Since 2021, Good Good Good has published more than 150 articles of quotes.
Some articles are curated around a famous activist, author, or leader such as Maya Angelou, Paul Farmer, or Bernice King. Others are curated around ideas, themes, or holidays, such as activism, hopefulness, or International Women’s Day.
While your experience of reading each article is (hopefully!) seamless, consistent, and simple — the process of creating each article is actually quite extensive.
So, what is the process we use for crafting quote articles for Good Good Good?
How we create our curated quote articles
Here’s the TL;DR: Every one of our curated quote articles goes through an extensive process during which at least three people take part in researching, curating, and reviewing each of the quotes.
Our goal is that you can trust Good Good Good as a helpful source for discovering quotes about topics you care about. Here’s our process:
1. We pick a topic.
The first step in every quote article is to determine a topic.
We often do this by finding common themes across our good news articles, social media posts, and guides on how to make a difference.
After writing a few articles about the death penalty, it feels natural to curate quotes we’ve come across that are related to death penalty abolition. Or after mentioning Coretta Scott King in a number of articles, it makes sense to put together a collection of her most famous quotes.
We also take note of the search terms people use within our website’s search bar and also the search terms people use on Google and Bing to find our website.
For example, a significant number of people have searched for animal rights and animal welfare content on our website — so we asked our writers to begin working on several helpful resources, including a list of quotes about animal rights.
Our goal is to serve our readers and build out a diverse range of articles about topics that our community has come to depend on us for. This includes a list of quotes written by respected people in the field!
2. We do initial research and brainstorming about what a reader would expect to find in this article.
Sometimes, some quotes are such an obvious fit for a topic that it would be surprising for them not to be included.
We begin our research process by identifying the “no-brainer” inclusions that we should consider for our article.
Of course we need to include Fred Rogers’ iconic quote about “looking for the helpers” in our (incredibly comprehensive) list of Mister Rogers quotes. Of course we need to include a quote from Malala in our list of quotes about courage.
3. We think outside the box and consider more perspectives.
An article with only the classics and clichés ultimately isn’t very helpful. We like to ensure our quote articles are different from anything else available online.
As a part of our process, we reflect on lesser-known leaders, activists, and experts who may have ideas to contribute to this topic. We deep-dive into their books and speeches — and even pull from our own exclusive interviews with subject matter experts, when possible.
We also like to ensure we’re bringing all of the right voices to the table. An article about nature should include avid outdoors enthusiasts, environmental activists, political leaders at the forefront of climate policy, and Indigenous leaders whose communities have cared for nature for many generations.
This is also the point in the process where we begin categorizing quotes into sections within the article, to help make it easier to navigate and sort through.
4. We fact-check, cut any quotes that don’t align with our community’s values, and work to add context where necessary.
Once we have a comprehensive selection of quotes, we begin cutting quotes that aren’t a fit.
We’ve all heard of quotes that were misattributed to someone like Abraham Lincoln. We take the time to sort fact from fiction and remove commonly incorrect quotes from our lists.
We also hold each quote against our community’s core values and remove quotes and authors that don’t meet the mark. Even though a particular historical figure said something inspirational about a particular topic — if their lives and actions contradict the ideals the article (or our community) stands for, we usually remove their quote from our articles.
In one example, a noteworthy person said something about trees that ordinarily would be a perfect fit for our curated article of quotes about trees. But, the author of this quote was a proud slaveholder. It was an easy decision to cut all of their quotes from the article — as there’s no need to perpetuate their legacy.
In some more nuanced cases, where it feels more necessary to include quotes from authors that don’t align with our values, we try to add context.
For example, in our guide to quotes about national parks, we found that readers expected articles on this topic to include quotes from John Muir because of the role he played in protecting Sequoia National Park. But, we knew it wouldn’t be appropriate to share his quotes without providing context to readers about some of his deeply troubling behaviors and attitudes. So, we included an introductory paragraph in the “John Muir Quotes” section of the article that included context with citations and details.
We took a similar approach in our article about Mother Teresa quotes — acknowledging the complexity and critiques of her legacy.
When a reader is turning to our article to seek inspiration, track down a quote, or find meaningful words to share with others, we see it as our duty to ensure the reader is equipped with the necessary context on the person they’re quoting.
5. We consistently format every quote in our articles.
As a journalistic publisher that holds ourselves to high standards, our formatting and style reflects the intentionality that goes into all of our work.
All of our quotes use consistent formatting for quotation marks, punctuation, and attributions.
6. We add graphics.
Quotes are meant to be shared and enjoyed — so we take the time to fill our articles with colorful Good Good Good-exclusive quote graphics.
Please feel free to use these for personal, non-commercial purposes. Share them on social media, use them in your presentation, pin them on Pinterest. (Tag us or mention us, if you can!) Just don’t sell them, don’t use more than one on a website, and don’t modify the design in any way.
7. We hit publish and make the articles easy to find.
We proudly publish the articles on our website and add links between each article (where appropriate) to make it easier to go from one article to another.
You can use the search bar on our website to find the quotes you’re looking for, dive into our “Quotes” category page to explore the archives, or simply add “Good Good Good” to your search in Google or your preferred search engine to bring our articles to the top of your results.
You likely see quotes re-shared on our social media during relevant times of the year — and in a designated section our popular Goodnewsletter.
Each of our print newspapers also includes a beautiful centerfold poster with an inspiring quote.
8. We continue to update our articles.
Our goal is that these articles never stay stagnant. When we find a new quote that’s a perfect fit for an existing article, we update the piece to include it. When a reader reaches out saying that they noticed we made a mistake on a quote, we quickly fix or remove it. And when we learn new information about a quote’s author that might affect a reader’s choice to use the quote, we may add additional context or remove quotes from that author altogether.
Ultimately, we want readers to trust Good Good Good as the most consistently comprehensive source for quotes — especially quotes related to making a positive impact in the world.
We spend more time and resources on these articles than other websites do because we really care about being trustworthy and helpful.
If you ever see an opportunity for us to improve these articles, please don’t hesitate to share your feedback with us.
