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Quote by Gregory Maguire

Work

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

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Author

Gregory Maguire
Gregory Maguire

Gregory Maguire is an American novelist known for his reinterpretation of classic fairy tales. His works are characterized by profound moral implications and rich imagination, which have won him a wide audience. more

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“He questioned now his heresy on the score of sin. It was possible that, after all, the theologians might be right. Whether sin and evil were convertible terms he could not be sure. But not only was he quite sure that there was no lack of evil in the world; he actually began to wonder if evil were not the positive force that fashions the destinies of men, whilst good is but a form of resistance which, however strong, remains passive, or else, when active, commonly operates through evil that it may ultimately prevail.”

Evil
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“For [Iris] Murdoch, the essential immoral act is the inability to see other people correctly. Human beings, she finds, are self-centered beings, anxiety-ridden and resentful. We are constantly representing people to ourselves in self-serving ways, in ways that gratify our egos and serve our ends. We stereotype and condescend, ignore and dehumanize. And because we don’t see people accurately, we treat them wrongly. Evil happens when people are unseeing, when they don’t recognize the personhood in other human beings.”

HumanityEvilSeeingMoralityPerceptionImmoralityPersonhoodSeeing People
Book:How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
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“Something began to say to me, "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really coöperating with it." When oppressed people willingly accept their oppression they only serve to give the oppressor a convenient justification for his acts. Often the oppressor goes along unaware of the evil involved in his oppression so long as the oppressed accepts it. So in order to be true to one's conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to refuse to coöperate with an evil system.”

EvilAcceptanceConscienceOppressionCooperationMarginalizationMarginalized People
Book:Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
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