#Common Good Quotes

“To be free is not necessarily to be wise. Wisdom comes with counsel, with the frank and free conference of untrammeled men united in the common interest.”

“The Earth is given as a common for men to labor and live in.”

“It is a position not to be controverted, that the earth ... was and ever would have continued to be, the COMMON PROPERTY OF THE HUMAN RACE.”

“Law; an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community.”

“Law is nothing other than a certain ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by the person who has the care of the community.”

“All earlier pluralist societies destroyed themselves because no one took care of the common good. They abounded in communities but could not sustain community, let alone create it.”

“Nature insists on whatever benefits the whole.”

“I let go of all desire for the common good, and the good becomes as common as the grass.”

“If this is neither my own badness, nor an effect of my own badness, and the common weal is not injured, why am I troubled about it? And what is the harm to the common weal?”

“Have I done something for the general interest? Well then I have had my reward. Let this always be present to thy mind, and never stop doing such good.”

“A rational nature admits of nothing but what is serviceable to the rest of mankind.”

“One must shed the bad taste of wanting to agree with many. "Good" is no longer good when one's neighbor mouths it. And how should there be a "common good"! The term contradicts itself: whatever can be common always has little value. In the end it must be as it is and always has been: great things remain for the great, abysses for the profound, nuances and shudders for the refined, and, in brief, all that is rare for the rare.”

“Waste not the remnant of thy life in those imaginations touching other folk, whereby thou contributest not to the common weal.”

“That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.”

“Let every action aim solely at the common good.”

“But the challenge is always the same - whether each generation facing its own circumstances can summon the practical devotion to attain and retain that greatest good for the greatest number which this government of the people was created to ensure.”

“We reaffirm that on days like this, there are no Republicans or Democrats. We are Americans, united in concern for our fellow citizens.”

“It's time to put country ahead of party. It's time to put the next generation ahead of the next election.”

“We created a whole lot of millionaires to boot. Businesses did just fine. And you know there are plenty of patriotic, successful Americans all across the country -- I meet them every day -- who'd be willing to make this contribution again because they understand there is such a thing as the common good. They understand that we're in this thing together.”

“More and more, when faced with the world of men, the only reaction is one of individualism. Man alone is an end unto himself. Everything one tries to do for the common good ends in failure.”