| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 2699 |
| QUOTATION: | We call the intention good which is right in itself, but the action is good, not because it contains within it some good, but because it issues from a good intention. The same act may be done by the same man at different times. According to the diversity of his intention, however, this act may be at one time good, at another bad. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Peter Abelard (1079–1142), philosopher, theologian. Trans. by J.R. McCallum, Basil Blackwell (1935). Abailard’s [sic] Ethics, p. 46. |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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