Goodness for the soul is what health is for the body: you do not notice it when you have it.
Those who are truly virtuous do not consider themselves virtuous, and that is what makes them virtuous. Those who are not truly virtuous never forget about their virtues, and that is why they are never virtuous. True virtue does not proclaim and flaunt itself. False virtue proclaims and flaunts itself.
True kindness does not know itself and does not try to flaunt itself. False kindness proclaims itself and tries to flaunt itself. True justice appears only when necessary, and does not flaunt itself. False justice appears everywhere and tries to flaunt itself.
True decency appears when necessary and does not try to flaunt itself. False decency appears everywhere and, when nobody responds to it, compels others to obey its rules by force.
When true virtue is lost, one is left with kindness, when kindness is lost, one is left with justice, and when justice is lost, one is left with decency.
The rules of decency are merely a semblance of the truth and are the beginning of all disorder.
— Laozi
A truly virtuous human being tries to walk a straight path to the end. To have made it halfway and then to lose strength—that is something to be afraid of.
— Chinese wisdom
Human virtue must possess the quality of a precious stone, which invariably retains its natural beauty no matter what happens to it.
— Marcus Aurelius
Do good in secret and feel regret whenever others find out about it, and you will learn the joy of doing good. The consciousness of a good life, without other people’s approval of it, is the best reward for leading a good life.
A human being increases his happiness to the extent that he makes others happy.
— Bentham
The will of God respecting us is that we shall live by each other’s happiness and life.
— John Ruskin
Just as the good of a plant consists in light, and so a plant that is not covered with anything cannot ask and does not ask in which direction it should grow and whether the light is good or not, whether it should wait for some other, better light, and instead takes the only light there is in the world and grows towards it, so too does a human being who has renounced self-interest does not ponder about how he should love, should he love those whom he loves now, or whether or not there is some other, better love than the one that is possible now, and instead surrenders himself to that love which is available to him and is right before him.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Love is only love when it is self-sacrifice. Only when a human being forgets himself and lives the life of the one whom he loves—only such love is true, and only in such love do we find bliss, the reward of love. And it is only the existence of such love in people that holds the world together.
Nothing adorns both your life and those of others as much as an established habit of doing good.
