Quotes about Evil

„There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us,
it doesn't behoove any of us to speak evil of the rest of us“

—  Edgar Cayce Purported clairvoyant healer and psychic 1877 - 1945

„If evils increase, the devotion of the People of God should also increase.“

—  Pope Paul VI 262nd Pope of the Catholic Church 1897 - 1978

CHRISTI MATRI

„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

„Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results.“

—  Margaret Atwood, book Surfacing

Source: Surfacing

„My mom and I lived at Hollywood and Western, a drug-dealer and prostitute corner. It was pretty terrifying. I got beat up a lot. I saw people have sex in the alleys. I remember I was five years old, and this guy with a trench coat, needles and crack cornered me. Early on, seeing the devastation on my block, seeing heroin addicts, made me think twice about ever getting involved in drugs. It's evil. Once you take that step and experiment, drugs can take over your life. You are not yourself anymore. That's something I never wanted. I didn't have a lot of friends growing up. It was kind of just me and my parents. But because of them, the neighborhood did not have a bad effect on me. My dad introduced me to artists, and every few months we'd go to some hippie doo-dah parade as Mudmen in our underwear, carrying sticks and covered in mud. My mother did everything to get me into the best schools she could find.“

—  Leonardo DiCaprio American actor and film producer 1974

http://www.popmonk.com/actors/leonardo-dicaprio/quotes-leonardo-dicaprio.htm

„Ah, child and youth, if you knew the bliss which resides in the taste of knowledge, and the evil and ugliness that lies in ignorance, how well you are advised to not complain of the pain and labor of learning.“

—  Christine de Pizan, book The Treasure of the City of Ladies

Source: The Treasure of the City of Ladies

„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–].

„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

„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