“Ay, 'tis thus. Evil us hath in bond;
By Thy grace guilt efface and respond
"Forgiven!"”
Yom Tov of Joigny English rabbi
Omnam Kayn, trans. from the Hebrew by Israel Zangwill
“Tis thus we heed no instincts but our own;
Believe no evil till the evil's done.”
Nous n'écoutons d'instincts que ceux qui sont les nôtres,
Et ne croyons le mal que quand il est venu.
Book I (1668), fable 8.
Fables (1668–1679)
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Believe no evil till the evil's done." by Jean De La Fontaine?
Jean De La Fontaine47
French poet, fabulist and writer. 1621–1695Related quotes
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Source: Discipleship (1937), The Disciple and Unbelievers, p. 185.
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Source: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (2016), Chapter 6, “You’re Wrong About Everything (But So Am I)” (p. 133)
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"Jerusalem", Ch. 20, p. 249-50
Report to Greco (1965)
Context: Sodom and Gomorrah reclined along the riverbank like two whores kissing each other. Men copulated with other men, women with other women, men with mares, women with bulls. They ate and overate from the Tree of Life; they ate and overate from the Tree of Knowledge. Smashing their sacred statues, they saw that they were filled with air. Coming very, very close to God, they said, "This God is not the father of Fear, he is the son of Fear," and they lost their fear. On the four gates to the city they wrote in large yellow letters, THERE IS NO GOD HERE. What does There is no God mean? It means there is no bridle on our instincts, no reward for good or punishment for evil, no virtue, shame, or justice — that we are wolves and she-wolves in heat.
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Source: Discipleship (1937), The Disciple and Unbelievers, p. 185.
Source: The Cost of Discipleship
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Part Troll (2004)
“It is our own evil thoughts which madden us.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman
“Thus he used to prate,
Till we almost believed him.”
Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849) British poet, biographer, essayist, and teacher
Sylphs
Poems (1851), Prometheus
Context: The glad sons of the deliver'd earth
Shall yearly raise their multitudinous voice,
Hymning great Jove, the God of Liberty!
Then he grew proud, yet gentle in his pride,
And full of tears, which well became his youth,
As showers do spring. For he was quickly moved,
And joy'd to hear sad stories that we told
Of what we saw on earth, of death and woe,
And all the waste of time. Then would he swear
That he would conquer time; that in his reign
It never should be winter; he would have
No pain, no growing old, no death at all.
And that the pretty damsels, whom we said
He must not love, for they would die and leave him,
Should evermore be young and beautiful;
Or, if they must go, they should come again,
Like as the flowers did. Thus he used to prate,
Till we almost believed him.