
“Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.”
Variant: And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things.
Source: I Shall Wear Midnight
A collection of quotes on the topic of evil, good, goodness, doing.
“Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.”
Variant: And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things.
Source: I Shall Wear Midnight
“All things truly wicked start from an innocence.”
Ch 17; Variant: All things truly wicked start from innocence.
As quoted by R Z Sheppard in review of The Garden of Eden (1986) TIME (26 May 1986)
A Moveable Feast (1964)
“Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.”
“Even a most evil man is better than the devil!”
Source: A Companion to Jan Hus (2015), pp. 201-202; Jan Hus in Booklet against the Cook-priest in response to the rival priest who swore that Hus is worse than any devil.
“The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.”
The words of Socrates, as quoted by Diogenes Laertius.
Misattributed
“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”
Socrates II: xxxi http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=D.+L.+2.5.31&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0257#note-link14. Original Greek: ἓν μόνον ἀγαθὸν εἶναι, τὴν ἐπιστήμην, καὶ ἓν μόνον κακόν, τὴν ἀμαθίαν
Diogenes Laertius
Variant: The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
“Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results.”
Source: Surfacing
“Pleasure, a most mighty lure to evil.”
Section 69d (W. R. M. Lamb's translation); also rendered: pleasure, "the bait of sin" (W.A. Falconer's translation).
Timaeus
“Definition of Good and Evil: Good is what you like. Evil is what you don't like.”
The Devil's Notebook (1992)
Trotsky's Testament (1940)
Context: Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”
Variant: No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
“If evils increase, the devotion of the People of God should also increase.”
CHRISTI MATRI
“Microsoft isn't evil, they just make really crappy operating systems.”
<nowiki>Linus Torvalds on Twitter</nowiki>, Torvalds, Linus, 2013-01-29, 2016-07-26 https://twitter.com/linus__torvalds/status/296333371393597440,
2010s, 2013
29a–b
Alternate translation: "To fear death, is nothing else but to believe ourselves to be wise, when we are not; and to fancy that we know what we do not know. In effect, no body knows death; no body can tell, but it may be the greatest benefit of mankind; and yet men are afraid of it, as if they knew certainly that it were the greatest of evils."
Plato, Apology
Muhammad Kulayni, Usūl al-Kāfī - The Book of Intellect and Ignorance.
Regarding Knowledge & Wisdom, General
"Neighborhood Sniper", 5150: Home 4 tha Sick (1992).
1990s
Quoted from [Martha Bush Ashton, Martha Bush Ashton-Sikora, Bruce Christie, Yakṣagāna, a Dance Drama of India, 23, http://books.google.com/books?id=ug3DNI-1xwUC&pg=PA23, 1977, Abhinav Publications, 23–].
As quoted in White Coat Tales : Medicine's Heroes, Heritage and Misadventures (2007) by Robert B. Taylor, p. 141. The original Source is the last sentence of https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/pierre-curie-lecture.pdf
Misattributed
“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
Phaedo 115e
literally: 'For know well', he said, 'o dearest Kriton, that to not speak well is not only sinful by itself, but lets evil intrude into the soul.'(εὖ γὰρ ἴσθι, ἦ δ᾽ ὅς, ὦ ἄριστε Κρίτων, τὸ μὴ καλῶς λέγειν οὐ μόνον εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο πλημμελές, ἀλλὰ καὶ κακόν τι ἐμποιεῖ ταῖς ψυχαῖς.)
Plato, Phaedo
Letter to Edmond Galabert, and G. (October 1866), as quoted in Letters of Composers: An Anthology, 1603-1945 (1946) edited by Gertrude Norman and Miriam Lubell Shrifte, p. 241
St. John Chrysostom, Homily 24 on the Epistle to the Romans [PG 60:626-27] https://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2017/10/contraception-early-church-teaching-william-klimon.html
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
This is probably the most quoted statement attributed to Burke, and an extraordinary number of variants of it exist, but all without any definite original source. They closely resemble remarks known to have been made by the Utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill, in an address at the University of St. Andrew (1 February 1867) http://books.google.com/books?id=DFNAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA36&dq=%22Bad+men+need+nothing+more+to+compass+their+ends,+than+that+good+men+should+look+on+and+do+nothing%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RUh5U6qWBLSysQT0vYGAAw&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22Bad%20men%20need%20nothing%20more%20to%20compass%20their%20ends%2C%20than%20that%20good%20men%20should%20look%20on%20and%20do%20nothing%22&f=false : Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. The very extensively used remarks attributed to Burke might be based on a paraphrase of some of his ideas, but he is not known to have ever declared them in so succinct a manner in any of his writings. It has been suggested that they may have been adapted from these lines of Burke's in his Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/LFBooks/Burke0061/SelectWorks/HTMLs/0005-01_Pt02_Thoughts.html (1770): "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." (see above)
:This purported quote bears a resemblance to the narrated theme of Sergei Bondarchuk's Soviet film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, produced in 1966. In it the narrator declares "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing", although since the original is in Russian various translations to English are possible. This purported quote also bears resemblance to a quote widely attributed to Plato, that said "The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." It also bears resemblance to what Albert Einstein wrote as part of his tribute to Pablo Casals: "The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it."
: More research done on this matter is available at these two links: Burkequote http://www.tartarus.org/~martin/essays/burkequote.html & Burkequote2 http://www.tartarus.org/~martin/essays/burkequote2.html — as the information at these links indicate, there are many variants of this statement, probably because there is no known original by Burke. In addition, an exhaustive examination of this quote has been done at the following link: QuoteInvestigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/12/04/good-men-do/.
Disputed
Variant: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
“Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.”
“The four absolutes we all have in our minds: love, justice, evil, and forgiveness.”
As quoted in The Christian Pioneer (1856) edited by Joseph Foulkes Winks, p. 84. Also in The Christian Spectator, vol. 3 (1821), p. 186 http://books.google.com/books?id=mv4oAAAAYAAJ&dq=ah%2C%20how%20imperfect%20and%20deficient!%20I%20am%20not%20what%20I%20wish%20to%20be&pg=PA186#v=onepage&q=ah,%20how%20imperfect%20and%20deficient!%20I%20am%20not%20what%20I%20wish%20to%20be&f=false
Often paraphrased as I am not the man I ought to be, I am not the man I wish to be, and I am not the man I hope to be, but by the grace of God, I am not the man I used to be."'
Source: Wall and Piece (2005)
“Attack the evil that is within yourself, rather than attacking the evil that is in others.”
Alex Jones: The "Justin Biebler" Rant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDMB0KyhPN8, 21 February 2011.
2011
"A Plea For Intolerance" (1931)
Me & Rumi (2004)
As quoted in The Baburnama : Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor, as translated by Wheeler M. Thackston (2002), p. xxvii
“Whoever sows good shall harvest happiness, and whoever sows evil shall harvest regret.”
Majlisi, Bihārul Anwār, vol.78, p. 338
Religious Wisdom
Babur writing about the battle against the Rajput Confederacy led by Maharana Sangram Singh of Mewar. In Babur-Nama, translated into English by A.S. Beveridge, New Delhi reprint, 1979, pp. 547-572.
“To send a political activist to an asylum is more sadistic and evil than killing him.”
In an open letter sent to several newspapers in Norway shortly before the announcement by the second team of court-appointed psychiatrists on their findings of him not having been psychotic when he perpetrated the attacks. Global Post (10 April 2012) http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/120410/norway-killer-anders-behring-breivik-declared-sane
Other
Other
"The Problem of Increasing Human Energy", The Century (Jun 1900), 211. Collected in The Century (1900), Vol. 60, 211
Interview in The Voice of Ethiopia (5 April 1948).
Context: The progress of science can be said to be harmful to religion only in so far as it is used for evil aims and not because it claims a priority over religion in its revelation to man. It is important that spiritual advancement must keep pace with material advancement. When this comes to be realized man's journey toward higher and more lasting values will show more marked progress while the evil in him recedes into the background. Knowing that material and spiritual progress are essential to man, we must ceaselessly work for the equal attainment of both. Only then shall we be able to acquire that absolute inner calm so necessary to our well-being.
It is only when a people strike an even balance between scientific progress and spiritual and moral advancement that it can be said to possess a wholly perfect and complete personality and not a lopsided one.
Source: The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 226
Context: I don't need to go to church. I respect churches because of the sacredness that's been put on them over the years by people who do believe. But I think a lot of bad things have happened in the name of the church and in the name of Christ. Therefore I shy away from church, and as Donovan once said, "I go to my own church in my own temple once a day." And I think people who need a church should go. And the others who know the church is in your own head should visit that temple because that's where the source is. We're all God. Christ said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." And the Indians say that and the Zen people say that. We're all God. I'm not a god or the God, but we're all God and we're all potentially divine — and potentially evil. We all have everything within us and the Kingdom of Heaven is nigh and within us, and if you look hard enough you'll see it.
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)
Context: First, we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. It is impossible even to begin the act of loving one's enemies without prior acceptance of the necessity, over and over again, of forgiving those who inflict evil and injury upon us. It is also necessary to realize that the forgiving act must always be initiated by the person who has been wronged, the victim of some great hurt, the recipient of some tortuous injustice, the absorber of some terrible act of oppression. The wrongdoer may request forgiveness. He may come to himself, and, like the prodigal son, move up with some dusty road, his heart palpitating with the desire for forgiveness. But only the injured neighbor, the loving father back home can really pour out the warm waters of forgiveness.
Variant: The world is dangerous, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
“Evil would always come to me disguised in systems and dignified by law.”
Source: The Lords of Discipline
“Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.”
Source: Black Theology and Black Power (1969), pp. 39-41
William Scott Wilson, Gregory Lee. Ideals of the Samurai: Writings of Japanese Warriors, 1982. p 95
1860s, First State of the Union address (1861)
“Evil is mostly confusion seeking to evolve itself into love.”
(Fulton Street/The Series, p. 80).
Book Sources, ELEMENTAL, The Power of Illuminated Love (2008)
Closing statement after trial sentencing. video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnuSl8PNYqc
http://www.popmonk.com/actors/leonardo-dicaprio/quotes-leonardo-dicaprio.htm
This is widely reported on many sites as coming from the Bilderberg Conference (1991) Evians, France, purportedly recorded by a Swiss diplomat, but no such recording has ever been provided.
Misattributed
“I have the most evil memories of Spain, but I have very few bad memories of Spaniards.”
Homage to Catalonia (1938)
Canto III, lines 61–63 (tr. Mark Musa).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno
Letter to Willis Everett, July 4, 1946. Parker, Hitler's Warrior, chapter 14, citing Everett Papers in note 5.
“He said that there was one only good, namely, knowledge; and one only evil, namely, ignorance.”
Socrates, 14.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 2: Socrates, his predecessors and followers
“There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse.”
Plato, Phaedo
My Twisted World (2014), Final Days
“In politics evils should be remedied not revenged.”
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
Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose in Vijayaprasara
Source: 1960s, Strength to Love (1963), Ch. 2 : Transformed nonconformist
Letter (September 1944)
"As I Please," Tribune (3 March 1944)<sup> http://alexpeak.com/twr/orwell/quotes/</sup>
As I Please (1943–1947)
Source: Shaping the world economy, 1962, p. 3 : Lead in paragraph "introducing the book"
Tract 83 http://anglicanhistory.org/tracts/tract83.html (29 June 1838).
To Leon Goldensohn, April 6, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004
Context: What I would like to emanate from the darkness of this tragedy is one spark of life. I mean, the realization that crime does not begin when you murder people. Crime begins with propaganda, even if such propaganda is for a good cause. The moment propaganda turns against another nation or against any human being, evil starts. Whereas the Germans started propaganda toward the end of this tragedy, you Allies stand at the beginning of the tragedy.