Josh Billings Quotes

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

People don't just want to be rich and successful, they want to be good.

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

He, who practices right, but in the hope of acquiring great renown, is very near to vice.

To be good, and to do good, is all we have to do.

Virtue shows quite as well in rags and patches as she does in purple and fine linen.

Good deeds are many, but good lives are few.

Being good is just a matter of temperament in the end.

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

It is by doing good that we become good.

Reason perhaps teaches certain bourgeois virtues, but it does not make either heroes or saints.

Being a 'good man' is something you do, not something you are.

I think I'm a decent person.

If you're a good person, that's all that really matters.

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent.

The only word for goodness is goodness, and it is not enough.

To do evil for good is human corruption; to do good for good is civil retribution; but to do good for evil is Christian perfection. Though this be not the grace of nature, it is the nature of grace.

Virtue does not come from wealth, but wealth, and every other good thing which men have comes from virtue.

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

While you live, while it is in your power, be good.

Virtue, once bragged about, once you pride yourself upon it, ceases to be such.

It is impossible to be just if one is not generous.

It is the property of a great and good mind to covet, not the fruit of good deeds, but good deeds themselves, and to seek for a good man even after having met with bad men.

The prudent man does himself good; the virtuous one does it to other men.

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.