Six Quotes by George MacDonald on the Topic of Goodness

I was browsing my personal library the other day and came across a treasure I had forgotten: "George MacDonald: 365 Readings" edited and with a preface by C.S. Lewis. The author of Narnia writes in the preface about George MacDonald: "In making this collection I was discharging a debt of justice. I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master; indeed I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him."

If you are not familiar with George MacDonald (1824-1905), he was a preacher, poet, scholar, novelist, teacher, and fantasy author. Some of his best known works were written for children: "At the Back of the North Wind", "The Princess and the Goblin", and "The Princess and Curdie."

Here I share some quotes by George MacDonald on the topic of goodness that C.S. Lewis felt important enough to include in this anthology. I hope you find them as thought provoking and convicting as I do.

George MacDonald Quote #1:
"She sometimes wished she were good; but there are thousands of wandering ghosts who would be good if they might without taking trouble; the kind of goodness they desire would not be worth a life to hold it."

George MacDonald Quote #2:
"A man may sink by such slow degrees that, long after he is a devil, he may go on being a good churchman or good dissenter and thinking himself a good Christian."

George MacDonald Quote #3:
"However bad I may be, I am the child of God, and therein lies my blame. Ah, I would not lose my blame! In my blame lies my hope."

George MacDonald Quote #4:
"No, there is no escape. There is no heaven with a little of hell in it -- no plan to retain this or that of the devil in our hearts or our pockets. Out Satan must go, every hair and feather!"

George MacDonald Quote #5:
"Let a man do right, not trouble himself about worthless opinion; the less he heeds tongues, the less difficult will he find it to love men."

George MacDonald Quote #6:
"What a horror will it not be to a vile man... when his eyes are opened to see himself as the pure see him, as God sees him! Imagine such a man waking all at once, not only to see the eyes of the universe fixed upon him with loathing astonishment, but to see himself at the same moment as those eyes see him."

Blessings!

Source
C.S. Lewis (editor). George MacDonald. 365 Readings