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Daily Inspiration Quote by Bhumibol Adulyadej

"A good person can make another person good; it means that goodness will elicit goodness in the society; other persons will also be good"

About this Quote

“A good person can make another person good” reads like a gentle moral lesson, but coming from Bhumibol Adulyadej it doubles as a theory of governance. This is not the language of law or policy; it’s the language of legitimacy. The claim is that virtue is contagious, that character functions as social infrastructure. In a society where the monarchy’s authority is as much symbolic as institutional, that framing matters: it shifts the center of gravity from bureaucratic mechanics to personal exemplarity. If goodness reproduces itself, then the most consequential political act is not issuing decrees, but embodying an ideal others feel compelled to imitate.

The subtext is directional. It implies hierarchy without naming it: some people are positioned as “good” first, and their role is to set the moral temperature for everyone else. That’s a reassuring story in times of uncertainty because it promises order through imitation rather than conflict through negotiation. It also subtly discourages structural critique. If social problems are solved by moral ripple effects, then injustice risks being treated as a deficit of character, not a failure of systems.

Context sharpens the intent. Bhumibol’s reign spanned coups, polarization, and rapid modernization; the palace often presented itself as a stabilizing, ethical reference point above faction. This sentence performs that posture in miniature: it argues for cohesion through virtue, and for leadership through example. It’s persuasive because it’s simple, hopeful, and socially demanding all at once: be good, and you’re not just saving yourself, you’re recruiting a better society.

Quote Details

TopicKindness
Source
Verified source: Speeches of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Dec 4, 1... (Bhumibol Adulyadej, 1996)
Text match: 100.00%   Provider: Cross-Reference
Evidence:
A good person can make another person good; it means that goodness will elicit goodness in the society; other persons will also be good.. This line appears in King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s royal birthday address "Given to the audience of well-wishers on the occasion of the Royal Birthday Anniversary" at the Dusidalai Hall, Chitralada Villa, Dusit Palace, on Wednesday, December 4, 1996, as published in English on the Kanchanapisek Network’s "Speeches of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej" page for that date. The quote is embedded in a longer passage contrasting "good" and "evil." I was able to verify the text via search-snippet capture of the Kanchanapisek page (the page itself timed out when directly opened in my session), but the snippet reproduces the relevant passage including the sentence verbatim. For 'first publication/spoken' verification: this is a primary-source publication of the speech text, but I cannot confirm from the available evidence that December 4, 1996 is the earliest instance the King ever said this sentence in any earlier speech or Thai-language source; it is, however, a verifiable primary-source occurrence.
Other candidates (1)
Discover Your Leadership Style (Mark Chew, 2011) compilation97.3%
... A good person can make another person good ; it means that goodness will elicit goodness in the society ; other p...
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Adulyadej, Bhumibol. (2026, February 10). A good person can make another person good; it means that goodness will elicit goodness in the society; other persons will also be good. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-good-person-can-make-another-person-good-it-123215/

Chicago Style
Adulyadej, Bhumibol. "A good person can make another person good; it means that goodness will elicit goodness in the society; other persons will also be good." FixQuotes. February 10, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-good-person-can-make-another-person-good-it-123215/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"A good person can make another person good; it means that goodness will elicit goodness in the society; other persons will also be good." FixQuotes, 10 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-good-person-can-make-another-person-good-it-123215/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Bhumibol Adulyadej (December 5, 1927 - October 13, 2016) was a Statesman from Thailand.

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