Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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1		"All things – not only those that have knowledge, but also those without….All things are destined and directed by God to good, and this is done in such a way that in each one is a principle by which it tends of itself to good as if seeking good itself, as if reaching for it of its own accord. For this reason it is said in the Book of Wisdom (8:1) that divine wisdom 'orders all things sweetly' because each one by its own motion tends to that for which it has been divinely destined." Thomas Aquinas, 'On Truth', q. 22, a. 1 Sheer Joy, Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality (Matthew Fox)

2		"Experienced spiritual researchers know what strength they gain by always looking for the good in everything and withholding their critical judgment. This practice should not remain simply an outer rule of life, but must take hold of the innermost part of the soul." How To Know Higher Worlds: A Modern Path of Initiation (Rudolf Steiner)

3		“There is nothing in the world without a share of the Beautiful and the Good.” Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works (John Farina, Editor-in-Chief)

4		“The all-sufficiency of Universal Good is all-sufficing.” Lectures on Ancient Philosophy (Manly P. Hall)

5		"The only cause of all created things, whether heavenly or earthy, whether visible or invisible, is the goodness of the Creator, the one true God; and nothing exists but Himself that does not derive its existence from Him." St. Augustine (354-430) A Treasury of Philosophy, Vol. 1 (Dagobert D. Runes, editor)

6		"It's important to realize that there's good in everything and everyone." Worldwide Laws of Life: 200 Eternal Spiritual Principles (John Marks Templeton)

7		"The natural inclination of every creature is an inclination to good." My Way of Life, The Summa Simplified for Everyone (Walter Farrell and Martin J. Healy)

8		"From the feelings proper to it, humanity's nature is constituted for the practice of what is good." Mencius (372-289 bce), 'Works', bk. 1:6.5-6 Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 16th edition (John Bartlett)

9		"We're each part of something that's much bigger and better than what meets the eye, and if we keep that in mind, our hearts will be in the right place. Life will be all right, because its ups and downs will be seen as what they are – threads in a great fabric whose beauty depends on bright and dark colors." Spiritual Genius, The Mastery of Life's Meaning (Winifred Gallagher)

10		"Reality is not only more unified but better than it seems to us. As God told the medieval mystic Dame Julian of Norwich, 'You will see for yourself that every sort of thing will be all right." Spiritual Genius, The Mastery of Life's Meaning (Winifred Gallagher)

11		"He [Buddha] declared that in spite of all the sorrow and misery of the world, the great scheme of which man is a part is a scheme of eternal justice, and that the law under which we are living is a good law, and needs only that we should understand it and adapt ourselves to it." The Inner Life (Charles W. Leadbeater)

12		"God has created all things for good; all things for their greatest good; everything for its own good." John Henry Newman (1801-1890), 'Meditations and Devotions' The Quotable Spirit (Peter Lorie and Manuela D Mascetti, editors)

13		"The world is made up of all kinds of good things, and gives sufficient indication of the great good in store for the one for whom all this was provided." Tertullian (c.150-212), North African church father The Lion Christian Quotation Collection (Hannah Ward & Jennifer Wild, compilers)

14		"Thou, Lord, art the supreme good, the eternal good, from Whom is all good, without Whom there is no good." St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), 'Opuscula S. P. Francisci' Pathways of the Inner Life, An Anthology of Christian Spirituality (Georges A. Barrois, editor)

15		"To find the child of true Humanity within or to put on the perfect Human means to come to know that one's true self is a spiritual being whose roots are nourished by the transcendent Good." The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle (Karen L. King)

16		"The individual who becomes aware of his true standard of what is Good finds himself free." The Transforming Mind (Laurence and Phoebe Bendit)

17		"If you actually look, if you take your whole being apart and examine it, you find that you are genuine and good as you are." Shambhala (Chogyam Trungpa)

18		"A person's true wealth is the good he does in this world." Muhammad The Mystic Hours, A Daybook of Interspiritual Wisdom & Devotion (Wayne Teasdale)

19		"It is only when we human beings fully acknowledge that we are good precisely as God made us that we can relate properly to the Creator." Thomas Aquinas, Spiritual Master (Robert Barron)

20		"Eternal Good does not have to come into the soul, for It is already there." 'Theologia Germanica' (ca. 1350) Devotional Classics (Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, editors)

21		"Our true mind is not restricted to our intellectual or cognitive power, but is a fundamental goodness or 'good heart' that is at the core of every being." Christine Longaker, founding director of the Buddhist Rigpa Fellowship, 'What Counts at the Moment of Death' Experiencing the Soul (Eliot Jay Rosen, editor)

22		"All individual acts of the will rest upon, depend upon, the final and all-embracing desire for the good itself – which is none other than God." Introduction Thomas Aquinas, Spiritual Master (Robert Barron)

23		"Our hearts are made for goodness, as the eye is made for color and the ear for sound." My Way of Life, The Summa Simplified for Everyone (Walter Farrell and Martin J. Healy)

24		"Looking for the good in a situation allows us to call it by its right name. Dear reader, do you know what a marvel lies hidden in these words, a marvel that you can put to the test and see for yourself before this day is over?" The Child Within Us Lives!, A Synthesis of Science, Religion and Metaphysics (William Samuel)

25		"Even force which is turned to destructive ends can and does finally work towards good, for the trend of the evolutionary force is unalterable, being based on the Will-to-good of Divinity Itself." The Destiny of the Nations (Alice A. Bailey)