“Good can be done in a life in which Evil is the life principle, but only at the cost of the doer’s sacrificing his life.”
Liquidation (2003)
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Imre Kertész 61
Hungarian writer 1929–2016Related quotes

Source: Costly Grace, p. 45.
Context: Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.

“If a man has done evil in his life, he must not be complimented in marble.”
As quoted in Simon, James F., Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney (2006), Simon and Schuster, p. 268.

Kulturphilosophie (1923), Vol. 2 : Civilization and Ethics

"A Russian Patriot and His Country, Part I" https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/04/russian-patriot-and-his-country-part-i-vladimir-kara-murza/ (10 April 2017), National Review
2010s

infinity plus interview (2001)
Variant: In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.
Context: The battle between good and evil is a legitimate theme for a Fantasy (or for any work of fiction, for that matter), but in real life that battle is fought chiefly in the individual human heart. Too many contemporary Fantasies take the easy way out by externalizing the struggle, so the heroic protagonists need only smite the evil minions of the dark power to win the day. And you can tell the evil minions, because they're inevitably ugly and they all wear black.
I wanted to stand much of that on its head.
In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.

Source: The Essays: A Selection

Acceptance speech for the Charles S. Johnson Award at Fisk University in 1966