Best evil & would-be Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good... Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.”

People Thinking World Ideas Enough Would Be Moving Fighting Evil Vision Good And Evil Better Place Good Against Evil Good Evil

Author:Pope Francis

“Man has always been dexterous at confusing evil with good. That was Adam's and Eve's problem, and it is our problem today. If evil were not made to appear attractive, there would be no such thing as temptation.”

Ifs Men Made Problem Would Be Today Evil Temptation Attractive Adam Testing Confusing

Author:Billy Graham

“It is true that every day has its own evil, and its good too. But how difficult must life be, especially farther on when the evil of each day increases as far as worldly things go, if it is not strengthened and comforted by faith. And in Christ all worldly things may become better, and, as it were, sanctified. Theo, woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel; if I did not aim at that and possess faith and hope in Christ, it would be bad for me indeed, but no I have some courage.”

Ifs May Would Be Life Is Evil Difficult Christ Increase Aim Each Day Woe Worldly Hope And Faith Worldly Things Woe Is Me Hope In Christ

Author:Vincent Van Gogh

“There is a point, of course, where a man must take the isolated peak and break with all his associates for clear principle; but until that time comes he must work, if he would be of use, with men as they are. As long as the good in them overbalances the evil, let him work with them for the best that can be obtained.”

Ifs Men Long Use Would Be Time Courses Evil Principles Break Clear Isolated Associates

Author:Theodore Roosevelt

“She would be ready, but she would always make him wait.”

Would Be Evil Waiting Ready Misogyny Evil Women

Author:Ray Davies

“I have so many evil plans, I'm just trying to find the one which would be best right now!”

Trying Would Be Evil Plans Right Now Evil Plans

Author:Colin Mochrie

“In my profession more generally, it's not an exaggeration to say that masculinity is viewed as the root of all evil. If you were to take a literary theory course, you might think it would be about literature, but it's really not. It's about all the various forms of oppression on earth and how we can see them playing out in literary works. And behind all these forms of oppression is a guy.”

Ifs Thinking Might Would Be Earth Form Guy Courses Evil Literature Behinds Theory Roots Various Profession Oppression Masculinity Exaggeration Literary Works Literary Theory

Author:Jonathan Gottschall

“I am inclined to say that the personal attendance and intervention of women in election proceedings, even apart from any suspicion of the wider objects of many of the promoters of the present movement, would be a practical evil not only of the gravest, but even of an intolerable character.”

Character Would Be Evil Movement Objects Election Practicals Suspicion Intervention Proceeding Promoters Attendance

Author:William E. Gladstone

“What evil is there in seeing a man possess a woman? Why, the beasts would be more free than we! It seems to me that that which is given us by nature for our own preservation ought to be worn round the neck as a pendant and in the hat for a medal.”

Men Seems Would Be Evil Given Seeing Ought Rounds Beast Necks Hats Worn Preservation Medal Pendants

Author:Pietro Aretino

“If you were God’s children you would loathe the very thought of the world’s evil joys, and your question would not be, “How far may we be like the world?” but your one cry would be, “How far can we get away from the world? How much can we come out from it?”

Ifs World May Children Would Be Joy Evil Cry Get Away Loathe

Book:The Complete Works of C. H. Spurgeon, Volume 32: Sermons 1877-1937

Source: The Complete Works of C. H. Spurgeon, Volume 32: Sermons 1877-1937

“It is due to neither impotence nor ignorance on God’s part that evils occur in the world, but it is owing to the order of his wisdom and to the greatness of his goodness, whence come the many and divers grades of goodness in things, many of which would be lacking were he to allow no evil to exist. Thus there would be no good of patience without the evil of persecution, nor the good of the preservation of its life in a lion, without the evil of the destruction of the animals on which it lives.”

Ifs World Would Be Order Evil Animal Greatness Ignorance Goodness Weakness Destruction Accounts Dues Grades Lions Diverse Lacking Preservation Persecution Preservation Of Life

Author:Thomas Aquinas

“I think that if there were a God, there would be less evil on this earth. I believe that if evil exists here below, then either it was willed by God or it was beyond His powers to prevent it. Now I cannot bring myself to fear a God who is either spiteful or weak. I defy Him without fear and care not a fig for his thunderbolts.”

Ifs Thinking Believe Would Be Care Earth Evil I Believe Weak God Exists Figs Spiteful Thunderbolts

Book:The Misfortunes of Virtue and Other Early Tales

Source: The Misfortunes of Virtue and Other Early Tales

“All I am really promoting in the books is the Golden Rule, which I hope everybody knows to be "do as you would be done by." It has one or 2 flaws, but it is a good soundbite. Evil starts when you treat other people as things. There are perhaps worse crimes, but they begin when you treat other people as things.”

People Knows Book Done Would Be Evil Crime Treats Golden Flaws Promoting Golden Rule

Author:Terry Pratchett

“It would be hard to find a single instance of a direct assault by positive effort upon poverty, vice, and misery which has not either failed or, if it has not failed directly and entirely, has not entailed other evils greater than the one which it removed.”

Ifs Hard Would Be Evil Effort Poverty Greater Direct Misery Vices Instance Assault

Author:William Graham Sumner

“God is omnipotent; God is wholly good; and yet evil exists. There seems to be some contradiction between these three propositions, so that if any two of them were true the third would be false. But at the same time all three are essential parts of most theological positions: the theologian it seems, at once must adhere and cannot consistently adhere to all three.”

Ifs Two Seems Would Be Three Evil Position Essentials Thirds Contradiction Consistently Propositions Theologian Theological Omnipotent

Author:J. L. Mackie

“The triumph of the Confederacy... would be a victory for the powers of evil which would give courage to the enemies of progress and damp the sprits of its friends all over the civilized world... [The American Civil War] is destined to be a turning point, for good or evil, of the course of human affairs.”

World Giving Humans War Would Be Courses Evil Enemy History Progress Victory Affair Triumph Civil War Civilized Destined American Civil War Turning Points Damp Enemy Of Progress

Author:John Stuart Mill

“It would be a healthy exercise for every politician to look in the mirror every morning and remind himself that he holds office only because, in a two-man race against another mediocrity, a modest majority of those half-informed people who imagined that their votes mattered reckoned that he was the lesser evil. And they weren't too sure about that.”

People Men Looks Two Would Be Evil Race Half Morning Politician Exercise Healthy Office Vote Mirrors Majority Mediocrity Every Morning Modest Lesser Evil

Author:Joseph Sobran

“To organize work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless, boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence.”

Source: SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

“The aphorism "Whatever is, is right," would be as final as it is lazy, did it not include the troublesome consequence that nothing that ever was, was wrong.”

Would Be Evil Consequence Finals Lazy Aphorism Troublesome

Book:A Tale of Two Cities: A Story of the French Revolution

Source: A Tale of Two Cities: A Story of the French Revolution

“The truest definition of evil is that which represents it as something contrary to nature; evil is evil because it is unnatural; a vine which should bear olive-berries, an eye to which blue seems yellow, would be diseased; an unnatural mother, an unnatural son, an unnatural act, are the strongest terms of condemnation.”

Source: Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton: Third Series

“The life of any one can by no means be changed after death; an evil life can in no wise be converted into a good life, or an infernal into an angelic life: because every spirit, from head to foot, is of the character of his love, and therefore, of his life; and to convert this life into its opposite, would be to destroy the spirit utterly.”

Mean Character Would Be Spirit Evil Change Wise Feet Changed Opposites This Life Good Life His Love After Death Angelic

Book:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

Source: A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

“What would become of the world without the Devil? Under all the different systems of religion that have guided or misguided the world for the last six thousand years, the Devil has been the grand scapegoat. He has had to bear the blame of every thing that has gone wrong. All the evil that gets committed is laid to his door, and he has, besides, the credit of hindering all the good that has never got done at all. If mankind were not thus one and all victims to the Devil, what an irredeemable set of scoundrels they would be obliged to confess themselves!”

Source: Zoe: The History of Two Lives

“Take the case of just actions; just punishments and chastisements do indeed spring from a good principle, but they are good only because we cannot do without them - it would be better that neither individuals nor states should need anything of the sort - but actions which aim at honor and advantage are absolutely the best. The conditional action is only the choice of a lesser evil; whereas these are the foundation and creation of good. A good man may make the best even of poverty and disease, and the other ills of life.”

Source: Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation

“For me, heaven would be a lack of alienation. The whole time I was growing up, I felt comfort was inherently evil. I think that for me heaven isn't about couches and milk shakes and never having a troubling thought again.”

Thinking Whole Would Be Evil Heaven Felt Growing Up Growing Comfort Shakes Milk Alienation Couches

Author:Alice Sebold

“Evil denotes the lack of good. Not every absence of good is an evil, for absence may be taken either in a purely negative or in aprivative sense. Mere negation does not display the character of evil, otherwise nonexistents would be evil and moreover, a thing would be evil for not possessing the goodness of something else, which would mean that man is bad for not having the strength of a lion or the speed of a wild goat. But what is evil is privation; in this sense blindness means the privation of sight.”

Men May Mean Doe Character Would Be Evil Taken Goodness Negative Sight Mere Speed Absence Lions Display Blindness Goats Possessing Negation

Book:Philosophical Texts

Source: Philosophical Texts

“The empty, the one, the unmoved, the full, satiation, wanting nothing--that would be my evil: in short, dreamless sleep.”

Would Be Evil Sleep Empty Unity Emptiness Dreamless Sleep Satiation

Author:Friedrich Nietzsche

“The presence of the blacks is the greatest evil that threatens the United States. They increase, in the Gulf States, faster than do the whites. They cannot be kept for ever in slavery, since the tendencies of the modern world run strongly the other way. They cannot be absorbed into the white population, for the whites will not intermarry with them, not even in the North where they have been free for two generations. Once freed, they would be more dangerous than now, because they would not long submit to be debarred from political rights. A terrible struggle would ensue.”

“Were it possible so to accelerate the intercourse between every part of the globe that all its inhabitants could be united under the superintending authority of an ecumenical Council, how great a portion of human evils would be avoided.”

Humans Would Be Evil Peace United Authority Portions Globes Diplomacy Council Avoided Intercourse Accelerate

Book:Selected Writings of James Madison

Source: Selected Writings of James Madison

“One reason why so many people are unhappy, not knowing why, is that they have burdened their minds with resentments. These evil thoughts pile right on top of happier and generous ones and smother them so that they never get expression. Resentments are a form of hate.... What a dearth of good will and co-operation there are among human beings and nations! What a world this would be if we all worked together, and as a popular diplomat recently expressed it-played together!”

“It seems that God does not exist; because if one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word "God" means that He is infinite goodness. If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable; but there is evil in the world. Therefore God does not exist.”

Ifs World Mean Doe Two Seems Would Be Evil Goodness Infinite Contrary Destroyed God Exists

Book:Summa Theologica, (Complete)

Source: Summa Theologica, (Complete)

“In order to forgive reason for the evil it has wrought on the majority of men, we must imagine for ourselves what man would be without his reason. 'Tis a necessary evil.”

Men Reason Would Be Order Evil Imagine Majority Forgiving Necessary Evil

Book:The Cynic's Breviary: Maxims and Anecdotes from Nicolas de Chamfort

Source: The Cynic's Breviary: Maxims and Anecdotes from Nicolas de Chamfort

“The bud, though plucked, would not be withered, only transplanted to a fitter soil to ripen and blow beneath a brighter sun; and though I might not cherish and watch my child's unfolding intellect, he would be snatched away from all the suffering and sins of earth; and my understanding tells me this would be no great evil; but my heart shrinks from the contemplation of such a possibility, and whispers I could not bear to see him die.”

“... the structure of our public morality crashed to earth. Above its grave a tombstone read, "Be tolerant--even of evil." Logically the next step would be to say to our commonwealth's criminals, "I disagree that it's all right to rob and murder, but naturally I respect your opinion." Tolerance is only complacence when it makes no distinction between right and wrong.”

Would Be Earth Evil Next Steps Opinion Morality Murder Structure Criminals Tolerance Graves Distinction Disagree Next Steps Commonwealth Tombstone

Book:The Desegregated Heart: A Virginian's Stand in Time of Transition

Source: The Desegregated Heart: A Virginian's Stand in Time of Transition

“I would hope that wherever I was I would be me. I have been influenced by some wonderful people who showed me that there is an integral relationship between faith and life at home. Evil is evil, repression is repression anywhere. And if it is not consistent with what one believes is God's will, then I would hope that one would be able to witness it, and there are wonderful people who do so in very great risks to themselves.”

People Ifs Believe Has Beens Home Would Be Able Evil Wonderful Risk Gods Will Witness Consistent Repression Great Risk

Author:Desmond Tutu

“I'm attracted to the garden, without a doubt, but I always try and image the wolf that's there, too. And that wolf would be us. It's not that we're malevolent or evil - we're marvelous, fantastic, tool-bearing beings and capable of so much - but there are so many of us, and we don't tend to take responsibility for what we do.”

Trying Would Be Evil Responsibility Doubt Capable Garden Tools Fantastic Marvelous Taking Responsibility

Author:Michael Light

“Ramanama can be used only for a good, never for an evil end, or else thieves and robbers would be the greatest devotees.”

Ends Would Be Used Evil Thieves Rama Robbers Devotee

Book:Ramanama

Source: Ramanama

“It is tempting to believe that social evils arise from the activities of evil men and that if only good men (like ourselves, naturally) wielded power, all would be well. That view requires only emotion and self-praise - easy to come by and satisfying as well. To understand why it is that 'good' men in positions of power will produce evil, while the ordinary man without power but able to engage in voluntary cooperation with his neighbors will produce good, requires analysis and thought, subordinating emotions to the rational.”

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Evil Quotes