Source: A Dictionary of Thoughts, 1891, p. 442.
“It is easier to contend with evil at the first than at the last.”
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
Variant: It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.
William Howard Taft (1857–1930) American politician, 27th President of the United States (in office from 1909 to 1913)
Source: Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers (Columbia University Press, 1916), P. 61.
“It is easier to denature plutonium than it is to denature the evil spirit of man.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
1940s <br class="br">Source: The Real Problem Is in the Hearts of Men http://books.google.com/books?id=AIHgK-p6mhgC&q=%22It+is+easier+to+denature+plutonium+than+it+is+to+denature+the+evil+spirit+of+man%22&pg=PA385#v=onepage, The New York Times Magazine ( June 23, 1946 http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60715F63E5C14738DDDAA0A94DE405B8688F1D3)
Benjamin Graham book The Intelligent Investor
Source: The Intelligent Investor (1973) (Fourth Revised Edition), Chapter 20, "Margin of Safety": The Central Concept, p. 287
Book 7, Ch. 50 (trans. George Rawlinson)
Variant translation: It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half of the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.
The Histories
George Howard Earle, Jr. (1856–1928) American lawyer
Speaking out against a central bank after the Panic of 1907. From "A Central Bank as a Menace to Liberty," by George H. Earle, Jr. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. XXXI No. 2: Lessons of the Financial Crisis, March 1908.
Ludwig von Mises book Socialism
Socialism (1922), Epilogue (1947)
Context: State and government are the social apparatus of violent coercion and repression. Such an apparatus, the police power, is indispensable in order to prevent anti-social individuals and bands from destroying social co-operation. Violent prevention and suppression of anti-social activities benefit the whole of society and each of its members. But violence and oppression are none the less evils and corrupt those in charge of their application. It is necessary to restrict the power of those in office lest they become absolute despots. Society cannot exist without an apparatus of violent coercion. But neither can it exist if the office holders are irresponsible tyrants free to inflict harm upon those they dislike.
“There is no evil in the world without a remedy.”
Jacopo Sannazaro (1458–1530) Italian writer
Ecloga Octava; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), "Evil".
“Most "necessary evils" are far more evil than necessary.”
Richard Branson (1950) English business magnate, investor and philanthropist
Source: Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way
“In politics evils should be remedied not revenged.”
Napoleon III (1808–1873) French emperor, president, and member of the House of Bonaparte
Napoléon III, Des Idées napoléoniennes, edited by Henri Colburn, London (1839), chapter 3, p. 39: En politique il faut guérir les maux, jamais les venger.
Translated by James A. Dorr, in: Napoleonic Ideas, Appleton & Co, New York (1859), p. 41
