“I don't believe in evil, I believe only in horror. In nature there is no evil, only an abundance of horror: the plagues and the blights and the ants and the maggots.”

—  Karen Blixen

As quoted in Voices: A Memoir (1983) by Frederic Prokosch

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 "I don't believe in evil, I believe only in horror. In nature there is no evil, only an abundance of horror: the plagues…" by Karen Blixen?
Karen Blixen photo
Karen Blixen 67
Danish writer 1885–1962

Related quotes

“Sometimes I believe that evil is everything, and that good is only a beautiful desire for evil.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

A veces creo el mal es todo y que el bien es sólo un bello deseo del mal.
Voces (1943)

Isaac Asimov photo

“Infinite torture can only be a punishment for infinite evil, and I don't believe that infinite evil can be said to exist even in the case of Hitler.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

I. Asimov: A Memoir (1994)
Context: If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.
I would also want a God who would not allow a Hell. Infinite torture can only be a punishment for infinite evil, and I don't believe that infinite evil can be said to exist even in the case of Hitler. Besides, if most human governments are civilized enough to try to eliminate torture and outlaw cruel and unusual punishments, can we expect anything less of an all-merciful God?
I feel that if there were an afterlife, punishment for evil would be reasonable and of a fixed term. And I feel that the longest and worst punishment should be reserved for those who slandered God by inventing Hell.

Alice Walker photo
Friedensreich Hundertwasser photo

“There are no evils in Nature, there are only evils of Man.”

Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928–2000) Austrian artist

Title of manifesto (May 1990) http://www1.kunsthauswien.com/english/okologie.htm

Cassandra Clare photo
Mark Manson photo

“Evil people never believe that they are evil; rather, they believe that everyone else is evil.”

Mark Manson (1984) American writer and blogger

Source: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (2016), Chapter 6, “You’re Wrong About Everything (But So Am I)” (p. 133)

Robert E. Howard photo

“I believe, like you, that civilization is a natural and inevitable consequence, whether good or evil I am not prepared to state.”

Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) American author

From a letter to H. P. Lovecraft (c. August 1930)
Letters

Philip Pullman photo
Simone de Beauvoir photo

“In horror, in terror, she accepted the metamorphosis — gnat, foam, ant, until death.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

Last lines
All Men are Mortal (1946)
Context: In horror, in terror, she accepted the metamorphosis — gnat, foam, ant, until death. And it's only the beginning, she thought. She stood motionless, as if it were possible to play tricks with time, possible to stop it from following its course. But her hands stiffened against her quivering lips.
When the bells began to sound the hour she let out the first scream.

Larry Wall photo

“The only disadvantage I see is that it would force everyone to get Perl. Horrors.”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[8854@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV, 1990]
Usenet postings, 1990

Related topics