Top 100 Public Good Quotes
#1. Public education is a good foundation on which to build a better life for each of us. And if we want to prove to these children who never made the mess in the first place that education is worth the trouble, our schools have to inspire them so they can do what they ought to do.
Bill Cosby
#2. In the end, Ted Kennedy was a politician, plain and simple. Yet he embodied how politics and public service can be successfully intertwined. You can't be a good public servant without being a good politician. Kennedy was both.
Chuck Todd
#3. I get pressure from my audience and my agents to be a 'good girl,' and I'm in the public eye, so if I mess up, it's going to be all over the place.
Melissa Joan Hart
#4. It's so important to that we go into the public schools and we feed all of the kids something that is really good for them.
Alice Waters
#5. There are many organizations and individuals advocating for the public interest online - what's good for ordinary people - but other interests are more numerous and powerful than they are. I want that to change. And that's what I want to do next.
Sue Gardner
#6. Capitalism is based on individual rights - not on the sacrifice of the individual to the 'public good' of the collective.
Ayn Rand
#7. A man of good sense but of little faith, whose compassion seemed to lead him to church as often as he went there, said to me; 'that he liked to have concerts, and fairs, and churches, and other public amusements go on.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#8. The public has heard the stereotypical love songs a million times, and they've heard the stereotypical life-or-death songs millions of times. It's good to mix it up a little bit.
Ed Sheeran
#9. I'm a simple small 'c' conservative who believes in public service, serving others, and doing a good job for my country.
David Cameron
#10. Upon the principles of reason, the good of many is preferable to the good of a few or of one; a lasting good is to be preferred before a temporary, the public before the private.
Mary Astell
#11. If you do good in secret, Allah will shower His good on you in public.
Ibn Taymiyyah
#12. It would not be for the public good to have [a majority in Congress of one party] greater [than] two to one.
Thomas Jefferson
#13. Most satirists are indeed a public scourge; Their mildest physic is a farrier's purge; Their acrid temper turns, as soon as stirr'd, The milk of their good purpose all to curd. Their zeal begotten, as their works rehearse, By lean despair upon an empty purse.
William Cowper
#14. The public good must come before private interests.
Bryant McGill
#15. You become successful, the way I see it, only if you're good enough to deliver what the public enjoys. If you're not, you won't have any audience; so the performer really has more to do with his success than the public does.
Johnny Carson
#16. Yes," she thought, "nature is the refuge and home for women: they have no public career - no aim nor end beyond their domestic circle; but they can extend that, and make all the creations of nature their own, to foster and do good to.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
#17. Me, I'd prefer to have a good reputation rather than getting press for being scandalous, getting drunk in public, staying out late and so on.
Sophia Bush
#18. It's not from money that excellence comes, but from excellence money and the other things, all of them, come to be good for human beings, whether in private or in public life.
Plato
#19. Would you have her birched in the public square? Baited by dogs perhaps? Madam, we have destroyed her good name, and she will find the world a much colder and darker place as a result. Even now her father is probably changing her name to Buzzletrice.
Frances Hardinge
#20. Combining storytelling, humanity, and laughter will give you a huge advantage in your public speaking and the odds are good that you already have all the raw material you need.
David Nihill
#21. I just never have really been the kind of person that's out in public being inappropriate, I guess. I like to have fun as much as the next person but I tend to do it in private and just hang out with close friends. If I'm going to go out, I'll just do it with my really good friends.
Emma Roberts
#22. There is a cannibalism that's loose in our society in which public figures such as the Clintons could try to come into this town and do something good for this country and then they get hammered away even though they're trying to do the right thing.
David Gergen
#23. I think anything that gets people outside [is good] - I'm a big supporter of public parks and public spaces.
Anne Waldman
#24. It was Mario Cuomo's great gift and our good fortune that he was both a sterling orator and a passionate public servant. His life was a blessing.
William J. Clinton
#25. In America our public schools are intended to be religiously neutral. Our teachers and schools are neither to endorse nor to inhibit religion. I believe this is a very good thing.
Adam Hamilton
#26. When you have police officers who abuse citizens, you erode public confidence in law enforcement. That makes the job of good police officers unsafe.
Mary Frances Berry
#27. Honor sets all the parts of the body politic in motion, and by its very action connects them; thus each individual advances the public good, while he only thinks of promoting his own interest.
Baron De Montesquieu
#28. Yes, I'm nervous. You'll find in time most people are. They simply learn better how to disguise it, and sometimes, if they're wise, how to use their anxiety to serve the public good.
Gregory Maguire
#29. I, who so love a hermit life for a good part of the day, find myself living in public, and almost losing my identity.
Elizabeth Blackwell
#30. Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.
Leo Burnett
#31. The foundations of justice are that on one shall suffer wrong; then, that the public good be promoted.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#32. And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.
William Shakespeare
#33. You create a work of art. You do not know whether it will get public sanction. Sometimes outstanding films do no business, and sometimes films which are not so good work.
Dev Anand
#34. Happy will it be if our choice should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true interests, unperplexed and unbiased by considerations not connected with the public good.
Alexander Hamilton
#35. And as to you, Sir, treacherous in private friendship and a hypocrite in public life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an impostor; whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any.
Thomas Paine
#36. It is a just observation that the people commonly intend the Public Good. This often applies to their very errors. But their good sense would despise the adulator who should pretend they always reason right about the means of promoting it.
Alexander Hamilton
#37. Every piece of entertainment is made with the idea that 'This is going to be terrific' and 'This is the best thing I've ever done' and then it hits the public and then the public tells you whether it's good or bad.
William Shatner
#38. For members of the general public might not care about Wolf-Rayet stars in the Quintuplet Cluster, but they definitely saw why having hot rocks fall on one's head was a good thing to avoid.
Neal Stephenson
#39. The more efficient causes of progress seem to consist of a good education during youth whilst the brain is impressible, and of a high standard of excellence, inculcated by the ablest and best men, embodied in the laws, customs and traditions of the nation, and enforced by public opinion.
Charles Darwin
#40. It is not good form to take a Trick out unless one is so firmly established as to be able to afford being associated with someone who might at any given moment write a poem in public.
Fran Lebowitz
#41. It's a good thing to get poetry off the shelves and more into public life.
Billy Collins
#42. Poverty is dishonorable, not in itself, but when it is a proof of laziness, intemperance, luxury, and carelessness; whereas in a person that is temperate, industrious, just and valiant, and who uses all his virtues for the public good, it shows a great and lofty mind.
Plutarch
#43. Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness.
Samuel Adams
#44. Suspicion is a virtue as long as its object is the public good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds ... Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.
Patrick Henry
#45. In a polling conducted by the Wall Street Journal, 11 out of 12 Americans said they oppose the taking of private property, even if it is for public economic good.
Jim Ryun
#46. Congress is full of good, decent, smart people who have devoted their lives to public service.
Jonathan Haidt
#47. His dad said if you did something wrong to someone in public, you ought to admit it in public, too.
Suzanne Collins
#48. Our demand for good looks, expressed in the biting comments that ensue when public figures fall short of perfection, puts enormous pressures on these individuals and may screen out the otherwise qualified. If video killed the radio star, it may also be doing away with the homely politician.
Virginia Postrel
#49. To suggest social action for the public good to the city London is like discussing The Origin of Species to a Bishop sixty years ago.
John Maynard Keynes
#50. The highest proof of civility is that the whole public action of the State is directed on securing the greatest good of the greatest number.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#51. I think with you, that nothing is of more importance for the public weal, than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue. Wise and good men are in my opinion, the strength of the state; more so than riches or arms.
Benjamin Franklin
#52. Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay.
Zadie Smith
#53. I attended the public schools.And I have happy memories and strong memories of those days and good memories of the good sense and the decency of my friends and my neighbors.
Samuel Alito
#55. Under the benignant providence of Almighty God the representatives of the States and of the people are again brought together to deliberate for the public good.
James K. Polk
#56. Real art is basic emotion. If a scene is handled with simplicity - and I don't mean simple - it'll be good, and the public will know it.
John Wayne
#57. Do good in the name of children. Do good in the name of public health.
Arthur Caplan
#58. Public condemnation goes a long way in establishing what is and what is not acceptable in a society. The public good will prevail if the public demands it.
Laurence Overmire
#59. I think that there are a lot of reasons to be insecure as an actress ... But I don't really have a perception issue. I've been pretty good about being who I am in the public's eye.
Mila Kunis
#60. Leadership is for those who love the public good and are endowed and trained to administer it.
Thornton Wilder
#61. Exercise is more important than diet for me because it's a twofer. It keeps me in good physical shape, and it relieves stress. And when you're a representative of the public, there's never a shortage of things to do.
Aaron Schock
#62. The first
sign of greatness is when a man does not attempt to look and act
great. Before you can call yourself a man at all, Kipling assures
us, you must not look too good nor talk too wise.
Dale Carnegie
#63. Positiveness is a good quality for preachers and speakers because, whoever shares his thoughts with the public will convince them as he himself appears convinced.
Jonathan Swift
#64. The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
Plato
#65. If you want a good education, go to private schools. If you can't afford it, tough luck. You can go to the public school.
Paul LePage
#66. The L Word reaffirmed that good storytelling has a way of creating community. Fans everywhere have been connecting with each other online, in public and at home-viewing parties.
Jennifer Beals
#67. If doing a good act in public will excite others to do more good, then 'Let your light shine to all.' Miss no opportunity to do good.
John Wesley
#68. The corporation was originally conceived as a public institution whose purpose was to serve national interests and advance the public good.
Joel Bakan
#69. The public must retain control of the great waterways. It is essential that any permit to obstruct them for reasons and on conditions that seem good at the moment should be subject to revision when changed conditions demand.
Theodore Roosevelt
#70. The ruler who is good for anything ought not to beg his subjects to be ruled by him, although the present governors of mankind are of a different stamp.
Plato
#71. I am used to looking good. In a way, if I thought I looked like the back end of a bus, I probably wouldn't have done 'Strictly Come Dancing' and gone out there in public.
Felicity Kendal
#72. I would jump down Etna for any public good - but I hate a mawkish popularity.
John Keats
#73. Advocacy groups and voters are not wrong to push candidates to declare their position clearly on policy issues. That is good citizenship. Hard questions should be asked of every candidate, every politician. And those public servants should be prepared to answer, but in their own words.
Mark McKinnon
#74. Harshness towards individuals who flout the laws and commands of the state is for the public good; no greater crime against the public interest is possible than to show leniency to those who violate it.
Cardinal Richelieu
#75. I now add, farther, that the apostle's argument is so far from proving it to be the duty of people to obey, and submit to, such rulers as act in contradiction to the public good, and so to the design of their office, that it proves the direct contrary.
Jonathan Mayhew
#76. There's a sick joke that the reason we have not been contacted by an alien civilization is that civilizations tend to destroy themselves when they reach our stage. But I have sufficient faith in the good sense of public to believe that we might prove this wrong.
Stephen Hawking
#77. [Tax] dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not.
Sarah Palin
#78. The stability of global financial markets is a public good. If governments fail to protect this public good, then those who suffer are the working people of the world whose jobs, whose homes, and whose standard of living depends on it.
Kevin Rudd
#79. The public is more familiar with bad design than good design. It is, in effect, conditioned to prefer bad design, because that is what it lives with. The new becomes threatening, the old reassuring.
Paul Rand
#80. It is when the politician loves neither the public good nor himself, or when his love for himself is limited and is satisfied by the trappings of office, that the public interest is badly served.
John F. Kennedy
#82. As an artist, I used to think that my responsibility was to do good work. But I had to learn from the '70s on that being a public figure presents another aspect of responsibility.
Patti Smith
#83. It is of infinite importance to the public that the acts of magistrates should not only be substantially good, but also that they should be decorous.
Sherrilyn Kenyon
#84. Even with good maps, there's no guarantee that the public will get the word about landslide hazards, or that state and local governments will take action to discourage or prevent building in dangerous areas.
Bill Dedman
#85. Now if you have proofs to bring forward, bring them forward, and your moral discourse as well; if you have no enthymemes, then fall back upon moral discourse: after all, it is more fitting for a good man to display himself as an honest fellow than as a subtle reasoner.
Aristotle.
#86. When it comes to decreasing inequalities of wealth for good or reducing unusually high levels of public debt, a progressive tax on capital is generally a better tool than inflation.
Thomas Piketty
#88. I stay fat because it just wouldn't be fair to all the thin people if I were this good-looking, intelligent, funny, and thin. It's a public service really.
Rebel Wilson
#89. That's not to say we were totally innocent of any public displays of affection; there was some hand-holding and the occasional hurried good-bye kiss on even days, when we had different sixth periods.
Robyn Schneider
#90. You make me want to vomit, and you're lucky we're in a public place or there's a really good chance I would be punching you repeatedly in the face right now.
Jay Crownover
#91. A crude culture makes a coarse people, and private refinement cannot long survive public excess. There is a Gresham's law of culture as well as of money: the bad drives out the good, unless the good is defended.
Theodore Dalrymple
#92. Without your voice being heard in Washington, the decisions we make aren't as good. I would urge women to consider public service. And if you want to run, give me a call. I'll help.
Kirsten Gillibrand
#93. Now you need young men, bright young men, with minds asking 'how' rather than 'why,' and who are good at masking, at blending, I should say, their personal interests with vague public ideals.
Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa
#94. I've been fooling the public for years and I'm really good at it.
Janice Dickinson
#95. There are many special interests skilful at manipulating circumstances and communications in such a way as to benefit their own ends and not necessarily the public good.
Randal Marlin
#96. I think I got disappointed over the years about New York, about the States. You know, sometimes you go and visit Europe and see good old socialism in its good part! You see public concern about art, and young people's participation and young faces in the audience.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
#97. You would give up your career if you lost your voice for good, or if the impresarios stopped calling, or the audiences stopped coming. But as long as those things are there, I don't plan to stop. There is nothing that makes me feel better than to be with my public.
Celia Cruz
#98. The powers contained in a constitution ... ought to be construed liberally in advancement of the public good.
Alexander Hamilton
#99. It should be illegal to look this good in public. He should be confined to a museum and never let out in real life. His looks are distracting. They could cause an accident one day.
T. Torrest
#100. And thirdly, the FDA occasionally does some genuine public good with whatever energies it has left over after serving the vested political and commercial interest of its first two activities.
G. Edward Griffin
