Quotes about Evil
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Attributed to Bonhoeffer on the Internet, and supposedly from Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy http://books.google.com/books?id=aG0q3X8TVpsC&pg=PA486#v=onepage (2010) by Eric Metaxas; however, there is no actual reference in that book. However, in advertising the book Metaxas does state on his site that the quote is from Bonhoeffer. http://ericmetaxas.com/books/bonhoeffer-pastor-martyr-prophet-spy/ First attributed to Bonhoeffer in Explorations 12:1 (1998), p. 3, as referenced by James Cone (2004) Theology's Great Sin: Silence in the Face of White Supremacy, Black Theology, 2:2, 139-152, footnote 1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/blth.2.2.139.36027
Compare "Not to Act, is to Act!" by Francis W. McPeek http://www.ergo-sum.net/pics/McPeek.jpg, The Missionary Herald at Home and Abroad, v.141-142 (1945-1946), "Missionary herald, 1945 - Congregational churches," pp.34-35 (We must realize that church inaction is a form of political action, and it is altogether negative. “Not to act, is to act.”)
Misattributed
“More evil gets done in the name of righteousness than any other way.”
Source: Dreams of Steel (1990), Chapter 23 (p. 310)
Context: “What do you want, Blade. Why are you doing this?”
He shrugged, an uncharacteristic action. “There are many evils in the world. I guess I’ve chosen one for my personal crusade.”
“Why such a hatred for priests?”
He didn’t shrug. He didn’t give me a straight answer, either. “If each man picks an evil and attacks it relentlessly, how long can evil persist?”
That was an easy one. Forever. More evil gets done in the name of righteousness than any other way. Few villains think they are villains. But I left him his illusion. If he had one. I doubted he did. No more than a sword’s blade does.
“Right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
Source: Discipleship (1937), The Disciple and Unbelievers, p. 185.
Source: The Cost of Discipleship
Source: The Black Company (1984), Chapter 6, “Lady” (pp. 192-193)
“I'm always a bit shy around evil people…”
Source: American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot
“When an evil masochist dies, does he go to hell, or would heaven be a better punishment?”
“Sunday school: A prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.”
“You are not evil, Fell. You have just been robbed of love. Of light.”
Source: The Sight
Source: Magic Gifts
“Evil resides in the very gaze which perceives Evil all around itself.”
“I want to make my own discoveries……. penetrate the evil which attracts me”
Source: Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love"--The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin
“Don’t give me the evil eye. You were the one about to star in an X-rated porno flick."-Phineas”
Source: Sexiest Vampire Alive
Source: Shadows Linger (1984), Chapter 33, “Juniper: The Encounter” (p. 367)
Context: I do not believe in evil absolute. I have recounted that philosophy in specific in the Annals, and it affects my every observation throughout my tenure as Annalist. I believe in our side and theirs, with the good and evil decided after the fact, by those who survive. Among men you seldom find the good with one standard and the shadow with another.
2000s, 2009, Farewell speech to the nation (January 2009)
Context: As we address these challenges – and others we cannot foresee tonight – America must maintain our moral clarity. I have often spoken to you about good and evil. This has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere. Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right. This nation must continue to speak out for justice and truth. We must always be willing to act in their defense and to advance the cause of peace.
Source: Attributed in posthumous publications, Einstein and the Poet (1983), p. 132
Variant transcription from "Death of a Genius" in Life Magazine: "I cannot accept any concept of God based on the fear of life or the fear of death, or blind faith. I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him I would be a liar."
Context: About God, I cannot accept any concept based on the authority of the Church. As long as I can remember, I have resented mass indoctrination. I do not believe in the fear of life, in the fear of death, in blind faith. I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him, I would be a liar. I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws.
Source: Tomorrow, When the War Began
“There is no such thing as an evil genius, as evil in it's self is stupidity.”
Source: The Wizard of Ooze
“The best men are not consistent in good—why should the worst men be consistent in evil?”
Source: The Woman in White
Source: Horns
“May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.”
“Anthony looked down at his evil clutches -- hands, he reminded himself, hands -- and grinned anew.”
Source: The Viscount Who Loved Me
Source: The Indigo Spell
“everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure”
Source: Democracy in America
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (November 1957)
Context: There is something within all of us that causes us to cry out with Ovid, the Latin poet, "I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do." There is something within all of us that causes us to cry out with Plato that the human personality is like a charioteer with two headstrong horses, each wanting to go in different directions. There is something within each of us that causes us to cry out with Goethe, "There is enough stuff in me to make both a gentleman and a rogue." There is something within each of us that causes us to cry out with Apostle Paul, "I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do." So somehow the "isness" of our present nature is out of harmony with the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts us. And this simply means this: That within the best of us, there is some evil, and within the worst of us, there is some good. When we come to see this, we take a different attitude toward individuals. The person who hates you most has some good in him; even the nation that hates you most has some good in it; even the race that hates you most has some good in it. And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what religion calls "the image of God," you begin to love him in spite of. No matter what he does, you see God’s image there. There is an element of goodness that he can never sluff off. Discover the element of good in your enemy. And as you seek to hate him, find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you will take a new attitude.
Source: The Essays: A Selection
“When you start with a necessary evil, and then over time the necessity passes away, what's left?”
Source: Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy
Source: False Memory
“There are no evil thoughts except one; the refusal to think.”
Variant: There are no evil thoughts, Mr. Rearden," Francisco said softly, "except one: the refusal to think.
Source: Atlas Shrugged: Wer Ist John Galt?
“Christianity is the only religion whose God bears the scars of evil.”
Source: Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
Source: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Source: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Source: Bayou Moon
Source: Factotum (1975), Ch. 56
Context: The bus ran along a very narrow strip of cement that stood up out of the water with no guard-rail, no nothing; that's all there was to it. The bus driver leaned back and we roared along over this narrow cement strip surrounded by water and all the people in the bus, the twenty-five or forty or fifty-two people trusted him, but I never did. Sometimes it was a new driver, and I thought, how do they select these sons of bitches? There's deep water on both sides of us and with one error of judgement he'll kill us all. It was ridiculous. Suppose he had an argument with his wife that morning? Or cancer? Or visions of God? Bad teeth? Anything. He could do it. Dump us all. I knew that if I was driving that I would consider the possibility or desirability of drowning everybody. And sometimes, after just such considerations, possibility turns into reality. For each Joan of Arc there is a Hitler perched at the other end of the teeter-totter. The old story of good and evil. But none of the bus drivers ever dumped us. They were thinking instead of car payments, baseball scores, haircuts, vacations, enemas, family visits. There wasn't a real man in the whole shitload.
“Evil exists in us all, Torak. Some fight it. Some feed it. That's how it's always been.”
Source: City of Fallen Angels
“Just like credit card companies, or those student loan people. Now there's evil for you.”
Source: Summer Knight
“Sometimes I think evil is a tangible thing - with wave lengths, just as sound and light have.”
Source: The Most Dangerous Game
