Quotes about devil
page 5

Craig Ferguson photo
Aleister Crowley photo

“Yea! as I loath, I lust; I prostitute myself to thee, perversely prurient - Wilt thou not make this night the nameless nuptial, the Devil thy Lord and mine at Our Black Mass?”

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist

Source: Magical Record of the Beast 666: The Diaries of Aleister Crowley 1914-1920 (1972), p. 296

P. D. James photo
John le Carré photo

“So odd to think of the Devil as a fumbler!”

Smiley's People (1979)

Thomas Moore photo

“Though an angel should write, still 't is devils must print.”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter

The Fudges in England, Letter iii.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Tom Baker photo
Osbert Sitwell photo
John Hagee photo

“Jesus did not come to the Earth to start 285 squabbling denominations fighting over the Bible. How like the devil to divide Christians over the Bible.”

John Hagee (1940) American pastor, theologian and saxophonist

"How Free Is Freedom?" (July 2, 2006)

Michel De Montaigne photo

“Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devil's alphabet— the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and the last which dies.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Attributed

John Doe photo

“There are no angels there are devils in many ways”

John Doe (1954) American singer, songwriter, actor, poet, guitarist and bass player

Song lyrics, Los Angeles (1980), The World's A Mess It's In My Kiss

Charles Dickens photo
P.G. Wodehouse photo
Lu Xun photo
Walt Whitman photo
John Wesley photo

“Why should the Devil have all the best tunes?”

John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian

Attributed to Wesley in The English Poets: Addison to Blake (1880) by Thomas Humphry Ward, it also sometimes attributed to his brother Charles Wesley, and appears even earlier attributed to George Whitefield, in The Monthly Review, or, Literary Journal, Vol. 49 (June 1773 - January 1774), p. 430; this has also been reported as a remark made by Rowland Hill, when he arranged an Easter hymn to the tune of "Pretty, Pretty Polly Hopkins, in The Rambler, Vol. 9 (1858), p. 191; as well as to William Booth, who popularized it as an addage in promoting The Salvation Army.
Disputed

Richard Harris Barham photo
Emil M. Cioran photo
Charles Wesley photo

“Why should the Devil have all the best tunes?”

Charles Wesley (1707–1788) English Methodist and hymn writer

Attributed to Wesley in America Over the Water (2004) by Shirley Collins, p. 113, it is earlier attributed to his brother John, in The English Poets: Addison to Blake (1880) by Thomas Humphry Ward, and even earlier to George Whitefield, in The Monthly Review, or, Literary Journal, Vol. 49 (June 1773 - January 1774), p. 430; this has also been reported as a remark made by Rowland Hill, when he arranged an Easter hymn to the tune of "Pretty, Pretty Polly Hopkins, in The Rambler, Vol. 9 (1858), p. 191; as well as to William Booth, who popularized it as an addage in promoting The Salvation Army.
Disputed

Francois Rabelais photo

“Needs must when the Devil drives.”

Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fourth Book (1548, 1552), Chapter 57.

Georges Bernanos photo
Tanith Lee photo
Charles Kingsley photo
John Calvin photo

“Moreover, in order that we may be aroused and exhorted all the more to carry this out, Scripture makes known that there are not one, not two, nor a few foes, but great armies, which wage war against us. For Mary Magdalene is said to have been freed from seven demons by which she was possessed [Mark 16:9; Luke 8:2], and Christ bears witness that usually after a demon has once been cast out, if you make room for him again, he will take with him seven spirits more wicked than he and return to his empty possession [Matt. 12:43-45]. Indeed, a whole legion is said to have assailed one man [Luke 8:30]. We are therefore taught by these examples that we have to wage war against an infinite number of enemies, lest, despising their fewness, we should be too remiss to give battle, or, thinking that we are sometimes afforded some respite, we should yield to idleness.
But the frequent mention of Satan or the devil in the singular denotes the empire of wickness opposed to the Kingdom of Righteousness. For as the church and fellowship of the saints has Christ as Head, so the faction of the impious and impiety itself are depicted for us together with their prince who holds supreme sway over them. For this reason, it was said: "Depart, …you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels"”

Matt. 25:41
“Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion” https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1611644453 Book 1, ch.14, sect. 14, edited by John T. McNeill pp.173-174.
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

“He saw a lawyer killing a viper
On a dunghill hard, by his own stable
And the devil smiled, for it put him in mind Of
Cain and his brother, Abel.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

"The Devils Thoughts" (c. 1834)

Annie Proulx photo
William Morris photo
Aleister Crowley photo

“Come, Come, Come, Aiwaz! Come, thou Devil Our Lord!”

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist

Source: Magical Record of the Beast 666: The Diaries of Aleister Crowley 1914-1920 (1972), p. 239

Simone Weil photo
Meat Loaf photo

“Karaoke bars are devil worship!”

Meat Loaf (1947) American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor

A chat with Meat Loaf (2006)

Joseph Conrad photo

“He feared neither God, nor devil, nor man, nor wind, nor sea, nor his own conscience. And I believe he hated everybody and everything. But I think he was afraid to die. I believe I am the only man who ever stood up to him.”

Referring to Mr. Burns. Compare to Heart of Darkness' manager: "He was becoming confidential now, but I fancy my unresponsive attitude must have exasperated him at last, for he judged it necessary to inform me he feared neither God nor devil, let alone any mere man. I said I could see that very well..."
The Shadow Line (1915)

Jack London photo
George MacDonald photo

“A condition which of declension would indicate a devil, may of growth indicate a saint.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

The Consuming Fire
Unspoken Sermons, First Series (1867)

Samuel Vince photo

“A very eminent writer has observed, that "the conversion of the Gentile world, whether we consider the difficulties attending it, the opposition made to it, the wonderful work wrought to accomplish it, or the happy effects and consequences of it, may be considered as a more illustrious evidence of God's power, than even our Saviour's miracles of casting out devils, healing the sick, and raising the dead." Indeed, a miracle said to have been wrought without any attending circumstances to justify such an exertion of divine power, could not easily be rendered credible; and our author's argument proves no more. If it were related, that about 1700 years ago, a man was raised from the dead, without its answering any other end than that of restoring him to life, Iconfess that no degree of evidence could induce me tobelieve it; but if the moral government of God appeared in that event, and there were circumstances attending it which could not be accounted for by any human means, the fact becomes credible. When two extraordinary events are thus connected, the proof of one established the truth of the other. Our author has reasoned upon the fact as standing alone, in which case it would not be easy to disprove some of his reasoning; but the fact should be considered in a moral view - as connected with the establishment of a pure religion, and it then becomes credible. In the proof of any circumstance, we must consider every principle which tends to establish it; whereas our author, by considering the case of a man said to have been raised from the dead, simpli in a physical point of view, without any reference to a moral end, endavours to show that it cannot be rendered credible; and, from such principles, we may admit his conclusions without affecting the credibility of Christianity. The general principle on which he establishes his argument, is not the great foundation upon which the evidence of Christianity rests. He says, "Notestimony can be sufficient to establish a miracle, unless it be of such a kind, that the falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endavours to prove." Now this reasoning, at furthest, can only be admitted in those cases where the fact has nothing but testimony to establish it. But the proofs of Christianity do not rest simply upon the testimony of its first promulgators, and that of those who were affterwards the instruments of communicating it; but they rest principally upon the acknowledged and very extraordinary affects which were produced by the preaching of a few unlearned, obscure persons, who taught "Christ crucified;" and it is upon these indisuptable matters of ffact which we reason; and when the effects are totally unaccountable upon any principle which we can collect from the operation of human means, we must either admit miracles, or admit an effect without an adequate cause. Also, when the proof of any position depends upon arguments drawn from various sources, all concutring to establish its turh, to select some one circumstance, and atrempt to show that that alone is not sufficient to render the fact credible, and thence infer that it is not ture, is a conclusion not to be admitted. But it is thus that our author has endavoured to destroy the credibiliry of Christianity, the evidences of which depend upon a great variety of circumstances and facts which are indisputably true, all cooperating to confirm its truth; but an examination of these falls not whithin the plan here proposed. He rests all his arguments upon the extraordinary nature of the fact, considered alone by itself; for a common fact, with the same evidence, would immediately be admitted. I have endavoured to show, that the extraordinary nature, as much as the mosst common events are necessary to fulfill the usual dispensations of Providence, and therefore the Deity was then direted by the same motive as in a more ordinary case, that of affording us such assitance as our moral condition renders necessary. In the establishment of a pur religion, the proof of its divine origin may require some very extraordinary circumstances which may never afterwards be requisite, and accordingly we find that they have not happened. Here is therefore a perfect concistencty in the operation of the Deity, in his moral government, and not a violation of the laws of nature: Secondly, the fact is immediately connected with others which are indisputably true, and which, without the supossition of the truth of that fact, would be, at least, equally miraculous. Thus I conceive the reasoning of our author to be totally inconclusive; and the argumentss which have been employed to prove the fallacy of his conclusions, appear at the same time, fully to justify our belief in, and prove the moral certainty of, our holy religion.”

Samuel Vince (1749–1821) British mathematician, astronomer and physicist

Source: The Credibility of Christianity Vindicated, p. 27; As quoted in " Book review http://books.google.nl/books?id=52tAAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA262," in The British Critic, Volume 12 (1798). F. and C. Rivington. p. 262-263

Fritz Leiber photo

“I’ve never found anything in occult literature that seemed to have a bearing. You know, the occult—very much like stories of supernatural horror—is a sort of game. Most religions, too. Believe in the game and accept its rules—or the premises of the story—and you can have the thrills or whatever it is you’re after. Accept the spirit world and you can see ghosts and talk to the dear departed. Accept Heaven and you can have the hope of eternal life and the reassurance of an all-powerful god working on your side. Accept Hell and you can have devils and demons, if that’s what you want. Accept—if only for story purposes—witchcraft, druidism, shamanism, magic or some modern variant and you can have werewolves, vampires, elementals. Or believe in the influence and power of a grave, an ancient house or monument, a dead religion, or an old stone with an inscription on it—and you can have inner things of the same general sort. But I’m thinking of the kind of horror—and wonder too, perhaps—that lies beyond any game, that’s bigger than any game, that’s fettered by no rules, conforms to no man-made theology, bows to no charms or protective rituals, that strides the world unseen and strikes without warning where it will, much the same as (though it’s of a different order of existence than all of these) lightning or the plague or the enemy atom bomb. The sort of horror that the whole fabric of civilization was designed to protect us from and make us forget. The horror about which all man’s learning tells us nothing.”

Fritz Leiber (1910–1992) American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction

“A Bit of the Dark World” (pp. 261-262); originally published in Fantastic, February 1962
Short Fiction, Night's Black Agents (1947)

Samuel Gompers photo
Pope Leo XIII photo
Max Stirner photo

“To bargain freedom for security is the devil's bargain. Having made the bargain, one enjoys neither freedom nor security.”

Gerry Spence (1929) American lawyer

Source: Give Me Liberty! (1998), Ch. 16 : Security, the One-Way Ticket to Slavery, p. 174

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“685. As good eat the Devil as the Broth he's boil'd in.”

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

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

“Spiritual pride is the worst of all pride, if it is not the worst snare of the devil. The heart is peculiarly deceitful on just this one thing.”

Ichabod Spencer (1798–1854) American minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 485.

Owen Lovejoy photo

“The principle of enslaving human beings because they are inferior, is this. If a man is a cripple, trip him up. If he is old and weak, and bowed with the weight of years, strike him, for he cannot strike back. If idiotic, take advantage of him, and if a child, deceive him. This, sir, this is the doctrine of Democrats and the doctrine of devils as well, and there is no place in the universe outside the five points of hell and |the Democratic Party where the practice and prevalence of such doctrines would not be a disgrace.”

Owen Lovejoy (1811–1864) American politician

As quoted in His Brother's Blood: Speeches and Writings, 1838–64 https://books.google.com/books?id=qMEv8DNXVbIC&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=%22The+principle+of+enslaving+human+beings+because+they+are+inferior%22&source=bl&ots=YA6W9JoaPr&sig=aO15r4OJEVD8bQUIjM34u42GjXg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiM9vuXwsrLAhWJeD4KHWvpAUcQ6AEIHjAB#v=onepage&q=%22The%20principle%20of%20enslaving%20human%20beings%20because%20they%20are%20inferior%22&f=false (2004), edited by William Frederick Moore and Jane Ann Moore, p. 193
1860s, Speech to the U.S. House of Representatives (April 1860)

Kris Kristofferson photo

“I don't care what's right or wrong,
I don't try to understand,
Let the devil take tomorrow,
Lord tonight I need a friend.”

Kris Kristofferson (1936) American country music singer, songwriter, musician, and film actor

Help Me Make It Through the Night
Song lyrics, Kristofferson (1970)

George Bernard Shaw photo

“To understand a saint, you must hear the devil's advocate; and the same is true of the artist.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

The Sanity of Art: An Exposure of the Current Nonsense about Artists being Degenerate (1908)
1900s

Jane Jacobs photo

“In wretched outcomes, the devil is in the details.”

Source: Dark Age Ahead (2004), Chapter Seven, Unwinding Vicious Spirals, p. 153

Thomas Fuller photo

“Heat of passion makes our souls to chap, and the devil creeps in at the crannies.”

Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) English churchman and historian

Of Anger.
The Holy State and the Profane State (1642)

Thomas Carlyle photo

“Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the Devil; for which reason I have, long since, as good as renounced it.”

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

Bk. II, ch. 4.
1830s, Sartor Resartus (1833–1834)

Immortal Technique photo

“The devil crept into heaven, God overslept on the seventh, the new world order was born on September 11th.”

Immortal Technique (1978) American rapper and activist

The Cause of Death
Albums, Revolutionary Vol. 2 (2003)

Percy Bysshe Shelley photo

“You would not easily guess
All the modes of distress
Which torture the tenants of earth;
And the various evils,
Which like so many devils,
Attend the poor souls from their birth.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

"Verses On A Cat" (1800), St. 2, as published in Life of Shelley (1858) by Thomas Jefferson Hogg, p. 21

Sinclair Lewis photo
Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

“And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin
Is pride that apes humility.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

"The Devil's Thoughts", st. 6 (1799)

George Whitefield photo

“Why should the Devil have all the best tunes?”

George Whitefield (1714–1770) English minister and preacher

Attributed to Whitefield, in The Monthly Review, or, Literary Journal, Vol. 49 (June 1773 - January 1774), p. 430; this has also been reported as a remark made by Rowland Hill, when he arranged an Easter hymn to the tune of "Pretty, Pretty Polly Hopkins, in The Rambler, Vol. 9 (1858), p. 191; it has also attributed to Charles Wesley, and sometimes his brother John, as well as William Booth, who popularized it as an addage in promoting his The Salvation Army.
Disputed

Halldór Laxness photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo
H.L. Mencken photo

“The theory seems to be that so long as a man is a failure he is one of God's chillun, but that as soon as he has any luck he owes it to the Devil.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)

“Boy dressed as the devil: Everybody's afraid of the devil!
Girl: Not me!
Boy dressed as a ghost: How come?
Girl: Because Jesus loves me and the devil is afraid of Jesus.”

Jack T. Chick (1924–2016) Christian comics writer

Chick tracts, " The Little Ghost http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1010/1010_01.asp" (2001)

Apsley Cherry-Garrard photo
Bruno Schulz photo
David Berg photo
John Napier photo

“35 Proposition. The Devils bondage a thousand yeares (cap. 20) is no waies els, but from stirring up of universall warres among nations.”

John Napier (1550–1617) Scottish mathematician

A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John (1593), The First and Introductory Treatise

Cotton Mather photo
Joyce Kilmer photo

“I saw him through a thousand veils,
And has not this sufficed?
Now, must I look on the Devil robed
In the radiant Robe of Christ?”

Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918) American poet, editor, literary critic, soldier

Main Street and Other Poems (1917), The Robe of Christ
Context: Oh, he can be the forest,
And he can be the sun,
Or a buttercup, or an hour of rest
When the weary day is done.
I saw him through a thousand veils,
And has not this sufficed?
Now, must I look on the Devil robed
In the radiant Robe of Christ?

Thom Yorke photo

“It's the devil's way now
There is no way out
You can scream and you can shout
It is too late now”

Thom Yorke (1968) English musician, philanthropist and singer-songwriter

"2+2=5"
Lyrics, Hail to the Thief (2003)

Rahm Emanuel photo

“Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil's spawn. He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive.”

Rahm Emanuel (1959) politician, investment banker, White House Chief of Staff

Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY). http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/03/08/massa_rahm_emanuel_would_sell_his_own_mother_for_votes.html
About

Samuel Butler photo
Robert Burton photo

“Where God hath a temple, the Devil will have a chapel.”

Section 4, member 1, subsection 1.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III

Albert Einstein photo

“[tolerate_evil] What I particularly admire in him is the firm stand he has taken, not only against the oppressors of his countrymen, but also against those opportunists who are always ready to compromise with the Devil. He perceives very clearly that the world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Einstein's tribute to Pablo Casals (30 March 1953), in Conversations with Casals (1957), page 11, by Josep Maria Corredor, translated from Conversations avec Pablo Casals : souvenirs et opinions d'un musicien (1955)
Variant translations or paraphrasing:
The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
As quoted in The Harper Book of Quotations by Robert I. Fitzhenry (1993), p. 356 http://books.google.com/books?id=THl7kUfSqCUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA356#v=onepage&q&f=false
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
As quoted in Conscious Courage : Turning Everyday Challenges Into Opportunities (2004) by Maureen Stearns, p. 99
The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.
1950s

Miguel de Unamuno photo

“The devil is an angel too.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

Tres novelas ejemplares y un prólogo [Three Exemplary Novels and a Prologue] (1920); Two Mothers

Stephen Crane photo
Thomas Carlyle photo

“In brief, all this Mammon- Gospel, of Supply-and-demand, Competition, Laissez-faire, and Devil take the hindmost, begins to be one of the shabbiest Gospels ever preached on Earth; or altogether the shabbiest.”

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

1840s, Past and Present (1843)

Pat Robertson photo
Julius Streicher photo

“They are hated because they satisfy their greed according to Talmudic principles. In the Jewish lawbook "Talmud" the Jews are told that the possessions of gentiles were "ownerless property", which the Jew was allowed to obtain through deceit and cheating. Whatever the "profession" may be called where the Jew earns his money, everywhere he remains a Jew. Such criminal behavior must inevitably provoke the hatred of Jews (anti-Semitism) and fighting repulsion. The fight that the Nazarene led 2000 years ago against the Jewish usurers resulted in a gruesome way of suffering and his slaughter at Calvary. The judgement passed by Jesus on the Jews marks the Jewish people for all time:
"Ye are of your father the devil! He was a murderer from the beginning."”

Julius Streicher (1885–1946) German politician

John 8:44-45
Sie werden gehasst, weil sie ihre Gier nach Geld nach talmudischen Grundsätzen befriedigen. Im jüdischen Gesetzbuch "Talmud" wird den Juden gesagt, dass der Besitz der Nichtjuden "herrenloses Gut" sei, den der Jude durch Wucher, durch Betrug und Übervorteilung an sich bringen dürfe. Und wie der "Beruf" auch heißen mag, in dem der Jude sein Geld verdient, überall ist und bleibt er Jude. Solch verbrecherisches Verhalten muss zwangsläufig den Hass gegen die Juden (Antisemitismus) erzeugen und Abwehrkämpfe heraufbeschwören. Der Kampf, den der Nazarener vor 2000 Jahren gegen die jüdischen Zinseintreiber führte, endete mit einem grauenvollen Leidensweg und seiner Hinschlachtung auf Golgatha. Das Urteil, das Jesus Christus über die Juden fällte, kennzeichnet das Volk der Juden für alle Zeiten:
"Ich habt zum Vater nicht Gott, sondern den Teufel. Er war ein Verbrecher und Menschenmörder von Anfang an". (Joh. VIII | 44,45.)
Foreword to the book "Juden stellen sich vor", Stürmer publishing house, 1934

Joyce Kilmer photo
Robert E. Howard photo
Indro Montanelli photo
Kage Baker photo
Edward Thomson photo
Roger Ebert photo
Molière photo

“A witty woman is a devil at intrigue.”

Molière (1622–1673) French playwright and actor

Une femme d'esprit est un diable en intrigue.
L'École des Femmes (1662), Act III, sc. iii

Elia M. Ramollah photo
Stan Lee photo

“The worst advice Stan Lee ever gave me: “Work with the devil himself if he has talent.””

Stan Lee (1922–2018) American comic book writer

Jim Shooter, Jimshooter.com http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/06/ten-more-comics-creators-quips-and.html (2011/06)
Attributed

J.B. Priestley photo
Antonin Scalia photo
John Suckling photo
Hugo Chávez photo
Howie Rose photo
Shane Claiborne photo
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo
E. B. White photo
Immortal Technique photo

“When I was a child, the Devil himself bought me a mic. But I refused the offer, 'cuz God sent me to strike, with skills unused like fallopian tubes on a dyke.”

Immortal Technique (1978) American rapper and activist

The Cause of Death
Albums, Revolutionary Vol. 2 (2003)

Brian W. Aldiss photo
Francesco Berni photo

“That we may know
Whether the devil doth his looks belie,
And if he is as ugly as we paint him.”

Francesco Berni (1497–1535) Italian poet

LII, 1
Rifacimento of Orlando Innamorato

Charles Baudelaire photo

“The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.”

La plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas.
XXIX: "Le Joueur généreux"; The devil describes having heard this statement made by a Parisian preacher
Paraphrased in The Usual Suspects as "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."
Le Spleen de Paris (1862)