Ivan M. Granger <
1.wby - Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen, #Yeats - Poems, #William Butler Yeats, #Poetry
That fancied Goodness might be gay,
And sick of solitude
1.whitman - Brother Of All, With Generous Hand, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
The only life of life in Goodness?
1.whitman - Carol Of Words, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
And no man understands any greatness or Goodness but his own, or the
indication of his own.
1.whitman - Song of Myself, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
I am not the poet of Goodness only, I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also.
What blurt is this about virtue and about vice?
1.whitman - Song Of Myself- XXII, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
I am not the poet of Goodness only, I do not decline to be the poet of wickedness also.
What blurt is this about virtue and about vice?
1.whitman - Song Of The Open Road, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
I did not know I held so much Goodness.
All seems beautiful to me;
1.whitman - To Think Of Time, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Goodnessto think how wide a difference!
To think the difference will still continue to others, yet we lie
--
The difference between sin and Goodness is no delusion,
The earth is not an echoman and his life, and all the things of his
1.ww - Artegal And Elidure, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
"Who never tasted grace, and Goodness ne'er had felt."
By brave Corineus aided, he subdued,
--
Attends on Goodness with dominion decked,
Which stands the universal empire's boast;
1.ww - Book Fifth-Books, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Fetching her Goodness rather from times past,
Than shaping novelties for times to come,
1.ww - Book Sixth [Cambridge and the Alps], #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
As virtue is, or Goodness; sweet as love,
Or the remembrance of a generous deed,
1.ww - Composed During A Storm, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Of providential Goodness ever nigh!
1.ww - From The Cuckoo And The Nightingale, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
For thereof comes all Goodness and all worth;
All gentiless and honour thence come forth;
--
Illumined! root of beauty and Goodnesse,
Write, and allay, by your beneficence,
1.ww - The Excursion- II- Book First- The Wanderer, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
By loneliness, and Goodness, and kind works,
Whate'er, in docile childhood or in youth,
--
Her Goodness, that, not seldom, in my walks
A momentary trance comes over me;
1.ww - The Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci, in the Refectory of the Convent of Maria della GraziaMilan, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
The mercy, Goodness, have not failed to awe
The Elements; as they do melt and thaw
1.ww - The Old Cumberland Beggar, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
To virtue and true Goodness.
Some there are
1.ww - The Prioresss Tale [from Chaucer], #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Thy Goodness is set forth; they when they lie
Upon the breast thy name do glorify.
--
Of Goodness, next her Son, our soul's best boot.
III
--
"Lady! thy Goodness, thy magnificence,
Thy virtue, and thy great humility,
2.02 - The Mother Archetype, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
attri butes: sattva, rajas, tamas: Goodness, passion, and darkness. 1
These are three essential aspects of the mother: her cherishing
and nourishing Goodness, her orgiastic emotionality, and her
Stygian depths. The special feature of the philosophical myth,
2.02 - Zimzum, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
hidden, or contracted His Goodness in the act of creating
His beings. This was done in order to produce imper
2.03 - The Pyx, #Hymn of the Universe, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
combined essence of all evil and all Goodness.
The hurricane was within himself.
2.04 - The Divine and the Undivine, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Him for his eternal Goodness, wisdom, bliss and omnipotence and try feebly to come an inch nearer to the Goodness in order to share the bliss, on pain of punishment - by some supposed eternal - if, as the vast majority must by their very imperfection, they fail in their endeavour. But to the doctrine of such a Lila so crudely stated there is always possible the retort that a God, himself all-blissful, who delights in the suffering of creatures or imposes such suffering on them for the faults of his own imperfect creation, would be no Divinity and against Him the moral being and intelligence of humanity must revolt or deny
His existence. But if the human soul is a portion of the Divinity, if it is a divine Spirit in man that puts on this imperfection and
2.05 - The Line of Light and The Impression, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
total Goodness.
The Impression is designated as "primordial atmos
2.06 - The Infinite Light, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
However, even when His Goodness will be disclosed,
the full depth of His workings, will not be revealed.
2.07 - The Cup, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
70:They even became stupid: Bernardin de St. Pierre (was it not?) said that the Goodness of God was such that wherever men had built a great city, He had placed a river to assist them in conveying merchandise. But the truth is that in no way can we imagine the Universe as devised. If horses were made for men to ride, were not men made for worms to eat?
71:And so we find once more that the Ego-idea must be ruthlessly rooted out before Understanding can be attained.
2.0 - THE ANTICHRIST, #Twilight of the Idols, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
pernicious. "Virtue," "Duty," " Goodness in itself," Goodness stamped
with the character of impersonality and universal validity--these
--
by making him a God only of Goodness, would lie beyond the pale of the
desires of such a community. The evil God is just as urgently needed
--
a people, to the Christian God, the quintessence of all Goodness,
marks a _step forward?_--But even Renan does this. As if Renan had
--
the habit of contrary ideas may be lost He understands Goodness--being
good--as promoting health. _Prayer_ is out of the question, as is
--
beauty and Goodness on earth. Only the most intellectual men have
the right to beauty, to the beautiful: only in them is Goodness not
weakness. _Pulchrum est paucorum hominum:_ Goodness is a privilege.
On the other hand there is nothing which they should be more strictly
--
For Goodness' sake let us forget our prejudices! Crusades--superior
piracy, that is all! German nobility--that is to say, a Viking nobility
2.10 - The Primordial Kings Their Shattering, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
purpose in all this was to effect complete Goodness and
perfect emendation in His creatures.
--
vert into Goodness for all time. This connotes the emen
dation of the Name 52 through the Name 45, apd means
2.12 - ON SELF-OVERCOMING, #Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
Thus the highest evil belongs to the highest Goodness:
but this is creative.
2.13 - Kingdom-The Seventh Sefira, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
and all Goodness flows forth.
Absence of bestowal is due to the absence of love;
--
the gates of Goodness are locked. The Primordial Kings
existed in such a state, since the Creator had already
2.14 - The Unpacking of God, #Sex Ecology Spirituality, #Ken Wilber, #Philosophy
The coming of the Over-Soul that is the World Soul, touching each and all with its Goodness and its Glory, baptizing each with its Brilliance and its Blessing. The coming of the World Soul, trailing clouds of wonderment, singing songs of liberation, dancing madly and divine in splendor and salvation. The long-sought coming of the World Soul, changing every "it" and every "we" and every "I" it touches: in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we will be changed, we all will be changed.
The loveless, beaten, battered self will let go the torment and the torture of its self-embracing ways, tire of that marriage to a special misery that it had chosen over loneliness, to nurse it through the long brutality of a life that doesn't care, surrender the murderous love affair with its own perplexed reflection, which had itself pretended to the throne of the Divine, and find instead its soul in Grace and drenched throughout with a luminous God that is its own true Being-its always and only Original Face, smiling now from the radiant Abyss, unreasonably happy in the face of every sight, set helplessly afloat on the Sea of Intimacy, adrift in currents of Compassion and caressed in unrelenting Care, one with each and one with all in mutual Self-recognition, dancing in the dawn that heralds now the Self of all that truly is, and the Community of all that well might be, and the State of all that is to come.
--
This is not Eros; this is Phobos-a withdrawal from social engagement and intersubjective action. All of this totally overlooks the fact that Spirit manifests not only as Self (I) but as intersubjective Community (We) and as an objective State of Affairs (It)-as Buddha, Sangha, Dharma-each inseparably interwoven with the others and interwoven in the Good and the Goodness of the All.
The Eco camps likewise too often misinterpret the intuition of the World Soul, but in the other direction, as some sort of Gaia-self, but still and equally framed in monological and flatl and terms. Not NATURE, but nature, is their beloved God/dess. Actual hierarchies of any sort are denied in the name of a diversitarian stance that explicitly denies that which its own stance implicitly presupposes. In their understandable zeal to go transrational, they often embrace any prerational occasion simply because it is nonrational-any occasion that looks biocentrically oriented, from horticultural planting mythology to rampant tribalism to indissociated magic and sensual glorification of a sentimental nature, all in the name of saving Gaia.
--
Does not the Good of Spirit, its Eros, release both Nature and Mind from the torments we have inflicted on them in vain attempts to make them each the source of infinite value? Does not the Goodness of Spirit, its Agape, embrace both Mind and Nature in a loving caress that heals the self-inflicted wounds? Does not the refluxing movement of
God and the effluxing movement of the Goddess embrace the entire Circle of Ascent and Descent? Can we not round out the original insights and see that Spirit always manifests in all four quadrants equally? Is not Spirit here and now in all its radiant glory, eternally present as every I and every We and every It? Will not our more adequate interpretations of Spirit facilitate Spirit's rescue of us?
2.1.5.4 - Arts, #On Education, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We must face life as a whole, with all the ugliness, falsehood and cruelty it still contains, but we must take care to discover in ourselves the source of all Goodness, all beauty, all light and all truth, in order to bring this source consciously into contact with the world so as to transform it.
This is infinitely more difficult than running away or shutting our eyes so as not to see, but it is the only truly effective way the way of those who are truly strong and pure and capable of manifesting the Truth.
2.18 - Maeroprosopus and Maeroprosopvis, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
(Torah) then Mercy and Goodness issue from ZO and then power
and joy reign in the world. But if man is corrupt in his behaviour,
2.19 - THE MASTER AND DR. SARKAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
O Thou, the Fount of Goodness, bestow on us Thy Knowledge; Bestow on us devotion, bestow pure love and perfect peace; And grant us shelter at Thy hallowed feet!
Bhupati sang again:
2.20 - The Infancy and Maturity of ZO, Father and Mother, Israel The Ancient and Understanding, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
as to conceal His Goodness, and to reveal instead the
rule of Judgment. They are the sum total of all the
--
concealment of the Creators Goodness. Bui: in the
measure of Judgment itself we may discern two types:
--
manifest. For all the preparations of Goodness which the
Creator is making for the world during the period of
--
perfect Countenance and Goodness. But when the mode
of government springs from His love and His exalted
2.21 - The Three Heads, The Beard and The Mazela, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
bestow Goodness. The Cranium, the Brain and the other
emendations which are found in its face are all degrees
2.22 - Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
An energy put out in the pursuit of ethical good must have as its outcome or reward or recompense an increase in virtue, the happiness of ethical growth or the sunny felicity and poise and purity of a simple and natural Goodness, while the punishment of opposite energies would be a deeper plunge into evil, a greater disharmony and perversion of the nature and, in case of excess, a great spiritual perdition, mahat vinas.t.ih.. An energy put forward for power or other vital ends must lead to an increase of the capacity for commanding these results or to the development of a vital strength and plenitude. This is the ordinary disposition of things in Nature and, if justice be demanded of her, this surely is justice that the energy and capacity put forward should have in its own kind its fitting response from her. The prize of the race is assigned by her to the swift, the victory in battle to the brave and strong and skilful, the rewards of knowledge to the capable intellect and the earnest seeker: these things she will not give to the good man who is sluggish or weak or skilless or stupid merely because he is righteous or respectable; if he covets these other powers of life, he must qualify for them and put forward the right kind of energy. If Nature did otherwise, she could well be accused of injustice; there is no reason to accuse her of injustice for this perfectly right and normal arrangement or to demand from her a rectification of the balance in a future life so that the good man may be given as a natural reward for his virtue a high post or a large bank balance or a happy, easy and well-appointed life. That cannot be the significance of rebirth or a sufficient basis for a cosmic law of Karma.
There is indeed in our life a very large element of what we call luck or fortune, which baulks our effort of result or gives the prize without effort or to an inferior energy: the secret cause of these caprices of Destiny - or causes, for the roots of Fortune may be manifold, - must be no doubt partly sought for in our hidden past; but it is difficult to accept the simple solution that good luck is a return for a forgotten virtuous action in a past life and bad luck a return for a sin or crime. If we see the righteous man suffering here, it is difficult to believe that this paragon of virtue was in the last life a scoundrel and is paying, even after his exemplary conversion by a new birth, for sins he then committed; nor if the wicked triumphs, can we easily suppose that he was in his last life a saint who has suddenly taken a wrong turn but continues to receive a cash return for his previous virtue. A total change of this kind between life and life is possible though not likely to be frequent, but to saddle the new opposite personality with the rewards or punishments of the old looks like a purposeless and purely mechanical procedure. This and many other difficulties arise, and the too simple logic of the correlation is not so strong as it claims to be; the idea of retri bution of Karma as a compensation for the injustice of life and Nature is a feeble basis for the theory, for it puts forward a shallow and superficial human feeling and standard as the sense of the cosmic Law and is based on an unsound reasoning; there must be some other and stronger foundation for the law of Karma.
--
It becomes at once evident that in this plan of rebirth the false importance which our mind attaches to the memory of past lives disappears altogether. If indeed rebirth were governed by a system of rewards and punishments, if life's whole intention were to teach the embodied spirit to be good and moral, - supposing that that is the intention in the dispensation of Karma and it is not what it looks like in this presentation of it, a mechanical law of recompense and retri bution without any reformatory meaning or purpose, - then there is evidently a great stupidity and injustice in denying to the mind in its new incarnation all memory of its past births and actions. For it deprives the reborn being of all chance to realise why he is rewarded or punished or to get any advantage from the lesson of the profitableness of virtue and the unprofitableness of sin vouchsafed to him or inflicted on him. Even, since life seems often to teach the opposite lesson, - for he sees the good suffer for their Goodness and the wicked prosper by their wickedness, - he is rather likely to conclude in this perverse sense, because he has not the memory of an assured and constant result of experience which would show him that the suffering of the good man was due to his past wickedness and the prosperity of the sinner due to the splendour of his past virtues, so that virtue is the best policy in the long run for any reasonable and prudent soul entering into this dispensation of Nature. It might be said that the psychic being within remembers; but such a secret memory would seem to have little effect or value on the surface. Or it may be said that it realises what has happened and learns its lesson when it reviews and assimilates its experiences after issuing from the body: but this intermittent memory does not very apparently help in the next birth; for most of us persist in sin and error and show no tangible signs of having profited by the teaching of our past experience.
But if a constant development of being by a developing cosmic experience is the meaning and the building of a new personality in a new birth is the method, then any persistent or complete memory of the past life or lives might be a chain and a serious obstacle: it would be a force for prolonging the old temperament, character, preoccupations, and a tremendous burden hampering the free development of the new personality and its formulation of new experience. A clear and detailed memory of past loves, hatreds, rancours, attachments, connections would be equally a stupendous inconvenience; for it would bind the reborn being to a useless repetition or a compulsory continuation of his surface past and stand heavily in the way of his bringing out new possibilities from the depths of the spirit. If, indeed, a mental learning of things were the heart of the matter, if that were the process of our development, memory would have a great importance: but what happens is a growth of the soul personality and a growth of the nature by an assimilation into our substance of being, a creative and effective absorption of the essential results of past energies; in this process conscious memory is of no importance. As the tree grows by a subconscient or inconscient assimilation of action of sun and rain and wind and absorption of earth-elements, so the being grows by a subliminal or intraconscient assimilation and absorption of its results of past becoming and an output of potentialities of future becoming. The law that deprives us of the memory of past lives is a law of the cosmic Wisdom and serves, not disserves its evolutionary purpose.
2.30 - The Uniting of the Names 45 and 52, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
and Goodness; and that these are other matters in the
221
3.00.2 - Introduction, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
work teach us to take truth, Goodness, and beauty where we find them.
They are not always found where we look for them: often they are hidden
3.02 - SOL, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
On earth these stones are dead, and they do nothing unless the activity of man is applied to them. [Consider]47 the profound analogy of the gold: the aethereal heaven was locked to all men, so that all men had to descend into the underworld, where they were imprisoned for ever. But Christ Jesus unlocked the gate of the heavenly Olympus and threw open the realm of Pluto, that the souls might be freed, when the Virgin Mary, with the cooperation of the Holy Ghost in an unutterable mystery and deepest sacrament, conceived in her virgin womb that which was most excellent in heaven and upon earth, and finally bore for us the Redeemer of the whole world, who by his overflowing Goodness shall save all who are given up to sin, if only the sinner shall turn to him. But the Virgin remained incorrupt and inviolate: therefore not without good reason is Mercurius made equal [aequiparatur] to the most glorious and worshipful Virgin Mary.48
It is evident from this that the coniunctio of Sol and Mercurius is a hierosgamos, with Mercurius playing the role of bride. If one does not find this analogy too offensive, one may ask oneself with equanimity whether the arcanum of the opus alchymicum, as understood by the old masters, may not indeed be considered an equivalent of the dogmatic mystery. For the psychologist the decisive thing here is the subjective attitude of the alchemist. As I have shown in Psychology and Alchemy, such a profession of faith is by no means unique.49
3.02 - The Soul in the Soul World after Death, #Theosophy, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
thoughts serve only to satisfy his demands on the physical life. The spiritual Self by living from incarnation to incarnation is intended to receive its direction ever increasingly out of the spiritual; its knowledge to be determined by the spirit of eternal Truth, its action by the eternal Goodness.
Death, when regarded as a fact in the physical world, signifies a change in the functions of the body. It ceases to be through its organization the instrument of the soul and the spirit. It shows itself henceforth to be entirely subject, as regards its functions, to the physical world and its laws. And it passes over into it in order to dissolve in it. Only these physical processes in the body can be observed after death by the physical senses. What happens then to soul and spirit escapes them. For even during life soul and spirit can be observed by the senses only in so far as they have external expressions in physical processes. After death this kind of expression is no longer possible. For this reason observation by means of the physical senses and science based on it, do not come under consideration in reference to the fate of the soul and spirit after death. Here
3.03 - Faith and the Divine Grace, #Words Of The Mother II, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Divine Grace, Thy Goodness is infinite. We bow before Thee in gratitude.
Mother
3.03 - On Thought - II, #Words Of Long Ago, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then will our mental actions take on their full power and effectivity. Our thoughtformations will become useful and luminous messengers going forth to do their work of Goodness and harmony wherever material circumstances prevent us from doing it physically.
And by a little effort of concentration we shall rapidly succeed in becoming conscious of these actions while at the same time remaining in touch with the emanated thought.
3.06 - Charity, #Words Of Long Ago, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Besides, there is a height where all virtues meet in communion: love, Goodness, compassion, forbearance, charity are all one and the same in their essence.
From this point of view, charity could be considered as the tangible and practical outer action determined by the application of the virtues of love.
3.09 - Evil, #Questions And Answers 1929-1931, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Do not treat good lightly, saying, That will not touch me. A jar is filled drop by drop; even so the sage fills himself little by little with Goodness.
The merchant who is carrying many precious goods and who has but few companions, avoids dangerous roads; and a man who loves his life is wary of poison. Even so should one act regarding evil.
3.7.1.01 - Rebirth, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
How comforting it would be if we could tell a good man and even the amount of his Goodness,for should not the Supreme be a strict and honourable accountant?by the amount of ghee that he is allowed to put into his stomach and the number of rupees he can jingle into his bank and the various kinds of good luck that accrue to him. Yes, and how comforting too if we could point our finger at the wicked stripped of all concealment and cry at him, O thou wicked one! for if thou wert not evil, wouldst thou in a world governed by God or at least by good, be thus ragged, hungry, unfortunate, pursued by griefs, void of honour among men? Yes, thou art proved wicked, because thou art ragged. Gods justice is established. The Supreme Intelligence being fortunately wiser and nobler than mans childishness, this is impossible But let us take comfort! It appears that if the good man has not enough good luck and ghee and rupees, it is because he is really a scoundrel suffering for his crimes,but a scoundrel in his past life who has suddenly turned a new leaf in his mothers womb; and if yonder wicked man flourishes and tramples gloriously on the world, it is because of his Goodnessin a past life, the saint that was then having since been convertedwas it by his experience of the temporal vanity of virtue?to the cult of sin. All is explained, all is justified. We suffer for our sins in another body; we shall be rewarded in another body for our virtues in this; and so it will go on ad infinitum. No wonder, the philosophers found this a bad business and proposed as a remedy to get rid of both sin and virtue and even as our highest good to scramble anyhow out of a world so amazingly governed.
Obviously, this scheme of things is only a variation of the old spiritual-material bribe and menace, the bribe of a Heaven of fat joys for the good and the threat of a hell of eternal fire or bestial tortures for the wicked. The idea of the Law of the world as primarily a dispenser of rewards and punishments is cognate to the idea of the Supreme Being as a judge, father and school-master who is continually rewarding with lollipops his good boys and continually caning his naughty urchins. It is cognate also to the barbarous and unthinking system of sometimes savage and always degrading punishment for social offences on which human society, unable still to find out or organise a more satisfactory way, is still founded. Man insists continually on making God in his own image instead of seeking to make himself more and more in the image of God, and all these ideas are the reflection of the child and the savage and the animal in us which we have still failed to transform or outgrow. We should be inclined to wonder how these fancies of children found their way into such profound philosophical religions as Buddhism and Hinduism, if it were not so patent that men will not deny themselves the luxury of tacking on the rubbish from their past to the deeper thoughts of their sages.
3.7.2.03 - Mind Nature and Law of Karma, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A third possible and less outwardly mechanical line of Karma is suggested by the dictum that like creates like and in accordance with that law good must create good and evil must create evil. In the terms of a moral return or rather repayment to moral energies this would mean that by putting forth love we get a return of love and by putting forth hatred a return of hatred, that if we are merciful or just to others, others also will be to us just or merciful and that generally good done by us to our fellow-men will return in a recompense of good done by them in kind and posted back to our address duly registered in the moral post office of the administrative government of the universe. Do unto others as you would be done by, because then they will indeed so do to you, seems to be the formula of this moral device. If this were true, human life might indeed settle down into a very symmetrical system of a harmoniously moral egoism and a mercantile traffic in Goodness that might seem fair and beautiful enough to those who are afflicted with that kind of moral aesthesis. Happily for the upward progress of the human soul, the rule breaks down in practice, the world-spirit having greater ends before it and a greater law to realise. The rule is true to a certain extent in tendency and works sometimes well enough and the prudential intelligence of man takes some account of it in action but it is not true all the way and all the time. It is evident enough that hatred, violence, injustice are likely to create an answering hatred, violence and injustice and that I can only indulge these propensities with impunity if I am sufficiently powerful to defy resistance or so long as I am at once strong enough and prudent enough to provide against their natural reactions. It is true also that by doing good and kindness I create a certain goodwill in others and can rely under ordinary or favourable circumstances not so much on gratitude and return in kind as on their support and favour. But this good and this evil are both of them movements of the ego and on the mixed egoism of human nature there can be no safe or positive reliance. An egoistic selfish strength, if it knows what to do and where to stop, even a certain measure of violence and injustice, if it is strong and skilful, cunning, fraud, many kinds of evil, do actually pay in mans dealing with man hardly less than in the animals with the animal, and on the other hand the doer of good who counts on a return or reward finds himself as often as not disappointed of his bargained recompense. The weakness of human nature worships the power that tramples on it, does homage to successful strength, can return to every kind of strong or skilful imposition belief, acceptance, obedience: it can crouch and fawn and admire even amidst movements of hatred and terror; it has singular loyalties and unreasoning instincts. And its disloyalties too are as unreasoning or light and fickle: it takes just dealing and beneficence as its right and forgets or cares not to repay. And there is worse; for justice, mercy, beneficence, kindness are often enough rewarded by their opposites and ill will an answer to goodwill is a brutally common experience. If something in the world and in man returns good for good and evil for evil, it as often returns evil for good and, with or without a conscious moral intention, good for evil. And even an unegoistic virtue or a divine good and love entering the world awakens hostile reactions. Attila and Jenghiz on the throne to the end, Christ on the cross and Socrates drinking his portion of hemlock are no very clear evidence for any optimistic notion of a law of moral return in the world of human nature.
There is little more sign of its sure existence in the world measures. Actually in the cosmic dispensation evil comes out of good and good out of evil and there seems to be no exact correspondence between the moral and the vital measures. All that we can say is that good done tends to increase the sum and total power of good in the world and the greater this grows the greater is likely to be the sum of human happiness and that evil done tends to increase the sum and total power of evil in the world and the greater this grows, the greater is likely to be the sum of human suffering and, eventually, man or nation doing evil has in some way to pay for it, but not often in any intelligibly graded or apportioned measure and not always in clearly translating terms of vital good fortune and ill fortune.
3 - Commentaries and Annotated Translations, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
evil and leads, raises or forces the evil towards Goodness. He
burns in order to purify. He destroys in order to save. When the
4.01 - Sweetness in Prayer, #The Interior Castle or The Mansions, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
7.: These feelings of devotion are most common with souls in the first three mansions, who are nearly always using their understanding and reason in making meditations. This is good for them, for they have not been given grace for more; they should, however, try occasionally to elicit some acts such as praising God, rejoicing in His Goodness and that He is what He is: let them desire that He may be honoured and glorified. They must do this as best they can, for it greatly inflames the will. Let them be very careful, when God gives these sentiments, not to set them aside in order to finish their accustomed meditation. But, having spoken fully on this subject elsewhere,10' I will say no more now. I only wish to warn you that to make rapid progress and to reach the mansions we wish to enter, it is not so essential to think much as to love much: therefore you must practise whatever most excites you to this. Perhaps we do not know what love is, nor does this greatly surprise me. Love does not consist in great sweetness of devotion, but in a fervent determination to strive to please God in all things, in avoiding, as far as possible, all that would offend Him, and in praying for the increase of the glory and honour of His Son and for the growth of the Catholic Church. These are the signs of love; do not imagine that it consists in never thinking of anything but God, and that if your thoughts wander a little all is lost.11
8.: I, myself, have sometimes been troubled by this turmoil of thoughts. I learnt by experience, but little more than four years ago, that our thoughts, or it is clearer to call it our imagination, are not the same thing as the understanding. I questioned a theologian on the subject; he told me it was the fact, which consoled me not a little. As the understanding is one of the powers of the soul, it puzzled me to see it so sluggish at times, while, as a rule, the imagination takes flight at once, so that God alone can control it by so uniting us to Himself12' that we seem, in a manner, detached from our bodies. It puzzled me to see that while to all appearance the powers of the soul were occupied with God and recollected in Him, the imagination was wandering elsewhere.
4.04 - In the Total Christ, #Hymn of the Universe, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
beauty, no enchantment of Goodness, no element of
force, but finds in you the ultimate refinement and
4.08 - THE VOLUNTARY BEGGAR, #Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
eyes Goodness itself was preaching. "What do you seek
here?" shouted Zarathustra, amazed.
4.0 - NOTES TO ZARATHUSTRA, #Twilight of the Idols, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
To be a creator and to be capable of Goodness are not at all things
which exclude one another. They are rather one and the same thing; but
--
and kind:--the gulf separating creation, Goodness, and wisdom is
annihilated.
5.02 - THE STATUE, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[568] The statue has yet another meaning in alchemy which is worth mentioning. In his treatise De Igne et Sale Vigenerus calls the sun the eye and heart of the sensible world and the image of the invisible God, adding that St. Dionysius called it the clear and manifest statue of God.78 This statement probably refers to Dionysiuss De divinis nominibus (ch. IV): The sun is the visible image of divine Goodness.79 Vigenerus translated
not by imago but by statua, which does not agree with the Latin text of the collected edition brought out by Marsilio Ficino in 15023, to which he may have had access. It is not easy to see why he rendered
5.07 - Beginnings Of Civilization, #Of The Nature Of Things, #Lucretius, #Poetry
Or yet because, by Goodness of the soil
Invited, men desired to clear rich fields
Aeneid, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
remarkable for Goodness to endure
so many crises, meet so many trials?
--
by their own comrades; neither your great Goodness,
0 Panthus, nor Apollo's garl and could
--
'If there is any Goodness in the heavens
to oversee such acts, for this offense
--
1 only ask you this: if by our Goodness
we merit it, then, Father, grant to us
BOOK I. - Augustine censures the pagans, who attributed the calamities of the world, and especially the sack of Rome by the Goths, to the Christian religion and its prohibition of the worship of the gods, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Will some one say, Why, then, was this divine compassion extended even to the ungodly and ungrateful? Why, but because it was the mercy of Him who daily "maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."[43] For though some of these men, taking thought of this, repent of their wickedness and reform, some, as the apostle says, "despising the riches of His Goodness and long-suffering, after their hardness and impenitent heart, treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds:"[44] nevertheless does the patience of God still invite the wicked to repentance, even as the scourge of God educates the good to patience. And so, too, does the mercy of God embrace the good that it may cherish them, as the severity of God arrests the wicked to punish them. To the divine providence it has seemed good to prepare in the world to come for the righteous good things, which the unrighteous shall not enjoy; and for the wicked evil things, by which the good shall not be tormented. But as for the good things of this life, and its ills, God has willed that these should be common to both; that we might not too eagerly covet the things which wicked men are seen equally to enjoy, nor shrink with an unseemly fear from the ills which even good men often suffer.
There is, too, a very great difference in the purpose served both by those events which we call adverse and those called prosperous. For the good man is neither uplifted with the good things of time, nor broken by its ills; but the wicked man, because he is corrupted by this world's happiness, feels himself punished by its unhappiness.[45] Yet often, even in the[Pg 11] present distribution of temporal things, does God plainly evince His own interference. For if every sin were now visited with manifest punishment, nothing would seem to be reserved for the final judgment; on the other hand, if no sin received now a plainly divine punishment, it would be concluded that there is no divine providence at all. And so of the good things of this life: if God did not by a very visible liberality confer these on some of those persons who ask for them, we should say that these good things were not at His disposal; and if He gave them to all who sought them, we should suppose that such were the only rewards of His service; and such a service would make us not godly, but greedy rather, and covetous. Wherefore, though good and bad men suffer alike, we must not suppose that there is no difference between the men themselves, because there is no difference in what they both suffer. For even in the likeness of the sufferings, there remains an unlikeness in the sufferers; and though exposed to the same anguish, virtue and vice are not the same thing. For as the same fire causes gold to glow brightly, and chaff to smoke; and under the same flail the straw is beaten small, while the grain is cleansed; and as the lees are not mixed with the oil, though squeezed out of the vat by the same pressure, so the same violence of affliction proves, purges, clarifies the good, but damns, ruins, exterminates the wicked. And thus it is that in the same affliction the wicked detest God and blaspheme, while the good pray and praise. So material a difference does it make, not what ills are suffered, but what kind of man suffers them. For, stirred up with the same movement, mud exhales a horrible stench, and ointment emits a fragrant odour.
--
But is there a fear that even another's lust may pollute the violated? It will not pollute, if it be another's: if it pollute, it is not another's, but is shared also by the polluted. But since purity is a virtue of the soul, and has for its companion virtue the fortitude which will rather endure all ills than consent to evil; and since no one, however magnanimous and pure, has always the disposal of his own body, but can control only the consent and refusal of his will, what sane man can suppose that, if his body be seized and forcibly made use of to satisfy the lust of another, he thereby loses his purity? For if purity can be thus destroyed, then assuredly purity is no virtue of the soul; nor can it be numbered among those good things by which the life is made good, but among the good things of the body, in the same category as strength, beauty, sound and unbroken health, and, in short, all such good things as may be diminished without at all diminishing the Goodness and rectitude of our life. But if purity[Pg 27] be nothing better than these, why should the body be perilled that it may be preserved? If, on the other hand, it belongs to the soul, then not even when the body is violated is it lost. Nay more, the virtue of holy continence, when it resists the uncleanness of carnal lust, sanctifies even the body, and therefore when this continence remains unsubdued, even the sanctity of the body is preserved, because the will to use it holily remains, and, so far as lies in the body itself, the power also.
For the sanctity of the body does not consist in the integrity of its members, nor in their exemption from all touch; for they are exposed to various accidents which do violence to and wound them, and the surgeons who administer relief often perform operations that sicken the spectator. A midwife, suppose, has (whether maliciously or accidentally, or through unskilfulness) destroyed the virginity of some girl, while endeavouring to ascertain it: I suppose no one is so foolish as to believe that, by this destruction of the integrity of one organ, the virgin has lost anything even of her bodily sanctity. And thus, so long as the soul keeps this firmness of purpose which sanctifies even the body, the violence done by another's lust makes no impression on this bodily sanctity, which is preserved intact by one's own persistent continence. Suppose a virgin violates the oath she has sworn to God, and goes to meet her seducer with the intention of yielding to him, shall we say that as she goes she is possessed even of bodily sanctity, when already she has lost and destroyed that sanctity of soul which sanctifies the body? Far be it from us to so misapply words. Let us rather draw this conclusion, that while the sanctity of the soul remains even when the body is violated, the sanctity of the body is not lost; and that, in like manner, the sanctity of the body is lost when the sanctity of the soul is violated, though the body itself remain intact. And therefore a woman who has been violated by the sin of another, and without any consent of her own, has no cause to put herself to death; much less has she cause to commit suicide in order to avoid such violation, for in that case she commits certain homicide to prevent a crime which is uncertain as yet, and not her own.
BOOK II. - A review of the calamities suffered by the Romans before the time of Christ, showing that their gods had plunged them into corruption and vice, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
But possibly we are to find the reason for this neglect of the Romans by their gods, in the saying of Sallust, that "equity and virtue prevailed among the Romans not more by force of laws than of nature."[107] I presume it is to this inborn equity and Goodness of disposition we are to ascribe the rape of the Sabine women. What, indeed, could be more equitable and virtuous, than to carry off by force, as each man was fit, and without their parents' consent, girls who were strangers and guests, and who had been decoyed and entrapped by the pretence of a spectacle! If the Sabines were wrong to deny their daughters when the Romans asked for them, was it not a greater wrong in the Romans to carry them off after that denial? The Romans might more justly have waged war against the neighbouring nation for having refused their daughters in marriage when they first sought them, than for having demanded them back when they had stolen them. War should have been proclaimed at first: it was then that Mars should have helped his warlike son, that he might by force of arms avenge the injury done him by the refusal of marriage, and might also thus win the women he desired. There might have been some appearance of "right of war" in a victor carrying off, in virtue of this right, the virgins who[Pg 68] had been without any show of right denied him; whereas there was no "right of peace" entitling him to carry off those who were not given to him, and to wage an unjust war with their justly enraged parents. One happy circumstance was indeed connected with this act of violence, viz., that though it was commemorated by the games of the circus, yet even this did not constitute it a precedent in the city or realm of Rome. If one would find fault with the results of this act, it must rather be on the ground that the Romans made Romulus a god in spite of his perpetrating this iniquity; for one cannot reproach them with making this deed any kind of precedent for the rape of women.
Again, I presume it was due to this natural equity and virtue, that after the expulsion of King Tarquin, whose son had violated Lucretia, Junius Brutus the consul forced Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, Lucretia's husb and and his own colleague, a good and innocent man, to resign his office and go into banishment, on the one sole charge that he was of the name and blood of the Tarquins. This injustice was perpetrated with the approval, or at least connivance, of the people, who had themselves raised to the consular office both Collatinus and Brutus. Another instance of this equity and virtue is found in their treatment of Marcus Camillus. This eminent man, after he had rapidly conquered the Veians, at that time the most formidable of Rome's enemies, and who had maintained a ten years' war, in which the Roman army had suffered the usual calamities attendant on bad generalship, after he had restored security to Rome, which had begun to tremble for its safety, and after he had taken the wealthiest city of the enemy, had charges brought against him by the malice of those that envied his success, and by the insolence of the tribunes of the people; and seeing that the city bore him no gratitude for preserving it, and that he would certainly be condemned, he went into exile, and even in his absence was fined 10,000 asses. Shortly after, however, his ungrateful country had again to seek his protection from the Gauls. But I cannot now mention all the shameful and iniquitous acts with which Rome was agitated, when the aristocracy attempted to subject the people, and the people resented their encroachments, and the advocates of either party[Pg 69] were actuated rather by the love of victory than by any equitable or virtuous consideration.
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It is thus apparent, that when the republic was being destroyed by profligate manners, its gods did nothing to hinder its destruction by the direction or correction of its manners, but rather accelerated its destruction by increasing the demoralization and corruption that already existed. They need not pretend that their Goodness was shocked by the iniquity of the city, and that they withdrew in anger. For they were there, sure enough; they are detected, convicted: they were equally unable to break silence so as to guide others, and to keep silence so as to conceal themselves. I do not dwell on the fact that the inhabitants of Minturn took pity on Marius, and commended him to the goddess[Pg 81] Marica in her grove, that she might give him success in all things, and that from the abyss of despair in which he then lay he forthwith returned unhurt to Rome, and entered the city the ruthless leader of a ruthless army; and they who wish to know how bloody was his victory, how unlike a citizen, and how much more relentlessly than any foreign foe he acted, let them read the histories. But this, as I said, I do not dwell upon; nor do I attri bute the bloody bliss of Marius to, I know not what Minturnian goddess [Marica], but rather to the secret providence of God, that the mouths of our adversaries might be shut, and that they who are not led by passion, but by prudent consideration of events, might be delivered from error. And even if the demons have any power in these matters, they have only that power which the secret decree of the Almighty allots to them, in order that we may not set too great store by earthly prosperity, seeing it is oftentimes vouchsafed even to wicked men like Marius; and that we may not, on the other hand, regard it as an evil, since we see that many good and pious worshippers of the one true God are, in spite of the demons, pre-eminently successful; and, finally, that we may not suppose that these unclean spirits are either to be propitiated or feared for the sake of earthly blessings or calamities: for as wicked men on earth cannot do all they would, so neither can these demons, but only in so far as they are permitted by the decree of Him whose judgments are fully comprehensible, justly reprehensible by none.
24. Of the deeds of Sylla, in which the demons boasted that he had their help.
BOOK II. -- PART II. THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
and excellency, and Goodness, which pervades the Universe" -- who is called, by way of preeminence
and excellence, the Supreme** good "the god" ([[Theos]]), and "the god over all." These words apply,
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warrant that the Cause of "excellence and Goodness," supposed by Plato to pervade the Universe is
neither his Deity, nor our World. "Au spectacle de tant [[footnote continued on next page]]
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Lights, unto the place of Truth and Goodness, unto the place where there is neither male nor female,
neither form in that place but Light, everlasting, not to be uttered. Nothing therefore is more excellent
--
appears in the shape of darkness" (verily so!); "its ashes (are) passion; and Goodness is that in
connection with it in which the offering is thrown": i.e., that faculty in the disciple which apprehends
--
of darkness, the product of anger, exist in a sage whose Goodness was the essence that purified the
world -- the earth's dust, as it were, attri buted to Heavens! How should mental perturbation distract
BOOK I. -- PART III. SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
PROVIDENCE, minus design, Goodness, and every other finite attri bute and qualification, so
unphilosophically attri buted to the latter. An Occultist or a philosopher will not speak of the Goodness
or cruelty of Providence; but, identifying it with Karma-Nemesis, he will teach that nevertheless it
BOOK I. -- PART II. THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM IN ITS APPROXIMATE ORDER, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
absolute perfection, mercy, and Goodness were claimed. This was the first Karmic effect of
abandoning a philosophical and logical Pantheism, to build, as a prop for lazy man, "a merciful father
--
qualities of Goodness and darkness," a Sankhyan more than a Puranic idea. For Irenaeus says again (b.
I. xxx. 6) that "they (the Gnostics) had a like eighth creation which was good and bad, divine and
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the quality of Goodness, is termed Urdhvasrotas"; and a page or two further the Urdhvasrotas creation
is referred to as "the sixth creation . . . that of the divinities" (p. 75). This shows plainly that earlier as
BOOK IX. - Of those who allege a distinction among demons, some being good and others evil, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Some have advanced the opinion that there are both good and bad gods; but some, thinking more respectfully of the gods have attributed to them so much honour and praise as to preclude the supposition of any god being wicked. But those who have maintained that there are wicked gods as well as good ones have included the demons under the name "gods," and sometimes, though more rarely, have called the gods demons; so that they admit that Jupiter, whom they make the king and head of all the rest, is called a demon by Homer.[329] Those, on the other hand, who maintain that the gods are all good, and far more excellent than the men who are justly called good, are moved by the actions of the demons, which they can neither deny nor impute to the gods whose Goodness they affirm, to distinguish between gods and demons; so that, whenever they find anything offensive in the deeds or sentiments by which unseen spirits manifest their power, they believe this to proceed not from the gods, but from the demons. At the same time they believe that, as no god can hold direct intercourse with men, these demons hold the position of mediators, ascending with prayers, and returning with gifts. This is the opinion of the Platonists, the ablest and most esteemed of their philosophers, with whom we therefore chose to debate this question,whether the worship of a number of gods is of[Pg 354] any service towards obtaining blessedness in the future life. And this is the reason why, in the preceding book, we have inquired how the demons, who take pleasure in such things as good and wise men loa the and execrate, in the sacrilegious and immoral fictions which the poets have written, not of men, but of the gods themselves, and in the wicked and criminal violence of magical arts, can be regarded as more nearly related and more friendly to the gods than men are, and can mediate between good men and the good gods; and it has been demonstrated that this is absolutely impossible.
2. Whether among the demons, inferior to the gods, there are any good spirits under whose guardianship the human soul might reach true blessedness.
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The good angels, therefore, hold cheap all that knowledge of material and transitory things which the demons are so proud of possessing,not that they are ignorant of these things, but because the love of God, whereby they are sanctified, is very dear to them, and because, in comparison of that not merely immaterial but also unchangeable and ineffable beauty,[Pg 378] with the holy love of which they are inflamed, they despise all things which are beneath it, and all that is not it, that they may with every good thing that is in them enjoy that good which is the source of their Goodness. And therefore they have a more certain knowledge even of those temporal and mutable things, because they contemplate their principles and causes in the word of God, by which the world was made,those causes by which one thing is approved, another rejected, and all arranged. But the demons do not behold in the wisdom of God these eternal, and, as it were, cardinal causes of things temporal, but only foresee a larger part of the future than men do, by reason of their greater acquaintance with the signs which are hidden from us. Sometimes, too, it is their own intentions they predict. And, finally, the demons are frequently, the angels never, deceived. For it is one thing, by the aid of things temporal and changeable, to conjecture the changes that may occur in time, and to modify such things by one's own will and faculty, and this is to a certain extent permitted to the demons,it is another thing to foresee the changes of times in the eternal and immutable laws of God, which live in His wisdom, and to know the will of God, the most infallible and powerful of all causes, by participating in His spirit; and this is granted to the holy angels by a just discretion. And thus they are not only eternal, but blessed And the good wherein they are blessed is God, by whom they were created. For without end they enjoy the contemplation and participation of Him.
23. That the name of gods is falsely given to the gods of the Gentiles, though Scripture applies it both to the holy angels and just men.
Book of Exodus, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
7 And Moses went out to meet his father in law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent. 8 And Moses told his father in law all that the LORD had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the LORD delivered them. 9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the Goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10 And Jethro said, Blessed be the LORD, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them. 12 And Jethro, Moses' father in law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father in law before God.
Appointment of Minor Judges
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18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. 19 And he said, I will make all my Goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. 20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. 21 And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: 22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: 23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT
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5 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in Goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. 8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.
Religious Laws
Book of Genesis, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
Seven key themes of Hebrew Scripture are initiated in the Book of Genesis and are developed throughout the Torah: God is one; the Goodness of creation and the world; God's undying love for his creation mankind in spite of man's sin and disobedience; God presides with justice and mercy; God is active in history by making covenants with Israel, his chosen people; the proper response of obedience to God's Word through observance of traditions and institutions will bring blessings; the gift of Hope through prophecy of the coming Messiah.
The first three chapters of Genesis are the best known of Hebrew Scripture: Chapter One presents God's creation of the world. In Genesis 1:14, God designated appointed times - - moadim - for His creation. Genesis 1:26-27 relates that God decided to make man in our image and likeness. The idea of human dignity, that we are created in the image of God (1:27), supports the theological basis for human equality and the core principle of liberty in Western Christian civilization, as found in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. Chapter Two provides further detail on the creation of man and woman. Chapter Three records the temptation and fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden. The first line of Genesis is truly one of the most famous lines of Hebrew Scripture:
Book of Psalms, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
Surely Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
--
19 Oh how great is thy Goodness,
which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee;
BOOK VIII. - Some account of the Socratic and Platonic philosophy, and a refutation of the doctrine of Apuleius that the demons should be worshipped as mediators between gods and men, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Therefore, although in many other important respects they differ from us, nevertheless with respect to this particular point of difference, which I have just stated, as it is one of great moment, and the question on hand concerns it, I will first ask them to what gods they think that sacred rites are to be performed,to the good or to the bad, or to both the good and the bad? But we have the opinion of Plato affirming that all the gods are good, and that there is not one of the gods bad. It follows, therefore, that these are to be performed to the good, for then they are performed to gods; for if they are not good, neither are they gods. Now, if this be the case (for what else ought we to believe concerning the gods?), certainly it explodes the opinion that the bad gods are to be propitiated by sacred rites in order that they may not harm us, but the good gods are to be invoked in order that they may assist us. For there are no bad gods, and it is to the good that, as they say, the due honour of such rites is to be paid. Of what character, then, are those gods who love scenic displays, even demanding that a place be given them among divine things, and that they be exhibited in their honour? The power of these gods proves that they exist, but their liking such things proves that they are bad. For it is well known what Plato's opinion was concerning scenic plays. He thinks that the poets themselves, because they[Pg 325] have composed songs so unworthy of the majesty and Goodness of the gods, ought to be banished from the state. Of what character, therefore, are those gods who contend with Plato himself about those scenic plays? He does not suffer the gods to be defamed by false crimes; the gods comm and those same crimes to be celebrated in their own honour.
In fine, when they ordered these plays to be inaugurated, they not only demanded base things, but also did cruel things, taking from Titus Latinius his son, and sending a disease upon him because he had refused to obey them, which they removed when he had fulfilled their commands. Plato, however, bad though they were, did not think they were to be feared; but, holding to his opinion with the utmost firmness and constancy, does not hesitate to remove from a well-ordered state all the sacrilegious follies of the poets, with which these gods are delighted because they themselves are impure. But Labeo places this same Plato (as I have mentioned already in the second book[307]) among the demi-gods. Now Labeo thinks that the bad deities are to be propitiated with bloody victims, and by fasts accompanied with the same, but the good deities with plays, and all other things which are associated with joyfulness. How comes it, then, that the demi-god Plato so persistently dares to take away those pleasures, because he deems them base, not from the demi-gods but from the gods, and these the good gods? And, moreover, those very gods themselves do certainly refute the opinion of Labeo, for they showed themselves in the case of Latinius to be not only wanton and sportive, but also cruel and terrible. Let the Platonists, therefore, explain these things to us, since, following the opinion of their master, they think that all the gods are good and honourable, and friendly to the virtues of the wise, holding it unlawful to think otherwise concerning any of the gods. We will explain it, say they. Let us then attentively listen to them.
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Wherefore let not the mind truly religious, and submitted to the true God, suppose that demons are better than men, because they have better bodies. Otherwise it must put many beasts before itself which are superior to us both in acuteness of the senses, in ease and quickness of movement,[Pg 328] in strength and in long-continued vigour of body. What man can equal the eagle or the vulture in strength of vision? Who can equal the dog in acuteness of smell? Who can equal the hare, the stag, and all the birds in swiftness? Who can equal in strength the lion or the elephant? Who can equal in length of life the serpents, which are affirmed to put off old age along with their skin, and to return to youth again? But as we are better than all these by the possession of reason and understanding, so we ought also to be better than the demons by living good and virtuous lives. For divine providence gave to them bodies of a better quality than ours, that that in which we excel them might in this way be commended to us as deserving to be far more cared for than the body, and that we should learn to despise the bodily excellence of the demons compared with Goodness of life, in respect of which we are better than they, knowing that we too shall have immortality of body,not an immortality tortured by eternal punishment, but that which is consequent on purity of soul.
But now, as regards loftiness of place, it is altogether ridiculous to be so influenced by the fact that the demons inhabit the air, and we the earth, as to think that on that account they are to be put before us; for in this way we put all the birds before ourselves. But the birds, when they are weary with flying, or require to repair their bodies with food, come back to the earth to rest or to feed, which the demons, they say, do not. Are they, therefore, inclined to say that the birds are superior to us, and the demons superior to the birds? But if it be madness to think so, there is no reason why we should think that, on account of their inhabiting a loftier element, the demons have a claim to our religious submission. But as it is really the case that the birds of the air are not only not put before us who dwell on the earth, but are even subjected to us on account of the dignity of the rational soul which is in us, so also it is the case that the demons, though they are aerial, are not better than we who are terrestrial because the air is higher than the earth, but, on the contrary, men are to be put before demons because their despair is not to be compared to the hope of pious men. Even that law of[Pg 329] Plato's, according to which he mutually orders and arranges the four elements, inserting between the two extreme elementsnamely, fire, which is in the highest degree mobile, and the immoveable earth the two middle ones, air and water, that by how much the air is higher up than the water, and the fire than the air, by so much also are the waters higher than the earth,this law, I say, sufficiently admonishes us not to estimate the merits of animated creatures according to the grades of the elements. And Apuleius himself says that man is a terrestrial animal in common with the rest, who is nevertheless to be put far before aquatic animals, though Plato puts the waters themselves before the land. By this he would have us understand that the same order is not to be observed when the question concerns the merits of animals, though it seems to be the true one in the gradation of bodies; for it appears to be possible that a soul of a higher order may inhabit a body of a lower, and a soul of a lower order a body of a higher.
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But herein, no doubt, lies the great necessity for this absurdity, so unworthy of the gods, that the ethereal gods, who are concerned about human affairs, would not know what terrestrial men were doing unless the aerial demons should bring them intelligence, because the ether is suspended far away from the earth and far above it, but the air is contiguous[Pg 336] both to the ether and to the earth. O admirable wisdom! what else do these men think concerning the gods who, they say, are all in the highest degree good, but that they are concerned about human affairs, lest they should seem unworthy of worship, whilst, on the other hand, from the distance between the elements, they are ignorant of terrestrial things? It is on this account that they have supposed the demons to be necessary as agents, through whom the gods may inform themselves with respect to human affairs, and through whom, when necessary, they may succour men; and it is on account of this office that the demons themselves have been held as deserving of worship. If this be the case, then a demon is better known by these good gods through nearness of body, than a man is by Goodness of mind. O mournful necessity! or shall I not rather say detestable and vain error, that I may not impute vanity to the divine nature! For if the gods can, with their minds free from the hindrance of bodies, see our mind, they do not need the demons as messengers from our mind to them; but if the ethereal gods, by means of their bodies, perceive the corporeal indices of minds, as the countenance, speech, motion, and thence understand what the demons tell them, then it is also possible that they may be deceived by the falsehoods of demons. Moreover, if the divinity of the gods cannot be deceived by the demons, neither can it be ignorant of our actions. But I would they would tell me whether the demons have informed the gods that the fictions of the poets concerning the crimes of the gods displease Plato, concealing the pleasure which they themselves take in them; or whether they have concealed both, and have preferred that the gods should be ignorant with respect to this whole matter, or have told both, as well the pious prudence of Plato with respect to the gods as their own lust, which is injurious to the gods; or whether they have concealed Plato's opinion, according to which he was unwilling that the gods should be defamed with falsely alleged crimes through the impious licence of the poets, whilst they have not been ashamed nor afraid to make known their own wickedness, which make them love theatrical plays, in which the infamous deeds of the gods are celebrated. Let them choose which[Pg 337] they will of these four alternatives, and let them consider how much evil any one of them would require them to think of the gods. For if they choose the first, they must then confess that it was not possible for the good gods to dwell with the good Plato, though he sought to prohibit things injurious to them, whilst they dwelt with evil demons, who exulted in their injuries; and this because they suppose that the good gods can only know a good man, placed at so great a distance from them, through the mediation of evil demons, whom they could know on account of their nearness to themselves.[314] If they shall choose the second, and shall say that both these things are concealed by the demons, so that the gods are wholly ignorant both of Plato's most religious law and the sacrilegious pleasure of the demons, what, in that case, can the gods know to any profit with respect to human affairs through these mediating demons, when they do not know those things which are decreed, through the piety of good men, for the honour of the good gods against the lust of evil demons? But if they shall choose the third, and reply that these intermediary demons have communicated, not only the opinion of Plato, which prohibited wrongs to be done to the gods, but also their own delight in these wrongs, I would ask if such a communication is not rather an insult? Now the gods, hearing both and knowing both, not only permit the approach of those malign demons, who desire and do things contrary to the dignity of the gods and the religion of Plato, but also, through these wicked demons, who are near to them, send good things to the good Plato, who is far away from them; for they inhabit such a place in the concatenated series of the elements, that they can come into contact with those by whom they are accused, but not with him by whom they are defended,knowing the truth on both sides, but not being able to change the weight of the air and the earth. There remains the fourth supposition; but it is worse than the rest. For who will suffer it to be said that the demons have made known the calumnious fictions of the poets concerning the immortal gods, and also the disgraceful mockeries of the theatres, and their own most ardent lust after, and most sweet[Pg 338] pleasure in these things, whilst they have concealed from them that Plato, with the gravity of a philosopher, gave it as his opinion that all these things ought to be removed from a well-regulated republic; so that the good gods are now compelled, through such messengers, to know the evil doings of the most wicked beings, that is to say, of the messengers themselves, and are not allowed to know the good deeds of the philosophers, though the former are for the injury, but these latter for the honour of the gods themselves?
22. That we must, notwithstanding the opinion of Apuleius, reject the worship of demons.
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Wherefore he who sorrowed because a time was coming when the worship of idols should be abolished, and the domination of the demons over those who worshipped them, wished, under the influence of a demon, that that captivity should always continue, at the cessation of which that psalm celebrates the building of the house of the Lord in all the earth. Hermes foretold these things with grief, the prophet with joyfulness; and because the Spirit is victorious who sang these things through the ancient prophets, even Hermes himself was compelled in a wonderful manner to confess, that those very things which he wished not to be removed, and at the prospect of whose removal he was sorrowful, had been instituted, not by prudent, faithful, and religious, but by erring and unbelieving men, averse to the worship and service of the gods. And although he calls them gods, nevertheless, when he says that they were made by such men as we certainly ought not to be, he shows, whether he will or not, that they are not to be worshipped by those who do not resemble these image-makers, that is, by prudent, faithful, and religious men, at the same time also making it manifest that the very men who made them involved themselves in the worship of those as gods who were not gods.[Pg 346] For true is the saying of the prophet, "If a man make gods, lo, they are no gods."[326] Such gods, therefore, acknowledged by such worshippers and made by such men, did Hermes call "gods made by men," that is to say, demons, through some art of I know not what description, bound by the chains of their own lusts to images. But, nevertheless, he did not agree with that opinion of the Platonic Apuleius, of which we have already shown the incongruity and absurdity, namely, that they were interpreters and intercessors between the gods whom God made, and men whom the same God made, bringing to God the prayers of men, and from God the gifts given in answer to these prayers. For it is exceedingly stupid to believe that gods whom men have made have more influence with gods whom God has made than men themselves have, whom the very same God has made. And consider, too, that it is a demon which, bound by a man to an image by means of an impious art, has been made a god, but a god to such a man only, not to every man. What kind of god, therefore, is that which no man would make but one erring, incredulous, and averse to the true God? Moreover, if the demons which are worshipped in the temples, being introduced by some kind of strange art into images, that is, into visible representations of themselves, by those men who by this art made gods when they were straying away from, and were averse to the worship and service of the gods,if, I say, those demons are neither mediators nor interpreters between men and the gods, both on account of their own most wicked and base manners, and because men, though erring, incredulous, and averse from the worship and service of the gods, are nevertheless beyond doubt better than the demons whom they themselves have evoked, then it remains to be affirmed that what power they possess they possess as demons, doing harm by bestowing pretended benefits,harm all the greater for the deception,or else openly and undisguisedly doing evil to men. They cannot, however, do anything of this kind unless where they are permitted by the deep and secret providence of God, and then only so far as they are permitted. When, however, they are permitted, it is not because they, being midway between[Pg 347] men and the gods, have through the friendship of the gods great power over men; for these demons cannot possibly be friends to the good gods who dwell in the holy and heavenly habitation, by whom we mean holy angels and rational creatures, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers, from whom they are as far separated in disposition and character as vice is distant from virtue, wickedness from Goodness.
25. Concerning those things which may be common to the holy angels and to men.
BOOK V. - Of fate, freewill, and God's prescience, and of the source of the virtues of the ancient Romans, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
It is, therefore, doubtless far better to resist this desire than to yield to it, for the purer one is from this defilement, the liker is he to God; and, though this vice be not thoroughly eradicated from his heart,for it does not cease to tempt even the minds of those who are making good progress in virtue,at any rate, let the desire of glory be surpassed by the love of righteousness, so that, if there be seen anywhere "lying neglected things which are generally discredited," if they are good, if they are right, even the love of human praise may blush and yield to the love of truth. For so hostile is this vice to pious faith, if the love of glory be greater in the heart than the fear or love of God, that the Lord said, "How can ye believe, who look for glory from one another, and do not seek the glory which is from God alone?"[206] Also, concerning some who had believed on Him, but were afraid to confess Him openly, the evangelist says, "They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God;"[207] which did not the holy apostles, who, when they proclaimed the name of Christ in those places where it was not only discredited, and therefore neglected,according as Cicero says, "Those things are always neglected which are generally discredited,"but was even held in the utmost detestation, holding to what they had heard from the Good Master, who was also the physician of minds, "If any one shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven, and before the angels of God,"[208] amidst maledictions and reproaches, and most grievous persecutions and cruel punishments,[Pg 206] were not deterred from the preaching of human salvation by the noise of human indignation. And when, as they did and spake divine things, and lived divine lives, conquering, as it were, hard hearts, and introducing into them the peace of righteousness, great glory followed them in the church of Christ, they did not rest in that as in the end of their virtue, but, referring that glory itself to the glory of God, by whose grace they were what they were, they sought to kindle, also by that same flame, the minds of those for whose good they consulted, to the love of Him, by whom they could be made to be what they themselves were. For their Master had taught them not to seek to be good for the sake of human glory, saying, "Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of them, or otherwise ye shall not have a reward from your Father who is in heaven."[209] But again, lest, understanding this wrongly, they should, through fear of pleasing men, be less useful through concealing their Goodness, showing for what end they ought to make it known, He says, "Let your works shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."[210] Not, observe, "that ye may be seen by them, that is, in order that their eyes may be directed upon you,"for of yourselves ye are nothing,but "that they may glorify your Father who is in heaven," by fixing their regards on whom they may become such as ye are. These the martyrs followed, who surpassed the Scvolas, and the Curtiuses, and the Deciuses, both in true virtue, because in true piety, and also in the greatness of their number. But since those Romans were in an earthly city, and had before them, as the end of all the offices undertaken in its behalf, its safety, and a kingdom, not in heaven, but in earth,not in the sphere of eternal life, but in the sphere of demise and succession, where the dead are succeeded by the dying,what else but glory should they love, by which they wished even after death to live in the mouths of their admirers?
15. Concerning the temporal reward which God granted to the virtues of the Romans.
BOOK XI. - Augustine passes to the second part of the work, in which the origin, progress, and destinies of the earthly and heavenly cities are discussed.Speculations regarding the creation of the world, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
From all this, it will readily occur to any one that the blessedness which an intelligent being desires as its legitimate object results from a combination of these two things, namely, that it uninterruptedly enjoy the unchangeable good, which is God; and that it be delivered from all dubiety, and know certainly that it shall eternally abide in the same enjoyment. That it is so with the angels of light we piously believe; but that the fallen angels, who by their own default lost that light, did not enjoy this blessedness even before they sinned, reason bids us conclude. Yet if their life was of any duration before they fell, we must allow them a blessedness of some kind, though not that which is accompanied with foresight. Or, if it seems hard to believe that, when the angels were created, some were created in ignorance either of their perseverance or their fall, while others were most certainly assured of the eternity of their felicity,if it is hard to believe that they were not all from the beginning on an equal footing, until these who are now evil did of their own will fall away from the light of Goodness, certainly it is much harder to believe that the holy angels are now uncertain of their eternal blessedness, and do not know regarding themselves as much as we have been able to gather regarding them from the Holy Scriptures. For what catholic Christian does not know that no new devil will ever arise among the good angels, as he knows that this present devil will never again return into the[Pg 453] fellowship of the good? For the truth in the gospel promises to the saints and the faithful that they will be equal to the angels of God; and it is also promised them that they will "go away into life eternal."[469] But if we are certain that we shall never lapse from eternal felicity, while they are not certain, then we shall not be their equals, but their superiors. But as the truth never deceives, and as we shall be their equals, they must be certain of their blessedness. And because the evil angels could not be certain of that, since their blessedness was destined to come to an end, it follows either that the angels were unequal, or that, if equal, the good angels were assured of the eternity of their blessedness after the perdition of the others; unless, possibly, some one may say that the words of the Lord about the devil, "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,"[470] are to be understood as if he was not only a murderer from the beginning of the human race, when man, whom he could kill by his deceit, was made, but also that he did not abide in the truth from the time of his own creation, and was accordingly never blessed with the holy angels, but refused to submit to his Creator, and proudly exulted as if in a private lordship of his own, and was thus deceived and deceiving. For the dominion of the Almighty cannot be eluded; and he who will not piously submit himself to things as they are, proudly feigns, and mocks himself with a state of things that does not exist; so that what the blessed Apostle John says thus becomes intelligible: "The devil sinneth from the beginning,"[471]that is, from the time he was created he refused righteousness which none but a will piously subject to God can enjoy. Whoever adopts this opinion at least disagrees with those heretics the Manichees, and with any other pestilential sect that may suppose that the devil has derived from some adverse evil principle a nature proper to himself. These persons are so befooled by error, that, although they acknowledge with ourselves the authority of the gospels, they do not notice that the Lord did not say, "The devil was naturally a stranger to the truth," but "The devil abode not in the truth," by which He meant us to understand that he[Pg 454] had fallen from the truth, in which, if he had abode, he would have become a partaker of it, and have remained in blessedness along with the holy angels.[472]
14. An explanation of what is said of the devil, that he did not abide in the truth, because the truth was not in him.
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It is with reference to the nature, then, and not to the wickedness of the devil, that we are to understand these words, "This is the beginning of God's handiwork;"[480] for, without doubt, wickedness can be a flaw or vice[481] only where the nature previously was not vitiated. Vice, too, is so contrary to nature, that it cannot but damage it. And therefore departure from God would be no vice, unless in a nature whose property it was to abide with God. So that even the wicked will is a strong proof of the Goodness of the nature. But God, as He is the supremely good Creator of good natures, so is He of evil wills the most just Ruler; so that, while they make an ill use of good natures, He makes a good use even of evil wills. Accordingly, He caused the devil (good by God's creation, wicked by his own will) to be cast down from his high position, and to become the mockery of His angels,that is, He caused his temptations to benefit those whom he wishes to injure by them. And because God, when[Pg 457] He created him, was certainly not ignorant of his future malignity, and foresaw the good which He Himself would bring out of his evil, therefore says the psalm, "This leviathan whom Thou hast made to be a sport therein,"[482] that we may see that, even while God in His Goodness created him good, He yet had already foreseen and arranged how He would make use of him when he became wicked.
18. Of the beauty of the universe, which becomes, by God's ordinance, more brilliant by the opposition of contraries.
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This cause, however, of a good creation, namely, the Goodness of God,this cause, I say, so just and fit, which, when piously and carefully weighed, terminates all the controversies of those who inquire into the origin of the world, has not been recognised by some heretics,[490] because there are, forsooth, many things, such as fire, frost, wild beasts, and so forth, which do not suit but injure this thin-blooded and frail mortality of our[Pg 462] flesh, which is at present under just punishment. They do not consider how admirable these things are in their own places, how excellent in their own natures, how beautifully adjusted to the rest of creation, and how much grace they contri bute to the universe by their own contri butions as to a commonwealth; and how serviceable they are even to ourselves, if we use them with a knowledge of their fit adaptations,so that even poisons, which are destructive when used injudiciously, become wholesome and medicinal when used in conformity with their qualities and design; just as, on the other hand, those things which give us pleasure, such as food, drink, and the light of the sun, are found to be hurtful when immoderately or unseasonably used. And thus divine providence admonishes us not foolishly to vituperate things, but to investigate their utility with care; and, where our mental capacity or infirmity is at fault, to believe that there is a utility, though hidden, as we have experienced that there were other things which we all but failed to discover. For this concealment of the use of things is itself either an exercise of our humility or a levelling of our pride; for no nature at all is evil, and this is a name for nothing but the want of good. But from things earthly to things heavenly, from the visible to the invisible, there are some things better than others; and for this purpose are they unequal, in order that they might all exist. Now God is in such sort a great worker in great things, that He is not less in little things,for these little things are to be measured not by their own greatness (which does not exist), but by the wisdom of their Designer; as, in the visible appearance of a man, if one eyebrow be shaved off, how nearly nothing is taken from the body, but how much from the beauty!for that is not constituted by bulk, but by the proportion and arrangement of the members. But we do not greatly wonder that persons, who suppose that some evil nature has been generated and propagated by a kind of opposing principle proper to it, refuse to admit that the cause of the creation was this, that the good God produced a good creation. For they believe that He was driven to this enterprise of creation by the urgent necessity of repulsing the evil that warred against Him, and that He mixed His good nature[Pg 463] with the evil for the sake of restraining and conquering it; and that this nature of His, being thus shamefully polluted, and most cruelly oppressed and held captive, He labours to cleanse and deliver it, and with all His pains does not wholly succeed; but such part of it as could not be cleansed from that defilement is to serve as a prison and chain of the conquered and incarcerated enemy. The Manichans would not drivel, or rather, rave in such a style as this, if they believed the nature of God to be, as it is, unchangeable and absolutely incorruptible, and subject to no injury; and if, moreover, they held in Christian sobriety, that the soul which has shown itself capable of being altered for the worse by its own will, and of being corrupted by sin, and so, of being deprived of the light of eternal truth,that this soul, I say, is not a part of God, nor of the same nature as God, but is created by Him, and is far different from its Creator.
23. Of the error in which the doctrine of Origen is involved.
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We believe, we maintain, we faithfully preach, that the Father begat the Word, that is, Wisdom, by which all things were made, the only-begotten Son, one as the Father is one, eternal as the Father is eternal, and, equally with the Father, supremely good; and that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit alike of Father and of Son, and is Himself consubstantial and co-eternal with both; and that this whole is a Trinity by reason of the individuality[492] of the persons, and one God by reason of the indivisible divine substance, as also one Almighty by reason of the indivisible omnipotence; yet so that, when we inquire regarding each singly, it is said that each is God and Almighty; and, when we speak of all together, it is said that there are not three Gods, nor three Almighties, but one God Almighty; so great is the indivisible unity of these Three, which requires that it be so stated. But, whether the Holy Spirit of the Father, and of the Son, who are both good, can be with propriety called the Goodness of both, because[Pg 466] He is common to both, I do not presume to determine hastily. Nevertheless, I would have less hesitation in saying that He is the holiness of both, not as if He were a divine attribute merely, but Himself also the divine substance, and the third person in the Trinity. I am the rather emboldened to make this statement, because, though the Father is a spirit, and the Son a spirit, and the Father holy, and the Son holy, yet the third person is distinctively called the Holy Spirit, as if He were the substantial holiness consubstantial with the other two. But if the divine Goodness is nothing else than the divine holiness, then certainly it is a reasonable studiousness, and not presumptuous intrusion, to inquire whether the same Trinity be not hinted at in an enigmatical mode of speech, by which our inquiry is stimulated, when it is written who made each creature, and by what means, and why. For it is the Father of the Word who said, Let there be. And that which was made when He spoke was certainly made by means of the Word. And by the words, "God saw that it was good," it is sufficiently intimated that God made what was made not from any necessity, nor for the sake of supplying any want, but solely from His own Goodness, i.e., because it was good. And this is stated after the creation had taken place, that there might be no doubt that the thing made satisfied the Goodness on account of which it was made. And if we are right in understanding that this Goodness is the Holy Spirit, then the whole Trinity is revealed to us in the creation. In this, too, is the origin, the enlightenment, the blessedness of the holy city which is above among the holy angels. For if we inquire whence it is, God created it; or whence its wisdom, God illumined it; or whence its blessedness, God is its bliss. It has its form by subsisting in Him; its enlightenment by contemplating Him; its joy by abiding in Him. It is; it sees; it loves. In God's eternity is its life; in God's truth its light; in God's Goodness its joy.
25. Of the division of philosophy into three parts.
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That certain angels sinned, and were thrust down to the lowest parts of this world, where they are, as it were, incarcerated till their final damnation in the day of judgment, the Apostle Peter very plainly declares, when he says that "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment."[510] Who, then, can doubt that God, either in foreknowledge or in act, separated between these and the rest? And who will dispute that the rest are justly called "light?" For even we who are yet living by faith, hoping only and not yet enjoying equality with them, are already called "light" by the apostle: "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord."[511] But as for these apostate angels, all[Pg 478] who understand or believe them to be worse than unbelieving men are well aware that they are called "darkness." Wherefore, though light and darkness are to be taken in their literal signification in these passages of Genesis in which it is said, "God said, Let there be light, and there was light," and "God divided the light from the darkness," yet, for our part, we understand these two societies of angels,the one enjoying God, the other swelling with pride; the one to whom it is said, "Praise ye Him, all His angels,"[512] the other whose prince says, "All these things will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me;"[513] the one blazing with the holy love of God, the other reeking with the unclean lust of self-advancement. And since, as it is written, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble,"[514] we may say, the one dwelling in the heaven of heavens, the other cast thence, and raging through the lower regions of the air; the one tranquil in the brightness of piety, the other tempest-tossed with beclouding desires; the one, at God's pleasure, tenderly succouring, justly avenging,the other, set on by its own pride, boiling with the lust of subduing and hurting; the one the minister of God's Goodness to the utmost of their good pleasure, the other held in by God's power from doing the harm it would; the former laughing at the latter when it does good unwillingly by its persecutions, the latter envying the former when it gathers in its pilgrims. These two angelic communities, then, dissimilar and contrary to one another, the one both by nature good and by will upright, the other also good by nature but by will depraved, as they are exhibited in other and more explicit passages of holy writ, so I think they are spoken of in this book of Genesis under the names of light and darkness; and even if the author perhaps had a different meaning, yet our discussion of the obscure language has not been wasted time; for, though we have been unable to discover his meaning, yet we have adhered to the rule of faith, which is sufficiently ascertained by the faithful from other passages of equal authority. For, though it is the material works of God which are here spoken of, they have certainly a resemblance to the spiritual, so that Paul can say, "Ye are all the children of light, and[Pg 479] the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness."[515] If, on the other hand, the author of Genesis saw in the words what we see, then our discussion reaches this more satisfactory conclusion, that the man of God, so eminently and divinely wise, or rather, that the Spirit of God who by him recorded God's works which were finished on the sixth day, may be supposed not to have omitted all mention of the angels, whether he included them in the words "in the beginning," because He made them first, or, which seems most likely, because He made them in the only-begotten Word. And, under these names heaven and earth, the whole creation is signified, either as divided into spiritual and material, which seems the more likely, or into the two great parts of the world in which all created things are contained, so that, first of all, the creation is presented in sum, and then its parts are enumerated according to the mystic number of the days.
34. Of the idea that the angels were meant where the separation of the waters by the firmament is spoken of, and of that other idea that the waters were not created.
BOOK XIII. - That death is penal, and had its origin in Adam's sin, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
But they should not have been so led astray, I will not say by their ignorance, but by their obstinacy, as to contradict themselves so frequently; for they maintain, with all their vaunted might, that in order to the happiness of the soul, it must abandon not only its earthly body, but every kind of body. And yet they hold that the gods, whose souls are most blessed, are bound to everlasting bodies, the celestials to fiery bodies, and the soul of Jove himself (or this world, as they would have us believe) to all the physical elements which compose this entire mass reaching from earth to heaven. For this soul Plato believes to be extended and diffused by musical numbers,[596] from the middle of the inside of the earth, which geometricians call the centre, outwards through all its parts to the utmost heights and extremities of the heavens; so that this world is a very great and blessed immortal animal, whose soul has both the perfect blessedness of wisdom, and never leaves its own body, and whose body has life everlasting[Pg 540] from the soul, and by no means clogs or hinders it, though itself be not a simple body, but compacted of so many and so huge materials. Since, therefore, they allow so much to their own conjectures, why do they refuse to believe that by the divine will and power immortality can be conferred on earthly bodies, in which the souls would be neither oppressed with the burden of them, nor separated from them by any death, but live eternally and blessedly? Do they not assert that their own gods so live in bodies of fire, and that Jove himself, their king, so lives in the physical elements? If, in order to its blessedness, the soul must quit every kind of body, let their gods flit from the starry spheres, and Jupiter from earth to sky; or, if they cannot do so, let them be pronounced miserable. But neither alternative will these men adopt. For, on the one hand, they dare not ascribe to their own gods a departure from the body, lest they should seem to worship mortals; on the other hand, they dare not deny their happiness, lest they should acknowledge wretches as gods. Therefore, to obtain blessedness, we need not quit every kind of body, but only the corruptible, cumbersome, painful, dying,not such bodies as the Goodness of God contrived for the first man, but such only as man's sin entailed.
18. Of earthly bodies, which the philosophers affirm cannot be in heavenly places, because whatever is of earth is by its natural weight attracted to earth.
BOOK XII. - Of the creation of angels and men, and of the origin of evil, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Of this, too, I have no doubt, that before the first man was created, there never had been a man at all, neither this same man himself recurring by I know not what cycles, and having made I know not how many revolutions, nor any other of similar nature. From this belief I am not frightened by philosophical arguments, among which that is reckoned the most acute which is founded on the assertion that the infinite cannot be comprehended by any mode of knowledge. Consequently, they argue, God has in His own mind finite conceptions of all finite things which He makes. Now it cannot be supposed that His Goodness was ever idle; for if it were, there should be ascribed to Him an awakening to activity in time, from a past eternity of inactivity, as if He repented of an idleness that had no beginning, and proceeded, therefore, to make a beginning of work. This being the case, they say it must be that the same things are always repeated, and that as they pass, so they are destined always to return, whether amidst all these changes the world remains the same,the world which has always been, and yet was created,or that the world in these revolutions is perpetually dying out and being renewed; otherwise, if we point to a time when the works of God were begun, it would be believed that He considered His past eternal leisure to be inert and indolent, and therefore condemned and altered it as displeasing to Himself. Now if God is supposed to have been indeed always making temporal things, but different from one another, and one after the other, so that He thus came at last to make man, whom He had never made before, then it may seem that He made man not with knowledge (for they suppose no knowledge can comprehend the infinite succession of creatures), but at the dictate of the hour, as it struck Him at the moment, with a sudden and accidental change of mind. On the other hand, say they, if those cycles be admitted, and if we suppose that[Pg 506] the same temporal things are repeated, while the world either remains identical through all these rotations, or else dies away and is renewed, then there is ascribed to God neither the slothful ease of a past eternity, nor a rash and unforeseen creation. And if the same things be not thus repeated in cycles, then they cannot by any science or prescience be comprehended in their endless diversity. Even though reason could not refute, faith would smile at these argumentations, with which the godless endeavour to turn our simple piety from the right way, that we may walk with them "in a circle." But by the help of the Lord our God, even reason, and that readily enough, shatters these revolving circles which conjecture frames. For that which specially leads these men astray to prefer their own circles to the straight path of truth, is, that they measure by their own human, changeable, and narrow intellect the divine mind, which is absolutely unchangeable, infinitely capacious, and, without succession of thought, counting all things without number. So that saying of the apostle comes true of them, for, "comparing themselves with themselves, they do not understand."[549] For because they do, in virtue of a new purpose, whatever new thing has occurred to them to be done (their minds being changeable), they conclude it is so with God; and thus compare, not God,for they cannot conceive God, but think of one like themselves when they think of Him,not God, but themselves, and not with Him, but with themselves. For our part, we dare not believe that God is affected in one way when He works, in another when He rests. Indeed, to say that He is affected at all, is an abuse of language, since it implies that there comes to be something in His nature which was not there before. For he who is affected is acted upon, and whatever is acted upon is changeable. In His leisure, therefore, is no laziness, indolence, inactivity; as in His work is no labour, effort, industry. He can act while He reposes, and repose while He acts. He can begin a new work with (not a new, but) an eternal design; and what He has not made before, He does not now begin to make because He repents of His former repose. But[Pg 507] when one speaks of His former repose and subsequent operation (and I know not how men can understand these things), this "former" and "subsequent" are applied only to the things created, which formerly did not exist, and subsequently came into existence. But in God the former purpose is not altered and obliterated by the subsequent and different purpose, but by one and the same eternal and unchangeable will He effected regarding the things He created, both that formerly, so long as they were not, they should not be, and that subsequently, when they began to be, they should come into existence. And thus, perhaps, He would show in a very striking way, to those who have eyes for such things, how independent He is of what He makes, and how it is of His own gratuitous Goodness He creates, since from eternity He dwelt without creatures in no less perfect a blessedness.
18. Against those who assert that things that are infinite[550] cannot be comprehended by the knowledge of God.
BOOK XIV. - Of the punishment and results of mans first sin, and of the propagation of man without lust, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
In Paradise, then, man lived as he desired so long as he desired what God had commanded. He lived in the enjoyment of God, and was good by God's Goodness; he lived without any want, and had it in his power so to live eternally. He had food that he might not hunger, drink that he might not thirst, the tree of life that old age might not waste him. There was in his body no corruption, nor seed of corruption, which could produce in him any unpleasant sensation. He feared no inward disease, no outward accident. Soundest health blessed his body, absolute tranquillity his soul. As in Paradise there was no excessive heat or cold, so its inhabitants were exempt from the vicissitudes of fear and desire. No sadness of any kind was there, nor any foolish joy; true gladness ceaselessly flowed from the presence of God, who was loved "out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned."[123] The honest love of husb and and wife made a sure harmony between them. Body and spirit worked harmoniously together, and the commandment was kept without labour. No[Pg 45] languor made their leisure wearisome; no sleepiness interrupted their desire to labour.[124] In tanta facilitate rerum et felicitate hominum, absit ut suspicemur, non potuisse prolem seri sine libidinis morbo: sed eo voluntatis nutu moverentur illa membra quo ctera, et sine ardoris illecebroso stimulo cum tranquillitate animi et corporis nulla corruptione integritatis infunderetur gremio maritus uxoris. Neque enim quia experientia probari non potest, ideo credendum non est; quando illas corporis partes non ageret turbidus calor, sed spontanea potestas, sicut opus esset, adhiberet; ita tunc potuisse utero conjugis salva integritate feminei genitalis virile semen immitti, sicut nunc potest eadem integritate salva ex utero virginis fluxus menstrui cruoris emitti. Eadem quippe via posset illud injici, qua hoc potest ejici. Ut enim ad pariendum non doloris gemitus, sed maturitatis impulsus feminea viscera relaxaret: sic ad ftandum et concipiendum non libidinis appetitus, sed voluntarius usus naturam utramque conjungeret. We speak of things which are now shameful, and although we try, as well as we are able, to conceive them as they were before they became shameful, yet necessity compels us rather to limit our discussion to the bounds set by modesty than to extend it as our moderate faculty of discourse might suggest. For since that which I have been speaking of was not experienced even by those who might have experienced it,I mean our first parents (for sin and its merited banishment from Paradise anticipated this passionless generation on their part),when sexual intercourse is spoken of now, it suggests to men's thoughts not such a placid obedience to the will as is conceivable in our first parents, but such violent acting of lust as they themselves have experienced. And therefore modesty shuts my mouth, although my mind conceives the matter clearly. But Almighty God, the supreme and supremely good Creator of all natures, who aids and rewards good wills, while He abandons and condemns the bad, and rules both, was not destitute of a plan by which He might people His city with the fixed number of citizens which His wisdom had foreordained even out of the condemned[Pg 46] human race, discriminating them not now by merits, since the whole mass was condemned as if in a vitiated root, but by grace, and showing, not only in the case of the redeemed, but also in those who were not delivered, how much grace He has bestowed upon them. For every one acknowledges that he has been rescued from evil, not by deserved, but by gratuitous Goodness, when he is singled out from the company of those with whom he might justly have borne a common punishment, and is allowed to go scathless. Why, then, should God not have created those whom He foresaw would sin, since He was able to show in and by them both what their guilt merited, and what His grace bestowed, and since, under His creating and disposing hand, even the perverse disorder of the wicked could not pervert the right order of things?
27. Of the angels and men who sinned, and that their wickedness did not disturb the order of God's providence.
The sins of men and angels do nothing to impede the "great works of the Lord which accomplish His will."[125] For He who by His providence and omnipotence distributes to every one his own portion, is able to make good use not only of the good, but also of the wicked. And thus making a good use of the wicked angel, who, in punishment of his first wicked volition, was doomed to an obduracy that prevents him now from willing any good, why should not God have permitted him to tempt the first man, who had been created upright, that is to say, with a good will? For he had been so constituted, that if he looked to God for help, man's Goodness should defeat the angel's wickedness; but if by proud self-pleasing he abandoned God, his Creator and Sustainer, he should be conquered. If his will remained upright, through leaning on God's help, he should be rewarded; if it became wicked, by forsaking God, he should be punished. But even this trusting in God's help could not itself be accomplished without God's help, although man had it in his own power to relinquish the benefits of divine grace by pleasing himself. For as it is not in our power to live in this world without sustaining ourselves by food, while it is in our power to refuse this nourishment and cease to live, as those[Pg 47] do who kill themselves, so it was not in man's power, even in Paradise, to live as he ought without God's help; but it was in his power to live wickedly, though thus he should cut short his happiness, and incur very just punishment. Since, then, God was not ignorant that man would fall, why should He not have suffered him to be tempted by an angel who hated and envied him? It was not, indeed, that He was unaware that he should be conquered, but because He foresaw that by the man's seed, aided by divine grace, this same devil himself should be conquered, to the greater glory of the saints. All was brought about in such a manner, that neither did any future event escape God's foreknowledge, nor did His foreknowledge compel any one to sin, and so as to demonstrate in the experience of the intelligent creation, human and angelic, how great a difference there is between the private presumption of the creature and the Creator's protection. For who will dare to believe or say that it was not in God's power to prevent both angels and men from sinning? But God preferred to leave this in their power, and thus to show both what evil could be wrought by their pride, and what good by His grace.
28. Of the nature of the two cities, the earthly and the heavenly.
BOOK XIX. - A review of the philosophical opinions regarding the Supreme Good, and a comparison of these opinions with the Christian belief regarding happiness, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
We give a much more unlimited approval to their idea that the life of the wise man must be social. For how could the city of God (concerning which we are already writing no less than the nineteenth book of this work) either take a beginning or be developed, or attain its proper destiny, if the life of the saints were not a social life? But who can enumerate all the great grievances with which human society abounds in[Pg 308] the misery of this mortal state? Who can weigh them? Hear how one of their comic writers makes one of his characters express the common feelings of all men in this matter: "I am married; this is one misery. Children are born to me; they are additional cares."[629] What shall I say of the miseries of love which Terence also recounts"slights, suspicions, quarrels, war to-day, peace to-morrow?"[630] Is not human life full of such things? Do they not often occur even in honourable friendships? On all hands we experience these slights, suspicions, quarrels, war, all of which are undoubted evils; while, on the other hand, peace is a doubtful good, because we do not know the heart of our friend, and though we did know it to-day, we should be as ignorant of what it might be to-morrow. Who ought to be, or who are more friendly than those who live in the same family? And yet who can rely even upon this friendship, seeing that secret treachery has often broken it up, and produced enmity as bitter as the amity was sweet, or seemed sweet by the most perfect dissimulation? It is on this account that the words of Cicero so move the heart of every one, and provoke a sigh: "There are no snares more dangerous than those which lurk under the guise of duty or the name of relationship. For the man who is your declared foe you can easily baffle by precaution; but this hidden, intestine, and domestic danger not merely exists, but overwhelms you before you can foresee and examine it."[631] It is also to this that allusion is made by the divine saying, "A man's foes are those of his own household,"[632]words which one cannot hear without pain; for though a man have sufficient fortitude to endure it with equanimity, and sufficient sagacity to baffle the malice of a pretended friend, yet if he himself is a good man, he cannot but be greatly pained at the discovery of the perfidy of wicked men, whether they have always been wicked and merely feigned Goodness, or have fallen from a better to a malicious disposition. If, then, home, the natural refuge from the ills of life, is itself not safe, what shall we say of the city, which, as it is larger, is so much the more filled with lawsuits civil and criminal, and is never[Pg 309] free from the fear, if sometimes from the actual outbreak, of disturbing and bloody insurrections and civil wars?
6. Of the error of human judgments when the truth is hidden.
BOOK X. - Porphyrys doctrine of redemption, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
And who is so foolish as to suppose that the things offered to God are needed by Him for some uses of His own? Divine Scripture in many places explodes this idea. Not to be wearisome, suffice it to quote this brief saying from a psalm: "I have said to the Lord, Thou art my God: for Thou needest not my Goodness."[377] We must believe, then, that God has no need, not only of cattle, or any other earthly and material thing, but even of man's righteousness, and that whatever right worship is paid to God profits not Him, but man. For no man would say he did a benefit to a fountain by drinking, or to the light by seeing. And the fact that the ancient church offered animal sacrifices, which the people of God now-a-days reads of without imitating, proves nothing else than this, that those sacrifices signified the things which we do for the purpose of drawing near to God, and inducing our neighbour to do the same. A sacrifice, therefore, is the visible sacrament or sacred sign of an invisible sacrifice. Hence that penitent in the psalm, or it may be the Psalmist himself, entreating God to be merciful to his sins, says, "If Thou desiredst sacrifice, I would give it: Thou delightest not in whole burnt-offerings. The sacrifice of God is a broken heart: a heart contrite and humble God will not despise."[378] Observe how, in the very words in which he is expressing God's refusal of sacrifice, he shows that God requires sacrifice. He does[Pg 389] not desire the sacrifice of a slaughtered beast, but He desires the sacrifice of a contrite heart. Thus, that sacrifice which he says God does not wish, is the symbol of the sacrifice which God does wish. God does not wish sacrifices in the sense in which foolish people think He wishes them, viz. to gratify His own pleasure. For if He had not wished that the sacrifices He requires, as, e.g., a heart contrite and humbled by penitent sorrow, should be symbolized by those sacrifices which He was thought to desire because pleasant to Himself, the old law would never have enjoined their presentation; and they were destined to be merged when the fit opportunity arrived, in order that men might not suppose that the sacrifices themselves, rather than the things symbolized by them, were pleasing to God or acceptable in us. Hence, in another passage from another psalm, he says, "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is mine and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?"[379] as if He should say, Supposing such things were necessary to me, I would never ask thee for what I have in my own hand. Then he goes on to mention what these signify: "Offer unto God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High. And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."[380] So in another prophet: "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Hath He showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"[381] In the words of this prophet, these two things are distinguished and set forth with sufficient explicitness, that God does not require these sacrifices for their own sakes, and that He does require the sacrifices which they symbolize. In the epistle entitled "To the Hebrews" it is said, "To do good and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."[382] And so,[Pg 390] when it is written, "I desire mercy rather than sacrifice,"[383] nothing else is meant than that one sacrifice is preferred to another; for that which in common speech is called sacrifice is only the symbol of the true sacrifice. Now mercy is the true sacrifice, and therefore it is said, as I have just quoted, "with such sacrifices God is well pleased." All the divine ordinances, therefore, which we read concerning the sacrifices in the service of the tabernacle or the temple, we are to refer to the love of God and our neighbour. For "on these two commandments," as it is written, "hang all the law and the prophets."[384]
6. Of the true and perfect sacrifice.
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As to those who think that these visible sacrifices are suitably offered to other gods, but that invisible sacrifices, the graces of purity of mind and holiness of will, should be offered, as greater and better, to the invisible God, Himself greater and better than all others, they must be oblivious that these visible sacrifices are signs of the invisible, as the words we[Pg 410] utter are the signs of things. And therefore, as in prayer or praise we direct intelligible words to Him to whom in our heart we offer the very feelings we are expressing, so we are to understand that in sacrifice we offer visible sacrifice only to Him to whom in our heart we ought to present ourselves an invisible sacrifice. It is then that the angels, and all those superior powers who are mighty by their Goodness and piety, regard us with pleasure, and rejoice with us and assist us to the utmost of their power. But if we offer such worship to them, they decline it; and when on any mission to men they become visible to the senses, they positively forbid it. Examples of this occur in holy writ. Some fancied they should, by adoration or sacrifice, pay the same honour to angels as is due to God, and were prevented from doing so by the angels themselves, and ordered to render it to Him to whom alone they know it to be due. And the holy angels have in this been imitated by holy men of God. For Paul and Barnabas, when they had wrought a miracle of healing in Lycaonia, were thought to be gods, and the Lycaonians desired to sacrifice to them, and they humbly and piously declined this honour, and announced to them the God in whom they should believe. And those deceitful and proud spirits, who exact worship, do so simply because they know it to be due to the true God. For that which they take pleasure in is not, as Porphyry says and some fancy, the smell of the victims, but divine honours. They have, in fact, plenty odours on all hands, and if they wished more, they could provide them for themselves. But the spirits who arrogate to themselves divinity are delighted not with the smoke of carcases, but with the suppliant spirit which they deceive and hold in subjection, and hinder from drawing near to God, preventing him from offering himself in sacrifice to God by inducing him to sacrifice to others.
20. Of the supreme and true sacrifice which was effected by the Mediator between God and men.
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It is by true piety that men of God cast out the hostile power of the air which opposes godliness; it is by exorcising it, not by propitiating it; and they overcome all the temptations of the adversary by praying, not to him, but to their own God against him. For the devil cannot conquer or subdue any but those who are in league with sin; and therefore he is conquered in the name of Him who assumed humanity, and that without sin, that Himself being both Priest and Sacrifice, He might bring about the remission of sins, that is to say, might bring it about through the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, by whom we are reconciled to God, the cleansing from sin being accomplished.[Pg 413] For men are separated from God only by sins, from which we are in this life cleansed not by our own virtue, but by the divine compassion; through His indulgence, not through our own power. For, whatever virtue we call our own is itself bestowed upon us by His Goodness. And we might attri bute too much to ourselves while in the flesh, unless we lived in the receipt of pardon until we laid it down. This is the reason why there has been vouchsafed to us, through the Mediator, this grace, that we who are polluted by sinful flesh should be cleansed by the likeness of sinful flesh. By this grace of God, wherein He has shown His great compassion toward us, we are both governed by faith in this life, and, after this life, are led onwards to the fullest perfection by the vision of immutable truth.
23. Of the principles which, according to the Platonists, regulate the purification of the soul.
BOOK XVIII. - A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
The prophet Hosea speaks so very profoundly that it is laborious work to penetrate his meaning. But, according to[Pg 248] promise, we must insert something from his book. He says, "And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there they shall be called the sons of the living God."[514] Even the apostles understood this as a prophetic testimony of the calling of the nations who did not formerly belong to God; and because this same people of the Gentiles is itself spiritually among the children of Abraham, and for that reason is rightly called Israel, therefore he goes on to say, "And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together in one, and shall appoint themselves one headship, and shall ascend from the earth."[515] We should but weaken the savour of this prophetic oracle if we set ourselves to expound it. Let the reader but call to mind that corner-stone and those two walls of partition, the one of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles,[516] and he will recognise them, the one under the term sons of Judah, the other as sons of Israel, supporting themselves by one and the same headship, and ascending from the earth. But that those carnal Israelites who are now unwilling to believe in Christ shall afterward believe, that is, their children shall (for they themselves, of course, shall go to their own place by dying), this same prophet testifies, saying, "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice, without an altar, without a priesthood, without manifestations."[517] Who does not see that the Jews are now thus? But let us hear what he adds: "And afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall be amazed at the Lord and at His Goodness in the latter days."[518] Nothing is clearer than this prophecy, in which by David, as distinguished by the title of king, Christ is to be understood, "who is made," as the apostle says, "of the seed of David according to the flesh."[519] This prophet has also foretold the resurrection of Christ on the third day, as it behoved to be foretold, with prophetic loftiness, when he says, "He will heal us after two days, and in the third day we shall rise again."[520] In agreement with this the apostle says to us, "If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are[Pg 249] above."[521] Amos also prophesies thus concerning such things: "Prepare thee, that thou mayst invoke thy God, O Israel; for lo, I am binding the thunder, and creating the spirit, and announcing to men their Christ."[522] And in another place he says, "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and build up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and will build them up again as in the days of old: that the residue of men may inquire for me, and all the nations upon whom my name is invoked, saith the Lord that doeth this."[523]
29. What things are predicted by Isaiah concerning Christ and the Church.
BOOK XV. - The progress of the earthly and heavenly cities traced by the sacred history, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Thus the founder of the earthly city was a fratricide. Overcome with envy, he slew his own brother, a citizen of the eternal city, and a sojourner on earth. So that we cannot be surprised that this first specimen, or, as the Greeks say, archetype of crime, should, long afterwards, find a corresponding crime at the foundation of that city which was destined to reign over so many nations, and be the head of this earthly city of which we speak. For of that city also, as one of their poets has mentioned, "the first walls were stained with a brother's blood,"[137] or, as Roman history records, Remus was slain by his brother Romulus. And thus there is no difference between the foundation of this city and of the earthly city, unless it be that Romulus and Remus were both citizens of the earthly city. Both desired to have the glory of founding the Roman republic, but both could not have as much glory as if one only claimed it; for he who wished to have[Pg 55] the glory of ruling would certainly rule less if his power were shared by a living consort. In order, therefore, that the whole glory might be enjoyed by one, his consort was removed; and by this crime the empire was made larger indeed, but inferior, while otherwise it would have been less, but better. Now these brothers, Cain and Abel, were not both animated by the same earthly desires, nor did the murderer envy the other because he feared that, by both ruling, his own dominion would be curtailed,for Abel was not solicitous to rule in that city which his brother built,he was moved by that diabolical, envious hatred with which the evil regard the good, for no other reason than because they are good while themselves are evil. For the possession of Goodness is by no means diminished by being shared with a partner either permanent or temporarily assumed; on the contrary, the possession of Goodness is increased in proportion to the concord and charity of each of those who share it. In short, he who is unwilling to share this possession cannot have it; and he who is most willing to admit others to a share of it will have the greatest abundance to himself. The quarrel, then, between Romulus and Remus shows how the earthly city is divided against itself; that which fell out between Cain and Abel illustrated the hatred that subsists between the two cities, that of God and that of men. The wicked war with the wicked; the good also war with the wicked. But with the good, good men, or at least perfectly good men, cannot war; though, while only going on towards perfection, they war to this extent, that every good man resists others in those points in which he resists himself. And in each individual "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh."[138] This spiritual lusting, therefore, can be at war with the carnal lust of another man; or carnal lust may be at war with the spiritual desires of another, in some such way as good and wicked men are at war; or, still more certainly, the carnal lusts of two men, good but not yet perfect, contend together, just as the wicked contend with the wicked, until the health of those who are under the treatment of grace attains final victory.
[Pg 56]
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But though God made use of this very mode of address which we have been endeavouring to explain, and spoke to Cain in that form by which He was wont to accommodate Himself to our first parents and converse with them as a companion, what good influence had it on Cain? Did he not fulfil his wicked intention of killing his brother even after he was warned by God's voice? For when God had made a distinction between their sacrifices, neglecting Cain's, regarding Abel's, which was doubtless intimated by some visible sign to that effect; and when God had done so because the works of the one were evil but those of his brother good, Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. For thus it is written: "And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou offerest rightly, but dost not rightly distinguish, hast thou not sinned? Fret not thyself, for unto thee shall be his turning, and thou shalt rule over him."[148] In this admonition administered by God to Cain, that clause indeed, "If thou offerest rightly, but dost not rightly distinguish, hast thou not sinned?" is obscure, inasmuch as it is not apparent for what reason or purpose it was spoken, and many meanings have been put upon it, as each one who discusses it attempts to interpret it according to the[Pg 58] rule of faith. The truth is, that a sacrifice is "rightly offered" when it is offered to the true God, to whom alone we must sacrifice. And it is "not rightly distinguished" when we do not rightly distinguish the places or seasons or materials of the offering, or the person offering, or the person to whom it is presented, or those to whom it is distributed for food after the oblation. Distinguishing[149] is here used for discriminating,whether when an offering is made in a place where it ought not or of a material which ought to be offered not there but elsewhere; or when an offering is made at a wrong time, or of a material suitable not then but at some other time; or when that is offered which in no place nor any time ought to be offered; or when a man keeps to himself choicer specimens of the same kind than he offers to God; or when he or any other who may not lawfully partake profanely eats of the oblation. In which of these particulars Cain displeased God, it is difficult to determine. But the Apostle John, speaking of these brothers, says, "Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous."[150] He thus gives us to understand that God did not respect his offering because it was not rightly "distinguished" in this, that he gave to God something of his own but kept himself to himself. For this all do who follow not God's will but their own, who live not with an upright but a crooked heart, and yet offer to God such gifts as they suppose will procure from Him that He aid them not by healing but by gratifying their evil passions. And this is the characteristic of the earthly city, that it worships God or gods who may aid it in reigning victoriously and peacefully on earth not through love of doing good, but through lust of rule. The good use the world that they may enjoy God: the wicked, on the contrary, that they may enjoy the world would fain use God,those of them, at least, who have attained to the belief that He is and takes an interest in human affairs. For they who have not yet attained even to this belief are still at a much lower level. Cain, then, when he saw that God had respect to his brother's sacrifice, but not to his own, should have humbly chosen his good[Pg 59] brother as his example, and not proudly counted him his rival. But he was wroth, and his countenance fell. This angry regret for another person's Goodness, even his brother's, was charged upon him by God as a great sin. And He accused him of it in the interrogation, "Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen?" For God saw that he envied his brother, and of this He accused him. For to men, from whom the heart of their fellow is hid, it might be doubtful and quite uncertain whether that sadness bewailed his own wickedness by which, as he had learned, he had displeased God, or his brother's Goodness, which had pleased God, and won His favourable regard to his sacrifice. But God, in giving the reason why He refused to accept Cain's offering and why Cain should rather have been displeased at himself than at his brother, shows him that though he was unjust in "not rightly distinguishing," that is, not rightly living and being unworthy to have his offering received, he was more unjust by far in hating his just brother without a cause.
Yet He does not dismiss him without counsel, holy, just, and good. "Fret not thyself," He says, "for unto thee shall be his turning, and thou shalt rule over him." Over his brother, does He mean? Most certainly not. Over what, then, but sin? For He had said, "Thou hast sinned," and then He added, "Fret not thyself, for to thee shall be its turning, and thou shalt rule over it."[151] And the "turning" of sin to the man can be understood of his conviction that the guilt of sin can be laid at no other man's door but his own. For this is the health-giving medicine of penitence, and the fit plea for pardon; so that, when it is said, "To thee its turning," we must not supply "shall be," but we must read, "To thee let its turning be," understanding it as a command, not as a prediction. For then shall a man rule over his sin when he does not prefer it to himself and defend it, but subjects it by repentance; otherwise he that becomes protector of it shall surely become its prisoner. But if we understand this sin to be that carnal concupiscence of which the apostle says, "The flesh lusteth against the spirit,"[152] among the fruits of which lust he[Pg 60] names envy, by which assuredly Cain was stung and excited to destroy his brother, then we may properly supply the words "shall be," and read, "To thee shall be its turning, and thou shalt rule over it." For when the carnal part which the apostle calls sin, in that place where he says, "It is not I who do it, but sin that dwelleth in me,"[153] that part which the philosophers also call vicious, and which ought not to lead the mind, but which the mind ought to rule and restrain by reason from illicit motions,when, then, this part has been moved to perpetrate any wickedness, if it be curbed and if it obey the word of the apostle, "Yield not your members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,"[154] it is turned towards the mind and subdued and conquered by it, so that reason rules over it as a subject. It was this which God enjoined on him who was kindled with the fire of envy against his brother, so that he sought to put out of the way him whom he should have set as an example. "Fret not thyself," or compose thyself, He says: withhold thy hand from crime; let not sin reign in your mortal body to fulfil it in the lusts thereof, nor yield your members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. "For to thee shall be its turning," so long as you do not encourage it by giving it the rein, but bridle it by quenching its fire. "And thou shalt rule over it;" for when it is not allowed any external actings, it yields itself to the rule of the governing mind and righteous will, and ceases from even internal motions. There is something similar said in the same divine book of the woman, when God questioned and judged them after their sin, and pronounced sentence on them all,the devil in the form of the serpent, the woman and her husb and in their own persons. For when He had said to her, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children," then He added, "and thy turning shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."[155] What is said to Cain about his sin, or about the vicious concupiscence of his flesh, is here said of the woman who had sinned; and we are to understand that the husb and is to rule his wife as the soul rules the flesh. And therefore, says the apostle, "He that loveth his wife, loveth himself; for no man[Pg 61] ever yet hated his own flesh."[156] This flesh, then, is to be healed, because it belongs to ourselves: is not to be abandoned to destruction as if it were alien to our nature. But Cain received that counsel of God in the spirit of one who did not wish to amend. In fact, the vice of envy grew stronger in him; and, having entrapped his brother, he slew him. Such was the founder of the earthly city. He was also a figure of the Jews who slew Christ the Shepherd of the flock of men, prefigured by Abel the shepherd of sheep: but as this is an allegorical and prophetical matter, I forbear to explain it now; besides, I remember that I have made some remarks upon it in writing against Faustus the Manichan.[157]
BOOK XXII. - Of the eternal happiness of the saints, the resurrection of the body, and the miracles of the early Church, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
For it is He who in the beginning created the world full of all visible and intelligible beings, among which He created nothing better than those spirits whom He endowed with intelligence, and made capable of contemplating and enjoying Him,[Pg 473] and united in our society, which we call the holy and heavenly city, and in which the material of their sustenance and blessedness is God Himself, as it were their common food and nourishment. It is He who gave to this intellectual nature free-will of such a kind, that if he wished to forsake God his blessedness, misery should forthwith result. It is He who, when He foreknew that certain angels would in their pride desire to suffice for their own blessedness, and would forsake their great good, did not deprive them of this power, deeming it to be more befitting His power and Goodness to bring good out of evil than to prevent the evil from coming into existence. And indeed evil had never been, had not the mutable naturemutable, though good, and created by the most high God and immutable Good, who created all things goodbrought evil upon itself by sin. And this its sin is itself proof that its nature was originally good. For had it not been very good, though not equal to its Creator, the desertion of God as its light could not have been an evil to it. For as blindness is a vice of the eye, and this very fact indicates that the eye was created to see the light, and as, consequently, vice itself proves that the eye is more excellent than the other members, because it is capable of light (for on no other supposition would it be a vice of the eye to want light), so the nature which once enjoyed God teaches, even by its very vice, that it was created the best of all, since it is now miserable because it does not enjoy God. It is He who with very just punishment doomed the angels who voluntarily fell to everlasting misery, and rewarded those who continued in their attachment to the supreme good with the assurance of endless stability as the meed of their fidelity. It is He who made also man himself upright, with the same freedom of will,an earthly animal, indeed, but fit for heaven if he remained faithful to his Creator, but destined to the misery appropriate to such a nature if he forsook Him. It is He who, when He foreknew that man would in his turn sin by abandoning God and breaking His law, did not deprive him of the power of free-will, because He at the same time foresaw what good He Himself would bring out of the evil, and how from this mortal race, deservedly and justly condemned, He would by[Pg 474] His grace collect, as now He does, a people so numerous, that He thus fills up and repairs the blank made by the fallen angels, and that thus that beloved and heavenly city is not defrauded of the full number of its citizens, but perhaps may even rejoice in a still more overflowing population.
2. Of the eternal and unchangeable will of God.
--
Whatever, therefore, has been taken from the body, either during life or after death, shall be restored to it, and, in conjunction with what has remained in the grave, shall rise again, transformed from the oldness of the animal body into the newness of the spiritual body, and clothed in incorruption and immortality. But even though the body has been all quite ground to powder by some severe accident, or by the ruthlessness of enemies, and though it has been so diligently scattered to the winds, or into the water, that there is no[Pg 517] trace of it left, yet it shall not be beyond the omnipotence of the Creator,no, not a hair of its head shall perish. The flesh shall then be spiritual, and subject to the spirit, but still flesh, not spirit, as the spirit itself, when subject to the flesh, was fleshly, but still spirit and not flesh. And of this we have experimental proof in the deformity of our penal condition. For those persons were carnal, not in a fleshly, but in a spiritual way, to whom the apostle said, "I could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal."[1008] And a man is in this life spiritual in such a way, that he is yet carnal with respect to his body, and sees another law in his members warring against the law of his mind; but even in his body he will be spiritual when the same flesh shall have had that resurrection of which these words speak, "It is sown an animal body, it shall rise a spiritual body."[1009] But what this spiritual body shall be, and how great its grace, I fear it were but rash to pronounce, seeing that we have as yet no experience of it. Nevertheless, since it is fit that the joyfulness of our hope should utter itself, and so show forth God's praise, and since it was from the profoundest sentiment of ardent and holy love that the Psalmist cried, "O Lord, I have loved the beauty of Thy house,"[1010] we may, with God's help, speak of the gifts He lavishes on men, good and bad alike, in this most wretched life, and may do our best to conjecture the great glory of that state which we cannot worthily speak of, because we have not yet experienced it. For I say nothing of the time when God made man upright; I say nothing of the happy life of "the man and his wife" in the fruitful garden, since it was so short that none of their children experienced it: I speak only of this life which we know, and in which we now are, from the temptations of which we cannot escape so long as we are in it, no matter what progress we make, for it is all temptation, and I ask, Who can describe the tokens of God's Goodness that are extended to the human race even in this life?
22. Of the miseries and ills to which the human race is justly exposed through the first sin, and from which none can be delivered save by Christ's grace.
--
But we must now contemplate the rich and countless blessings[Pg 523] with which the Goodness of God, who cares for all He has created, has filled this very misery of the human race, which reflects His retri butive justice. That first blessing which He pronounced before the fall, when He said, "Increase, and multiply, and replenish the earth,"[1016] He did not inhibit after man had sinned, but the fecundity originally bestowed remained in the condemned stock; and the vice of sin, which has involved us in the necessity of dying, has yet not deprived us of that wonderful power of seed, or rather of that still more marvellous power by which seed is produced, and which seems to be as it were inwrought and inwoven in the human body. But in this river, as I may call it, or torrent of the human race, both elements are carried along together,both the evil which is derived from him who begets, and the good which is bestowed by Him who creates us. In the original evil there are two things, sin and punishment; in the original good, there are two other things, propagation and conformation. But of the evils, of which the one, sin, arose from our audacity, and the other, punishment, from God's judgment, we have already said as much as suits our present purpose. I mean now to speak of the blessings which God has conferred or still confers upon our nature, vitiated and condemned as it is. For in condemning it He did not withdraw all that He had given it, else it had been annihilated; neither did He, in penally subjecting it to the devil, remove it beyond His own power; for not even the devil himself is outside of God's government, since the devil's nature subsists only by the supreme Creator, who gives being to all that in any form exists.
Of these two blessings, then, which we have said flow from God's Goodness, as from a fountain, towards our nature, vitiated by sin and condemned to punishment, the one, propagation, was conferred by God's benediction when He made those first works, from which He rested on the seventh day. But the other, conformation, is conferred in that work of His wherein "He worketh hitherto."[1017] For were He to withdraw His efficacious power from things, they should neither be able to go on and complete the periods assigned to their measured movements,[Pg 524] nor should they even continue in possession of that nature they were created in. God, then, so created man that He gave him what we may call fertility, whereby he might propagate other men, giving them a congenital capacity to propagate their kind, but not imposing on them any necessity to do so. This capacity God withdraws at pleasure from individuals, making them barren; but from the whole race He has not withdrawn the blessing of propagation once conferred. But though not withdrawn on account of sin, this power of propagation is not what it would have been had there been no sin. For since "man placed in honour fell, he has become like the beasts,"[1018] and generates as they do, though the little spark of reason, which was the image of God in him, has not been quite quenched. But if conformation were not added to propagation, there would be no reproduction of one's kind. For even though there were no such thing as copulation, and God wished to fill the earth with human inhabitants, He might create all these as He created one without the help of human generation. And, indeed, even as it is, those who copulate can generate nothing save by the creative energy of God. As, therefore, in respect of that spiritual growth whereby a man is formed to piety and righteousness, the apostle says, "Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase,"[1019] so also it must be said that it is not he that generates that is anything, but God that giveth the essential form; that it is not the mother who carries and nurses the fruit of her womb that is anything, but God that giveth the increase. For He alone, by that energy wherewith "He worketh hitherto," causes the seed to develope, and to evolve from certain secret and invisible folds into the visible forms of beauty which we see. He alone, coupling and connecting in some wonderful fashion the spiritual and corporeal natures, the one to command, the other to obey, makes a living being. And this work of His is so great and wonderful, that not only man, who is a rational animal, and consequently more excellent than all other animals of the earth, but even the most diminutive insect, cannot be[Pg 525] considered attentively without astonishment and without praising the Creator.
It is He, then, who has given to the human soul a mind, in which reason and understanding lie as it were asleep during infancy, and as if they were not, destined, however, to be awakened and exercised as years increase, so as to become capable of knowledge and of receiving instruction, fit to understand what is true and to love what is good. It is by this capacity the soul drinks in wisdom, and becomes endowed with those virtues by which, in prudence, fortitude, temperance, and righteousness, it makes war upon error and the other inborn vices, and conquers them by fixing its desires upon no other object than the supreme and unchangeable Good. And even though this be not uniformly the result, yet who can competently utter or even conceive the grandeur of this work of the Almighty, and the unspeakable boon He has conferred upon our rational nature, by giving us even the capacity of such attainment? For over and above those arts which are called virtues, and which teach us how we may spend our life well, and attain to endless happiness,arts which are given to the children of the promise and the kingdom by the sole grace of God which is in Christ,has not the genius of man invented and applied countless astonishing arts, partly the result of necessity, partly the result of exuberant invention, so that this vigour of mind, which is so active in the discovery not merely of superfluous but even of dangerous and destructive things, betokens an inexhaustible wealth in the nature which can invent, learn, or employ such arts? What wonderfulone might say stupefyingadvances has human industry made in the arts of weaving and building, of agriculture and navigation! With what endless variety are designs in pottery, painting, and sculpture produced, and with what skill executed! What wonderful spectacles are exhibited in the theatres, which those who have not seen them cannot credit! How skilful the contrivances for catching, killing, or taming wild beasts! And for the injury of men, also, how many kinds of poisons, weapons, engines of destruction, have been invented, while for the preservation or restoration of health the appliances and remedies are infinite![Pg 526] To provoke appetite and please the palate, what a variety of seasonings have been concocted! To express and gain entrance for thoughts, what a multitude and variety of signs there are, among which speaking and writing hold the first place! what ornaments has eloquence at comm and to delight the mind! what wealth of song is there to captivate the ear! how many musical instruments and strains of harmony have been devised! What skill has been attained in measures and numbers! with what sagacity have the movements and connections of the stars been discovered! Who could tell the thought that has been spent upon nature, even though, despairing of recounting it in detail, he endeavoured only to give a general view of it? In fine, even the defence of errors and misapprehensions, which has illustrated the genius of heretics and philosophers, cannot be sufficiently declared. For at present it is the nature of the human mind which adorns this mortal life which we are extolling, and not the faith and the way of truth which lead to immortality. And since this great nature has certainly been created by the true and supreme God, who administers all things He has made with absolute power and justice, it could never have fallen into these miseries, nor have gone out of them to miseries eternal,saving only those who are redeemed,had not an exceeding great sin been found in the first man from whom the rest have sprung.
Moreover, even in the body, though it dies like that of the beasts, and is in many ways weaker than theirs, what Goodness of God, what providence of the great Creator, is apparent! The organs of sense and the rest of the members, are not they so placed, the appearance, and form, and stature of the body as a whole, is it not so fashioned, as to indicate that it was made for the service of a reasonable soul? Man has not been created stooping towards the earth, like the irrational animals; but his bodily form, erect and looking heavenwards, admonishes him to mind the things that are above. Then the marvellous nimbleness which has been given to the tongue and the hands, fitting them to speak, and write, and execute so many duties, and practise so many arts, does it not prove the excellence of the soul for which such an assistant was provided?[Pg 527] And even apart from its adaptation to the work required of it, there is such a symmetry in its various parts, and so beautiful a proportion maintained, that one is at a loss to decide whether, in creating the body, greater regard was paid to utility or to beauty. Assuredly no part of the body has been created for the sake of utility which does not also contri bute something to its beauty. And this would be all the more apparent, if we knew more precisely how all its parts are connected and adapted to one another, and were not limited in our observations to what appears on the surface; for as to what is covered up and hidden from our view, the intricate web of veins and nerves, the vital parts of all that lies under the skin, no one can discover it. For although, with a cruel zeal for science, some medical men, who are called anatomists, have dissected the bodies of the dead, and sometimes even of sick persons who died under their knives, and have inhumanly pried into the secrets of the human body to learn the nature of the disease and its exact seat, and how it might be cured, yet those relations of which I speak, and which form the concord,[1020] or, as the Greeks call it, "harmony," of the whole body outside and in, as of some instrument, no one has been able to discover, because no one has been audacious enough to seek for them. But if these could be known, then even the inward parts, which seem to have no beauty, would so delight us with their exquisite fitness, as to afford a profounder satisfaction to the mind and the eyes are but its ministersthan the obvious beauty which gratifies the eye. There are some things, too, which have such a place in the body, that they obviously serve no useful purpose, but are solely for beauty, as e.g. the teats on a man's breast, or the beard on his face; for that this is for ornament, and not for protection, is proved by the bare faces of women, who ought rather, as the weaker sex, to enjoy such a defence. If, therefore, of all those members which are exposed to our view, there is certainly not one in which beauty is sacrificed to utility, while there are some which serve no purpose but only beauty, I think it can readily be concluded that in the creation[Pg 528] of the human body comeliness was more regarded than necessity. In truth, necessity is a transitory thing; and the time is coming when we shall enjoy one another's beauty without any lust,a condition which will specially redound to the praise of the Creator, who, as it is said in the psalm, has "put on praise and comeliness."[1021]
How can I tell of the rest of creation, with all its beauty and utility, which the divine Goodness has given to man to please his eye and serve his purposes, condemned though he is, and hurled into these labours and miseries? Shall I speak of the manifold and various loveliness of sky, and earth, and sea; of the plentiful supply and wonderful qualities of the light; of sun, moon, and stars; of the shade of trees; of the colours and perfume of flowers; of the multitude of birds, all differing in plumage and in song; of the variety of animals, of which the smallest in size are often the most wonderful,the works of ants and bees astonishing us more than the huge bodies of whales? Shall I speak of the sea, which itself is so grand a spectacle, when it arrays itself as it were in vestures of various colours, now running through every shade of green, and again becoming purple or blue? Is it not delightful to look at it in storm, and experience the soothing complacency which it inspires, by suggesting that we ourselves are not tossed and shipwrecked?[1022] What shall I say of the numberless kinds of food to alleviate hunger, and the variety of seasonings to stimulate appetite which are scattered everywhere by nature, and for which we are not indebted to the art of cookery? How many natural appliances are there for preserving and restoring health! How grateful is the alternation of day and night! how pleasant the breezes that cool the air! how abundant the supply of clothing furnished us by trees and animals! Who can enumerate all the blessings we enjoy? If I were to attempt to detail and unfold only these few which I have indicated in the mass, such an enumeration would fill a volume. And all these are but the solace of the[Pg 529] wretched and condemned, not the rewards of the blessed. What then shall these rewards be, if such be the blessings of a condemned state? What will He give to those whom He has predestined to life, who has given such things even to those whom He has predestined to death? What blessings will He in the blessed life shower upon those for whom, even in this state of misery, He has been willing that His only-begotten Son should endure such sufferings even to death? Thus the apostle reasons concerning those who are predestined to that kingdom: "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also give us all things?"[1023] When this promise is fulfilled, what shall we be? What blessings shall we receive in that kingdom, since already we have received as the pledge of them Christ's dying? In what condition shall the spirit of man be, when it has no longer any vice at all; when it neither yields to any, nor is in bondage to any, nor has to make war against any, but is perfected, and enjoys undisturbed peace with itself? Shall it not then know all things with certainty, and without any labour or error, when unhindered and joyfully it drinks the wisdom of God at the fountainhead? What shall the body be, when it is in every respect subject to the spirit, from which it shall draw a life so sufficient, as to stand in need of no other nutriment? For it shall no longer be animal, but spiritual, having indeed the substance of flesh, but without any fleshly corruption.
25. Of the obstinacy of those individuals who impugn the resurrection of the body, though, as was predicted, the whole world believes it.
BOOK XXI. - Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Nevertheless, in the "heavy yoke that is laid upon the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of their mother's womb to the day that they return to the mother of all things," there is found an admirable though painful monitor teaching us to be sober-minded, and convincing us that this life has become penal in consequence of that outrageous wickedness which was perpetrated in Paradise, and that all to which the New Testament invites belongs to that future inheritance which awaits us in the world to come, and is offered for our acceptance, as the earnest that we may, in its own due time, obtain that of which it is the pledge. Now, therefore, let us walk in hope, and let us by the spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh, and so make progress from day to day. For "the Lord knoweth them that are His;"[883] and "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God,"[884] but by grace, not by nature. For there is but one Son of God by nature, who in His compassion became Son of man for our sakes, that we, by nature sons of men, might by grace become through Him sons of God. For He, abiding unchangeable, took upon Him our nature, that thereby He might take us to Himself; and, holding fast His own divinity, He became partaker of our infirmity, that we, being changed into some better thing, might, by participating in His righteousness and immortality,[Pg 442] lose our own properties of sin and mortality, and preserve whatever good quality He had implanted in our nature, perfected now by sharing in the Goodness of His nature. For as by the sin of one man we have fallen into a misery so deplorable, so by the righteousness of one Man, who also is God, shall we come to a blessedness inconceivably exalted. Nor ought any one to trust that he has passed from the one man to the other until he shall have reached that place where there is no temptation, and have entered into the peace which he seeks in the many and various conflicts of this war, in which "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh."[885] Now, such a war as this would have had no existence, if human nature had, in the exercise of free will, continued stedfast in the uprightness in which it was created. But now in its misery it makes war upon itself, because in its blessedness it would not continue at peace with God; and this, though it be a miserable calamity, is better than the earlier stages of this life, which do not recognise that a war is to be maintained. For better is it to contend with vices than without conflict to be subdued by them. Better, I say, is war with the hope of peace everlasting than captivity without any thought of deliverance. We long, indeed, for the cessation of this war, and, kindled by the flame of divine love, we burn for entrance on that well-ordered peace in which whatever is inferior is for ever subordinated to what is above it. But if (which God forbid) there had been no hope of so blessed a consummation, we should still have preferred to endure the hardness of this conflict, rather than, by our non-resistance, to yield ourselves to the dominion of vice.
16. The laws of grace, which extend to all the epochs of the life of the regenerate.
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And they deny that thus God's threat of judgment is proved to be false even though He condemn no man, any more than we can say that His threat to overthrow Nineveh was false, though the destruction which was absolutely predicted was not accomplished. For He did not say, "Nineveh shall be overthrown if they do not repent and amend their ways," but without any such condition He foretold that the city should be overthrown. And this prediction, they maintain, was true because God predicted the punishment which they deserved, although He was not to inflict it. For though He spared them on their repentance, yet He was certainly aware that they would repent, and, notwithstanding, absolutely and definitely predicted that the city should be overthrown. This was true, they say, in the truth of severity, because they were worthy of it; but in respect of the compassion which checked His anger, so that He spared the suppliants from the punishment with which He had threatened the rebellious, it was not true. If, then, He spared those whom His own holy prophet was provoked at His sparing, how much more shall He spare those more wretched suppliants for whom all His saints shall intercede? And they suppose that this conjecture of theirs[Pg 447] is not hinted at in Scripture, for the sake of stimulating many to reformation of life through fear of very protracted or eternal sufferings, and of stimulating others to pray for those who have not reformed. However, they think that the divine oracles are not altogether silent on this point; for they ask to what purpose is it said, "How great is Thy Goodness which Thou hast hidden for them that fear Thee,"[890] if it be not to teach us that the great and hidden sweetness of God's mercy is concealed in order that men may fear? To the same purpose they think the apostle said, "For God hath concluded all men in unbelief, that He may have mercy upon all,"[891] signifying that no one should be condemned by God. And yet they who hold this opinion do not extend it to the acquittal or liberation of the devil and his angels. Their human tenderness is moved only towards men, and they plead chiefly their own cause, holding out false hopes of impunity to their own depraved lives by means of this quasi compassion of God to the whole race. Consequently they who promise this impunity even to the prince of the devils and his satellites make a still fuller exhibition of the mercy of God.
19. Of those who promise impunity from all sins even to heretics, through virtue of their participation of the body of Christ.
COSA - BOOK III, #The Confessions of Saint Augustine, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
great Goodness besprinkle for me that sweetness? For I was both beloved,
and secretly arrived at the bond of enjoying; and was with joy fettered
COSA - BOOK IX, #The Confessions of Saint Augustine, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
this emptiness had through the fulness of Thy Goodness begun to cease in
her heart, I knew not, and rejoiced admiring what she had so disclosed
COSA - BOOK VII, #The Confessions of Saint Augustine, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
me? Did not my God, Who is not only good, but Goodness itself? Whence
then came I to will evil and nill good, so that I am thus justly
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since Thou standest not in need of my Goodness.
And it was manifested unto me, that those things be good which yet are
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corrupted. For corruption injures, but unless it diminished Goodness, it
could not injure. Either then corruption injures not, which cannot be;
COSA - BOOK XIII, #The Confessions of Saint Augustine, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Thou mightest grant to be; and yet behold, I am, out of Thy Goodness,
preventing all this which Thou hast made me, and whereof Thou hast made
--
For of the fulness of Thy Goodness, doth Thy creature subsist, that so
a good, which could no ways profit Thee, nor was of Thee (lest so it
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blessing, sending the labourers of Thy Goodness into Thy harvest, in
sowing whereof, others have laboured, sending also into another field,
ENNEAD 01.01 - The Organism and the Self., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04, #Plotinus, #Christianity
How then arise these affections common to the soul and the body? Shall we then say that desire derives from the desire-appetite,293 anger from the anger-appetite, or in short, every emotion or affliction from the corresponding appetite? But even so, they will not be common, and they will belong exclusively to the soul, or to the body. There are some whose origin needs the excitation of blood and bile, and that the body be in some certain state which excites desire, as in physical love. On the contrary, however, the desire of Goodness is no common affection; it is an affection peculiar to the soul, as are several others. Reason, therefore, does not allow us to consider all affections as common to soul and body.
DESIRE, NOT SIMULTANEOUS WITH APPETITE.
ENNEAD 01.02 - Concerning Virtue., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01, #Plotinus, #Christianity
The process of purification is inferior to the already purified condition; for purity is the soul's destined goal. (Negative) purity is mere separation from extraneous things; it is not yet (positive) possession of its prize. If the soul had possessed Goodness before losing her262 purity, mere purification would be sufficient; and even in this case the residuum of the purification would be the Goodness, and not the purification. What is the residuum? Not Goodness; otherwise, the soul would not have fallen into evil. The soul therefore possesses the form of Goodness, without however being able to remain solidly attached thereto, because her nature permits her to turn either to the good, or the evil. The good of the soul is to remain united to her sister intelligence; her evil, is to abandon herself to the contrary things. After purifying the soul, therefore, she must be united to the divinity; but this implies turning her towards Him. Now this conversion does not begin to occur after the purification, but is its very result. The virtue of the soul, therefore, does not consist in her conversion, but in that which she thereby obtains. This is the intuition of her intelligible object; its image produced and realized within herself; an image similar to that in the eye, an image which represents the things seen. It is not necessary to conclude that the soul did not possess this image, nor had any reminiscence thereof; she no doubt possessed it, but inactively, latently, obscurely. To clarify it, to discover her possessions, the soul needs to approach the source of all clearness. As, however, the soul possesses only the images of the intelligibles, without possessing the intelligibles themselves, she will be compelled to compare with them her own image of them. Easily does the soul contemplate the intelligibles, because the intelligence is not foreign to her; when the soul wishes to enter in relations with them, all the soul needs to do is to turn her glance towards them. Otherwise, the intelligence, though present in the soul, will remain foreign to her. This explains how all our acquisitions of knowledge are foreign to us (as if non-existent), while we fail to recall them.
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ENNEAD 01.04 - Whether Animals May Be Termed Happy., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04, #Plotinus, #Christianity
The Good would thus be reduced to no more than sensation, or the actualization of the sense-life. In this case, to possess it, it is sufficient to perceive irrespective of the content of that perception. Other persons might assert that Goodness results from the union of these two things: of the state of the soul, and of the knowledge the soul has of it. If then the Good consist in the perception of some particular state, we shall have to ask how elements which, by themselves, are indifferent could, by their union, constitute the good. Other theories are that the Good consists in some particular state, or in possession of some particular disposition, and conscious enjoyment of the presence of the Good. These would, however, still have to answer the question whether, for good living, it be sufficient that the being knows he possesses this state; or must he know not only that this state is pleasant, but also that it is the Good? If then it be necessary to realize that it is the Good, the matter is one no longer of the function of sensation, but of a faculty higher than the senses. To live well, in this case, it will no longer be sufficient to possess pleasure, but we shall have to know that pleasure is the Good. The cause of happiness will not be the presence of pleasure itself, but the power of judging that pleasure is a good. Now judgment is superior to affection; it is reason or intelligence, while pleasure is only an affection, and what is irrational could not be superior to reason. How would reason forget itself to recognize as superior what is posited in a genus opposed to it? These men who deny happiness to plants, who explain it as some form of sensation,1022 seems to us, in spite of themselves, to be really seeking happiness of a higher nature, and to consider it as this better thing which is found only in a completer life.
NOT EVEN REASON IS A SUFFICIENT EXPLANATION OF LIVING WELL.
ENNEAD 01.08 - Of the Nature and Origin of Evils., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04, #Plotinus, #Christianity
If everything stopped there (and if there were nothing beyond the three principles here described), evil would not exist (and there would be nothing but goods). But there are goods of the first, second and third ranks. Though all relate to the King of all things,165 who is their author, and from whom they derive their Goodness, yet the goods of the second rank relate more specially to the second principle; and to the third principle, the goods of the third rank.
NATURE OF EVIL.
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13. Another hypothesis is that evil owes its character only to its being an obstacle for the soul, as certain objects are bad for the eye, because they hinder it from seeing. In this case, the evil of the soul would be the cause that produces the evil, and it would produce it without being absolute Evil. If, then, vice be an obstacle for the soul, it will not be absolute Evil, but the cause of evil, as virtue is not the good, and only contri butes to acquiring it. If virtue be not good, and vice be not evil, the result is that since virtue is neither absolute beauty nor Goodness, vice is neither absolute ugliness nor evil. We hold that virtue is neither absolute beauty, nor absolute Goodness, because above and before it is absolute Beauty and Goodness. Only because the soul participates in these, is virtue or beauty considered a good. Now as the soul, by rising above virtue, meets absolute Beauty and Goodness, thus in descending below wickedness the soul discovers absolute Evil. To arrive at the intuition of evil the soul, therefore, starts from wickedness, if indeed an intuition of evil be at all possible. Finally, when the soul descends, she participates in evil. She rushes completely into the region of diversity,191 and, plunging downwards she falls into a murky mire. If she fell into absolute wickedness, her characteristic would no longer be wickedness, and she would exchange it for a still lower nature. Even though mingled with a contrary nature, wickedness, indeed, still retains something human. The vicious man, therefore, dies so far as a soul can die. Now when, in connection with the soul, we speak of dying, we mean that while she is engaged in the body, she penetrates (further) into matter, and1160 becomes saturated with it. Then, when the soul has left the body, she once more falls into the same mud until she have managed to return into the intelligible world, and weaned her glance from this mire. So long as she remains therein, she may be said to have descended into hell, and to be slumbering there.192
WEAKNESS OF THE SOUL AS AN EXPLANATION OF EVIL.
ENNEAD 02.09 - Against the Gnostics; or, That the Creator and the World are Not Evil., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02, #Plotinus, #Christianity
1. We have already seen276 that the nature of the Good is simple and primary, for nothing that is not primary could be simple. We have also demonstrated that the nature of the Good contains nothing in itself, but is something unitary, the very nature of the One; for in itself the One is not some thing to which unity could be added, any more than the Good in itself is some thing to which Goodness could be added. Consequently, as both the One and the Good are simplicity itself, when we speak of the One and the Good, these two words express but one and the same nature; they affirm nothing, and only represent it to us so far as possible. This nature is called the First, because it is very simple, and not composite; it is the absolute as self-sufficient, because it is not composite; otherwise it would depend on the things of which it was composed. Neither is it predicable of anything (as an attribute in a subject) for all that is in another thing comes from something else. If then this nature be not in anything else, nor is derived from anything else, if it contain nothing composite, it must not have anything above it.
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MODESTY IS A PART OF Goodness; PRIDE IS FOLLY.
If, however, you pretend to scorn these (stars that are considered) divinities, and if you hold yourself in high esteem, on the plea that you are not far inferior to them, learn first that the best man is he who is most modest in his relations with divinities and men. In the second place, learn that one should think of the divinity only within limits, without insolence, and not to seek to rise to a condition that is above human possibilities. It is unreasonable to believe that there is no place by the side of the divinity for all other men, while impudently proposing alone to aspire to that dignity. This by itself would deprive the Soul of the possibility of assimilation to the Divinity to the limit of her receptivity.354 This the Soul cannot attain unless guided by Intelligence. To pretend to rise above Intelligence,355 is to fall short of it. There are people insane enough to believe, without reflection, claims such as the following ("By initiation into secret knowledge, or gnosis), you will be better, not only than all men, but even than all the deities." These people are swollen with pride356; and men who before were modest, simple and humble, become arrogant on hearing themselves say, "You are a child of the divinity; the other men that you used to honor are not his children, any more than the stars who were worshipped by the ancients. You yourself, without working, are better than heaven itself." Then companions crowd around him, and applaud his utterance. He resembles a man who, though not knowing how to count, should, in the midst of a crowd of men, equally ignorant with him, hear it said by somebody that he was a thousand feet high while others were only five feet high. He would not realize what was meant by a thousand feet, but he would consider this measure very great.
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SCORN OF THIS WORLD IS NO GUARANTEE OF Goodness.
16. One does not become a good man merely by scorning the divinities, the world, and the beauties it contains. Scorn of the divinities is the chief characteristic of the evil. Perversity is never complete until scorn of the divinities is reached; and if a man were not otherwise perverse, this vice would be sufficient to make him such. The respect which the (Gnostic) pretend to have for the intelligible divinities (the aeons) is an illogical accident. For when one loves a being, he loves all that attaches thereto; he extends to the children the affection for the parent. Now every soul is a daughter of the heavenly Father.631 The souls that preside over the stars are intellectual, good, and closer to the divinity than ours. How could this sense-world, with the divinities it contains, be separated from the intelligible world? We have already shown above the impossibility of such a separation. Here we insist that when one scorns beings so near to those that hold the front rank, it can only be that one knows them by name only.
ENNEAD 03.01 - Concerning Fate., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01, #Plotinus, #Christianity
Besides, nobody would admit that perversity could come from beings who are divinities. How could one believe that they are the authors of the evils attri buted to them, and that they themselves become evil because they set or pass under the earth, as if they could possibly be affected by the fact that, in regard to us, they seem to set; as if they did not continue to wander around the heavenly sphere, and remained in the same relation to the earth? Besides it is incredible that because a star is in such or such a position in respect of another star, it becomes better or worse, and that it affects us with Goodness when it is well disposed, and evil in the contrary case.
STARS SERVE AS LETTERS IN WHICH TO READ NATURE.
ENNEAD 03.02 - Of Providence., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04, #Plotinus, #Christianity
Every individual, therefore, occupies, according to justice, the place he deserves, just as each string of1073 the lyre is fixed to the place assigned to it by the nature of the sounds it is to render. In the universe everything is good and beautiful if every being occupy the place he deserves, if, for instance, he utter discordant sounds when in darkness and Tartarus; for such sounds fit that place. If the universe is to be beautiful, the individual must not behave "like a stone" in it; he must contri bute to the unity of the universal harmony by uttering the sound suitable to him (as thought Epictetus75). The sound that the individual utters is the life he leads, a life which is inferior in greatness, Goodness and power (to that of the universe). The shepherd's pipe utters several sounds, and the weakest of them, nevertheless, contri butes to the total Harmony, because this harmony is composed of unequal sounds whose totality constitutes a perfect harmony. Likewise, universal Reason though one, contains unequal parts. Consequently, the universe contains different places, some better, and some worse, and their inequality corresponds to the inequality of the soul. Indeed, as both places and souls are different, the souls that are different find the places that are unequal, like the unequal parts of the pipe, or any other musical instrument. They inhabit different places, and each utters sounds proper to the place where they are, and to the universe. Thus what is bad for the individual may be good for the totality; what is against nature in the individual agrees with the nature in the whole. A sound that is feeble does not change the harmony of the universe, asto use another exampleone bad citizen does not change the nature of a well-regulated city; for often there is need of such a man in a city; he therefore fits it well.
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What then would happen if a virtuous man should have a body of evil nature, or a vicious man a body of a good nature? The Goodness of the soul has more or less influence on the Goodness of the body. Exterior circumstances cannot thus alter the character chosen by the soul. When (Plato) says that the lots are spread out before the souls, and that later the different kinds of conditions are displayed before them, and that the fortune of each results from the choice made amidst the different kinds of lives presenta choice evidently made according to her character(Plato) evidently attributes to the soul the power of conforming to her character the condition allotted to her.
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11. This was no doubt the thought present to Plato when64 he rightly said, "These imitations of the eternal beings which enter into matter, and which issue therefrom." Not without good reason did he employ the terms "enter" and "issue"; he wanted us carefully to scrutinize the manner in which matter participates in ideas. When Plato thus tries to clear up how matter participates in ideas, his object is to show, not how ideas enter into matter, as before so many have believed, but their condition within it. Doubtless, it does seem astonishing that matter remains impassible in respect to the ideas that are present therein, while the things that enter in it are affected by each other. We nevertheless have to acknowledge that the things which enter into matter expel their predecessors, and that it is only the composite that is affected. Nevertheless it is not every kind of composite that is affected, but only that composite that happens to need the thing that was introduced or expelled, so that its constitution becomes defective by the absence of that (quality), or more complete by its presence. Nothing is added to the nature of matter, however, by the introduction370 of anything; the presence of that thing does not make matter what it is, and matter loses nothing by its absence; matter remains what it was since its origin. To be ornamented is to the interest of something that admits of order or ornament; it can receive that ornament without being changed, when it only puts it on, so to speak. But if this ornament penetrate into it as something that forms part of its nature, it then cannot receive it without being altered, without ceasing to be what it was before, as for instance, ceasing to be ugly; without, by that very fact, changing; without, for instance, becoming beautiful, though ugly before. Therefore if matter become beautiful, though before ugly, it ceases to be what it was before; namely, ugly; so that on being adorned it loses its nature, so much the more as it was ugly only accidentally. Being ugly enough to be ugliness itself, it could not participate in beauty; being bad enough to be badness itself, it could not participate in Goodness. Therefore matter participates in the ideas without being affected; and consequently, this participation must operate in another manner; and, for instance, consist in appearance.65 This kind of participation solves the problem we had set ourselves; it enables us to understand how, while being evil, matter can aspire to the Good without ceasing to be what it was, in spite of its participation in the Good. Indeed if this participation operate in a manner such that matter remains without alteration, as we say, and if it always continue to be what it was, there is no reason to be surprised if, though being evil, it can participate in the Good; it does not swerve from its manner of existence. On one hand, as for her, this participation is unavoidable, it participates as long as it endures; on the other hand, as matter continues to be what it is, by virtue of the kind of participation which does not interfere with its nature, it undergoes no alteration on the part of the371 principle which gives it something; it always remains as bad as it was, because its nature persists. If matter really participated in the Good, if matter were really modified thereby, its nature would no longer be evil. Therefore, the statement that matter is evil is true enough if it be considered to imply that it is impassible in respect to Good; and this really amounts to saying that it is entirely impassible.
SENSE-OBJECTS ARE UNREAL AND ARE CHIEFLY MADE UP OF APPEARANCE.
ENNEAD 03.09 - Fragments About the Soul, the Intelligence, and the Good., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01, #Plotinus, #Christianity
Will the Good not be self-conscious? It is claimed by some that the Good would be good only if it possessed self-consciousness. But if it be Goodness, it is Goodness before having self-consciousness. If the Good be good only because it has self-consciousness, it was not good before having self-consciousness; but, on the other hand, if there be no Goodness, no possible consciousness can therefore exist. (Likewise, someone may ask) does not the First live? He cannot be said to live, because He Himself gives life.
THE SUPREME IS THEREFORE ABOVE THOUGHT.
ENNEAD 04.04 - Questions About the Soul., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02, #Plotinus, #Christianity
38. Things which arise from the universe without the incitation of somebody are generally caused by the vegetative life of the universe. As to the things whose production is due to somebody, either by simple wishes, or by cunning enchantments, they should be ascribed not to some star, but to the very nature of that which is produced. 1. Of course, the necessaries of life, or what serves some other use, should be attri buted to the Goodness of the stars; it is a gift made by a stronger part to a weaker one. Any harmful effect on the generation of animals exercised by the stars must depend on their substance's inability to receive what has been given them; for the effect is not produced absolutely, but relatively to some subject or condition, for that which "suffers" or is to "suffer" must have a determinate nature. 2. Mixtures also exert a great influence, because each being furnishes something useful to life. Moreover, something good might happen to a person without the assistance of beings which by nature would seem useful. 3. The co-ordination of the universe does not always give to each person what he desires. 4. Besides, we ourselves add much to what has been given to us. 5. All things are not any the less embraced in a same unity; they form an admirable harmony; besides, they are derived from each other, though originating from contraries; for indeed all things are parts of a single animal. If502 any one of these begotten things is imperfect because it is not completely formed, the fact is that matter not being entirely subdued, the begotten thing degenerates and falls into deformity. Thus some things are produced by the stars, others are derived from the nature of substance, while others are added by the beings themselves.
ASTROLOGICAL SIGNS ARE ONLY CONCATENATIONS FROM UNIVERSAL REASON.
ENNEAD 04.08 - Of the Descent of the Soul Into the Body., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01, #Plotinus, #Christianity
6. Unity was not to exist alone; for if unity remained self-enclosed, all things would remain hidden in unity without having any form, and no beings would achieve existence. Consequently, even if constituted by beings born of unity, plurality would not exist, unless the inferior natures, by their rank destined to be souls, issued from those beings by the way of procession. Likewise, it was not sufficient for souls to exist, they also had to reveal what they were capable of begetting. It is likewise natural for each essence to produce something beneath it, to draw it out from itself by a development similar to that of a seed, a development in which an indivisible principle proceeds to the production of a sense-object, and where that which precedes remains in its own place at the same time as it begets that which follows by an inexpressible power, which is essential to intelligible natures. Now as this power was not to be stopped or circumscribed in its actions by jealousy, there was need of a continuous procession until, from degree to degree, all things had descended to the extreme limits of what was possible;178 for it is the characteristic of an inexhaustible130 power to communicate all its gifts to everything, and not to permit any of them to be disinherited, since there is nothing which hinders any of them from participating in the nature of the Good in the measure that it is capable of doing so. Since matter has existed from all eternity, it was impossible that from the time since it existed, it should not participate in that which communicates Goodness to all things according to their receptivity thereof.179 If the generation of matter were the necessary consequence of anterior principles, still it must not be entirely deprived of the good by its primitive impotence, when the cause which gratuitously communicated "being" to it remained self-enclosed.
SENSE-OBJECTS ARE NECESSARY AS REVEALERS OF THE ETERNAL.
The excellence, power and Goodness of intelligible (essences) are therefore revealed by sense-objects; and there is an eternal connection between intelligible (entities) that are self-existent, and sense-objects, which eternally derive their existence therefrom by participation, and which imitate intelligible nature to the extent of their ability.
THE SOUL'S NATURE IS OF AN INTERMEDIATE KIND.
ENNEAD 05.03 - The Self-Consciousnesses, and What is Above Them., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04, #Plotinus, #Christianity
3. Now let us suppose that the senses have perceived a man, and have furnished an appropriate image thereof to discursive reason. What will the latter say? It may say nothing, limiting itself to taking notice of him. However, it may also ask itself who this man is;1093 and, having already met him, with the aid of memory, decide that he is Socrates. If then discursive reason develop the image of Socrates, then it divides what imagination has furnished. If discursive reason add that Socrates is good, it still deals with things known by the senses; but that which it asserts thereof, namely, his Goodness, it has drawn from itself, because within itself it possesses the rule of Goodness. But how does it, within itself, possess Goodness? Because it conforms to the Good, and receives the notion of it from the Intelligence that enlightens itself; for (discursive reason), this part of the soul, is pure, and receives impressions from Intelligence.101
WHY DISCURSIVE REASON SHOULD BELONG TO THE SOUL RATHER THAN TO INTELLIGENCE.
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16. We have shown elsewhere that something must follow the One, and that the One is a power, and is inexhaustible; and this is so, because even the last-rank entities possess the power of begetting. For the present we may notice that the generation of things reveals a descending procession, in which, the further we go, the more does manifoldness increase; and that the principle is always simpler than the things it produces.111 Therefore, that which has produced the sense world is not the sense-world itself, but Intelligence and the intelligible world; and that which has begotten Intelligence and the intelligible world is neither Intelligence nor the intelligible world, but something simpler than them. Manifoldness is not1118 born of manifoldness, but of something that is not manifold. If That which was superior to Intelligence were manifold, it would no longer be the (supreme) Principle, and we would have to ascend further. Everything must, therefore, be reduced to that which is essentially one, which is outside of all manifoldness; and whose simplicity is the greatest possible. But how can manifold and universal Reason be born of the One, when very evidently the One is not a reason? As it is not a reason, how can it beget Reason? How can the Good beget a hypostatic form of existence, which would be good in form? What does this hypostatic form of existence possess? Is it identity? But what is the relation between identity and Goodness? Because as soon as we possess the Good, we seek identity and permanence; and because the Good is the principle from which we must not separate; for if it were not the Good, it would be better to give it up. We must, therefore, wish to remain united to the Good. Since that is the most desirable for Intelligence, it need seek nothing beyond, and its permanence indicates its satisfaction with the entities it possesses. Enjoying, as it does, their presence in a manner such that it fuses with them, it must then consider life as the most precious entity of all. As Intelligence possesses life in its universality and fulness, this life is the fulness and universality of the Soul and Intelligence. Intelligence, therefore, is self-sufficient, and desires nothing; it contains what it would have desired if it had not already possessed such desirable object. It possesses the good that consists in life and intelligence, as we have said, or in some one of the connected entities. If Life and Intelligence were the absolute Good, there would be nothing above them. But if the absolute Good be above them, the good of Intelligence is this Life, which relates to the absolute Good, which connects with it, which receives existence from it, and rises1119 towards it, because it is its principle. The Good, therefore, must be superior to Life and Intelligence. On this condition only does the life of Intelligence, the image of Him from whom all life proceeds, turn towards Him; on this condition only does Intelligence, the imitation of the contents of the One, whatever be His nature, turn towards Him.
THE SUPREME AS SUPERESSENTIAL AND SUPEREXISTENT.
ENNEAD 05.05 - That Intelligible Entities Are Not External to the Intelligence of the Good., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02, #Plotinus, #Christianity
13. Being the Good Himself, and not simply something good, the Divinity cannot possess anything, not even the quality of being good. If He possessed anything, this thing would either be good, or not good; now in the principle which is good in Himself and in the highest degree, there cannot be anything which is not good. On the other hand, the statement that the Good possesses the quality of being good is impossible. Since therefore (the Good) can possess neither the quality of being good, or of not being good, the result is that He cannot possess anything; that He is unique, and isolated from everything else. As all596 other things either are good without being the Good, or are not good, and as the Good has neither the quality of being good, or of not being good, He has nothing, and this is the very thing that constitutes His Goodness. To attri bute to Him anything, such as being, intelligence, or beauty, would be to deprive Him of the privilege of being the Good. Therefore when we deprive Him of all attri butes, when we affirm nothing about Him, when one does not commit the error of supposing anything within Him, He is left as simple essence, without attri bution of things He does not possess. Let us not imitate those ignorant panegyrists who lower the glory of those they praise by attri buting to them qualities inferior to their dignity, because they do not know how to speak properly of the persons they are trying to praise. Likewise, we should not attri bute to the Divinity any of the things beneath and after Him; we should recognize Him as their eminent cause, but without being any of them. The nature of the Good consists not in being all things in general, nor in being any of them in particular. In this case, indeed, the Good would form no more than one with all beings; consequently, He would differ from them only by His own character; that is, by some difference, or by the addition of some quality. Instead of being one, He would be two things, of which the onenamely, what in Him was common with the other beingswould not be the Good, while the other would be the Good (and would leave all beings evil). Under this hypothesis, He would be a mixture of good and of not good; he would no longer be the pure and primary Good. The primary Good would be that in which the other thing would particularly participate, a participation by virtue of which it would become the good. This thing would be the good only by participation, whilst that in which it would participate would be nothing in particular; which would597 demonstrate that the good was nothing in particular. But if, in the principle under discussion, the good be such that is, if there be a difference whose presence gives the character of Goodness to the compositethis good must derive from some other principle which must be the Good uniquely and simply. Such a composite, therefore, depends on the pure and simple Good. Thus the First, the absolute Good, dominates all beings, is uniquely the Good, possesses nothing within Himself, is mingled with nothing, is superior to all things, and is the cause of all things. The beautiful and that which is "being" could not derive from evil, or from indifferent principles; for the cause being more perfect, is always better than its effects.
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12. We therefore assert (that by moving towards unity everything moves towards the Good). How can it be, however, that Goodness should consist in coming closer to unity, even for number, which is inanimate?314 This question might as well be asked about any inanimate object whatever. If we were told that such (beings) do not enjoy (existence), we might answer that we are here treating of beings according to their proximity to unity only. If, for instance, we were asked how a point can participate in the Good, we might answer by a retort, asking whether we are dealing with the Point in itself. Then we would answer by the observation that the state of affairs was the same for all things of the same kind. If however we915 were pressed about the point considered as existing in some object, as, for instance, in the circle, we would answer that for such a point, the Good is the good of the circle (of which it forms part); that such is the Good towards which it aspires, and that it seeks that as far as possible through the intermediation of the circle.
THESE GENERA EXIST IN BOTH THE SUBORDINATE OBJECTS, AND THEMSELVES.
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17. But why should not the Good, beauty, virtues, science, or intelligence be considered primary genera? If by "good" we understand the First, whom we call the Good itself, of whom indeed we could not affirm anything, but whom we call by this name, because we have none better to express our meaning, He is not a genus; for He cannot be affirmed of anything else. If indeed there were things of which He could be predicated, each of them would be the Good Himself.921 Besides, the Good does not consist in "being," and therefore is above it. But if by "good" we mean only the quality (of Goodness), then it is evident that quality cannot be ranked with primary genera. Does this imply that Essence is not good? No; it is good, but not in the same manner as the First, who is good, not by a quality, but by Himself.
It may however be objected that, as we saw above, essence contains other genera, and that each of these is a genus because it has something in common, and because it is found in several things. If then the Good be found in each part of "being" or essence, or at least, in the greater number of them, why would not also the Good be a genus, and one of the first genera? Because the Good is not the same in all parts of Essence, existing within it in the primary or secondary degree; and because all these different goods are all subordinate to each other, the last depending on the first, and all depending from a single Unity, which is the supreme Good; for if all participate in the Good, it is only in a manner that varies according to the nature of each.
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It was only a step from this to the logical deduction of Xenocrates that these things in heaven were "spirits" or "guardians," both good and evil, assisting in the administration of human affairs.473 Such is the result of doubleness introduced into anthropology; introduced into cosmology, it establishes Pythagorean indefinite duality as the principle opposing the unity of Goodness.
The next step was taken by Plutarch. The evil demons, had, in Stoic phraseology, been called "physical;" and so, in regard to matter, they came to stand in the relation of soul to body. Original matter, therefore, became two-fold; matter itself, and its moving principle, "the soul of matter." This was identified with the worse World-soul by a development, or historical event, which was the ordering of the cosmos, or, creation.
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In Plotinos's third, or Eustochian period, the same evasions occur. For instance478 he limits Being to Goodness. Then he acknowledges the existence of evil things, and derives their evil quality from a primary evil, the "image of essence," the Being of evil. That he is conscious of having strained a point is evident from the fact that he adds the clause, "if there can be a Being of evil." Likewise,479 while discussing evil, which is generally recognized because in our daily lives there is positive pain, and sensations of pain, he defines evil as lack of qualities. To say that evil is not such as to form, but as to nature is opposite to form is nonsense, inasmuch as life is full of positive evils, as Numenius brought out in 16, and Plotinos acknowledged even in spite of his polemic against the Gnostics.
Finally Plotinos takes refuge in a miracle480 as explanation of "unparticipating participation." This is commentary enough; it shows he realized the futility of any arguments. But Plotinos was not alone in despairing of establishing an ironclad system; before him Numenius had, just as pathetically, despaired of a logical dualism, and he acknowledged in fragment 16 that Pythagoras's arguments, however true, were "wonderful and opposed to the belief of a majority of humanity."
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261 Plotinos is here harking back to his very earliest writing, 1.6, where, before his monistic adventure with Porphyry, he had, under the Numenian influence of Amelius, constructed his system out of a combination of the doctrines of Plato (about the ideas), Aristotle (the distinctions of form and matter and of potentiality and actualization), and the Stoic (the "reasons," "seminal reasons," action and passions, and "hexis," or "habit," the inorganic informing principle). Of these, Numenius seems to have lacked the Aristotelian doctrines, although he left Plato's single triple-functioned soul for Aristotle's combination of souls of various degrees (fr. 53). Plotinos, therefore, seems to have distinguished in every object two elements, matter and form (ii. 4.1; ii. 5.2). Matter inheres potentially in all beings (ii. 5.3, 4) and therefore is non-being, ugliness, and evil (i. 6.6). Form is the actualization (K. Steinhart's Melemata Plotiniana, p. 31; ii. 5.2); that is, the essence and power (vi. 4.9), which are inseparable. Form alone possesses real existence, beauty and Goodness. Form has four degrees: idea, reason, nature and habit; which degrees are the same as those of thought and life (Porphyry, Principles 12, 13, 14). The idea is distinguished into "idea" or intelligible Form, or "eidos," principle of human intellectual life. Reason is 1, divine (theios logos, i. 6, 2; the reason that comes from the universal Soul, iv. 3.10), 2, human (principle of the rational life, see Ficinus on ii. 6.2); 3, the seminal or generative reason (principle of the life of sensation, which imparts to the body the sense-form, "morph," 3.12-end; Bouillet, i. 365). Now reasons reside in the soul (ii. 4.12), and are simultaneously essences and powers (vi. 4.9), and as powers produce the nature, and as essences, the habits. Now nature ("physis") is the principle of the vegetative life, and habit, "hexis," Numenius, fr. 55, see ii. 4.16, is the principle of unity of inorganic things.
262 As thought Aristotle, Met. xii, 3.
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Modesty is part of Goodness, ii. 9.9. (33-616).
Modification derived from foreign sources, i. 1.9 (53-1202).
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Scorn of this world no guarantee of Goodness, ii. 9.16 (33-630).
Scorning all things below, soul rises to the good, vi. 7.31 (38-750).
ENNEAD 06.07 - How Ideas Multiplied, and the Good., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03, #Plotinus, #Christianity
Is it by a mere play on words that life, intelligence and ideas are called good? Does the good constitute their being, or is each good taken in its totality? Good could not constitute the being of each of them. Are they then parts of the Good? The Good, however, is indivisible. The things that are beneath it are good for different reasons. The primary actualization (that proceeds from the Good) is good; likewise, the determination it receives is good, and the totality of both734 things is good. The actualization is good because it proceeds from the Good; the determination, because it is a perfection that has emanated from the Good; and the combination of actualization and determination because it is their totality. All these things thus are derived from one and the same principle, but nevertheless they are different. Thus (in a choric ballet) the voice and the step proceed from one and the same person, in that they are all perfectly regulated. Now they are well regulated because they contain order and rhythm. What then is the content in the above-mentioned things that would make them good? But perhaps it may be objected that if the voice and step are well regulated, each one of them entirely owes it to some external principle, since the order is here applied to the things that differ from each other. On the contrary, the things of which we speak are each of them good in itself. And why are they good? It does not suffice to say that they are good because they proceed from the Good. Doubtless we shall have to grant that they are precious from the moment that they proceed from the Good, but reason demands that we shall determine that of which their Goodness consists.
GOOD CANNOT BE A DESIRE OF THE SOUL.
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It will further be suggested (by followers of Aristotle) that we stop at Intelligence, predicating Goodness of it. For life and soul are images of Intelligence. It is to Intelligence that the soul aspires, it is according to Intelligence that the soul judges, it is on Intelligence that the soul regulates herself, when she pronounces that justice is better than injustice, in preferring every kind of virtue to every kind of vice, and in holding in high estimation what she considers preferable. Unfortunately, the soul does not aspire to Intelligence exclusively. As might be demonstrated in a long discussion, Intelligence is not the supreme goal to which we aspire, and not everything aspires to Intelligence, whilst everything aspires to the Good. The (beings) which do not possess intelligence do not all seek to possess it, while those who do possess it, do not limit themselves to it. Intelligence is sought only as the result of a train of reasoning, whilst Good is desired even before reason comes into play. If the object of desire be to live, to exist always, and to be active, this object is not desired because of Intelligence, but because of its being good, inasmuch as the Good is its737 principle and its goal. It is only in this respect that life is desirable.
THE GOOD IS INTELLIGENCE AND PRIMARY LIFE.
21. What then is the one and only cause to whose presence is due the Goodness (of life, intelligence and idea)? Let us not hesitate to say: Intelligence and primary Life bear the form of Good; it is on this account alone that they are desirable; they bear the form of Good in this respect, that the primary Life is the actualization of the Good, or rather the actualization that proceeds from the Good, and that intelligence is determination of this actualization. (Intelligence and primary Life) are fascinating, and the soul seeks them because they proceed from the Good; nevertheless the soul aspires to them (only) because they fit her, and not because they are good in themselves. On the other hand, the soul could not disdain them because they bear the form of good; though112 we can disdain something even though it be suitable to us, if it be not a good besides.112 It is true that we permit ourselves to be allured by distant and inferior objects, and may even feel for them a passionate love; but that occurs only when they have something more than their natural condition, and when some perfection descends on them from on high. Just as the bodies, while containing a light mingled with their (substance), nevertheless need illumination by some other light to bring out their colors,113 so the intelligible entities, in spite of the light that they contain, need to receive some other more powerful light, so as to become visible, both for themselves, and for others.
GOOD CONSISTS IN ILLUMINATION BY THE EXTREME.
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But if this be the nature of the Good, what does He do? He made Intelligence, and life. By the intermediation of Intelligence, He made the souls and all the other beings that participate in Intelligence, in Reason, or in Life. Moreover, who could express the Goodness of Him who is their source and principle? But what is He doing at the present time? He preserves what He has begotten, He inspires the thought in those who think, He vivifies the living, by His spirit,116 He imparts to all (beings) intelligence and life, and to those who are unable to receive life, at least existence.
MANY FURTHER QUESTIONS ABOUT THE GOOD; FOR THE INDIVIDUAL IT IS ILLUMINATION.
24. And what is He doing for us? To answer this question, we would still have to explain the light by which Intelligence is illuminated, and in which the Soul participates. But we shall have to postpone this discussion, and mention various other questions which may be asked. Is the Good Goodness, and does it receive this name because it is desirable for some being? Is that which is desirable for some being the good of this being, and do we call the Good that which is desirable for all beings? Is being desirable not rather a simple characteristic of the Good, and must not that which is desirable have a nature such that it would deserve the name of Good?117 Besides, do the beings that desire the Good desire it because they receive from it something, or merely because possession thereof causes bliss? If they do receive something from it, what does it consist of? If the possession of the Good give them joy, why should their joy come from possession741 of the Good, rather than from possession of anything else? ls the Good such by what is characteristic of it, or by something else? Is the Good an attri bute of some other being, or is the Good good for itself? Must not the Good rather be good for others, without being good for itself? For whom anyway is the Good good? For there is a certain nature (matter) for which nothing is good.
ATTRIBUTING GOOD TO LIFE IS ONLY THE RESULT OF FEAR OF DEATH.
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The good must then be desirable; but it is good not because it is desirable, but it is desirable because it is good.121 Thus in the order of beings, rising from the last to the First, it will be found that the good of each of them is in the one immediately preceding, so long as this ascending scale remain proportionate and increasing. Then we will stop at Him who occupies the supreme rank, beyond which there is nothing more to seek. That is the First, the veritable, the sovereign Good, the author of all Goodness in other beings. The good of matter is form; for if matter became capable of sensation it would receive it with pleasure. The good of the body is the soul; for without her it could neither743 exist nor last. The good of the soul is virtue; and then higher (waits), Intelligence. Last, the good of Intelligence is the principle called the Primary nature. Each of these goods produces something within the object whose good it is. It confers order and beauty (as form does on matter); or life (as the soul does on the body); or wisdom and happiness (as intelligence does on soul). Last, the Good communicates to Intelligence its influx, and actualization emanating from the Good, and shedding on Intelligence what has been called the light of the Good. The nature of this we shall study later.
THE TRUE GOOD IMPLIES A COUNTERFEIT GOOD.
26. Recognition of Goodness and so-called "possession" thereof consist of enjoyment of the presence of good by the being who has received from nature the faculty of sensation. How could it make a mistake about the matter? The possibility of its being deceived implies the existence of some counterfeit; in this case, the error of this being was caused by that which resembled its good; for this being withdraws from what had deceived it as soon as the Good presents itself. The existence of a particular good for each being is demonstrated by its desire and inclination. Doubtless, the inanimate being receives its good from without; but, in the animated being, the desire spontaneously starts to pursue the Good. That is why lifeless bodies are the objects of solicitude and care of living beings, while the living beings watch over themselves.
THE GOOD CANNOT BE PLEASURE WHICH IS CHANGEABLE AND RESTLESS.
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29. Supposing then that the pleasure does not accompany the good, but that anterior to pleasure there have existed something which would have naturally given rise to it (because of its Goodness); why then might not the good be considered lovable? But the mere assertion that good is lovable, already implies that it is accompanied by pleasure. But supposing now that the good could exist without being lovable (and consequently not accompanied by pleasure). In that case, even in presence of the good, the being that possesses sensibility will not know that the good is present. What would however hinder a being from knowing the presence of the good without feeling any emotion at its possession, which would exactly represent the case of the temperate man who lacks nothing? The result would be that pleasure could not be suitable to the First (being), not only because He is simple, but also because pleasure results from the acquisition of what is lacking (and the First lacks nothing, therefore could not feel pleasure).
748
Epistle to the Romans, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
14 And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of Goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another. 15 But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. 18 For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, 19 in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
Paul's Plans
Gorgias, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
The pleasant is not the same as the goodCallicles and I are agreed about that,but pleasure is to be pursued for the sake of the good, and the good is that of which the presence makes us good; we and all things good have acquired some virtue or other. And virtue, whether of body or soul, of things or persons, is not attained by accident, but is due to order and harmonious arrangement. And the soul which has order is better than the soul which is without order, and is therefore temperate and is therefore good, and the intemperate is bad. And he who is temperate is also just and brave and pious, and has attained the perfection of Goodness and therefore of happiness, and the intemperate whom you approve is the opposite of all this and is wretched. He therefore who would be happy must pursue temperance and avoid intemperance, and if possible escape the necessity of punishment, but if he have done wrong he must endure punishment. In this way states and individuals should seek to attain harmony, which, as the wise tell us, is the bond of heaven and earth, of gods and men. Callicles has never discovered the power of geometrical proportion in both worlds; he would have men aim at disproportion and excess. But if he be wrong in this, and if self-control is the true secret of happiness, then the paradox is true that the only use of rhetoric is in self-accusation, and Polus was right in saying that to do wrong is worse than to suffer wrong, and Gorgias was right in saying that the rhetorician must be a just man. And you were wrong in taunting me with my defenceless condition, and in saying that I might be accused or put to death or boxed on the ears with impunity. For I may repeat once more, that to strike is worse than to be strickento do than to suffer. What I said then is now made fast in adamantine bonds. I myself know not the true nature of these things, but I know that no one can deny my words and not be ridiculous. To do wrong is the greatest of evils, and to suffer wrong is the next greatest evil. He who would avoid the last must be a ruler, or the friend of a ruler; and to be the friend he must be the equal of the ruler, and must also resemble him. Under his protection he will suffer no evil, but will he also do no evil? Nay, will he not rather do all the evil which he can and escape? And in this way the greatest of all evils will befall him. 'But this imitator of the tyrant,' rejoins Callicles, 'will kill any one who does not similarly imitate him.' Socrates replies that he is not deaf, and that he has heard that repeated many times, and can only reply, that a bad man will kill a good one. 'Yes, and that is the provoking thing.' Not provoking to a man of sense who is not studying the arts which will preserve him from danger; and this, as you say, is the use of rhetoric in courts of justice. But how many other arts are there which also save men from death, and are yet quite humble in their pretensionssuch as the art of swimming, or the art of the pilot? Does not the pilot do men at least as much service as the rhetorician, and yet for the voyage from Aegina to Athens he does not charge more than two obols, and when he disembarks is quite unassuming in his demeanour? The reason is that he is not certain whether he has done his passengers any good in saving them from death, if one of them is diseased in body, and still more if he is diseased in mindwho can say? The engineer too will often save whole cities, and yet you despise him, and would not allow your son to marry his daughter, or his son to marry yours. But what reason is there in this? For if virtue only means the saving of life, whether your own or another's, you have no right to despise him or any practiser of saving arts. But is not virtue something different from saving and being saved? I would have you rather consider whether you ought not to disregard length of life, and think only how you can live best, leaving all besides to the will of Heaven. For you must not expect to have influence either with the Athenian Demos or with Demos the son of Pyrilampes, unless you become like them. What do you say to this?
'There is some truth in what you are saying, but I do not entirely believe you.'
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The idealizing of suffering is one of the conceptions which have exercised the greatest influence on mankind. Into the theological import of this, or into the consideration of the errors to which the idea may have given rise, we need not now enter. All will agree that the ideal of the Divine Sufferer, whose words the world would not receive, the man of sorrows of whom the Hebrew prophets spoke, has sunk deep into the heart of the human race. It is a similar picture of suffering Goodness which Plato desires to pourtray, not without an allusion to the fate of his master Socrates. He is convinced that, somehow or other, such an one must be happy in life or after death. In the Republic, he endeavours to show that his happiness would be assured here in a well-ordered state. But in the actual condition of human things the wise and good are weak and miserable; such an one is like a man fallen among wild beasts, exposed to every sort of wrong and obloquy.
Plato, like other philosophers, is thus led on to the conclusion, that if 'the ways of God' to man are to be 'justified,' the hopes of another life must be included. If the question could have been put to him, whether a man dying in torments was happy still, even if, as he suggests in the Apology, 'death be only a long sleep,' we can hardly tell what would have been his answer. There have been a few, who, quite independently of rewards and punishments or of posthumous reputation, or any other influence of public opinion, have been willing to sacrifice their lives for the good of others. It is difficult to say how far in such cases an unconscious hope of a future life, or a general faith in the victory of good in the world, may have supported the sufferers. But this extreme idealism is not in accordance with the spirit of Plato. He supposes a day of retri bution, in which the good are to be rewarded and the wicked punished. Though, as he says in the Phaedo, no man of sense will maintain that the details of the stories about another world are true, he will insist that something of the kind is true, and will frame his life with a view to this unknown future. Even in the Republic he introduces a future life as an afterthought, when the superior happiness of the just has been established on what is thought to be an immutable foundation. At the same time he makes a point of determining his main thesis independently of remoter consequences.
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SOCRATES: And now I will endeavour to explain to you more clearly what I mean: The soul and body being two, have two arts corresponding to them: there is the art of politics attending on the soul; and another art attending on the body, of which I know no single name, but which may be described as having two divisions, one of them gymnastic, and the other medicine. And in politics there is a legislative part, which answers to gymnastic, as justice does to medicine; and the two parts run into one another, justice having to do with the same subject as legislation, and medicine with the same subject as gymnastic, but with a difference. Now, seeing that there are these four arts, two attending on the body and two on the soul for their highest good; flattery knowing, or rather guessing their natures, has distributed herself into four shams or simulations of them; she puts on the likeness of some one or other of them, and pretends to be that which she simulates, and having no regard for men's highest interests, is ever making pleasure the bait of the unwary, and deceiving them into the belief that she is of the highest value to them. Cookery simulates the disguise of medicine, and pretends to know what food is the best for the body; and if the physician and the cook had to enter into a competition in which children were the judges, or men who had no more sense than children, as to which of them best understands the Goodness or badness of food, the physician would be starved to death. A flattery I deem this to be and of an ignoble sort, Polus, for to you I am now addressing myself, because it aims at pleasure without any thought of the best. An art I do not call it, but only an experience, because it is unable to explain or to give a reason of the nature of its own applications. And I do not call any irrational thing an art; but if you dispute my words, I am prepared to argue in defence of them.
Cookery, then, I maintain to be a flattery which takes the form of medicine; and tiring, in like manner, is a flattery which takes the form of gymnastic, and is knavish, false, ignoble, illiberal, working deceitfully by the help of lines, and colours, and enamels, and garments, and making men affect a spurious beauty to the neglect of the true beauty which is given by gymnastic.
Guru Granth Sahib first part, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
All Truth, all austere discipline, all Goodness,
all the great miraculous spiritual powers of the Siddhas -
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Ba the in the waters of Goodness and apply the scented oil of Truth to your body,
and your face shall become radiant. This is the gift of 100,000 gifts.
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Those who have the treasure of Goodness join the Sat Sangat, the True Congregation. ||1||
O Siblings of Destiny, follow the Guru's Teachings and dwell in truth.
Ion, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
SOCRATES: But then, Ion, what in the name of Goodness can be the reason why you, who are the best of generals as well as the best of rhapsodes in all Hellas, go about as a rhapsode when you might be a general? Do you think that the Hellenes want a rhapsode with his golden crown, and do not want a general?
ION: Why, Socrates, the reason is, that my countrymen, the Ephesians, are the servants and soldiers of Athens, and do not need a general; and you and Sparta are not likely to have me, for you think that you have enough generals of your own.
I. THE ATTRACTIVE POWER OF GOD, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Thus we are drawn by the Sacred Trinity with the cords of Power, Wisdom and Love, when we are drawn from an evil thing to a good thing, and from a good thing to a better, and from a better thing to the best of all. Now the Father draws us from the evil of sin to the Goodness of His grace with the might of His measureless power, and He needs all the resources of His strength in order to convert sinners, more than when He was about to make heaven and earth, which He made with His own power without help from any creature. But when He is about to convert a sinner, He always needs the sinner's help.
"He converts thee not without thy help," as St Augustine says.
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Now, people say when they commit sin, that they do not intend to do so always; they intend to turn away from sin. That is just as though a man were to kill himself and suppose that he could make himself alive again by his own strength. That is, however, impossible; but to turn from sin by one's own power and come to God is still much more impossible. Therefore, whosoever is to turn from sin and come to God in His heavenly kingdom, must be drawn by the heavenly Father with the might of His divine power. The Father also draws the Son who comes to help us with His grace, by stimulating our free will to turn away from, and hate sin, which has drawn us aside from God, and from the immutable Goodness of the Godhead. Then, if she is willing, He pours the gift of His grace into the soul, which renounces all her misery and sin, and all her works become living. Now, this grace springs from the centre of Godhead and the Father's heart, and flows perpetually, nor ever ceases, if the soul obeys His everlasting love. Therefore He saith in the prophets: "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." Out of the overflow of His universal love He desires to draw all to Himself, and to His Only-begotten Son, and to the Holy Ghost in the joy of the heavenly kingdom. Now, we should know that before our Lord Jesus Christ was born, the Heavenly Father drew men with all His might for five thousand, two hundred years; and yet, as far as we know, brought not one into the heavenly kingdom. So, when the Son saw that the Father had thus strongly drawn men and even wearied Himself, and yet not succeeded, He said to the Father: "I will draw them with the cords of a man." It was as though He said, "I see well, Father, that Thou with all Thy might, canst not succeed, therefore will I myself draw them with the cords of a man."
Therefore the Son came down from heaven, and was incarnate of a Virgin, and took upon Him all our bodily weaknesses, except sin and folly, into which Adam had cast us; and out of all His words and works and limbs and nerves, He made a cord, and drew us so skillfully, and so heartily, that the bloody sweat poured from His sacred Body. And when He had drawn men without ceasing for three and thirty years, He saw the beginnings of a movement and the redemption of all things that would follow. Therefore He said, "And I, if I be lifted up on the Cross, will draw all men unto Me." Therefore He was stretched upon the Cross, and laid aside all His glory, and whatever might hinder His drawing men.
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Now when the Holy Spirit saw that the Only Begotten Son of the Father had drawn so wisely that He had won to Himself all things in heaven and earth, He also felt impelled by His own love and kindness to draw. Therefore He said, "I will also draw with My cords and My net." So He made a net of the seven high attributes of the Father, of the seven graces of the Son, of His own seven gifts, and of the seven Christian virtues. Thus He assures us that we shall never perish, for we are so caught by His Goodness that He expels from us all the evil works of the flesh, and produces in us His fruits, so that we gain the reward of everlasting life. May the Father of His love, and the Son of His grace, and the Holy Spirit with His fellowship, grant us to be worthy of the same. Amen.
Liber 46 - The Key of the Mysteries, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Now moral beauty is Goodness. It is beautiful to be good.
To be intelligently good, one must be just.
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Q. And if in order to imitate the grandeur and Goodness of
Providence he does more than his duty, and sacrifices his right to
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intelligence and his own Goodness; he cannot raise his ideal higher
than his moral development permits him to do. The God whom he adores is
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of Goodness and justice is to be ones self exceeding just and good.
The moral qualities of the spirit are riches, and the greatest of all
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Goodness all the imagination of men. It is thus that the world-weary
are people who have never known how to be happy; and those who are
Meno, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
In the Timaeus, which in the series of Plato's works immediately follows the Republic, though probably written some time afterwards, no mention occurs of the doctrine of ideas. Geometrical forms and arithmetical ratios furnish the laws according to which the world is created. But though the conception of the ideas as genera or species is forgotten or laid aside, the distinction of the visible and intellectual is as firmly maintained as ever. The IDEA of good likewise disappears and is superseded by the conception of a personal God, who works according to a final cause or principle of Goodness which he himself is. No doubt is expressed by Plato, either in the Timaeus or in any other dialogue, of the truths which he conceives to be the first and highest. It is not the existence of God or the idea of good which he approaches in a tentative or hesitating manner, but the investigations of physiology. These he regards, not seriously, as a part of philosophy, but as an innocent recreation (Tim.).
Passing on to the Parmenides, we find in that dialogue not an exposition or defence of the doctrine of ideas, but an assault upon them, which is put into the mouth of the veteran Parmenides, and might be ascribed to Aristotle himself, or to one of his disciples. The doctrine which is assailed takes two or three forms, but fails in any of them to escape the dialectical difficulties which are urged against it. It is admitted that there are ideas of all things, but the manner in which individuals partake of them, whether of the whole or of the part, and in which they become like them, or how ideas can be either within or without the sphere of human knowledge, or how the human and divine can have any relation to each other, is held to be incapable of explanation. And yet, if there are no universal ideas, what becomes of philosophy? (Parmenides.) In the Sophist the theory of ideas is spoken of as a doctrine held not by Plato, but by another sect of philosophers, called 'the Friends of Ideas,' probably the Megarians, who were very distinct from him, if not opposed to him (Sophist). Nor in what may be termed Plato's abridgement of the history of philosophy (Soph.), is any mention made such as we find in the first book of Aristotle's Metaphysics, of the derivation of such a theory or of any part of it from the Pythagoreans, the Eleatics, the Heracleiteans, or even from Socrates. In the Philebus, probably one of the latest of the Platonic Dialogues, the conception of a personal or semi-personal deity expressed under the figure of mind, the king of all, who is also the cause, is retained. The one and many of the Phaedrus and Theaetetus is still working in the mind of Plato, and the correlation of ideas, not of 'all with all,' but of 'some with some,' is asserted and explained. But they are spoken of in a different manner, and are not supposed to be recovered from a former state of existence. The metaphysical conception of truth passes into a psychological one, which is continued in the Laws, and is the final form of the Platonic philosophy, so far as can be gathered from his own writings (see especially Laws). In the Laws he harps once more on the old string, and returns to general notions:these he acknowledges to be many, and yet he insists that they are also one. The guardian must be made to recognize the truth, for which he has contended long ago in the Protagoras, that the virtues are four, but they are also in some sense one (Laws; compare Protagoras).
Phaedo, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
5. Again, believing in the immortality of the soul, we must still ask the question of Socrates, 'What is that which we suppose to be immortal?' Is it the personal and individual element in us, or the spiritual and universal? Is it the principle of knowledge or of Goodness, or the union of the two? Is it the mere force of life which is determined to be, or the consciousness of self which cannot be got rid of, or the fire of genius which refuses to be extinguished? Or is there a hidden being which is allied to the Author of all existence, who is because he is perfect, and to whom our ideas of perfection give us a title to belong? Whatever answer is given by us to these questions, there still remains the necessity of allowing the permanence of evil, if not for ever, at any rate for a time, in order that the wicked 'may not have too good a bargain.' For the annihilation of evil at death, or the eternal duration of it, seem to involve equal difficulties in the moral government of the universe. Sometimes we are led by our feelings, rather than by our reason, to think of the good and wise only as existing in another life. Why should the mean, the weak, the idiot, the infant, the herd of men who have never in any proper sense the use of reason, reappear with blinking eyes in the light of another world? But our second thought is that the hope of humanity is a common one, and that all or none will be partakers of immortality. Reason does not allow us to suppose that we have any greater claims than others, and experience may often reveal to us unexpected flashes of the higher nature in those whom we had despised. Why should the wicked suffer any more than ourselves? had we been placed in their circumstances should we have been any better than they? The worst of men are objects of pity rather than of anger to the philanthropist; must they not be equally such to divine benevolence? Even more than the good they have need of another life; not that they may be punished, but that they may be educated. These are a few of the reflections which arise in our minds when we attempt to assign any form to our conceptions of a future state.
There are some other questions which are disturbing to us because we have no answer to them. What is to become of the animals in a future state? Have we not seen dogs more faithful and intelligent than men, and men who are more stupid and brutal than any animals? Does their life cease at death, or is there some 'better thing reserved' also for them? They may be said to have a shadow or imitation of morality, and imperfect moral claims upon the benevolence of man and upon the justice of God. We cannot think of the least or lowest of them, the insect, the bird, the inhabitants of the sea or the desert, as having any place in a future world, and if not all, why should those who are specially attached to man be deemed worthy of any exceptional privilege? When we reason about such a subject, almost at once we degenerate into nonsense. It is a passing thought which has no real hold on the mind. We may argue for the existence of animals in a future state from the attri butes of God, or from texts of Scripture ('Are not two sparrows sold for one farthing?' etc.), but the truth is that we are only filling up the void of another world with our own fancies. Again, we often talk about the origin of evil, that great bugbear of theologians, by which they frighten us into believing any superstition. What answer can be made to the old commonplace, 'Is not God the author of evil, if he knowingly permitted, but could have prevented it?' Even if we assume that the inequalities of this life are rectified by some transposition of human beings in another, still the existence of the very least evil if it could have been avoided, seems to be at variance with the love and justice of God. And so we arrive at the conclusion that we are carrying logic too far, and that the attempt to frame the world according to a rule of divine perfection is opposed to experience and had better be given up. The case of the animals is our own. We must admit that the Divine Being, although perfect himself, has placed us in a state of life in which we may work together with him for good, but we are very far from having attained to it.
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10. The last ground of our belief in immortality, and the strongest, is the perfection of the divine nature. The mere fact of the existence of God does not tend to show the continued existence of man. An evil God or an indifferent God might have had the power, but not the will, to preserve us. He might have regarded us as fitted to minister to his service by a succession of existences,like the animals, without attri buting to each soul an incomparable value. But if he is perfect, he must will that all rational beings should partake of that perfection which he himself is. In the words of the Timaeus, he is good, and therefore he desires that all other things should be as like himself as possible. And the manner in which he accomplishes this is by permitting evil, or rather degrees of good, which are otherwise called evil. For all progress is good relatively to the past, and yet may be comparatively evil when regarded in the light of the future. Good and evil are relative terms, and degrees of evil are merely the negative aspect of degrees of good. Of the absolute Goodness of any finite nature we can form no conception; we are all of us in process of transition from one degree of good or evil to another. The difficulties which are urged about the origin or existence of evil are mere dialectical puzzles, standing in the same relation to Christian philosophy as the puzzles of the Cynics and Megarians to the philosophy of Plato. They arise out of the tendency of the human mind to regard good and evil both as relative and absolute; just as the riddles about motion are to be explained by the double conception of space or matter, which the human mind has the power of regarding either as continuous or discrete.
In speaking of divine perfection, we mean to say that God is just and true and loving, the author of order and not of disorder, of good and not of evil. Or rather, that he is justice, that he is truth, that he is love, that he is order, that he is the very progress of which we were speaking; and that wherever these qualities are present, whether in the human soul or in the order of nature, there is God. We might still see him everywhere, if we had not been mistakenly seeking for him apart from us, instead of in us; away from the laws of nature, instead of in them. And we become united to him not by mystical absorption, but by partaking, whether consciously or unconsciously, of that truth and justice and love which he himself is.
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And if we acquired this knowledge before we were born, and were born having the use of it, then we also knew before we were born and at the instant of birth not only the equal or the greater or the less, but all other ideas; for we are not speaking only of equality, but of beauty, Goodness, justice, holiness, and of all which we stamp with the name of essence in the dialectical process, both when we ask and when we answer questions. Of all this we may certainly affirm that we acquired the knowledge before birth?
We may.
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Then may we not say, Simmias, that if, as we are always repeating, there is an absolute beauty, and Goodness, and an absolute essence of all things; and if to this, which is now discovered to have existed in our former state, we refer all our sensations, and with this compare them, finding these ideas to be pre-existent and our inborn possessionthen our souls must have had a prior existence, but if not, there would be no force in the argument? There is the same proof that these ideas must have existed before we were born, as that our souls existed before we were born; and if not the ideas, then not the souls.
Yes, Socrates; I am convinced that there is precisely the same necessity for the one as for the other; and the argument retreats successfully to the position that the existence of the soul before birth cannot be separated from the existence of the essence of which you speak. For there is nothing which to my mind is so patent as that beauty, Goodness, and the other notions of which you were just now speaking, have a most real and absolute existence; and I am satisfied with the proof.
Well, but is Cebes equally satisfied? for I must convince him too.
--
There is nothing new, he said, in what I am about to tell you; but only what I have been always and everywhere repeating in the previous discussion and on other occasions: I want to show you the nature of that cause which has occupied my thoughts. I shall have to go back to those familiar words which are in the mouth of every one, and first of all assume that there is an absolute beauty and Goodness and greatness, and the like; grant me this, and I hope to be able to show you the nature of the cause, and to prove the immortality of the soul.
Cebes said: You may proceed at once with the proof, for I grant you this.
Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (text), #Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
unchanged. So when Divine grace descends on men, those that have germs of piety and Goodness in
them are made holy and are filled with Divinity, while those that are worthless and worldly are
--
no evil thought will enter your mind to rob it of its Goodness.
Some Maxims 289
SB 1.1 - Questions by the Sages, #Bhagavata Purana, #unset, #Zen
We think that we have met Your Goodness by the will of providence, just so that we may accept you as captain of the ship for those who desire to cross the difficult ocean of Kali, which deteriorates all the good qualities of a human being.
Text 23:
Sophist, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
The term 'Sophist' is one of those words of which the meaning has been both contracted and enlarged. Passages may be quoted from Herodotus and the tragedians, in which the word is used in a neutral sense for a contriver or deviser or inventor, without including any ethical idea of Goodness or badness. Poets as well as philosophers were called Sophists in the fifth century before Christ. In Plato himself the term is applied in the sense of a 'master in art,' without any bad meaning attaching to it (Symp.; Meno). In the later Greek, again, 'sophist' and 'philosopher' became almost indistinguishable. There was no reproach conveyed by the word; the additional association, if any, was only that of rhetorician or teacher. Philosophy had become eclecticism and imitation: in the decline of Greek thought there was no original voice lifted up 'which reached to a thousand years because of the god.' Hence the two words, like the characters represented by them, tended to pass into one another. Yet even here some differences appeared; for the term 'Sophist' would hardly have been applied to the greater names, such as Plotinus, and would have been more often used of a professor of philosophy in general than of a maintainer of particular tenets.
But the real question is, not whether the word 'Sophist' has all these senses, but whether there is not also a specific bad sense in which the term is applied to certain contemporaries of Socrates. Would an Athenian, as Mr. Grote supposes, in the fifth century before Christ, have included Socrates and Plato, as well as Gorgias and Protagoras, under the specific class of Sophists? To this question we must answer, No: if ever the term is applied to Socrates and Plato, either the application is made by an enemy out of mere spite, or the sense in which it is used is neutral. Plato, Xenophon, Isocrates, Aristotle, all give a bad import to the word; and the Sophists are regarded as a separate class in all of them. And in later Greek literature, the distinction is quite marked between the succession of philosophers from Thales to Aristotle, and the Sophists of the age of Socrates, who appeared like meteors for a short time in different parts of Greece. For the purposes of comedy, Socrates may have been identified with the Sophists, and he seems to complain of this in the Apology. But there is no reason to suppose that Socrates, differing by so many outward marks, would really have been confounded in the mind of Anytus, or Callicles, or of any intelligent Athenian, with the splendid foreigners who from time to time visited Athens, or appeared at the Olympic games. The man of genius, the great original thinker, the disinterested seeker after truth, the master of repartee whom no one ever defeated in an argument, was separated, even in the mind of the vulgar Athenian, by an 'interval which no geometry can express,' from the balancer of sentences, the interpreter and reciter of the poets, the divider of the meanings of words, the teacher of rhetoric, the professor of morals and manners.
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The influence of opposites is felt in practical life. The understanding sees one side of a question onlythe common sense of mankind joins one of two parties in politics, in religion, in philosophy. Yet, as everybody knows, truth is not wholly the possession of either. But the characters of men are one-sided and accept this or that aspect of the truth. The understanding is strong in a single abstract principle and with this lever moves mankind. Few attain to a balance of principles or recognize truly how in all human things there is a thesis and antithesis, a law of action and of reaction. In politics we require order as well as liberty, and have to consider the proportions in which under given circumstances they may be safely combined. In religion there is a tendency to lose sight of morality, to separate Goodness from the love of truth, to worship God without attempting to know him. In philosophy again there are two opposite principles, of immediate experience and of those general or a priori truths which are supposed to transcend experience. But the common sense or common opinion of mankind is incapable of apprehending these opposite sides or viewsmen are determined by their natural bent to one or other of them; they go straight on for a time in a single line, and may be many things by turns but not at once.
Hence the importance of familiarizing the mind with forms which will assist us in conceiving or expressing the complex or contrary aspects of life and nature. The danger is that they may be too much for us, and obscure our appreciation of facts. As the complexity of mechanics cannot be understood without mathematics, so neither can the many-sidedness of the mental and moral world be truly apprehended without the assistance of new forms of thought. One of these forms is the unity of opposites. Abstractions have a great power over us, but they are apt to be partial and one-sided, and only when modified by other abstractions do they make an approach to the truth. Many a man has become a fatalist because he has fallen under the dominion of a single idea. He says to himself, for example, that he must be either free or necessaryhe cannot be both. Thus in the ancient world whole schools of philosophy passed away in the vain attempt to solve the problem of the continuity or divisibility of matter. And in comparatively modern times, though in the spirit of an ancient philosopher, Bishop Berkeley, feeling a similar perplexity, is inclined to deny the truth of infinitesimals in mathematics. Many difficulties arise in practical religion from the impossibility of conceiving body and mind at once and in adjusting their movements to one another. There is a border ground between them which seems to belong to both; and there is as much difficulty in conceiving the body without the soul as the soul without the body. To the 'either' and 'or' philosophy ('Everything is either A or not A') should at least be added the clause 'or neither,' 'or both.' The double form makes reflection easier and more conformable to experience, and also more comprehensive. But in order to avoid paradox and the danger of giving offence to the unmetaphysical part of mankind, we may speak of it as due to the imperfection of language or the limitation of human faculties. It is nevertheless a discovery which, in Platonic language, may be termed a 'most gracious aid to thought.'
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This method of opposites has supplied new instruments of thought for the solution of metaphysical problems, and has thrown down many of the walls within which the human mind was confined. Formerly when philosophers arrived at the infinite and absolute, they seemed to be lost in a region beyond human comprehension. But Hegel has shown that the absolute and infinite are no more true than the relative and finite, and that they must alike be negatived before we arrive at a true absolute or a true infinite. The conceptions of the infinite and absolute as ordinarily understood are tiresome because they are unmeaning, but there is no peculiar sanctity or mystery in them. We might as well make an infinitesimal series of fractions or a perpetually recurring decimal the object of our worship. They are the widest and also the thinnest of human ideas, or, in the language of logicians, they have the greatest extension and the least comprehension. Of all words they may be truly said to be the most inflated with a false meaning. They have been handed down from one philosopher to another until they have acquired a religious character. They seem also to derive a sacredness from their association with the Divine Being. Yet they are the poorest of the predicates under which we describe himsignifying no more than this, that he is not finite, that he is not relative, and tending to obscure his higher attri butes of wisdom, Goodness, truth.
The system of Hegel frees the mind from the dominion of abstract ideas. We acknowledge his originality, and some of us delight to wander in the mazes of thought which he has opened to us. For Hegel has found admirers in England and Scotl and when his popularity in Germany has departed, and he, like the philosophers whom he criticizes, is of the past. No other thinker has ever dissected the human mind with equal patience and minuteness. He has lightened the burden of thought because he has shown us that the chains which we wear are of our own forging. To be able to place ourselves not only above the opinions of men but above their modes of thinking, is a great height of philosophy. This dearly obtained freedom, however, we are not disposed to part with, or to allow him to build up in a new form the 'beggarly elements' of scholastic logic which he has thrown down. So far as they are aids to reflection and expression, forms of thought are useful, but no further:we may easily have too many of them.
Story of the Warrior and the Captive, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
barbarian's fierce countenance and his simplicity and Goodness:
Terribilis visu facies, sed mente benignus,
Talks With Sri Aurobindo 1, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
NIRODBARAN: Meennakshi's comment was, "See the Goodness of God!"
SATYENDRA: I replied "If God is so good, why has He planned the destruction
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SRI AUROBINDO: In order that you may appreciate His Goodness: (Laughter)
445
The Act of Creation text, #The Act of Creation, #Arthur Koestler, #Psychology
group thought that to be polite deserved a Goodness' rating of six
points, the other of six and a half points, on a seven-point scale. 1
The Book of Joshua, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
Reminder of the Divine Goodness
1 And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. 2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. 3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. 4 And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
and the great Goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies,
and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.
The Book of Wisdom, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
and the image of his Goodness.
27 Although she is only one, she can do all things;
The Coming Race Contents, #The Coming Race, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
that sanctifies all cause/ 5 For the Goodness
of your cause you judge by your personal
The Divine Names Text (Dionysis), #The Divine Names, #unset, #Zen
But, let the rule of the Oracles be here also prescribed for us, viz., that we shall establish the truth of the things spoken concerning God, not in the persuasive words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit-moved power of the Theologians, by aid of which we are brought into contact with things unutterable and unknown, in a manner unutterable and unknown, in proportion to the superior union of the reasoning and intuitive faculty and operation within us. By no means then is it permitted to speak, or even to think, anything, concerning the superessential and hidden Deity, beyond those things divinely revealed to us in the sacred Oracles 2. For Agnosia, |2 (supra-knowledge) of its superessentiality above reason and mind and essence----to, it must we attribute the super-essential science, so far aspiring to the Highest, as the ray of the supremely Divine Oracles imparts itself, whilst we restrain ourselves in our approach to the higher glories by prudence and piety as regards things Divine. For, if we must place any confidence in the All Wise and most trustworthy Theology, things Divine are revealed and contemplated in proportion to the capacity of each of the minds, since the supremely Divine Goodness distributes Divinely its immeasurableness (as that which cannot be contained) with a justice which preserves those whose capacity is limited. For, as things intelligible cannot be comprehended and contemplated by things of sense, and things uncompounded and unformed by things compounded and formed; and the intangible and unshaped formlessness of things without body, by those formed according to the shapes of bodies; in accordance with the self-same analogy of the truth, the superessential Illimitability is placed above things essential, and the Unity above mind above the Minds; and the One above conception is inconceivable to all conceptions; and the Good above word is unutterable by word----Unit making one every unit, and superessential essence and mind inconceivable, and Word unutterable, speechlessness3 and inconception4, and namelessness----being after the manner of no existing being, and Cause of being to all, but Itself not being, |3 as beyond every essence, and as It may manifest Itself properly and scientifically concerning Itself.
SECTION II.
Concerning this then, as has been said, the super-essential and hidden Deity, it is not permitted to speak or even to think beyond the things divinely revealed to us in the sacred Oracles. For even as Itself has taught (as becomes Its Goodness) in the Oracles, the science and contemplation of Itself in Its essential Nature is beyond the reach of all created things, as towering superessentially above all. And you will find many of the Theologians, who have celebrated It, not only as invisible and incomprehensible, but also as inscrutable and un-traceable, since there is no trace of those who have penetrated to Its hidden infinitude. The Good indeed is not entirely uncommunicated to any single created being, but benignly sheds forth its super-essential ray, persistently fixed in Itself, by illuminations analagous to each several being, and elevates to Its permitted contemplation and communion and likeness, those holy minds, who, as far as is lawful and reverent, strive after It, and who are neither impotently boastful towards that which is higher than the harmoniously imparted Divine manifestation, nor, in regard to a lower level, lapse downward through their inclining to the worse, but who elevate themselves determinately and unwaveringly to the ray shining upon them; and, by their proportioned love |4 of permitted illuminations, are elevated with a holy reverence, prudently and piously, as on new wings.
SECTION III.
Following then, these, the supremely Divine standards, which also govern the whole holy ranks of the supercelestial orders,----whilst honouring the unre-vealed of the Godhead which is beyond mind and matter, with inscrutable and holy reverence of mind, and things unutterable, with a prudent silence, we elevate ourselves to the glories which illuminate us in the sacred Oracles, and are led by their light to the supremely Divine Hymns, by which we are supermundanely enlightened and moulded to the sacred Songs of Praise, so as both to see the supremely Divine illuminations given to us by them, according to our capacities, and to praise the good-giving Source of every holy manifestation of light, as Itself has taught concerning Itself in the sacred Oracles. For instance, that It is cause and origin and essence and life of all things; and even of those who fall away from It, both recalling and resurrection; and of those who have lapsed to the perversion of the Divine likeness, renewal and reformation; of those who are tossed about in a sort of irreligious unsteadiness, a religious stability; of those who have continued to stand, steadfastness; of those who are being conducted to It, a protecting Conductor; of those being illuminated, illumination; of those being perfected, source of perfection; of those being deified, source of deification; of those being |5 simplified, simplification; of those being unified, unity; of every origin superessentially super-original origin; and of the Hidden, as far as is right, beneficent communication; and, in one word, the life of the living, and essence of things that be; of all life and essence, origin and cause; because Its Goodness produces and sustains things that be, in their being.
SECTION IV.
These things we have learned from the Divine Oracles, and you will find all the sacred Hymnology, so to speak, of the Theologians arranging the Names, of God with a view to make known and praise the beneficent progressions of the Godhead. Hence, we see in almost every theological treatise the Godhead religiously celebrated, both as Monad and unity, on account of the simplicity and oneness of Its supernatural indivisibility from which, as an unifying power, we are unified, and when our divided diversities have been folded together, in a manner supermundane, we are collected into a godlike unit and divinely-imitated union; but, also as Triad, on account of the tri-personal manifestation of the superessential productiveness, from which all paternity in heaven and on earth is, and is named; also, as cause of things existing, since all things were brought into being on account of Its creative Goodness, both wise and good, because all things, whilst preserving the properties of their own nature |6 unimpaired, are filled with every inspired harmony and holy comeliness, but pre-eminently, as loving towards man, because It truly and wholly shared, in one of Its Persons (subsistencies), in things belonging to us, recalling to Itself and replacing the human extremity, out of which, in a manner unutterable, the simplex Jesus was composed, and the Everlasting took a temporal duration, and He, Who is superessentially exalted above every rank throughout all nature, became within our nature, whilst retaining the unchangeable and unconfused steadfastness of His own properties. And whatever other divinely-wrought illuminations, conformable to the Oracles, the secret tradition of our inspired leaders bequeathed to us for our enlightenment, in these also we have been initiated; now indeed, according to our capacity, through the sacred veils of the loving-kindness towards man, made known in the Oracles and hierarchical traditions, which envelop things intellectual in things sensible, and things superessential in things that are; and place forms and shapes around the formless and shapeless, and multiply and fashion the supernatural and formless simplicity in the variedness of the divided symbols; but, then, when we have become incorruptible and immortal, and have reached the Christlike and most blessed repose, according to the Divine saying, we shall be "ever with the Lord," fulfilled, through all-pure contemplations, with the visible manifestation of God covering us with glory, in most brilliant splendours, as the disciples in the |7 most Divine Transfiguration, and participating in His gift of spiritual light, with unimpassioned and immaterial mind; and, even in the union beyond conception, through the agnostic and most blessed efforts after rays of surpassing brilliancy, in a more Divine imitation of the supereelestial minds. For we shall be equal to the angels, as the truth of the Oracles affirms, and sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But now, to the best of our ability, we use symbols appropriate to things Divine, and from these again we elevate ourselves, according to our degree, to the simple and unified truth of the spiritual visions; and after our every conception of things godlike, laying aside our mental energies, we cast ourselves, to the best of our ability, towards the superessential ray, in which all the terms of every kind of knowledge pre-existed in a manner beyond expression, which it is neither possible to conceive nor express, nor entirely in any way to contemplate, on account of Its being pre-eminently above all things, and super-unknown, and Its having previously contained within Itself, superessentially, the whole perfections of all kinds of essential knowledge and power, and Its being firmly fixed by Its absolute power, above all, even the supereelestial minds. For, if all kinds of knowledge are of things existing, and are limited to things existing, that, beyond all essence, is also elevated above all knowledge.
SECTION V.
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But, as we said when we put forth the Theological Outlines, it is not possible either to express or to conceive what the One, the Unknown, the Super-essential self-existing Good is,----I mean the threefold Unity, the alike God, and the alike Good. But even the unions, such as befit angels, of the holy Powers, whether we must call them efforts after, or receptions from, the super-Unknown and surpassing Goodness, are both unutterable and unknown, and exist in those angels alone who, above angelic knowledge, are deemed worthy of them. The godlike minds (men) made one by these unions, through imitation of angels as far as attainable (since it is during cessation of every mental energy that such an union as this of the deified minds towards the super-divine light takes place) celebrate It most appropriately through the abstraction of all created things----enlightened in this matter, truly and super-naturally from the most blessed union towards It----that It is Cause Indeed of all things existing, but Itself none of them, as being superessentially elevated above all. To none, indeed, who are lovers of the Truth above all Truth, is it permitted to celebrate |9 the supremely-Divine Essentiality----that which is the super-subsistence of the super- Goodness,----neither as word or power, neither as mind or life or essence, but as pre-eminently separated from every condition, movement, life, imagination, surmise, name, word, thought, conception, essence, position, stability, union, boundary, infinitude, all things whatever. But since, as sustaining source of Goodness, by the very fact of Its being, It is cause of all things that be, from all created things must we celebrate the benevolent Providence of the Godhead; for all things are both around It and for It, and It is before all things, and all things in It consist, and by Its being is the production and sustenance of the whole, and all things aspire to It----the intellectual and rational, by means of knowledge----things inferior to these, through the senses, and other things by living movement, or substantial and habitual aptitude.
SECTION VI.
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Thus, then, the "Nameless "befits the cause of all, which is also above all, as do all the names of things existing, in order that there may be strictly a kingly rule over the whole; and that all things |11 may be around It and dependent upon It, as cause, as beginning, as end. And Itself, according to the Divine saying, may be the "all in all," and truly sung as of all, producing, directing and perfecting and sustaining guard, and shrine, and turning towards Itself, and that uniformly, irresistibly and pre-eminently. For It is not only cause of sustenance, or life, or perfection,----so that from this or that forethought alone the Goodness above Name should be named, but It previously embraced in Itself all things existing, absolutely and without limit, by the complete benefactions of His one and all-creating forethought, and by all created things in joint accord It is celebrated and named.
SECTION VIII.
Further also, the Theologians do not honour alone the Names of God which are given from universal or particular Providences, or objects of His forethought; but also from certain occasional Divine Visions, in the sacred temples or elsewhere, which enlightened the initiated or the Prophets, they name the surpassing bright Goodness which is above Name, after one or other causes and powers, and clothe It in forms and shapes of man, or fire, or electron, and celebrate Its eyes and ears, and locks of hair, and countenance, and hands, and back, and wings, and arms, and hinder parts and feet. Also they assign to It crowns 5 and seats, and drinking vessels and bowls, and certain other things mystical, concerning which, in our Symbolic Theology, we will speak as best we can. But |12 now, collecting from the Oracles so much as serves the purpose of our present treatise, and using the things aforesaid, as a kind of Canon, and keeping our eyes upon them, let us advance to the unfolding of the Names of God, which fall within the range of our understanding, and, what the hierarchical rule always teaches us throughout every phase of theology, let us become initiated (to speak authoritatively) in the godlike contemplations with a god-enlightened conception. And let us bring religious ears to the unfoldings of the Holy Names of God, implanting the Holy in the Holy, according to the Divine tradition, and removing it from the laughter and jeers of the uninitiated; yea, rather, if certain men really are such, purifying them from their fighting against God in this matter. Be it thine, then, to guard these things, O excellent Timothy, according to the most holy leading, and to make the things Divine neither spoken nor known to the uninitiated. For myself, may Almighty God give me to celebrate, in a manner worthy of God, the numerous beneficent Names of the uncalled and unnamed Deity; and may He not take away a word of truth from my mouth.
CAPUT II.
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LET then the self-existent Goodness be sung from the Oracles as defining and manifesting the whole |13 supremely-Divine-Subsistence in its essential nature. For, what else is there to learn from the sacred theology, when it affirms that the Godhead Itself, leading the way, says, "Why dost thou ask me concerning the Good?----None is Good except God alone." Now, this, we have thoroughly demonstrated elsewhere, that always, all the God-becoming Names of God, are celebrated by the Oracles, not partitively, but as applied to the whole and entire and complete and full Godhead, and that all of them are referred impartitively, absolutely, unreservedly, entirely, to all the Entirety of the entirely complete and every Deity. And verily as we have mentioned in the Theological Outlines, if any one should say that this is not spoken concerning the whole Deity, he blasphemes, and dares, without right, to cleave asunder the super-unified Unity.
We must affirm, then, that this is to be received respecting the whole Deity. For even the essentially Good Word Himself said, "I am Good 6." And a certain one of the God-rapt Prophets celebrates the Spirit as "the Good 7." And again this, "I am He, Who is 8." If they shall say that this is said, not of the whole Deity, but should violently limit it to one part, how will they understand this? "These things, saith He, Who is, Who was, Who is to come, the Almighty 9," and "Thou art the same 10," and this, "Spirit of truth, which is, which proceedeth from the Father 11." And if they say that the supremely Divine Life is not coextensive with the |14 whole, how is the sacred Word true which said, "As the Father raiseth the dead and maketh alive, so also the Son maketh alive whom He will 12," and that "the Spirit is He, Who maketh alive 13?" But, that the whole Deity holds the Lordship over the whole, one can scarcely say, as I think how many times, in reference to the Paternal Deity, or the Filial, the word "Lord "is repeated in the Word of God, as applied to Father and Son 14. But the Spirit also is Lord 15. And "the beautiful and the wise" are also sung respecting the whole Deity. And the light, and the deifying, and the cause, and whatever pertains to the whole Godhead, the Oracles introduce into all the supremely Divine hymnody----collectively, when they say "all things are from Almighty God; "but, specifically, as when they say, "all things were made through Him and to Him," and "all things in Him consist," and "Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be made." And, that one may speak summarily, the supremely Divine Word Himself said, "I and the Father are One," and "all that the Father hath are Mine," and, "All Mine are Thine, and Thine, Mine." And again, whatever pertains to the Father and Himself, He attributes. to the supremely Divine Spirit, collectively and in common----the works of God----the homage, the fontal and ceaseless cause and the distribution of the goodly gifts. And I think, none of those, who have been nourished in the Divine Oracles with unprejudiced conceptions, |15 will oppose this, that all things befitting God belong to the whole Godhead, according to the divinely perfect Word. Since, then, we have demonstrated and defined these things from the Oracles,----here indeed partially, but elsewhere sufficiently----we will undertake to unfold every Divine Name whatsoever, which is to be received as referring to the whole Deity.
--
But it is rather necessary, I suppose, to resume and to set forth the complete fashion of the Divine union and distinction, in order that the whole discourse may be seen at a glance to reject everything ambiguous and indistinct, and to define critically and distinctly the proper Names, as far as possible. For, as I said elsewhere, the sacred instructors of our theological tradition call the "Divine Unions" the hidden and unrevealed sublimities of the |17 super-unutterable and super-unknown Isolation; but the "distinctions," the goodly progressions and manifestations of the Godhead; and, following the sacred Oracles, they mention also properties of the aforesaid "Union; "and again of the distinction, that there are certain specific unions and distinctions. For example, with regard to the Divine Union, that is, the Superessentiality, there is kindred and common to the One-springing Triad, the superessential sustaining Source, the super-Divine Deity, the super-good Goodness, the supreme identity of the whole supreme Idiosyncrasy, the Oneness above source of one; the Unspeakable; the Much-speaking, the Agnosia, the Comprehended by all, the Placing of all, the Abstraction of all, that which is above all affirmation and abstraction, the abiding and steadfastness in each other, if I may so speak, wholly super-united and in no part commingled of the One-springing Persons, just as lights of lamps (to use sensible illustrations familiar to our capacity), when in one house, are both wholly distinct in each other throughout, and keep the distinction from each other specifically and perfectly maintained, being one in distinction and distinct in union; and then, indeed, we may see in a house, in which are many lamps, the lights of all united to form one certain light and lighting up one combined radiance; and, as I suppose, no one would be able to distinguish in the air containing all the lights the light of one or other lamp from the rest, |18 and to see one without the other, since whole in whole are mixed together without being mingled. But, if any one were to take out from the chamber one particular burner, the whole light belonging to it will depart with it; no particle of the other lights being drawn along with it, nor any of its own light left with the other. For there was, as I said, the complete union of all with all, unmingled throughout, and in no part confused, and this actually in a body, the air, the light even itself being dependent on the material fire. Whence we affirm that the superessential Union is fixed above not only the unions in bodies, but also above those in souls themselves, and in minds themselves, which, in a manner unmingled and supermundane, the Godlike and super-celestial Illuminations, whole through whole, possess, as beseems a participation analagous to those who participate in the Union elevated above all.
SECTION V.
But there is a distinction in the superessential nomenclature of God, not only that which I have mentioned, namely, that each of the One-springing Persons is fixed in the union itself, unmingled and unconfused; but also that the properties of the superessential Divine Production are not convertible in regard to one another. The Father is sole Fountain of the superessential Deity, since the Father is not Son, nor the Son, Father; since the hymns reverently guard their own characteristics for each of the supremely Divine Persons. These then |19 are the unions and distinctions within the unutterable Union and sustaining Source. But, if the goodly progression of the Divine Union, multiplying itself super-uniquely through Goodness, and taking to itself many forms, is also a Divine distinction, yet, common within the Divine distinction, are the resistless distributions, the substance-giving, the life-giving, the wise-making, and the other gifts of the Goodness, Cause of all, after which from the participations and those participating are celebrated the things imparticipatively participated. And this is kindred and common, and one, to the whole Divinity, that it is all entire, participated by each of the Participants, and by none partially. Just as a point in a circle's centre participates in all the circumjacent 16 straight lines in the circle, and as many impressions of a seal participate in the archetypal seal, and in each of the impressions the seal is whole and the same, and in none partial in any respect. But superior to these is the im-partibility of the Deity----Cause of all----from the fact that there is no contact with it. Nor has it any commingled communion with the things participating.
SECTION VI.
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FIRST, with your permission, let us examine the all-perfect Name of Goodness, which is indicative of the whole progressions of Almighty God, having invoked the supremely good, and super-good Triad----the Name which indicates Its whole best Providences. For, we must first be raised up to It, as Source of good, by our prayers; and by a nearer approach to It, be initiated as to the all good gifts which are established around It. For It is indeed present to all, but all are not present to It. But then, when we have invoked It, by all pure prayers and unpolluted mind, and by our aptitude towards Divine Union, we also are present to It. For, It is not in a place, so that It should be absent from a particular place, or should pass from one to another. But even the statement that It is in all existing beings, falls short of Its infinitude (which is) above all, and embracing all. Let us then elevate our very selves by our prayers to the higher ascent of the Divine and good rays,----as if a luminous chain being suspended from the celestial heights, |28 and reaching down hither, we, by ever clutching this upwards, first with one hand, and then with the other, seem indeed to draw it down, but in reality we do not draw it down, it being both above and below, but ourselves are carried upwards to the higher splendours of the luminous rays. Or, as if, after we have embarked on a ship, and are holding on to the cables reaching from some rock, such as are given out, as it were, for us to seize, we do not draw the rock to us, but ourselves, in fact, and the ship, to the rock. Or to take another example, if any one standing on the ship pushes away the rock by the sea shore, he will do nothing to the stationary and unmoved rock, but he separates himself from it, and in proportion as he pushes that away, he is so far hurled from it. Wherefore, before everything, and especially theology, we must begin with prayer, not as though we ourselves were drawing the power, which is everywhere and nowhere present, but as, by our godly reminiscences and invocations, conducting ourselves to, and making ourselves one with, it.
SECTION II.
Perhaps also, this is worthy of apology, that whilst our illustrious leader, Hierotheus, is compiling his Theological Elements, in a manner above natural capacity, we, as if those were not sufficient, have composed others, and this present theological treatise. And yet, if that man had deigned to treat systematically all the theological treatises, and had gone |29 through the sum of all theology, by detailed expositions, we should not have gone to such a height of folly, or stupidity, as to have attempted alone theological questions, either more lucidly or divinely than he, or to indulge in vain talk by saying superfluously the same things twice over, and in addition to do injustice to one, both teacher and friend, and that we, who have been instructed from his discourses, after Paul the Divine, should filch for our own glorification his most illustrious contemplation and elucidation. But, since in fact, he, whilst teaching things divine, in a manner suitable to presbyters, set forth comprehensive definitions, and such as embraced many things in one, as were suitable to us, and to as many as with us were teachers of the newly-initiated souls, commanding us to unfold and disentangle, by language commensurate with our ability, the comprehensive and uniform compositions of the most intellectual capacity of that illustrious man; and you, yourself, have oftentimes urged us to this, and sent back the very book, as being of transcendent value; for this reason, then, we too distinguish him as a teacher of perfect and presbyterial conceptions for those who are above the common people, even as certain second Oracles, and next to the Anointed of God. But for people, such as we are, we will transmit things Divine, according to our capacity. For, if strong meat belongs to the perfect, how great perfection is required that the same should feed others. Correctly, then, we have affirmed this, that |30 the self-perceptive vision of the intelligible Oracles, and their comprehensive teaching, needs presbyterial power; but the science and the thorough teaching of the reasons which lead to this, fittingly belong to those purified and hallowed persons placed in a subordinate position. And yet, we have insisted upon this with the utmost care, that, as regards the things that have been thoroughly investigated by him, our divine leader, with an accurate elucidation, we should not, in any way, handle the same tautologically, for the same elucidation of the Divine text expounded by him. For, amongst our inspired hierarchs (when both we, as you know, and yourself, and many of our holy brethren, were gathered together to the depositing of the Life-springing and God-receptive body, and when there were present also James, the brother of God, and Peter, the foremost and most honoured pinnacle of the Theologians, when it was determined after the depositing, that every one of the hierarchs should celebrate, as each was capable, the Omnipotent Goodness of the supremely Divine Weakness), he, after the Theologians, surpassed, as you know, all the other divine instructors, being wholly entranced, wholly raised from himself, and experiencing the pain of his fellowship with the things celebrated, and was regarded as an inspired and divine Psalmist by all, by whom he was heard and seen and known, and not known. And why should I say anything to thee concerning the things there divinely spoken? For, |31 if I do not forget myself, many a time do I remember to have heard from thee certain portions of those inspired songs of praise; such was thy zeal, not cursorily, to pursue things Divine.
SECTION III.
--
BE it so then. Let us come to the appellation "Good," already mentioned in our discourse, which the Theologians ascribe pre-eminently and exclusively to the super-Divine Deity, as I conjecture, by calling the supremely Divine Subsistence, Goodness; and because the Good, as essential Good, by Its being, extends Its Goodness to all things that be.
For, even as our sun----not as calculating or choosing, but by its very being, enlightens all things able |33 to partake of its light in their own degree----so too the Good----as superior to a sun, as the archetype par excellence, is above an obscure image----by Its very existence sends to all things that be, the rays of Its whole Goodness, according to their capacity. By reason of these (rays) subsisted all the intelligible and intelligent essences and powers and energies. By reason of these they are, and have their life, continuous and undiminished, purified from all corruption and death and matter, and generation; and separated from the unstable and fluctuating and vacillating mutability, and are conceived of as incorporeal and immaterial, and as minds they think in a manner supermundane, and are illuminated as to the reasons of things, in a manner peculiar to themselves; and they again convey to their kindred spirits things appropriate to them; and they have their abiding from Goodness; and thence comes to them stability and consistence and protection, and sanctuary of good things; and whilst aspiring to It, they have both being and good being; and being conformed to It, as is attainable, they are both patterns of good, and impart to those after them, as the Divine Law directs, the gifts which have passed through to themselves from the Good.
SECTION II.
Thence come to them the supermundane orders, the unions amongst themselves, the mutual penetrations, the unconfused distinctions, the powers elevating the inferior to the superior, the providences |34 of the more exalted for those below them; the guard-ings of things pertaining to each power; and unbroken convolutions around themselves; the identities and sublimities around the aspiration after the Good; and whatever is said in our Treatise concerning the angelic properties and orders. Further also, whatever things belong to the heavenly Hierarchy, the purifications befitting angels, the supermundane illuminations, and the things perfecting the whole angelic perfection, are from the all-creative and fontal Goodness; from which was given to them the form of Goodness, and the revealing in themselves the hidden Goodness, and that angels are, as it were, heralds of the Divine silence, and project, as it were, luminous lights revealing Him Who is in secret. Further, after these----the sacred and holy minds----the souls, and whatever is good in souls is by reason of the super-good Goodness----the fact that they are intellectual----that they have essential life----indestructible----the very being itself----and that they are able, whilst elevated themselves to the angelic lives, to be conducted by them as good guides to the good Origin of all good things, and to become partakers of the illuminations, thence bubbling forth, according to the capacity of each, and to participate in the goodlike gift, as they are able, and whatever else we have enumerated in our Treatise concerning the soul. But also, if one may be permitted to speak of the irrational souls, or living creatures, such as cleave the air, and such as walk on earth, and such as creep along earth, and those whose life is in waters, |35 or amphibious, and such as live concealed under earth, and burrow within it, and in one word, such as have the sensible soul or life, even all these have their soul and life, by reason of the Good. Moreover, all plants have their growing and moving life from the Good; and even soulless and lifeless substance is by reason of the Good, and by reason of It, has inherited its substantial condition.
SECTION III.
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But what slipped from our view in the midst of our discourse, the Good is Cause of the celestial movements in their commencements and terminations, of their not increasing, not diminishing, and completely changeless, course 20, and of the noiseless movements, if one may so speak, of the vast celestial transit, and of the astral orders, and the beauties and |36 lights, and stabilities, and the progressive swift motion of certain stars, and of the periodical return of the two luminaries, which the Oracles call "great," from the same to the same quarter, after which our days and nights being marked, and months and years being measured, mark and number and arrange and comprehend the circular movements of time and things temporal. But, what would any one say of the very ray of the sun? For the light is from the Good, and an image of the Goodness, wherefore also the Good is celebrated under the name of Light; as in a portrait the original is manifested. For, as the Goodness of the Deity, beyond all, permeates from the highest and most honoured substances even to the lowest, and yet is above all, neither the foremost outstripping its superiority, nor the things below eluding its grasp, but it both enlightens all that are capable, and forms and enlivens, and grasps, and perfects, and is measure of things existing, and age, and number, and order, and grasp, and cause, and end; so, too, the brilliant likeness of the Divine Goodness, this our great sun, wholly bright and ever luminous, as a most distant echo of the Good, both enlightens whatever is capable of participating in it, and possesses the light in the highest degree of purity, unfolding to the visible universe, above and beneath, the splendours of its own rays, and if anything does not participate in them, this is not owing to the inertness or deficiency of its distribution of light, but is owing to the inaptitude for light-reception of the things which do not unfold |37 themselves for the participation of light. No doubt the ray passing over many things in such condition, enlightens the things after them, and there is no visible thing which it does not reach, with the surpassing greatness of its own splendour. Further also, it contributes to the generation of sensible bodies, and moves them to life, and nourishes, and increases, and perfects, and purifies and renews; and the light is both measure and number of hours, days, and all our time. For it is the light itself, even though it was then without form, which the divine Moses declared to have fixed that first Triad 21 of our days. And, just as Goodness turns all things to Itself, and is chief collector of things scattered, as One-springing and One-making Deity, and all things aspire to It, as Source and Bond and End, and it is the Good, as the Oracles say, from Which all things subsisted, and are being brought into being by an all-perfect Cause; and in Which all things consisted, as guarded and governed in an all-controlling route; and to Which all things are turned, as to their own proper end; and to Which all aspire ----the intellectual and rational indeed, through knowledge, and the sensible through the senses, and those bereft of sensible perception by the innate movement of the aspiration after life, and those without life, and merely being, by their aptitude for mere substantial participation; after the same method of its illustrious original, the light also collects and turns to itself all things existing----things with sight |38 ----things with motion----things enlightened----things heated----things wholly held together by its brilliant splendours----whence also, Helios, because it makes all things altogether (a)ollh~), and collects things scattered. And all creatures, endowed with sensible perceptions, aspire to it, as aspiring either to see, or to be moved and enlightened, and heated, and to be wholly held together by the light. By no means do I affirm, after the statement of antiquity, that as being God and Creator of the universe, the sun, by itself, governs the luminous world, but that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the foundation of the world, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Deity.
SECTION V.
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By all things, then, the Beautiful and Good is desired and beloved and cherished; and, by reason of It, and for the sake of It, the less love the greater suppliantly; and those of the same rank, their fellows brotherly; and the greater, the less considerately; and these severally love the things of themselves continuously; and all things by aspiring to the Beautiful and Good, do and wish all things whatever |45 they do and wish. Further, it may be boldly said with truth, that even the very Author of all things, by reason of overflowing Goodness, loves all, makes all, perfects all, sustains all, attracts all; and even the Divine Love is Good of Good, by reason of the Good. For Love itself, the benefactor of things that be, pre-existing overflowingly in the Good, did not permit itself to remain unproductive in itself, but moved itself to creation 25, as befits the overflow which is generative of all.
SECTION XI.
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But Divine Love is extatic, not permitting (any) to be lovers of themselves, but of those beloved. They shew this too, the superior by becoming mindful of the inferior; and the equals by their mutual coherence; and the inferior, by a more divine respect towards things superior. Wherefore also, Paul the Great, when possessed by the Divine Love, and participating in its extatic power, says with inspired lips, "I live no longer, but Christ lives in me." As a true lover, and beside himself, as he says, to Almighty God, and not living the life of himself, but the life of the Beloved, as a life excessively esteemed. One might make bold to say even this, on behalf of truth, that the very Author of all things, by the beautiful and good love of everything, through an overflow of His loving Goodness, becomes out of Himself, by His providences for all existing things, |49 and is, as it were, cozened by Goodness and affection and love, and is led down from the Eminence above all, and surpassing all, to being in all, as befits an extatic superessential power centred in Himself. Wherefore, those skilled in Divine things call Him even Jealous, as (being) that vast good Love towards all beings, and as rousing His loving inclination to jealousy,----and as proclaiming Himself Jealous----to Whom the things desired are objects of jealousy, and as though the objects of His providential care were objects of jealousy for Him. And, in short, the lovable is of the Beautiful and Good, and Love preexisted both in the Beautiful and Good, and on account of the Beautiful and Good, is and takes Being.
SECTION XIV.
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Now to all this true reason will answer, that the Evil qua evil makes no single essence or birth, but only, as far as it can, pollutes and destroys the subsistence of things existing. But, if any one says, that it is productive of being, and that by destruction of one it gives birth to another, we must truly answer, that not qua destruction it gives birth, but qua destruction and evil, it destroys and pollutes only, but it becomes birth and essence, by reason of the Good; and the Evil will be destruction indeed, by reason of itself; but producer of birth by reason of the Good; and qua evil, it is neither existing, nor productive of things existing; but, by reason of the Good, it is both existing and good-existing, and productive of things good. Yea, rather (for neither will the same by itself be both good and evil, nor the self-same power be of itself destruction and birth----neither as self-acting power, nor as self-acting destruction), the absolutely Evil is neither existing nor good, nor generative, nor productive of things being and good; but the Good in whatever things it may be perfectly engendered, makes them perfect and pure, and thoroughly good,----but the things which partake of it in a less degree are both imperfectly good, and impure, by reason of the lack of the Good. And (thus) the Evil altogether, is not, nor is good, nor good producing; but that which approaches more or less near the Good will be proportionately good; since the All-perfect Goodness, in passing through all, not only passes to the |56 All-good beings around Itself, but extends Itself to the most remote, by being present to some thoroughly, to others subordinately, but to the rest, in the most remote degree, as each existing thing is able to participate in It. And some things, indeed, participate in the Good entirely, whilst others are deprived of It, in a more or less degree, but others possess a more obscure participation in the Good; and to the rest, the Good is present as a most distant echo. For if the Good were not present according to the capacity of each, the most Divine and honoured would occupy the rank of the lowest. And how were it possible that all should participate in the Good uniformly, when not all are in the same way adapted to its whole participation?
Now, this is the exceeding greatness of the power of the Good, that It empowers, both things deprived, and the deprivation of Itself, with a view to the entire participation of itself. And, if one must make bold to speak the truth, even the things fighting against It, both are, and are able to fight, by Its power. Yea rather, in order that I may speak summarily, all things which are, in so far as they are, both are good, and from the Good; but, in so far as they are deprived of the Good, are neither good, nor do they exist. For, even with regard to the other conditions, such as heat or cold, there are things which have been heated, and when the heat has departed from them, many of them are deprived both of life and intelligence (now Almighty God is outside essence, and is, superessentially), and, in |57 one word, with regard to the rest, even when the condition has departed, or has not become completely developed, things exist, and are able to subsist; but that which is every way deprived of the Good, in no way or manner ever was, or is, or will be, nor is able to be. For example, the licentious man, even if he have been deprived of the Good, as regards his irrational lust, in this respect he neither is, nor desires realities, but nevertheless he participates in the Good, in his very obscure echo of union and friendship. And, even Anger participates in the Good, by the very movement and desire to direct and turn the seeming evils to the seeming good. And the very man, who desires the very worst life, as wholly desirous of life and that which seems best to him, by the very fact of desiring, and desiring life, and looking to a best life, participates in the Good. And, if you should entirely take away the Good, there will be neither essence, nor life, nor yearning, nor movement, nor anything else. So that the fact, that birth is born from destruction, is not a power of evil, but a presence of a lesser good, even as disease is a defect of order, not total----for, if this should be, not even the disease itself will continue to exist, but the disease remains and is, by having the lowest possible order of essence, and in this continues to exist as a parasite. For that which is altogether deprived of the Good, is neither existing, nor in things existing; but the compound, by reason of the Good in things existing, and in consequence of this in things |58 existing, is also existing in so far as it participates in the Good. Yea rather, all things existing will so far be, more or less, as they participate in the Good; for, even as respects the self-existing Being, that which in no ways is at all, will not be at all; but that which partially is, but partially is not, in so far as it has fallen from the ever Being, is not; but so far as it has participated in the Being, so far it is, and its whole being, and its non-being, is sustained and preserved. And the Evil,----that which has altogether fallen from the Good----will be good, neither in the more nor in the less; but the partially good, and partially not good, fight no doubt against a certain good, but not against the whole Good, and, even it is sustained by the participation of the Good, and the Good gives essence even to the privation of Itself, wholly by the participation of Itself; for, when the Good has entirely departed, there will be neither anything altogether good, nor compound, nor absolute evil. For, if the Evil is an imperfect good, (then) by the entire absence of the Good, both the imperfect and the perfect Good will be absent; and then only will be, and be seen, the Evil, when on the one hand, it is an evil to those things to which it was opposed, and, on the other, is expelled from other things on account of their Goodness. For, it is impossible that the same things, under the same conditions in every respect, should fight against each other. The Evil then is not an actual thing. |59
SECTION XXI.
--
But neither is the Evil in Angels; for if the good-like angel proclaims the Goodness of God, being by participation in a secondary degree that which the Announced is in the first degree as Cause, the Angel is a likeness of Almighty God----a manifestation of the unmanifested light----a mirror untarnished----most transparent----without flaw----pure----without spot---- |61 receiving, if I may so speak, the full beauty of the Good-stamped likeness of God----and without stain, shedding forth undefiledly in itself, so far as is possible, the Goodness of the Silence, which dwells in innermost shrines. The Evil, then, is not even in Angels. But by punishing sinners are they evil? By this rule, then, the punishers of transgressors are evil, and those of the priests who shut out the profane from the Divine Mysteries. And yet, the being punished is not an evil, but the becoming worthy of punishment; nor the being deservedly expelled from Holy things, but the becoming accursed of God, and unholy and unfit for things un-defiled.
SECTION XXIII.
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How, in short, are there evils when there is a Providence? The Evil, qua evil, is not, neither as an actual thing nor as in things existing. And no single thing is without a Providence. For neither is the Evil an actual thing existing unmixed with the Good. And, if no single thing is without participation in the Good, but the lack of the Good is an evil, and no existing thing is deprived absolutely of the Good, the Divine Providence is in all existing things, and no single thing is without Providence. But Providence, as befits Its Goodness, uses even evils which happen for the benefit, either individual or general, of themselves or others, and suitably provides for each being. Wherefore we will not admit the vain statement of the multitude, who say that Providence ought to lead us to virtue, even against our will. For to destroy nature is not a function of Providence. Hence, as Providence is conservative of the nature of each, it provides for |71 the free, as free; and for the whole, and individuals, according to the wants of all and each, as far as the nature of those provided for admits the providential benefits of its universal and manifold Providence, distributed 'proportionably to each.
SECTION XXXIV.
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Now the Oracles call conscious transgressors those who are thoroughly weak as regards the ever memorable knowledge or the practise of the Good, and who, knowing the will, do not perform it,----those who are hearers indeed, but are weak concerning the faith, or the energy of the Good. And for some, it is against their will to understand to do good, by reason of the deviation or weakness of the will. |72 And in short, the Evil (as we have often said) is want of strength and want of power, and defect, either of the knowledge, or the never to be forgotten knowledge, or of the faith, or of the aspiration, or of the energy of the Good. Yet, some one may say, the weakness is not punishable, but on the contrary is pardonable. Now, if the power were not granted, the statement might hold good; but, if power comes from the Good, Who giveth, according to the Oracles, the things suitable to all absolutely, the failure and deviation, and departure and declension of the possession from the Good of our own proper goods is not praiseworthy. But let these things suffice to have been sufficiently said according to our ability in our writings "Concerning just and Divine chastisement" throughout which sacred treatise the infallibility of the Oracles has cast aside those sophistical statements as senseless words, speaking injustice and falsehood against Almighty God. But now, according to our ability, the Good has been sufficiently praised, as really lovable,----as beginning and end of all----as embracing things existing----as giving form to things not existing----as Cause of all good things----as guiltless of things evil----as Providence and Goodness complete----and soaring above things that are and things that are not----and turning to good things evil, and the privation of Itself----as by all desired, and loved, and esteemed, and whatever else, the true statement, as I deem, has demonstrated in the preceding. |73
CAPUT V.
--
The treatise, then, seeks to celebrate these, the Names of God, which set forth His Providence. For it does not profess to express the very super-essential Goodness, and Essence, and Life, and |74 Wisdom, of the very superessential Deity, Which is seated above all Goodness, and Deity, and Essence, and Wisdom, and Life,----in secret places, as the Oracles affirm. But it celebrates the beneficial Providence, which has been set forth as preeminently Goodness and Cause of all good things, and as Being, and Life, and Wisdom,----the Cause essentiating and vivifying, and wise-making, of those who partake of essence, and life, and mind, and reason, and sense. But it does not affirm that the Good is one thing, and the Being another; and that Life is other than Wisdom; nor that the Causes are many, and that some deities produce one thing and others another, as superior and inferior; but that the whole good progressions and the Names of God, celebrated by us, are of one God; and that the one epithet makes known the complete Providence of the one God, but that the others are indicative of His more general and more particular providences.
SECTION III.
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We must attribute, then, all existing things to It, as beseems One Union pre-eminent above all, since by starting from Being, the essentiating Progression and Goodness, both penetrating all, and filling all things with Its own being, and rejoicing over all things being, pre-holds all things in Itself, rejecting all duplicity by an one superfluity of simplicity. But It grasps all things in the same way, as beseems its super-simplified Infinity, and is participated in by all uniquely, even as a voice, whilst being one and the same, is participated in by many ears as one.
SECTION X.
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And It gives chiefly to the self-existing Life to be a life, and to every life, and to the individual life, that each should be conformable to that which nature intended it to be. And to the supercelestial lives It gives the immaterial and godlike, and unchangeable immortality; and the unswerving and undeviating perpetual movement; whilst extending Itself through excess of Goodness, even to the life of demons 36. For, neither has this its being from another cause, but from It life has both its being and its continuance. Further, It bequeaths even to men the angelic life, so far as is possible to compound being, and through an overflowing love towards man turns, and calls us back to Itself, even when we are departing from It; and, what is still more Divine, promises to transfer even our whole selves (I mean souls, and bodies their yoke-fellows), to a perfect life |85 and immortality;----a fact which perhaps seems to Antiquity contrary to nature, but to me, and to thee, and to the truth, both Divine and above nature. But, by "above nature," I understand our visible nature, not the all-powerful nature of the Divine Life. For, to this, as being nature of all the living creatures, and especially the more Divine, no life is against nature, or above nature. So that the con- tradictory statements of Simon's folly on this matter, let them be far repelled from a Divine assembly, and from thy reverent soul. For this escaped him, as I imagine, whilst thinking to be wise, that the right-thinking man ought not to use the visible reason of the sensible perception, as an ally against the invisible Cause of all; and this must be our reply to him, that his statement is against nature, for to It nothing is contrary.
SECTION III.
--
From It, are the godlike powers of the angelic ranks; from It, they have their immutability, and all their intellectual and immortal perpetual movements; and their equilibrium itself, and their undiminishable aspiration after good, they have received from the Power boundless in Goodness; since It commits to them the power to be, and to be such, and to aspire always to be, and the power itself to aspire to have the power always. |96
SECTION V.
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This Divine Justice, then, is celebrated also even as preservation of the whole, as preserving and guarding the essence and order of each, distinct and pure from the rest; and as being genuine cause of each minding its own business in the whole. But, if any one should also celebrate this preservation, as rescuing savingly the whole from the worse, we will entirely accept this as the cantique of the manifold preservation, and we will deem him worthy to define this even as the principal preservation of the whole, which preserves all things in themselves, without change, undisturbed and unswaying to the worse; and guards all things without strife and without war, each being regulated by their own methods; and excludes all inequality and minding others' business, from the whole; and maintains the relations of each from falling to things contrary, and from migrating. And since, without missing the mark of the sacred theology, one might celebrate this preservation as redeeming all things existing, by the Goodness which is preservative of all, from falling away from their own proper goods, so far |101 as the nature of each of those who are being preserved admits; wherefore also the Theologians name it redemption, both so far as it does not permit things really being to fall away to non-existence, and so far as, if anything should have been led astray to discord and disorder, and should suffer any diminution of the perfection of its own proper goods, even this it redeems from passion and listlessness and loss; supplying what is deficient, and paternally overlooking the slackness, and raising up from evil; yea, rather, establishing in the good, and filling -up the leaking good, and arranging and adorning its disorder and deformity, and making it complete, and liberating it from all its blemishes. But let this suffice concerning these matters, and concerning Justice, in accordance with which the equality of all is measured and defined, and every inequality, which arises from deprivation of the equality, in each thing severally, is excluded. For, if any one should interpret inequality as distinctions in the whole, of the whole, in relation to the whole, Justice guards even this, not permitting the whole, when they have become mingled throughout, to be thrown into confusion, but keeping all existing things within each particular kind, in which each was intended by nature, to be. |102
CAPUT IX.
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THE time, then, is come for our discourse, to sing the God of many Names, as "Sovereign Lord," and as "Ancient of days." For He is called the former, by reason that He is an all-controlling basis, binding and embracing the whole, and establishing and supporting, and tightening, and completing the whole. Continuous in itself, and from itself, producing the whole, as it were from a Sovereign root, and turning to itself the whole, as to a sovereign parent stock, and holding them together as an all-embracing basis of all, securing all the things embraced, within one grasp superior to all, and not permitting them, when |110 fallen from itself to be destroyed, as moved from an all-perfect sanctuary. But the Godhead is called Sovereign, both as controlling and governing the members of His household, purely, and as being desired and beloved by all, and as placing upon all the voluntary yokes, and the sweet pangs of the Divine and Sovereign, and in dissolvable love of the Goodness itself,
SECTION II.
--
But, since you once asked me by letter, what in the world I consider the self-existent Being, the self-existent Life, the self-existent Wisdom, and said that you debated with yourself how, at one time, I call Almighty God, self-existent Life, and at another, Mainstay of the self-existent Life, I thought it necessary, O holy man of God, to also free you from this difficulty, so far as lay in my power. And first then, in order that we may now resume that which I have said a thousand times already, there is no contradiction in saying that Almighty God is self-existent Power, or self-existent Life, and that He is Mainstay of the self-existent Life or Peace or Power. For the latter, He is named from things existing, and specially from the first existing, as Cause of all existing things; and the former, as being above all, even the first existing of beings, being |118 above superessentially. But you say, what in the world do we call the self-existent Being, or the self-existent Life, or whatever we lay down to be absolutely and originally and to have stood forth primarily from God? And we reply, this is not crooked but straight, and has a simple explanation. For we do not say that the self-existent Being, as Cause of the being of all things, is a sort of Divine or angelic essence (for the Super-essential alone is Source and Essence and Cause of the existence of all things, and of the self-existent Being), nor that another Deity, besides the Super-divine, produces Life for all that live, and is a Life Causative of the self-existent Life; nor to speak summarily, that essences and personalities originate and make existing things, so that superficial people have named them both gods, and creators of existing things,----whom, to speak truly and properly, neither they themselves knew (for they are non-existent), nor their fathers,----but we call self-existent Being, and self-existent Life, and self-existent Deity, as regards at least Source, and Deity, and Cause, the One Superior and Super-essential Source and Cause; but as regards Impartation, the providential Powers, that issue forth from God the unparticipating, (these we call) the self-existent essentiation, self-existent living, self-existent deification, by participating in which according to their own capacity, things existing, both are, and are said to be, existing, and living, and full of God----and the rest in the same way. Wherefore also, He is called the good Mainstay of the first of these, then |119 of the whole of them, then of the portions of them, then of those who participate in them entirely, then of those who participate in them in part. And why must we speak of these things, since some of our divine instructors in holy things, affirm that the Super-good and Super-divine self-existent Goodness and Deity, is Mainstay even of the self-existent Goodness and Deity; affirming that the good-making and deifying gift issued forth from God; and that the self-existent beautifying stream, is self-existent beauty, and whole beauty, and partial beauty, and things absolutely beautiful, and things partially beautiful, and whatever other things are said and shall be said after the same fashion, which declare that providences and Goodnesses issuing forth from God the unparticipating, in an ungrudging stream, are participated by existing things, and bubble over in order that distinctly the Cause of all may be beyond all, and the Superessential and Supernatural may, in every respect, be above things of any sort of essence and nature whatever.
CAPUT XII.
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Holiness then is (so far as we can say) the purity free from every pollution, and all perfect, and altogether unstained; Kingdom is the assignment of every limit and order, and ordinance and rank; and Lordship is not only the superiority over the worse, but also the perfect possession, in. every respect, of the Beautiful and Good; and a true and unswerving stability. Wherefore Lordship is parallel to to_ Ku~roj kai\ ku&rion, kai\ to_ kuristo~n 45; and Deity is the Providence watching over all, and with perfect Goodness both circumscribing and grasping all, and filling with Itself, and surpassing all things which enjoy Its forethought.
SECTION III.
These things, then, must be sung absolutely, respecting the Cause surpassing all, and we must add that It surpasses Holiness, and Lordship, and Kingdom, and most simplex 46 Deity. For, from It, |121 individually and collectively, were born and distributed every untarnished distinctness of every spotless purity, the whole arrangement and regulation of things existing, whilst It excludes want of harmony and want of equality, and want of symmetry, and rejoices over the well-ordered identity and rectitude, and leads round things, deemed worthy to participate in Itself. From It is all the perfect and complete possession of all. good things, every good forethought, watching and sustaining the objects of Its forethought, imparting Itself, as befits Its Goodness, for deification of those who are turned to It.
SECTION IV.
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Especially must this be known, that according to the pre-conceived species of each one, things united are said to be made one, and the one is elemental of all; and if you should take away the one, there will be neither totality nor part, nor any other single existing thing. For the one, uniformly, pre-held and comprehended all things in itself. For this reason, then, the Word of God celebrates the whole Godhead, as Cause of all, by the epithet of the One, both one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ, and one and the same Spirit, by reason of the surpassing indivisibility of the whole Divine Oneness, in which all things are uniquely collected, and are super-unified, and are with It SLiperessentially. Wherefore also, all things are justly referred and attributed to It, by Which and from Which, and through Which, and in Which, and to Which, all things are, and are co-ordinated, and abide, and are held together, and are filled, and are turned towards It. And you would not find any existing thing, which is not what it is, and perfected and preserved, by the One, after which the whole Deity is superessentially named. And it is necessary also, that we being turned from the many to the One, by the power of the Divine Oneness, should celebrate as One the whole and one Deity----the one Cause of all----which is before every one and multitude, and part and whole, and limit and illimitability, and term and infinity, which bounds all things that be, even the Being Itself, and is |125 uniquely Cause of all, individually and collectively, and at the same time before all, and above all, and above the One existing Itself, and bounding the One existing Itself; since the One existing----that in things being----is numbered, and number participates in essence; but the superessential One bounds both the One existing, and every number, and Itself is, of both one and number, and every being, Source and Cause, and Number and. Order. Wherefore also, whilst celebrated as Unit and Triad, the Deity above all is neither Unit nor Triad, as understood by us or by any other sort of being, but, in order that we may celebrate truly. Its super-oneness, and Divine generation, by the threefold and single name of God, we name the Deity, Which is inexpressible to things that be, the Superessential. But no Unit nor Triad, nor number nor unity, nor productiveness, nor any other existing thing, or thing known to any existing thing, brings forth the hiddenness, above every expression and every mind, of the Super-Deity Which is above all superessentially. Nor has It a Name, or expression, but is elevated above in the inaccessible. And neither do we apply the very Name of Goodness, as making it adequate to It, but through a desire of understanding and saying something concerning that inexpressible nature, we consecrate the most august of Names to It, in the first degree, and although we should be in accord in this matter with the theologians, yet we shall fall short of the truth of the facts. Wherefore, even they have given the preference to the ascent through |126 negations, as lifting the soul out of things kindred to itself, and conducting it through all the Divine conceptions, above which towers that which is above every name, and every expression and knowledge, and at the furthest extremity attaching it to Him, as far indeed as is possible for us to be attached to that Being.
SECTION IV.
--
25. g Creation through Goodness not necessity.
26. h See note, p. 128.
The Dwellings of the Philosophers, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
through his pure Goodness, thus wanted it), made true boy and falling under the influence of
senses, in the virginal uterus of the major primogenerated world, of the created chaos, that is,
--
proportions, this green fruit which divine Goodness has allowed him to pluck. And he will
them with his own eyes, see all the appearances of a progressive and perfect maturation
--
Lord, the Sun is also the tangible evidence of his power, of his greatness, and of his Goodness.
In the midst of the radiating celestial body, under the pure sky of a rejuvenated earth, man
The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all Goodness and righteousness and truth;) 10 proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. 13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
the Eternal Wisdom, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
26) God invisible,...say not so; for who is more apparent than He? That is the Goodness of God, that is His virtue, to be apparent in all. ~ Hermes
27) If thou comprehend Him, what seems invisible to most, will be for thee utterly apparent. ~ Hermes
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12) Thou who art the soul of all things, Thy universal diffusion witnesses to Thy power and Goodness. It is in thee, in others, in all creatures, in all worlds. ~ Vishnu Purana
13) All that is contains Thee; I could not exist if Thou wert not in me. ~ St Augustine
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14) But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, Goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. ~ Latita Vistara
15) By righteousness is the way to a higher region, but by unrighteousness to a lower region; by knowledge cometh freedom, but by ignorance the prolongation of bondage. ~ Galatians. V. 23
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11) Compassion toward animals is essentially bound up with Goodness of character. Whoever is cruel to them cannot be good to men ~ Sehopenhauer
12) Hard to animals, hard to men. ~ Proverb
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17) wings that do not form a community like us-When the incapacity to hurt and Goodness are fully developed in him who has attained to the enlightened culture of the soul, there is a complete absence of enmity towards men, as also, towards the animals who are near to him ~ Patanjali
18) A man is not a master because he despotically subjects being living at his mercy. He can be called a master who has compassion for all that lives. ~ Dhammapada
The Letter to the Hebrews, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
in the blood of the everlasting testament, 21 Fit you in all Goodness, that you may do his will;
doing in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen. 22 And I beseech you, brethren, that you suffer this word of consolation. For I have written to you in a few words.
The Monadology, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
God is due to this, that His Goodness makes Him choose it, and His power makes Him produce it. (Theod. 8, 78, 80, 84, 119, 204, 206, 208.
Abrege, Object. 1 and 8.)
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86. This City of God, this truly universal monarchy, is a moral world in the natural world, and is the most exalted and most divine among the works of God; and it is in it that the glory of God really consists, for He would have no glory were not His greatness and His Goodness known and admired by spirits [esprits]. It is also in relation to this divine City that God specially has Goodness, while
His wisdom and His power are manifested everywhere. (Theod. 146;
The One Who Walks Away, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
the Goodness and grace of every life in Omelas for that single, small improvement: to throw
away the happiness of thousands for the chance of the happiness of one: that would be to
The Pilgrims Progress, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
MAN. I left off to watch and be sober. I laid the reins, upon the neck of my lusts; I sinned against the light of the Word and the Goodness of God; I have grieved the Spirit, and he is gone; I tempted the devil, and he is come to me; I have provoked God to anger, and he has left me: I have so hardened my heart, that I cannot repent.
{86} Then said Christian to the Interpreter, But is there no hope for such a man as this? Ask him, said the Interpreter. Nay, said Christian, pray, Sir, do you.
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{327} I, for my part, have been in the fray before now; and though, through the Goodness of him that is best, I am, as you see, alive, yet I cannot boast of my manhood. Glad shall I be, if I meet with no more such brunts; though I fear we are not got beyond all danger. However, since the lion and the bear have not as yet devoured me, I hope God will also deliver us from the next uncircumcised Philistine. Then sang Christian--
Poor Little-faith! Hast been among the thieves?
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Then said the other, Be of good cheer, my brother, I feel the bottom, and it is good. Then said Christian, Ah! my friend, the sorrows of death hath compassed me about; I shall not see the land that flows with milk and honey; and with that a great darkness and horror fell upon Christian, so that he could not see before him. Also here he in great measure lost his senses, so that he could neither remember nor orderly talk of any of those sweet refreshments that he had met with in the way of his pilgrimage. But all the words that he spake still tended to discover that he had horror of mind, and heart fears that he should die in that river, and never obtain entrance in at the gate. Here also, as they that stood by perceived, he was much in the troublesome thoughts of the sins that he had committed, both since and before he began to be a pilgrim. It was also observed that he was troubled with apparitions of hobgoblins and evil spirits, for ever and anon he would intimate so much by words. Hopeful, therefore, here had much ado to keep his brother's head above water; yea, sometimes he would be quite gone down, and then, ere a while, he would rise up again half dead. Hopeful also would endeavour to comfort him, saying, Brother, I see the gate, and men standing by to receive us: but Christian would answer, It is you, it is you they wait for; you have been Hopeful ever since I knew you. And so have you, said he to Christian. Ah! brother! said he, surely if I was right he would now arise to help me; but for my sins he hath brought me into the snare, and hath left me. Then said Hopeful, My brother, you have quite forgot the text, where it is said of the wicked, "There are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. [Ps. 73:4,5] These troubles and distresses that you go through in these waters are no sign that God hath forsaken you; but are sent to try you, whether you will call to mind that which heretofore you have received of his Goodness, and live upon him in your distresses.
{393} Then I saw in my dream, that Christian was as in a muse a while. To whom also Hopeful added this word, Be of good cheer, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole; and with that Christian brake out with a loud voice, Oh, I see him again! and he tells me, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." [Isa. 43:2] Then they both took courage, and the enemy was after that as still as a stone, until they were gone over. Christian therefore presently found ground to stand upon, and so it followed that the rest of the river was but shallow. Thus they got over. Now, upon the bank of the river, on the other side, they saw the two shining men again, who there waited for them; wherefore, being come out of the river, they saluted them, saying, We are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those that shall be heirs of salvation. Thus they went along towards the gate.
Timaeus, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Leaving the further explanation of details, which the reader will find discussed at length in Boeckh and Martin, we may now return to the main argument: Why did God make the world? Like man, he must have a purpose; and his purpose is the diffusion of that Goodness or good which he himself is. The term ' Goodness' is not to be understood in this passage as meaning benevolence or love, in the Christian sense of the term, but rather law, order, harmony, like the idea of good in the Republic. The ancient mythologers, and even the Hebrew prophets, had spoken of the jealousy of God; and the Greek had imagined that there was a Nemesis always attending the prosperity of mortals. But Plato delights to think of God as the author of order in his works, who, like a father, lives over again in his children, and can never have too much of good or friendship among his creatures. Only, as there is a certain remnant of evil inherent in matter which he cannot get rid of, he detaches himself from them and leaves them to themselves, that he may be guiltless of their faults and sufferings.
Between the ideal and the sensible Plato interposes the two natures of time and space. Time is conceived by him to be only the shadow or image of eternity which ever is and never has been or will be, but is described in a figure only as past or future. This is one of the great thoughts of early philosophy, which are still as difficult to our minds as they were to the early thinkers; or perhaps more difficult, because we more distinctly see the consequences which are involved in such an hypothesis. All the objections which may be urged against Kant's doctrine of the ideality of space and time at once press upon us. If time is unreal, then all which is contained in time is unrealthe succession of human thoughts as well as the flux of sensations; there is no connecting link between (Greek) and (Greek). Yet, on the other hand, we are conscious that knowledge is independent of time, that truth is not a thing of yesterday or tomorrow, but an 'eternal now.' To the 'spectator of all time and all existence' the universe remains at rest. The truths of geometry and arithmetic in all their combinations are always the same. The generations of men, like the leaves of the forest, come and go, but the mathematical laws by which the world is governed remain, and seem as if they could never change. The ever-present image of space is transferred to timesuccession is conceived as extension. (We remark that Plato does away with the above and below in space, as he has done away with the absolute existence of past and future.) The course of time, unless regularly marked by divisions of number, partakes of the indefiniteness of the Heraclitean flux. By such reflections we may conceive the Greek to have attained the metaphysical conception of eternity, which to the Hebrew was gained by meditation on the Divine Being. No one saw that this objective was really a subjective, and involved the subjectivity of all knowledge. 'Non in tempore sed cum tempore finxit Deus mundum,' says St. Augustine, repeating a thought derived from the Timaeus, but apparently unconscious of the results to which his doctrine would have led.
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Thus far God, working according to an eternal pattern, out of his Goodness has created the same, the other, and the essence (compare the three principles of the Philebusthe finite, the infinite, and the union of the two), and out of them has formed the outer circle of the fixed stars and the inner circle of the planets, divided according to certain musical intervals; he has also created time, the moving image of eternity, and space, existing by a sort of necessity and hardly distinguishable from matter. The matter out of which the world is formed is not absolutely void, but retains in the chaos certain germs or traces of the elements. These Plato, like Empedocles, supposed to be four in numberfire, air, earth, and water. They were at first mixed together; but already in the chaos, before God fashioned them by form and number, the greater masses of the elements had an appointed place. Into the confusion (Greek) which preceded Plato does not attempt further to penetrate. They are called elements, but they are so far from being elements (Greek) or letters in the higher sense that they are not even syllables or first compounds. The real elements are two triangles, the rectangular isosceles which has but one form, and the most beautiful of the many forms of scalene, which is half of an equilateral triangle. By the combination of these triangles which exist in an infinite variety of sizes, the surfaces of the four elements are constructed.
That there were only five regular solids was already known to the ancients, and out of the surfaces which he has formed Plato proceeds to generate the four first of the five. He perhaps forgets that he is only putting together surfaces and has not provided for their transformation into solids. The first solid is a regular pyramid, of which the base and sides are formed by four equilateral or twenty-four scalene triangles. Each of the four solid angles in this figure is a little larger than the largest of obtuse angles. The second solid is composed of the same triangles, which unite as eight equilateral triangles, and make one solid angle out of four plane anglessix of these angles form a regular octahedron. The third solid is a regular icosahedron, having twenty triangular equilateral bases, and therefore 120 rectangular scalene triangles. The fourth regular solid, or cube, is formed by the combination of four isosceles triangles into one square and of six squares into a cube. The fifth regular solid, or dodecahedron, cannot be formed by a combination of either of these triangles, but each of its faces may be regarded as composed of thirty triangles of another kind. Probably Plato notices this as the only remaining regular polyhedron, which from its approximation to a globe, and possibly because, as Plutarch remarks, it is composed of 12 x 30 = 360 scalene triangles (Platon. Quaest.), representing thus the signs and degrees of the Zodiac, as well as the months and days of the year, God may be said to have 'used in the delineation of the universe.' According to Plato earth was composed of cubes, fire of regular pyramids, air of regular octahedrons, water of regular icosahedrons. The stability of the last three increases with the number of their sides.
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(b) The Timaeus contains an assertion perhaps more distinct than is found in any of the other dialogues (Rep.; Laws) of the Goodness of God. 'He was good himself, and he fashioned the good everywhere.' He was not 'a jealous God,' and therefore he desired that all other things should be equally good. He is the IDEA of good who has now become a person, and speaks and is spoken of as God. Yet his personality seems to appear only in the act of creation. In so far as he works with his eye fixed upon an eternal pattern he is like the human artificer in the Republic. Here the theory of Platonic ideas intrudes upon us. God, like man, is supposed to have an ideal of which Plato is unable to tell us the origin. He may be said, in the language of modern philosophy, to resolve the divine mind into subject and object.
The first work of creation is perfected, the second begins under the direction of inferior ministers. The supreme God is withdrawn from the world and returns to his own accustomed nature (Tim.). As in the Statesman, he retires to his place of view. So early did the Epicurean doctrine take possession of the Greek mind, and so natural is it to the heart of man, when he has once passed out of the stage of mythology into that of rational religion. For he sees the marks of design in the world; but he no longer sees or fancies that he sees God walking in the garden or haunting stream or mountain. He feels also that he must put God as far as possible out of the way of evil, and therefore he banishes him from an evil world. Plato is sensible of the difficulty; and he often shows that he is desirous of justifying the ways of God to man. Yet on the other hand, in the Tenth Book of the Laws he passes a censure on those who say that the Gods have no care of human things.
--- Overview of noun goodness
The noun goodness has 2 senses (first 1 from tagged texts)
1. (7) good, goodness ::: (that which is pleasing or valuable or useful; "weigh the good against the bad"; "among the highest goods of all are happiness and self-realization")
2. good, goodness ::: (moral excellence or admirableness; "there is much good to be found in people")
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun goodness
2 senses of goodness
Sense 1
good, goodness
=> quality
=> attribute
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 2
good, goodness
=> morality
=> quality
=> attribute
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
--- Hyponyms of noun goodness
2 senses of goodness
Sense 1
good, goodness
=> worthiness
=> desirability, desirableness
=> benefit, welfare
=> better
=> better
=> optimum
=> wisdom, wiseness, soundness
Sense 2
good, goodness
=> kindness
=> beneficence
=> benignity, benignancy, graciousness
=> virtue, virtuousness, moral excellence
=> virtue
=> saintliness
=> summum bonum
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun goodness
2 senses of goodness
Sense 1
good, goodness
=> quality
Sense 2
good, goodness
=> morality
--- Coordinate Terms (sisters) of noun goodness
2 senses of goodness
Sense 1
good, goodness
-> quality
=> appearance, visual aspect
=> attraction, attractiveness
=> clearness, clarity, uncloudedness
=> opacity, opaqueness
=> divisibility
=> ease, easiness, simplicity, simpleness
=> difficulty, difficultness
=> combustibility, combustibleness, burnability
=> suitability, suitableness
=> arability
=> impressiveness
=> navigability
=> neediness
=> painfulness, distressingness
=> piquancy, piquance, piquantness
=> publicity
=> spinnability
=> unsuitability, unsuitableness, ineptness
=> protectiveness
=> nature
=> humanness, humanity, manhood
=> air, aura, atmosphere
=> excellence
=> ultimate
=> characteristic
=> salability, salableness
=> changeableness, changeability
=> changelessness, unchangeability, unchangeableness, unchangingness
=> sameness
=> difference
=> certainty, sure thing, foregone conclusion
=> probability
=> uncertainty, uncertainness, precariousness
=> factuality, factualness
=> counterfactuality
=> materiality, physicalness, corporeality, corporality
=> immateriality, incorporeality
=> particularity, specialness
=> generality
=> simplicity, simpleness
=> complexity, complexness
=> regularity
=> irregularity, unregularity
=> mobility
=> immobility
=> pleasantness, sweetness
=> unpleasantness
=> credibility, credibleness, believability
=> incredibility, incredibleness
=> logicality, logicalness
=> illogicality, illogicalness, illogic, inconsequence
=> naturalness
=> unnaturalness
=> virtu, vertu
=> wholesomeness
=> unwholesomeness, morbidness, morbidity
=> satisfactoriness
=> unsatisfactoriness
=> ordinariness, mundaneness, mundanity
=> extraordinariness
=> ethnicity
=> foreignness, strangeness, curiousness
=> nativeness
=> originality
=> unoriginality
=> correctness, rightness
=> incorrectness, wrongness
=> accuracy, truth
=> accuracy
=> inaccuracy
=> distinction
=> popularity
=> unpopularity
=> lawfulness
=> unlawfulness
=> elegance
=> elegance
=> inelegance
=> urbanity
=> comprehensibility, understandability
=> expressiveness
=> incomprehensibility
=> humaneness
=> inhumaneness, inhumanity
=> morality
=> immorality
=> amorality
=> divinity
=> holiness, sanctity, sanctitude
=> ideality
=> unholiness
=> parental quality
=> fidelity, faithfulness
=> infidelity, unfaithfulness
=> sophistication, worldliness, mundaneness, mundanity
=> naivete, naivety, naiveness
=> hardness
=> penetrability, perviousness
=> impenetrability, imperviousness
=> soapiness
=> fibrosity, fibrousness
=> directivity, directiveness
=> extremeness
=> stuffiness, closeness
=> sufficiency, adequacy
=> worth
=> worthlessness, ineptitude
=> good, goodness
=> bad, badness
=> fruitfulness, fecundity
=> fruitlessness, aridity, barrenness
=> utility, usefulness
=> inutility, uselessness, unusefulness
=> asset, plus
=> constructiveness
=> destructiveness
=> positivity, positiveness, positivism
=> negativity, negativeness, negativism
=> occidentalism
=> orientalism
=> power, powerfulness
=> ability
=> powerlessness, impotence, impotency
=> inability, unfitness
=> romanticism, romance
=> domesticity
=> infiniteness, infinitude, unboundedness, boundlessness, limitlessness
=> finiteness, finitude, boundedness
=> quantifiability, measurability
=> solubility
=> insolubility
=> stuff
=> hot stuff, voluptuousness
=> humor, humour
=> pathos, poignancy
=> tone
=> brachycephaly, brachycephalism
=> dolichocephaly, dolichocephalism
=> relativity
=> responsiveness
=> unresponsiveness, deadness
=> subjectivism
=> snootiness
=> ulteriority
=> memorability
=> woodiness, woodsiness
=> waxiness
Sense 2
good, goodness
-> morality
=> righteousness
=> rightness
=> conscience
=> good, goodness
=> virtue, chastity, sexual morality
--- Grep of noun goodness
goodness
Wikipedia - Charity assessment -- Analysis of goodness of non-profit organizations in financial terms
Wikipedia - Goodness and value theory
Wikipedia - Goodness (band) -- American rock band from Seattle, Washington
Wikipedia - Goodness Gracious Me (TV series) -- Radio and television sketch comedy series
Wikipedia - Goodness Gracious -- 2014 single by Ellie Goulding
Wikipedia - Goodness of fit
Wikipedia - Granny Goodness -- DC Comics character
Wikipedia - Hahgwehdiyu -- Iroquois god of goodness and light
Wikipedia - Kalos kagathos -- Greek ideal of beauty and goodness
Wikipedia - The Fragility of Goodness
Wikipedia - The Goodness Paradox -- Book on human evolutionary history
Wikipedia - Transcendentals -- Truth, beauty, and goodness
Wikipedia - Valence (psychology) -- In psychology, the intrinsic goodness or badness of an emotion, event, object, or situation
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1041445.Goodness_and_Advice
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11724597-sense-and-goodness-without-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11774012-suffering-and-the-goodness-of-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11787415-sovereignty-and-goodness-of-god-attitudes-towards-sex-in-antebellum-am
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13190499-goodness-and-mercy
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588286-the-other-side-of-goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1631309.Taste_and_See_the_Goodness_of_the_Lord
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17660789-all-the-appearance-of-goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17969800-goodness-and-mercy
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18948612-natural-goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19242713-the-other-side-of-goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19691479-is-goodness-without-god-good-enough
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20408624-bountiful-goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2180033.Pure_Ducky_Goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23613170-goodness-and-light
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2453952.Human_Goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/250887.The_Fragility_of_Goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2735558-goodness-gracious-me
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/306583.Pay_Attention_for_Goodness_Sake
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3153259-suffering-and-the-goodness-of-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33289052-bowls-of-goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34331205-grain-free-goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40109463-goodness-gracious-gracie
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40534879-the-goodness-paradox
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44441976-where-goodness-still-grows
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45308471-where-goodness-still-grows
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45308472-where-goodness-still-grows
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45308473-where-goodness-still-grows
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/482752.Natural_Goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/524605.Goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/583658.Sense_and_Goodness_Without_God
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/653842.Goodness_Gracious
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6557413-goodness-and-mercy
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/657230.Any_Small_Goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7096455-made-for-goodness
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/737258.Goodness_Had_Nothing_To_Do_With_It
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8104807-goodness-gracious-green
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92168.My_Goodness
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Goodness
Integral World - The Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Justice of 9/11, Joe Corbett
Integral World - The Natural Theology of Beauty, Truth and Goodness, Steve McIntosh
Integral World - Truth, Beauty & Goodness, 84 Occurances in The Urantia Book, Rick Warren
The Energetic Properties of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness
Psychology Wiki - Goodness_and_value_theory
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - perfect-goodness
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/BeautyEqualsGoodness/Literature
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fr/GoodnessTropes
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Laconic/BeautyEqualsGoodness
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeautyEqualsGoodness
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodnessTropes
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShiningGoodness
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TankGoodness
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/PlayingWith/BeautyEqualsGoodness
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Quotes/BeautyEqualsGoodness
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Quotes/GoodnessTropes
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Radio/GoodnessGraciousMe
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoExamples/BeautyEqualsGoodness
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Goodness
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Goodness_Gracious_Me
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Goodness_Gracious_Me_(TV_&_radio)
Two Of A Kind (1983)(1983) - God (voiced by Gene Hackman) is pissed off at humanity. Several angels want to stop God from destroying the world, so they try looking for 2 people to show that there is still goodness in the world. Unfortunately, the two people they've chosen to respresent the good side of humanity are an inventor...
Eli Stone -- 1h | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy | TV Series (20082009) ::: San Francisco lawyer Eli Stone begins to see things, which leads him to discover a brain aneurysm. But his visions lead him to accept cases with little monetary gain but a lot of moral goodness. Creators:
https://characters.fandom.com/wiki/Granny_Goodness
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Granny_Goodness
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Granny_Goodness_(Harley_Quinn_TV_Series)
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Granny_Goodness_(Smallville)
https://elliegoulding.fandom.com/wiki/Goodness_Gracious_(song)
https://humanscience.fandom.com/wiki/Acts_of_Goodness_Instantaneously_Attract
https://humanscience.fandom.com/wiki/The_Power_of_Goodness_in_Arden_Forest
https://kpopp.fandom.com/wiki/Dank_Goodness
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Goodness_Silva_(Earth-616)
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Joel_Goodness
https://superman.fandom.com/wiki/Granny_Goodness
https://supermanrebirth.fandom.com/wiki/Granny_Goodness_(Christine_Willes)
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Be_Good_for_Goodness's_Sake_(short_story)
https://youngjustice.fandom.com/wiki/Granny_Goodness
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fugen_bodhisattva_of_Goodness_seated_on_an_elephant_late_19th_century_Japan_Penn_Museum.jpg
For Goodness Sake
For Goodness Sakes, Look at Those Cakes
Goodness
Goodness Ajayi
Goodness Gracious
Goodness Gracious (disambiguation)
Goodness Gracious Me
Goodness Gracious Me (song)
Goodness Gracious Me (TV series)
Goodness of fit
Goodness (The Hotelier album)
GoodnessTv
Goodnestone
Oh My Goodness
Original Goodness (book)
St Bartholomew's Church, Goodnestone
The Special Goodness
User:Kiwiboy121/A Source of Goodness, Not Evil
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