“Being against evil doesn't make you good. Tonight I was against it and then I was evil myself.”

Pt. 1: Bimini, Section 4
Islands in the Stream (1970)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Being against evil doesn't make you good. Tonight I was against it and then I was evil myself." by Ernest Hemingway?
Ernest Hemingway photo
Ernest Hemingway 501
American author and journalist 1899–1961

Related quotes

Hans Fritzsche photo

“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”

Hans Fritzsche (1900–1953) German Nazi official

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.

Friedrich Kellner photo

“Every person has the choice between Good and Evil. Choose Good, and stand against those who would choose Evil.”

Friedrich Kellner (1885–1970) German Justice inspector

“Welt muss mehr denn je diese Botschaft hören,” Giessener Allgemeine Zeitung, Giessen, Germany, April 12, 2005.
Attributed

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“[Nonviolence] is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil. It is evil that the nonviolent resister seeks to defeat, not the persons victimized by evil.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Source: Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story

Tzvetan Todorov photo

“We should not be simply fighting evil in the name of good, but struggling against the certainties of people who claim always to know where good and evil are to be found.”

Tzvetan Todorov (1939–2017) Bulgarian historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist

Hope and Memory: Reflections on the Twentieth Century (2003)

Ursula K. Le Guin photo

“In innocence there is no strength against evil,” said Sparrowhawk, a little wryly. “But there is strength in it for good.”

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer

Source: Earthsea Books, The Farthest Shore (1972), Chapter 8, "The Children of the Open Sea"

Charbel Makhlouf photo

“The war of the Evil One against the Lord is a war waged against the family.”

Charbel Makhlouf (1828–1898) Lebanese Maronite monk and saint

Love is a Radiant Light: The Life & Words of Saint Charbel (2019)

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley photo
Libba Bray photo
Kailash Satyarthi photo

“We work against a social evil. If this evil isn't reacting it means we aren't a threat.”

Kailash Satyarthi (1954) Indian children's rights activist

Times of India interview (2014)
Context: We work with broken families and broken people who've lost hope and are helpless. If people oppose my work, launch personal attacks, we know that we are on the right path. One colleague was shot, another was beaten to death. I've injuries all over my body. We work against a social evil. If this evil isn't reacting it means we aren't a threat.

Related topics