Tzvetan Todorov: Quotes about Evil

Tzvetan Todorov was Bulgarian historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist. Explore interesting quotes on evil.
Tzvetan Todorov: 18   quotes 0   likes

“For evil to take place, the acts of a few people are not sufficient; the great majority also has to remain indifferent. That is something of which we are all quite capable.”

Tzvetan Todorov

Hope and Memory: Reflections on the Twentieth Century (2003)

People , Evil , Indifference

“We should not be simply fighting evil in the name of good, but struggling against the certainties of people who claim always to know where good and evil are to be found.”

Tzvetan Todorov

Hope and Memory: Reflections on the Twentieth Century (2003)

People , Evil , Fight

“A maxim for the twenty-first century might well be to start not by fighting evil in the name of good, but by attacking the certainties of people who claim always to know where good and evil are to be found. We should struggle not against the devil himself but what allows the devil to live — Manichaean thinking itself.”

Tzvetan Todorov

paraphrased variant:
We should not be simply fighting evil in the name of good, but struggling against the certainties of people who claim always to know where good and evil are to be found.
Source: Hope and Memory: Reflections on the Twentieth Century (2003), Ch. 5 : The Past in the Present, p. 195

Fight , Thinking , People , Evil