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.
—Billy Graham (1918–91) American Baptist Religious Leader
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon fouls, but runs itself clear of taint.
—Samuel Butler
Evil comes at leisure like the disease. Good comes in a hurry like the doctor.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
One uncooperative employee can sabotage an entire organization because bad spirit is more contagious than good spirit.
—Robert Half
As a wicked man I am a complete failure. Why, there are lots of people who say I have never really done anything wrong in the whole course of my life. Of course they only say it behind my back.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
For good and evil in our actions meet; wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
Evil is easy, and has infinite forms.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Nothing is evil which is according to nature.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
Evil is neither suffering nor sin; it is both at the same time, it is something common to them both. For they are linked together; sin makes us suffer and suffering makes us evil, and this indissoluble complex of suffering and sin is the evil in which we are submerged against our will, and to our horror.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.-
—George Carlin (1937–2008) American Stand-up Comedian
It is almost systematically to constitute a natural moral law. Nature has no principles. She furnishes us with no reason to believe that human life is to be respected. Nature, in her indifference, makes no difference between right and wrong.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no limit to this fever for writing.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
Evil spelled backward is live.
—Anonymous
He made no complaint whatsoever about the bad reputation he had attracted throughout the world, assured me that he himself was the person most concerned by the destruction of superstition, and admitted to me that as far as his own power was concerned he had been afraid on only one occasion, which was when he had heard a preacher, more subtle than his colleagues, shout out from the pulpit: ‘Dearly beloved, never forget, when you hear anyone vaunt the progress of enlightenment, that the Devil’s finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist!’
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
Those that set in motion the forces of evil cannot always control them afterwards.
—Charles W. Chesnutt (1858–1932) American Novelist, Essayist, Political Activist, Short Story Write
There are evils that have the ability to survive identification and go on for ever… money, for instance, or war.
—Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-American Novelist
The devil is the author of confusion.
—Robert Burton (1577–1640) English Scholar, Clergyman
Before man is life and death, good and evil; that which he shall choose shall be given him.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Evil is uncertain in the same degree as good, and for the reason that we ought not to hope too securely, we ought not to fear with too much dejection.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
The first lesson of history is that evil is good.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Submit to the present evil, lest a greater one befall you.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
What we call evil, it seems to me, is simply ignorance bumping its head in the dark.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
The gift of a bad man can bring no good.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil. I am content to observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape from it, and with this I begin and end.
—John Newton (1725–1807) English Clergyman, Writer
To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
It is a cursed evil to any man to become as absorbed in any subject as I am in mine.
—Charles Darwin (1809–82) English Naturalist
How in heck are they handling their surplus population in Hell these days? Maybe by the time you and I are in the queue there won’t be room for us.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Crime in the city streets is more than a political issue. It’s a too rampant fact…. In Indianapolis they have come up with a most sensible, affordable approach to the problem. Policemen are assigned their police patrol cars for personal use after hours. They are encouraged to use the police car while taking the family shopping, to the movies, and everywhere one takes one’s family. As a result, says the Police Chief’s assistant, we may have as many as 400 cars on the street instead of 100 or so per shift. (And) the presence of the police car obviously indicates the proximity of policemen.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
God bears with the wicked, but not forever.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
This is the very worst wickedness, that we refuse to acknowledge the passionate evil that is in us. This makes us secret and rotten.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
I like bats much better than bureaucrats. I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of Admin. The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid dens of crime that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
We believe at once in evil, we only believe in good upon reflection.—Is not this sad?
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
When bad men combine, the good must associate, else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Overcome evil with good.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Evil is a moral entity and not a created one, an eternal and not a perishable entity: it existed before the world; it constituted the monstrous, the execrable being who was also to fashion such a hideous world. It will hence exist after the creatures which people this world.
—Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French Political leader, Revolutionary, Novelist, Poet, Critic
The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is not a problem of physics but of ethics. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil from the spirit of man.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Evil is done without effort, naturally, it is the working of fate; good is always the product of an art.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
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 cooperating with it.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still.
—A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) American Christian Pastor, Preacher, Author, Editor
Good courage in a bad affair is half of the evil overcome.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) (c.250–184 BCE) Roman Comic Playwright
Whoever takes it upon himself to establish a commonwealth and prescribe laws must presuppose all men naturally bad, and that they will yield to their innate evil passions as often as they can do so with safety.
—Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Florentine Political Philosopher
No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal. From the viewpoint of our legal institutions and of our moral standards of judgment, this normality was much more terrifying than all the atrocities put together.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
The contagion of crime is like that of the plague.—Criminals collected together corrupt each other.—They are worse than ever when, at the termination of their punishment, they return to society.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France