Common Good Quotes

“We have to stand up for what is right--
work, march, struggle for what is right--
but we must stay vigilant that it is for the good of all”
― Shellen Lubin

“Be generous with your strengths and skills. They are not your private property, and they grow from being shared.”
― Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self

“„For the common good” is the most common excuse for uncommon evil.”
― Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski

“The worst crimes against people were committed on a plausible pretext for the common good”
― Al Tupushev

“For humanity to achieve her most desirable state of being, we must individually realize our common good obligation to humanity.”
― Magaji Musa Buba

“Wise leaders know that serving the best interests of all will lead to a healthy and prosperous society. That's why they work to bring people together, not tear them apart, to serve the common good.”
― Laurence Overmire, The One Idea That Saves The World: A Message of Hope in a Time of Crisis

“Vanity and ambition as education. - So long as a man has not yet become an instrument of general human utility let him be plagued by ambition; if that goal has been attained, however, if he is working with the necessity of a machine for the good of all, then let him be visited by vanity; it will humanize him and make him more sociable, endurable and indulgent in small things, now that ambition (to render him useful) has finished roughhewing him.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits

“I must say that I have rarely seen a community come together in order to meet a common need in a manner as beautiful as that of a handful of birds at a feeder.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“The more advanced the country, the more its citizens insist on a pure water supply, on laws against careless methods of preparing and handling food, and against the making and advertising of harmful drugs. Powerful vested interests with profits at stake compel the public authorities to fight a sustained battle against the assumption that the pursuit of individual profit is the best way to serve the general good.”
― Aneurin Bevan, In Place of Fear

“I am 52 years old, and have spent
truly the better part
of my life out-of-doors
but yesterday I heard a new sound above my head
a rustling, ruffling quietness in the spring air

and when I turned my face upward
I saw a flock of blackbirds
rounding a curve I didn't know was there
and the sound was simply all those wings
just feathers against air, against gravity
and such a beautiful winning
the whole flock taking a long, wide turn
as if of one body and one mind.

How do they do that?

Oh if we lived only in human society
with its cruelty and fear
its apathy and exhaustion
what a puny existence that would be

but instead we live and move and have our being
here, in this curving and soaring world
so that when, every now and then, mercy and tenderness triumph in our lives
and when, even more rarely, we manage to unite and move together
toward a common good,

and can think to ourselves:

ah yes, this is how it's meant to be.”
― Julie Cadwallader Staub

“Something is only ever as 'right' as the common man would have it to be.”
― Noah's Friend

“True democracy focuses on the public interest; it defends the common good and protects its citizens - especially the weak and the vulnerable. We maintain that no democracy can survive without the powerful notions of compassion and public service. The level of wealth inequality in this country has gotten so far out of hand, the quantity of compassion so diminished, that the very future of democracy is at stake." ― & Cornel West”
― Tavis Smiley, The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto

“Modern civilization is a worn-out vesture: it is not a question of sewing on patches here and there, but of a total and substantial reformation, a trans-valuation of its cultural principles; since what is needed is a change to the primacy of quality over quantity, of work over money, of the human over technical means, of wisdom over science, of the common service of human beings instead of the covetousness of unlimited individual enrichment or a desire in the name of the State for unlimited power.”
― Jacques Maritain, True Humanism

“True virtue consists in the care for the common weal, it can only flourish where the commonwealth at the same time advances the interests of the individual, where he cannot damage the commonwealth without damaging himself.”
― Karl Kautsky, Ethics and the Materialist Conception of History

“He who thinks that the working class can be assured, prosperity and freedom by organizing economic life on a militaristic basis is wrong. No less erroneous is it to strive for a dictatorship for the purpose of crushing the enemy and establishing the working class in a privileged position in the state and society while reducing the rest of the population to the position of pariahs as a means of ultimately establishing socialist equality for all. But most objectionable of all would be to attempt to build a regime of humanity upon the basis of brutality, seeing that without the former no true Socialist commonwealth can exist. For this commonwealth must represent the realization of the slogan of the French Revolution, which was “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.”
― Karl Kautsky, Social Democracy Versus Communism

“Connectivity is force that leads to commitment to a common cause.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“The common good is like the motherly care that humanity needs to feel supported, protected and improved in all ramifications.”
― Magaji Musa Buba

“Over the years I have clashed with a number of people over differences, only to set aside disputes in favor of the common good; an ultimate goal that is far more important than how I "feel" about your stance on an issue. We can always rise above to get ahead. Never compromise your integrity, but put egos away to get results. There is value in this responsible adulting thing.”
― Liz Faublas, You Have a Superpower: Mindi Pi Meets Ava "Why Can't I Go Outside"

“I ask you to seek a common good beyond your comfort; to defend needed reforms against easy attacks; to serve your nation, beginning with your neighbor.”
― George W. Bush, U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses

“Energy could not be created or destroyed, just passed from one thing to the next, the only common inheritance.”
― Sara Barkat, The Shivering Ground & Other Stories

“If there is no God, then there is no freedom. And no democracy either.” Katrina paused and added, “The ancients made two serious mistakes. First, they put society above the soul of each human and moral principles. Second, they began to understand society as a biological population. The strongest and most aggressive scums inevitably ended up at the top. They decided what was ‘common good’, and everyone else was turned into slaves.”
― Andrew Orange, The Outside Intervention

“This is the problem with the gig economy, I think as I squirm around in the trunk. Everyone is so vulnerable and the rules for what constitutes civilized behavior--well, they're coming apart so quickly I've decided those rules were illusions all along. We have stopped seeing each other as people, as fellow travelers on this dying earth; we just see a gig or an economy.... The system is designed to keep us so depleted that we forget our sense of decency and become so mercenary about our own survival that we have nothing left to contribute to the common good.”
― Laura van den Berg, I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories

“The common good--ordered liberty and human flourishing, not the pursuit of our own tribe's power and privilege--must be the animating vision of Christian participation in American democracy.”
― Paul D. Miller, The Religion of American Greatness: What’s Wrong with Christian Nationalism

“To be a servant is to be liberated from self-concern. It is to be so fully devoted to the common good that one hardly thinks of one’s own wants and needs at all.”
― Ralph C. Wood, The Gospel According to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle-earth

“Ethics and effectiveness are not adversaries but allies. Ethically crafted policies consider long-term societal impacts, fostering sustainable solutions that address core issues. Aligning with Maqasid ensures policies not only achieve their goals but also nurture the common good.”
― Abdellatif Raji, Heaven Is Under the Feet of Governments: Steering Nations With Maqasid

“Broadly socialists believe all human beings are of equal worth and that society should be organised to reflect that. Fairness, equality, justice and the common good are the foundations of socialism. The wealth created by humans should be used to benefit everyone.”
― Harriet Sherwood

“At its heart, civility is the disposition of those who understand that we live together to flourish together—that the wellbeing of our neighbor is bound to our own, and that we have a duty to one another and to the common good.”
― Diane Kalen-Sukra, Save Your City: How Toxic Culture Kills Community & What to Do About It

“We love our country. We love our families. We cherish our freedom and independence. And we always come together to defend and protect our nation. In these divided times, let’s remember: Unity doesn’t require uniformity. Just a shared commitment to the common good.”
― Neil Ghosh, Do More Good: Inspiring Lessons from Extraordinary People

“L'intérêt général doit primer sur l'intérêt particulier, le juste partage des richesses créées par le monde du travail primer sur le pouvoir de l'argent. La Résistance propose « une organisation rationnelle de l'économie assurant la subordination des intérêts particuliers à l'intérêt général et affranchie de la dictature professionnelle instaurée à l'image des États fascistes », et le Gouvernement provisoire de la République s'en fait le relais.”
― Stéphane Hessel, Indignez-vous !

“What is the American radical? The radical is that unique person who actually believes what he says. He is that person to whom the common good is the greatest personal value. He is that person who genuinely and completely believes in mankind. The radical is so completely identified with mankind that he personally shares the pain, the injustices, and the sufferings of all his fellow men.

For the radical the bell tolls unceasingly and every man’s struggle is his fight.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals