Quotes about Evil

„Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.“

—  T.S. Eliot 20th century English author 1888 - 1965

„Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.“

—  Leon Trotsky Marxist revolutionary from Russia 1879 - 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.

„I detect
More good than evil in humanity.
Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes,
And men grow better as the world grows old.“

—  Ella Wheeler Wilcox American author and poet 1850 - 1919

Optimism
Poetry quotes, Poems of Pleasure (1900)
Context: I find a rapture linked with each despair,
Well worth the price of anguish. I detect
More good than evil in humanity.
Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes,
And men grow better as the world grows old.

„Well, some people say I'm pessimistic because I recognize the eternal cycle of evil. All I say is, look at the history of mankind right up to this moment and what do you find?“

—  Wole Soyinka Nigerian writer 1934

„The weak and feeble-minded are drawn to the evil strongman as it provides them a sense of power they could not otherwise achieve.“

—  RJ Intindola (Gandolfo)

2018

„We go by the major vote, and if the majority are insane, the sane must go to the hospital. As Satan said, "Evil, be thou my good," so they say, "Darkness, be thou my light."“

—  Horace Mann American politician 1796 - 1859

p. 184

„All evil results from the non-adaptation of constitution to conditions. This is true of everything that lives.“

—  Herbert Spencer, book Social Statics

Part I, Ch. 2 : The Evanescence of Evil, § 1
Social Statics (1851)
Context: All evil results from the non-adaptation of constitution to conditions. This is true of everything that lives. Does a shrub dwindle in poor soil, or become sickly when deprived of light, or die outright if removed to a cold climate? it is because the harmony between its organization and its circumstances has been destroyed.

„God Vishnu has complete power over souls and matter and that Vishnu saves souls entirely by his grace which is granted to those who live pure and moral lives. Evil souls are predestined to eternal damnation and should of mediocre quality will transmigrate eternally.“

—  Madhvacharya Hindu philosopher who founded Dvaita Vedanta school 1199 - 1278

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–].

„The four absolutes we all have in our minds: love, justice, evil, and forgiveness.“

—  Ravi Zacharias Indian philosopher 1946

„Definition of Good and Evil: Good is what you like. Evil is what you don't like.“

—  Anton LaVey, book The Devil's Notebook

The Devil's Notebook (1992)

„There are horrors beyond life's edge that we do not suspect, and once in a while man's evil prying calls them just within our range.“

—  H.P. Lovecraft, book The Thing on the Doorstep

Source: The Thing on the Doorstep

„All the great evils which men cause to each other because of certain intentions, desires, opinions, or religious principles, are likewise due to non-existence, because they originate in ignorance, which is absence of wisdom.“

—  Maimónides, book The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.11

„With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.“

—  Steven Weinberg American theoretical physicist 1933

„It is extraordinary that nobody nowadays under the stress of great troubles is turned into stone or a bird or a tree or some inanimate object; they used to undergo such metamorphoses in ancient times (or so they say), though whether that is myth or a true story I know not. Maybe it would be better to change one's nature into something that lacks all feeling, rather than be so sensitive to evil. Had that been possible, these calamities would in all probability have turned me to stone“

—  Anna Comnena, book Alexiad

The Alexiad, Preface

„The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.“

—  Herodotus ancient Greek historian, often considered as the first historian -484 - -425 BC

The words of Socrates, as quoted by Diogenes Laertius.
Misattributed

„Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.“

—  Andrzej Sapkowski, book The Last Wish

Source: The Last Wish

„There was a solemn article in the local paper seriously advocating systematic exterminating of the entire German nation as the only proper course after military victory: because, if you please, they are rattlesnakes, and don't know the difference between good and evil! (What of the writer?) The Germans have just as much right to declare the Poles and Jews exterminable vermin, subhuman, as we have to select the Germans: in other words, no right, whatever they have done.“

—  John Ronald Reuel Tolkien British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works 1892 - 1973

Letter (September 1944)

„False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.“

—  Socrates classical Greek Athenian philosopher -470 - -399 BC

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

„Attack the evil that is within yourself, rather than attacking the evil that is in others.“

—  Confucius Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher -551 - -479 BC