ISLAM For The Western Mind

I'm reading ISLAM--Understanding Muhammad and the Koran for the Western Mind by Richard Henry Drummond. I've been picking it up and putting it down for quite awhile and for some reason I keep forgetting what I've read so I don't really have much of a sense yet as to whether I like the book or not. But something that the author wrote that I do resonate with is one perspective on human nature.

"There is a great deal of quiet goodness in the world, among all peoples in all periods of history. This conviction is born partly of faith, partly of long observation and experience. This quiet goodness works in the midst of, and in spite of, the horrors of human mistreatment of others. It acts in slow but healing contravention of these horrors and puts the lie to theological doctrines of "total depravity." If such were not the case, I believe that our societies would explode en masse. I believe, in particular, that there is very much "quiet goodness" in the world of Islam, past and present, even as I make my appeals to both "them" and "us" for more honest and rigorous corporate and individual self-criticism.