quotations about evil
The most hateful evil in the world is the evil that dresses itself in such a way that men cannot hate it. The men that make wickedness beautiful are the most utterly to be hated.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
All things truly wicked start from an innocence.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
A Moveable Feast
Evil does not approach us as pride any more, but on the contrary as slumber, lassitude, concealment of the "I," and distortion of the beyond. It approaches us in far more dreadful fashion.... It may make us so quickly contented, that any definitive fire will die down. The venomous, breathtaking frigid mist seems able ... to harden hearts and fill them with envy, obduracy and resentment, with bloody scorn for the divine image and light, with all the causes of the only true original sin, which is not wanting to be like God.
ERNST BLOCH
Man on His Own
Wickedness disrobes any man of his excellency.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
We try to bring up our children so that they are protected from the world's evils, only to find we've raised a pack of innocents who seem to be about to stumble into them at every turn just from sheer stupidity!
SAMUEL R. DELANY
Neverÿon
Because I'm evil, my middle name is misery.
ELVIS PRESLEY
"T-R-O-U-B-L-E", Today
To fight evil, one must know evil. One must journey back through time, and find that fork in the road where heroes turn one way and villains turn another.
MOHINDER SURESH
"Chapter Eight: Villains", Heroes
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.
W. H. AUDEN
"September 1, 1939"
Do not be dismayed to learn there is a bit of the devil in you. There is a bit of the devil in us all.
ARTHUR BYRON COVER
Night of the Living Rerun
More evil gets done in the name of righteousness than any other way.
GLEN COOK
Dreams of Steel
As the fishes that are taken in an evil net,
and as the birds that are caught in the snare;
so are the sons of men snared in evil time,
when it falleth suddenly upon them.
DORIS LESSING
Ecclesiastes or, The Preacher
So much good, so much evil. Just add water.
MARKUS ZUSAK
The Book Thief
In many cases, it is very hard to fix the bounds of Good and Evil, because these part, as Day and Night, which are separated by Twilight.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.
ANNE RICE
Interview with the Vampire
The theory of evil being merely permitted by God, is unspeakably absurd; for, if he permits any act, he either does the act himself, or some other power, who is not God, does it; but no other power, which is not God, can possibly do anything whatever; for then there would exist an operative power, acting from itself, independently of God, a power of the Divine Order, only weaker -- which is absurd by the hypothesis that God is absolute.
WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE
Remarks on the Science of History
Evil comes and evil goes.
MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT & BOMB GANG GIRLS
"Mr. & Mrs. Bottomless Pit", Crime for All Seasons
Evil is relative.... You can’t hang a sign on it. You can’t touch it or taste it or cut it with a sword. Evil depends on where you are standing, pointing your indicting finger.
GLEN COOK
The Black Company
Fairly examined, truly understood,
No man is wholly bad, nor wholly good.
THEOGNIS OF MEGARA
Fragment XLI
I desire to go through life knowing as little of evil in it as possible. To this end, I sometimes avoid looking too closely into the nature of things, studying them only so far as they seem to be good, and abandoning interest in them as soon as their darker feature begin to appear. The good only deserves a hearty interest.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Evil endures a moment's flush, and then--leaves but a burnt out shell.
ELISE PUMPELLY CABOT
"Arizona"