EVIL QUOTES VII

quotations about evil

Is the Deity able to prevent evil, but not willing, where is his benevolence; is he willing, but not able, where is his power; is he both able and willing, whence then is evil?

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Lacon


Evil is the canker of life.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims


Length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery.

C. S. LEWIS

The Magician's Nephew


Where Evil is returned for Evil, the first offender thinks himself excused, because the other is as faulty as he.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms


How many things are now called the worst evil, which are only twelve feet wide and three months long! But some day greater dragons will come into the world.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Thus Spoke Zarathustra


The hardest fact in the world to accept is the inevitable mixture of evil with good in all things.

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought


The idea ... that collective society should take hold of Evil and set it down hard in its chair and make it cry seems to many of us absolutely sound. Of course, we feel that it is not for us, those who love righteousness, to jump on the necks of the wicked. We prefer to have it attended to in a more dignified, impersonal way by Society as a whole.

GERALD STANLEY LEE

Crowds


Even an evil man can have principles--he can be true to his own evil, which is not always so easy.

NORMAN MAILER

The Paris Review, winter-spring 1964


Some people misunderstand evil and believe it will relent, and because their misplaced hope inspires dark hearts to dream darker dreams, they are the fathers and mothers of all wars. Evil does not relent; it must be defeated. And even when defeated, uprooted, and purified by fire, evil leaves behind a seed that will one day germinate and, in blooming, again be misunderstood.

DEAN KOONTZ

Odd Apocalypse


The small man thinks that small acts of goodness are of no benefit, and does not do them; and that small deeds of evil do no harm, and does not refrain from them. Hence, his wickedness becomes so great that it cannot be concealed, and his guilt so great that it cannot be pardoned.

CONFUCIUS

The Wisdom of Confucius


The truth is that most of us see what we are looking for in this world. If we are looking for evil we find it. The reason is not merely that evil exists all around us. There is another reason, far more potent. By looking for evil in our fellow creatures we bring out evil either from them or from ourselves, perhaps from both.

JOHN DANIEL BARRY

"The Imaginary People", Reactions and Other Essays


Those who return evil for good should not expect the kindness of others to last long.

AESOP

"The Countryman and the Snake", Aesop's Fables


Wickedness goes to great lengths and depths where it is not checked and restrained by the free and continuous expression of the indignation of good men.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


All men begin as good men. What they are taught as children, what is expected of them as young men, is either the armor about that goodness or the flaw that allows evil in.

DAVID WEBER

Off Armageddon Reef


Apathy and evil. The two work hand in hand. They are the same, really.... Evil wills it. Apathy allows it. Evil hates the innocent and the defenseless most of all. Apathy doesn't care as long as it's not personally inconvenienced.

JAKE THOENE

Shaiton's Fire


It is the business of a man, either to prevent an evil that threatens him, or, when it is come, to qualify and alleviate its malignity; or put on a masculine brave spirit, and to resolve to endure it.

WELLINS CALCOTT

Thoughts Moral and Divine


Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.

BALTASAR GRACIAN

The Art of Worldly Wisdom


As we have come to understand the psychology of evil, we have realized that such transformations of human character are not as rare as we would like to believe. Historical inquiry and behavioral science have demonstrated the "banality of evil" -- that is, under certain conditions and social pressures, ordinary people can commit acts that would otherwise be unthinkable.

PHILIP ZIMBARDO

"The Banality of Heroism", Greater Good, Sep. 1, 2006


Devil inside
The devil inside
Every single one of us
The devil inside

INXS

"Devil Inside"


All I ask of Fate is that the people she hurls into my life, whether they are evil or good, or morally bipolar, should be amusing to one degree or another.... The problem is finding smile-inducing evil people, because the evil are the most humorless, though in the movies they frequently get some of the best lines.

DEAN KOONTZ

Brother Odd