“Is it better for a man to have chosen evil than to have good imposed upon him?”
Source: A Clockwork Orange
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Anthony Burgess 297
English writer 1917–1993Related quotes
Source: The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad (2004), Chapter 56 “At Last, the Box, Explained” (p. 320)

“Active Evil is better than Passive Good.”
1780s, Annotations to Lavater (1788)

“It’s better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a tremendous cost.”

“God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist.”
Enchiridion (c. 420 ), Ch. 27

“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.

Variant: A world contrary to God must be kept within bounds by the world’s sword. But true Christians love God and their neighbors as themselves; they commit no evil by the grace of God. It is not necessary to compel them to goodness since they know better what is good than the law imposing authority.
Source: The Net of Faith (c. 1443), Chapter 95, Summary