“Almost all people have this potential for evil, which would be unleashed only under certain dangerous social circumstances.”

—  Iris Chang , book The Rape of Nanking

Source: The Rape of Nanking

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Almost all people have this potential for evil, which would be unleashed only under certain dangerous social circumstan…" by Iris Chang?
Iris Chang photo
Iris Chang 3
American historian 1968–2004

Related quotes

Margaret Thatcher photo

“The point of having nuclear weapons is to deter a war of any kind. They have succeeded in doing so for the past 37 years. To be an effective deterrent a potential aggressor must believe that under certain circumstances such weapons will be used.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Prime Minister's Questions (1 February 1983) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105246
First term as Prime Minister

Eliezer Yudkowsky photo

“Maybe you just can't protect people from certain specialized types of folly with any sane amount of regulation, and the correct response is to give up on the high social costs of inadequately protecting people from themselves under certain circumstances.”

Eliezer Yudkowsky (1979) American blogger, writer, and artificial intelligence researcher

a comment on Hacker News (April 2012) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3834636

“Knowledge is a potential for a certain type of action, by which we mean that the action would occur if certain tests were run. For example, a library plus its user has knowledge if a certain type of response will be evoked under a given set of stipulations.”

C. West Churchman (1913–2004) American philosopher and systems scientist

Source: 1960s - 1970s, The Design of Inquiring Systems (1971), p. 11

Barack Obama photo

“It’s very hard to prosper in this modern economy if you haven’t fully unleashed the potential of your people. And”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Remarks by President Obama After Meeting with Vietnamese Civil Society Leaders at JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi in Hanoi, Vietnam (May 24, 2016) https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/05/24/remarks-president-obama-after-meeting-vietnamese-civil-society-leaders
2016
Context: It’s very hard to prosper in this modern economy if you haven’t fully unleashed the potential of your people. And your people’s potential, in part, derives from their ability to express themselves and express new ideas, to try to right wrongs that are taking place in the society.

“I always feel that how people treat animals is not too far from how people treat each other, especially under stress or under certain circumstances…”

Yiyun Li (1972) Chinese American writer

Source: On including animal deaths in her work as symbolism in “An Interview with Yiyun Li” https://brickmag.com/an-interview-with-yiyun-li/ in Brick Magazine (2019 Feb 19)

Wojciech Jaruzelski photo

“The absence of a decision could result in an impetuous, dangerous development of a situation which has got out of any control. There is no ideal solution in such circumstances. The only thing is to find the optimal solution, "a lesser evil."”

Wojciech Jaruzelski (1923–2014) Polish military officer and politician

Source: Speech at Kansas State University (11 March 1996)

Walter Rauschenbusch photo

“Their protest against injustice and oppression, to the neglect of all other social evils, is almost monotonous.”

Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) United States Baptist theologian

Source: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Ch.1 The Historical Roots of Christianity the Hebrew Prophets, p. 12-13
Context: There is no question on which side the sympathy of the prophets was enlisted. Their protest against injustice and oppression, to the neglect of all other social evils, is almost monotonous.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo

“Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist

F 87
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

Derren Brown photo

“Russian Roulette should not, under any circumstances, be copied. It is extremely dangerous.”

Derren Brown (1971) British illusionist

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Derren Brown Plays Russian Roulette Live (2003)

“Marx may have erred in analyzing the nature of this conflict. Interests of workers and capitalists may not be irreconcilable under all circumstances, and workers may see the choice between capitalism and socialism differently depending upon the specific political and economic conditions under which they live.”

Adam Przeworski (1940) Polish-American academic

Adam Przeworski and Michael Wallerstein, The American Political Science Review (Jun., 1982)

Related topics