“A man who has throttled a bad impulse has at least some consolation in his agonies, but a man who has throttled a good one is in a bad way indeed.”

“The man who has graduated from the flogging block at Eton to the bench from which he sentences the garrotter to be flogged is the same social product as the garrotter who has been kicked by his father and cuffed by his mother until he has grown strong enough to throttle and rob the rich citizen whose money he desires.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

“No one deserves to live who has not at least one good-man-and-true for a friend.”

Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory

“4912. There is no Man so bad, but has a secret Respect for the good.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

“No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

“Whosoever complains of the bad character of another man has revealed the badness of his own character.”

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111) Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic

“Mine is a bad doctrine. And, what's more, I cannot substantiate my doctrine. The man who has the best doctrine is the one who can prove that he has the most to eat; and good shoes. I have neither, and live in a dugout.”

Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) Icelandic author

“Every man, either to his terror or consolation, has some sense of religion.”

Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic

“A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life to be thankful for a good one.”

Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) British-American actress

“A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life, to be thankful for a good one.”

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896–1953) American novelist