Good Office Quotes

• Our government is an agency of delegated and strictly limited powers. Its founders did not look to its preservation by force; but the chain they wove to bind these States together was one of love and mutual good offices.

  Jefferson Davis

  Agency, Government, Office

  Jefferson Davis, Dr WIlliam Peters (2014). “A Short HIstory of the Confederate States of America”, p.30, Lulu.com

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• Let him that hath done the good office conceal it; let him that received it disclose it.

  Seneca the Younger

  Office, Done, Charity

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• Pleasure seizes the whole man who addicts himself to it, and will not give him leisure for any good office in life which contradicts the gayety of the present hour.

  Richard Steele

  Men, Giving, Office

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1822). “The Spectator: With Notes and Illustrations. In Six Volumes”, p.164

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• We often see malefactors, when they are led to execution, put on resolution and a contempt of death which, in truth, is nothing else but fearing to look it in the face--so that this pretended bravery may very truly be said to do the same good office to their mind that the blindfold does to their eyes.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Death, Eye, Office

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• He that will do no good offices after a disappointment must stand still, and do just nothing at all. The plough goes on after a barren year; and while the ashes are yet warm, we raise a new house upon the ruins of a former.

  Seneca the Younger

  Disappointment, Years, Office

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• There are no more useful members in a commonwealth than merchants. They knit mankind together in a mutual intercourse of good offices, distribute the gifts of Nature, find work for the poor, and wealth to the rich, and magnificence to the great.

  Joseph Addison

  Office, Together, Magnificence

  Joseph Addison (1868). “The Works of Joseph Addison: Including the Whole Contents of Bp. Hurd's Edition, with Letters and Other Pieces Not Found in Any Previous Collection; and Macaulay's Essay on His Life and Works”, p.202

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• How much wit, good-nature, indulgences, how many good offices and civilities, are required among friends to accomplish in some years what a lovely face or a fine hand does in a minute!

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Beauty, Hands, Years

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• What men call friendship is only social intercourse, an exchange of favours and good offices; it comes down to a commercial dealing in which self-esteem always expects to profit.

  Andre Maurois

  Self Esteem, Men, Office

  "The Art of Living". Book by Andre Maurois, 1939.

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• A woman means by Unselfishness chiefly taking trouble for others; a man means not giving trouble to others...thus, while the woman thinks of doing good offices and the man of respecting other people's rights, each sex, without any obvious unreason, can and does regard the other as radically selfish.

  C. S. Lewis

  Sex, Selfish, Mean

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• As to the kindness you mention, I wish I could have been of more service to you than I have been, but if I had, the only thanks that I should desire are that you would always be ready to serve any other person that may need your assistance, and so let good offices go around, for humankind are all of a family. As for my own part, when I am employed in serving others I do not look upon myself as conferring favors but paying debts.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Letting Go, Kindness, Office

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• Friendship is only a reciprocal conciliation of interests, and an exchange of good offices; it is a species of commerce out of which self-love always expects to gain something.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Friendship, Self, Office

  "The Moral Maxims and Reflections". Book by François de La Rochefoucauld. Maxim 83, 1678.

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• After using the 'good offices' of UN diplomacy (economic sanctions and weapons inspections) to ensure that Iraq was brought to its knees, its people starved, half a million of its children killed, its infrastructure severely damaged, after making sure that most of its weapons have been destroyed, in an act of cowardice that must surely be unrivalled in history, the 'Allies' / 'Coalition of the Willing' (better known as the Coalition of the Bullied and Bought) - sent in an invading army!

  Arundhati Roy

  Children, Army, Iraq

  Arundhati Roy (2006). “Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire”, p.117, Penguin Books India

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• We may observe that, in displaying the praises of any humane, beneficent man, there is one circumstance which never fails to be amply insisted on, namely, the happiness and satisfaction, derived to society from his intercourse and good offices.

  David Hume

  Men, Office, May

  David Hume (1826). “And the human understanding. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. Appendix. The natural history of religion”, p.248

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• Godliness consists in the knowledge love & worship of God, Humanity in love, righteousness & good offices towards man.

  Isaac Newton

  Men, Office, Humanity

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• What men have given the name of friendship to is nothing but an alliance, a reciprocal accommodation of interest, an exchange of good offices; in it is nothing but a system of traffic, in which self-love always proposes to itself some advantage.

  Francois Alexandre Frederic, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

  Men, Self, Names

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