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GOODNESS
GOODWILL --- GOSSIP --- GOVERNMENT

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.
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GOODNESS

see "CHARACTER" for other related links
see "KINDNESS" for other related links


I'm as pure as the driven slush.
--Tallulah Bankhead (1903-1968)
American actress.
In "Saturday Evening Post" [12 April 1947].

To be good to the vile is to throw water into the sea.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)
Spanish novelist.

He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad
will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue, and time are
three things that never stand still.
--C.C. Colton (1780-1832)
English clergyman and writer.

We believe at once in evil; we only believe in
good upon reflection. Is not this sad?
--Madame Doroth้e Deluzy (1747-1830)
French actress.

If people are good only because they fear punishment,
and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
--Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
German-American physicist who developed the
special and general theories of relativity

It is a grand mistake to think of being
great without goodness; and I pronounce
it is certain that there was never yet a
truly great man that was not at the same
time truly virtuous.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
"The Busy-Body Papers" in the
_American Weekly Mercury_ [18 February 1729]..

The virtue which requires to be ever guarded
is scarce worth the sentinel.
--Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)
Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist.
_The Vicar of Wakefield_ [1766]

I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing
therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to
any fellow-creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or
neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
--Stephen Grellet (1773-1855)
French missionary.
Attributed; there are many claimants to authorship.

We all wear some disguise, make some professions,
use some artifice, to set ourselves off as being
better than we are; and yet it is not denied that
we have some good intentions and praiseworthy
qualities at bottom.
--William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
English essayist.
_Sketches and Essays_ [1839], "On Cant and Hypocrisy"

Goodness alone is *never* enough. A hard, cold wisdom
is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness
without wisdom always accomplishes evil.
--Robert A(nson) Heinlein (1907-1988)
American science-fiction writer.
_Stranger In A Strange Land_ [1961]

Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds,
shining qualities beneath a rough exterior.
--Juvenal (c. 55-130)
Roman satirist.

It is with certain good qualities as with the senses; those
who are entirely deprived of them can neither appreciate
nor comprehend them.
--Fran็ois de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)
French classical author.

It is in men as in soils where sometimes there
is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.
--Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Anglo-Irish poet and satirist.

-

'Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!'
'Goodness had nothing to do with it!'
--Mae West (1893-1980)
American stage and film actress.
"Night After Night" [1932 film]


I used to be Snow White. . . but I drifted.
--Mae West (1893-1980)
American stage and film actress.
In Joseph Weintraub _Peel Me a Grape_ [1975].

-

That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love.
--William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
English poet.
"Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey" [1798]

-

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is of good
repute, if there is any excellence and
anything worthy of praise, let your mind
dwell on these things.
--St. Paul, Epistle to the Philippians, Chapter 4, Verses 4-8




GOODWILL

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.

see "KINDNESS" for related links


I know, indeed, of nothing more subtly satisfying and
cheering than a knowledge of the real good will and
appreciation of others. Such happiness does not come
with money, nor does it flow from fine physical state.
It cannot be brought. But it is the keenest joy,
after all; and the toiler's truest and best reward.
--William Dean Howells (1837-1920)
American novelist and critic

The na๏ve notion that we can preserve freedom by
exuding goodwill is not only silly, but dangerous.
The more adherents it wins, the more it tempts
the aggressor.
--Richard Nixon (1913-1994)
American Republican statesman, President [1969-1974],
_The Real War_




GOSSIP

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see "COMMUNICATION" for related links
see "HURTING (SOMEONE)" for related links


There is nothing that more betrays a base
ungenerous spirit than the giving of secret
stabs to a man's reputation. Lampoons
and satires, that are written with wit and
spirit, are like poisoned darts, which not
only inflict a wound, but make it incurable.
--Joseph Addison (1672—1719)
English essayist, poet, and dramatist.
_The Spectator_ [1711—1712]

I am more deadly than the screaming shell from the
howitzer. I win without killing. I tear down homes,
break hearts, and wreck lives. I travel on the wings
of the wind. No innocence is strong enough to
intimidate me, no purity pure enough to daunt me.
I have no regard for truth, no respect for justice,
no mercy for the defenseless. My victims are as
numerous as the sands of the sea, and often as
innocent. I never forget and seldom forgive.
My name is Gossip.
--Morgan Blake,
_Atlanta Journal_

Alas! they had been friends in youth;
But whispering tongues can poison truth.
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772—1834)
English poet, critic, and philosopher.
_Christabel_, pt. II

^

The Waterloo, Neb., city council in 1910 passed an ordinance
making it illegal for barbers "to discuss the gossip of the town"
with their customers. The ordinance also prohibited barbers
from eating onions between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m.
and from sticking their fingers in the mouths of their customers.
--Cynthia Crossen
"Gossip: So Much Fun People Once Tried To Make It Illegal"
_The Wall Street Journal_ [4 June 2007]

^

If you are tempted to reveal
A tale to you someone has told
About another, make it pass
Before you speak, three gates of gold.
These narrow gates: First, 'Is it true?'
Then, 'Is it needful?' In your mind
Give truthful answer. And the next
Is last and narrowest, 'Is it kind?'
And if to reach your lips at last
It passes through these gateways three,
Then you may tell the tale, nor fear
What the result of speech may be.
--Beth Day
"Three Gates" [1855]

To speak ill of others is a dishonest
way of praising ourselves.
--Will [William James] Durant (1885—1981)
& Ariel Durant (1898—1981)
American husband and wife writing collaborators whose
_Story of Civilization_ 11 vol. [1935-1975], established
them among the best known writers of popular
philosophy and history.

Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty
tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it; it proves
nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.
--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880)
English novelist.
_Daniel Deronda_ [1876]

Hear no ill of a Friend,
nor speak any of an Enemy.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Poor Richard's Almanack_ [1739]

The best-loved man or maid in the town would perish
with anguish could they hear all that their friends
say in the course of a day.
--John Milton Hay (1838—1905)
U.S. secretary of state [1898-1905] associated
with the Open Door policy toward China.

Every one in a crowd has the power to throw
dirt: nine out of ten have the inclination.
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.

I don't care what is written about me
so long as it isn't true.
--Katharine Hepburn (1907—2003)
American stage and motion-picture actress;
winner of four Academy Awards.

To tell tales out of school.
--John Heywood (1497—1580)
English playwright.
_Proverbs_ [1546]

In the old days of barbarism, the people
fought with hatchets. Civilized men buried
the hatchet, and now fight with gossip.
--Edgar Watson Howe (1854—1937)
American journalist and author.
_Country Town Sayings_ [1911]

Gossip is vice enjoyed vicariously — the sweet,
subtle satisfaction without the risk.
--Frank McKinney (Kin) Hubbard (1868—1930)
American humorist.

If you can't say something good about
anyone, sit right here by me.
--Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884—1980)
Daughter of Theodore Roosevelt.
(Motto embroidered on a sofa cushion.)

There are different ways of assassinating a man —
by pistol, sword or poison, or moral assassination.
They are the same in their results except the last
is more cruel.
--Napoleon I (1769—1821)
Emperor of France [1804—1815].
Maxims (1804-15)

I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what
others say of them, there would not be four
friends in the world.
--Blaise Pascal (1623—1662)
French mathematician, physicist, and moralist.

Let us believe neither half of the good people
tell us of ourselves, nor half the evil they say
of others.
--Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn (1792—1870)
French-Swiss lyric poet.

At every word a reputation dies.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
_The Rape of the Lock_ [1712], canto III, l. 16

Of every ten persons who talk about you, nine
will say something bad, and the tenth will say
something good in a bad way.
--Antoine de Rivarol (1753—1801)
French man of letters.

Be thou as chaste as ice,as pure as snow,
thou shall not escape calumny.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Hamlet_ [1601]

It seems that the analysis of character is the highest
human entertainment. And literature does it, unlike
gossip, without mentioning real names.
--Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904—1991)
Polish-American novelist who won the 1978
Nobel Prize for Literature.
Interview with Richard Burgin in
_The New York Times Magazine_ [26 November 1978].

Whoever gossips to you, will gossip of you.
--Spanish proverb

There are two things that will be believed
of any man whatsoever, and one of them
is that he has taken to drink.
--Booth Tarkington (1869—1946)
American novelist and dramatist.
_Penrod_ [1914]

Speak not Evil of the absent for it is unjust.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the
colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775—1783]
and first president of the United States [1789—1797].
[Copybook 1748]

-

More people are run down by gossip than by automobiles.
--anon.

It isn't difficult to make a mountain out
of a molehill — just add a little dirt.
--anon.

There is so much that is bad in the best of us
And so much that is good in the worst of us
That it doesn't behoove any of us
To talk about the rest of us.
--anon.

-----

yenta (noun) [ 'yen-t๊]
A nosy, meddlesome woman;
a gabby, gossipy busy-body.



GOVERNMENT

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.

see "POLITICS" for related links


Fear is the foundation of most governments.
--John Adams (1735-1826)
First VP and second President of the United States,
_Thoughts on Government_ [1776]

There is but one element of government, and that is *the people.*
From this element spring all governments. For a nation to be
free, it is only necessary that she wills it. For a nation to be
slave, it is only necessary that she wills it.
--John Adams (1735-1826)
First VP and second President of the United States,
letter to John Taylor [1814]

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There can not a greater judgment befall a country than
such a dreadful spirit of division as rends a government
into two distinct people, and makes them greater strangers
and more averse to one another than if they were actually
two different nations.
--Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
English essayist, poet, and dramatist,
_The Spectator_ [24 July 1711]

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody
endeavours to live at the expense of everybody else.
--Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)
French Economist

Our American system of government by lobbyist guarantees
us a form of taxation with representation that the founding
fathers did not foresee: special interests get the representation
while the broad public gets the taxation.
--Alan S. Blinder (1945- )
American economist,
_Hard Head, Soft Hearts: Tough-Minded Economics for a Just Society_ [1987]

If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law;
it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To
declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the
means - to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order
to secure the conviction of a private criminal - would bring terrible
retribution.
--Louis Brandeis (1856-1941)
American lawyer and associate justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court [1916-1939],
dissenting in _Olmstead v. United States_ [1928]

The office of government is not to confer happiness,
but to give men opportunity to work out happiness
for themselves.
--William Ellery Channing (1780-1842)
American Unitarian clergyman and author,
in a review in the "Christian Examiner" [September-October 1827]

This report, by its very length, defends itself
against the risk of being read.
--Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
British Conservative statesman,
Prime Minister [1940-1945, 1951-1955]

Depotism has forever had a powerful hold upon the world.
Autocratic government, not self-government, has been the
prevailing state of mankind. It needs to be remembered that
the record of past history is the record, not of the success
of republics, but of their failure.
--Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933)
American Republican statesman and President [1923-1929],
"The Destiny of America" Speech in Northhampton, Massachusetts [30 May 1923]

Government has hardened into a tyrannical
monopoly, and the human race in general
becomes as absolutely property as beasts
in the plow.
--John Dickinson (1732-1808)
American politician,
(in a letter to Thomas McKean [22 November 1802]

No government can long be secure without a formidable
Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable
number which can be managed by the joint influences
of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the
discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and
employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise
may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
British Tory statesman, novelist, and
Prime Minister [1868, 1874-1880],
_Coningsby_ [1844] , bk.II, ch.1

The less government we have, the better, the fewer
laws, and the less confided power. The antidote to
this abuse of formal government is, the influence
of private character, the growth of the individual.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
American philosopher and poet

If the Government is big enough to give you everything
you want, it is big enough to take away everything you
have.
--Gerald R. Ford (1909- )
38th President of the United States [1974-1977],
in John F. Parker _If Elected_ [1960]

& see:

A government that is big enough to give you all you
want is big enough to take it all away.
--Barry Goldwater (1909-1998)
American conservative politician

The state is like the human body. Not
all of its functions are dignified.
--Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault]
(1844-1924), French novelist and man of letters,
_Les Opinions de M. Jerome Coignard_ [1893]

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions
of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice,
without constraint.
--Alexander Hamilton (1755or57-1804)
New York delegate to the Constitutional Convention,
major author of the _Federalist Papers_, and first
secretary of the Treasury of the United States [1789-1795] {EB},
_The Federalist_ [1787-1788] no.15

I believe and I say it is true Democratic feeling, that all the
measures of the Government are directed to the purpose
of making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
--William Henry Harrison (1773-1841)
American army officer and 9th President
of the United States [1841],
speech [1 October 1840]

The government is mainly an expensive
organization to regulate evildoers, and tax
those who behave; government does little
for fairly respectable people except annoy
them.
--Edgar Watson Howe (1853-1937)
American journalist and author,
_Notes for My Biographer_ [1926]

The impersonal hand of government can never
replace the helping hand of a neighbor.
--Hubert H. Humphrey (1911-1978)
38th vice-president of the United States
[1965-1969] and liberal senator [1949-1965
& 1971-1978]

The duties of all public officers are, or at least admit
of being made, so plain and simple that men of
intelligence may readily qualify themselves for
their performance; and I cannot but believe that
more is lost by the long continuance of men in
office than is generally to be gained by their
experience.
--Andrew Jackson {Old Hickory} (1767-1845)
American military hero and 7th president
of the United States [1829-1837]

-

That government is best that governs least.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
American statesman and president [1801-1809]

But with all the imperfections of our present
government, it is without comparison the best
existing, or that ever did exist.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
American statesman and president [1801-1809],
in a letter to Edward Carrington [4 August 1787]

The legitimate powers of government extend to such
acts only as are injurious to others.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
American statesman and president [1801-1809],
"Notes on the State of Virginia" 17, [1785]

A wise and frugal Government, which shall refrain men
from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise
free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and
improvement, and shall not take from the mouth
of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum
of good government.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
American statesman and president [1801-1809],
first Inaugural Address [4 March 1801]

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield
and government to gain ground.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
American statesman and president [1801-1809],
letter to Edward Carrington [27 May 1788]

-

The great and *chief end*, therefore, of Men's
uniting into Commonwealths, and putting themselves
under Government, *is the Preservation of their
Property*.
--John Locke (1632-1704)
English political and educational philosopher,
_Two Treatises of Government_ [1690]

Because it is difficult to join them together, it is
much safer for a prince to be feared than loved, if
he is to fail in one of the two.
--Niccol๒ Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Florentine statesman and political philosopher,
_The Prince_ [written 1513]

If men were virtuous, there would be no need
of governments at all.
--James Madison (1751-1836)
Fourth president of the United States [1809-1817],
in Alistair Cooke _America_ [1973]

-

The government consists of a gang of men exactly
like you and me. They have, taking one with another,
no special talent for the business of government;
they have only a talent for getting and holding
office. Their principal device to that end is to
search out groups who pant and pine for something
they can't get and to promise to give it to them.
Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing.
The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy
B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage,
and every election is sort of an advance auction
sale of stolen goods.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880-1956)
American journalist and literary critic

The Bill of Rights was designed trustfully to prohibit forever
two of the favorite crimes of all known governments: the
seizure of private property without adaquate compensation
and the invasion of the citizen's liberty without justifiable
cause and due process.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880-1956)
American journalist and literary critic,
_Prejudices: Fourth Series_ [1924] "On Government"

-

The whole idea of our government is this: If enough people get
together and act in concert, they can take something and not
pay for it.
--P.J. O'Rourke (1947- )
American political satirist

-

The American system is not a democracy. It is a
constitutional republic. A democracy, if you attach
meaning to terms, is a system of unlimited majority
rule; the classic example is ancient Athens. And
the symbol of it is the fate of Socrates, who was
put to death legally, because the majority didn't
like what he was saying, although he had initiated
no force and had violated no one's rights.

Democracy, in short, is a form of collectivism, which
denies individual rights: the majority can do whatever
it wants with no restrictions. In principle, the
democratic government is all-powerful. Democracy
is a totalitarian manifestation; it is not a form
of freedom....

The American system is a constitutionally limited
republic, restricted to the protectrion of individual
rights. In such a system, majority rule is applicable
only to lesser details, such as the selection of certain
personnel. But the majority has no say over the basic
principles governing the government. It has no power
to ask for or gain the infringement of individual
rights.

--Leonard Peikoff (1933- )
American philosopher born in Canada,
_The Philosophy of Objectivism_, Lecture 9 [1976]

-

Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities.
The loved and the rich need no protection,--they
have many friends and few enemies.
--Wendell Phillips (1811-1884)
American abolitionist and reformer,
in a speech in Boston, Massachusetts [21 December 1860]

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part
in the government, is to live under the government of worse
men.
--Plato (427?-347 B.C.)
Greek philosopher,
quoted in Ralph Waldo Emerson
_Society and Solitude_ [1870] "Eloquence"

-

Government's view of the economy could be summed up
in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps
moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize
it.
--Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)
U.S. President [1981-1989] and former Hollywood actor

Government exists to protect us from each other. We can't
afford the government it would take to protect us from
ourselves.
--Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)
U.S. President [1981-1989] and former Hollywood actor

-

If we do not halt this steady process of building
commissions and regulatory bodies and special
legislation like huge inverted pyramids over every
one of the simple constitutional provisions, we
shall soon be spending many billions of dollars
more.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)
American Democratic statesman and President [1933-1945],
in a radio address [2 March 1930]
{Roosevelt had just noted that the annual federal budget was 3 1/2 billion dollars - GBAQ}

-

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible
government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility
to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the
unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is
the first task of the statesmanship of today.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901-1909]

I do not believe in government ownership of anything
which can with propriety be left in private hands, and
in particular I should most strenuously object to
government ownership of railroads.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901-1909],
in a speech in Raleigh, North Carolina [19 October 1905]

Everything is un-American that tends either to government
by a plutocracy, or government by a mob. To divide along
the lines of section or caste or creed is un-American. All
privilege based on wealth, and all enmity to honest men
merely because they are wealthy, are un-American--both
of them equally so. Americanism means the virtues of
courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood--
the virtues that made America. The things that will destroy
America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price,
safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living,
and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901-1909],
in a letter to S. Stanwood Menken [10 January 1917]

-

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul
can always depend on the support of Paul.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Irish playwright,
_Everybody's Political What's What?_ [1944]

Pray for the welfare of the government, for it not for the
fear of the government, a man would swallow up his
neighbor alive.
--The Talmud (A.D. 1st-6th cent.) Rabbinical writings

Whenever you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.
--Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1945-1953],
lecture at Columbia University [28 April 1959]

In general the art of government consists in
taking as much money as possible from one
class of citizens to give to the other.
--Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet) (1694-1778)
"Money", _Philosophical Dictionary_ [1764]

-

INTERESTING WEBSITES:
http://www.fedstats.gov/key_stats/BJSkey.html
http://www.allstocks.com/links/html/a-z_listing_of_statistics_and_.html
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/eco_eco_fre
http://www.govspot.com/

-----

laissez-faire (adj.) [lez-ey-'fer]
A governmental policy of non-interference in a free-enterprise
system; by extension, a policy of not interfering with anyone's
choices or actions.

oligarchy (noun)
A small governing group: a small group of people who
together govern a nation or control an organization,
often for their own purposes

plutocracy (noun)
Rule by the wealthy: the rule of a society by its
wealthiest people

quorum (noun)
Minimum number required for valid meeting: a fixed minimum
percentage or number of members of a legislative assembly,
committee, or other organization who must be present before
the members can conduct valid business


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