Theme

Philosophy quotes about good

Good appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat good as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.

Why this theme matters

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Dhammapada and Philippa Foot), good is framed through Early Buddhism and Analytic Philosophy. Some passages define good; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language.

In the history of philosophy

Discussions of good travel through Greek, Indian and European modern traditions. Compare the quotations below with their school labels rather than forcing a single definition.

Thinkers in this collection

Marcus Aurelius , Dhammapada , Nishida Kitaro , Aristotle , Xunzi , Plato , Iris Murdoch , Philippa Foot

Frequently asked questions

What did philosophers say about good?

They disagreed in productive ways. In this archive, Dhammapada, Philippa Foot, and related voices treat good as something to clarify, cultivate, or critique—not merely to celebrate.

Where can I find philosophy quotes about good?

This theme page gathers 11 verified English quotations tagged Good, with links to thinkers and sources.

How should I read quotes about good?

Read the sentence, then check school and source. A compact line is an entry point into an argument about good, not a substitute for the surrounding text.

  1. What is not good for the hive is not good for the bee.
  2. To avoid all evil, to cultivate the good, and to cleanse one's mind—this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
  3. The good is the realization of personality.
  4. Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good.
  5. Seeing the good, be earnest to preserve it in yourself; seeing the not-good, be anxious to examine yourself.
  6. Conquer anger by non-anger; conquer evil by good.
  7. The Good… is to be honored still more highly than knowledge and truth.
  8. The self, the place where we live, is a place of illusion. Goodness is connected with the attempt to see the unself.
  9. Moral evil is a kind of natural defect.
  10. There is no criterion for determining what is good for a human being that is independent of the nature of the human being.
  11. Happiness is the good desired for its own sake; it is never desired for the sake of something else.
  12. The task of the humane is to promote the benefit of all under Heaven and to eliminate its harm.