Evil famous quotes
Last updated: Sep 5, 2024
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The State is said by some to be a necessary evil; it must be made unnecessary.
-- Benjamin Tucker -
There are some troubles from which mankind can never escape .... have never claimed that liberty will bring perfection; they simply say that its results are vastly preferable to those that follow from authority .... As a choice of blessings, liberty is the greater; as a choice of evils, liberty is the smaller. Then liberty always says the Anarchist. No use of force except against the invader....
-- Benjamin Tucker -
Some things must be good in themselves, else there could be no measure whereby to lay out good and evil.
-- Benjamin Whichcote -
Once we allow ourselves to do evil so that some perceived good may follow, we allow ever greater evils for the sake of ever more questionable goods, until we consent to the greatest evils for the sake of mere trifles.
-- Benjamin Wiker -
Murder is an inherently evil act, no matter what the circumstances, no matter how convincing the rationalizations.
-- Bentley Little -
Science has taught us how to put the atom to work. But to make it work for good instead of for evil lies in the domain dealing with the principles of human duty. We are now facing a problem more of ethics than physics.
-- Bernard Baruch -
Politics is a way of ruling in divided societies without undue violence...politics is not just a necessary evil; it is a realistic good.
-- Bernard Crick -
I see nuclear weapons as the ultimate evil, not just evil, but the ultimate evil with the potential to make life unlivable on this planet.
-- Bernard Lown -
Of all evils of war the greatest is the purely spiritual evil: the hatred, the injustice, the repudiation of truth, the artificial conflict.
-- Bertrand Russell -
The twin conceptions of sin and vindictive punishment seem to be at the root of much that is most vigorous, both in religion and politics.
-- Bertrand Russell -
Much of the most important evils that mankind have to consider are those which they inflict upon each other through stupidity or malevolence or both.
-- Bertrand Russell -
Ideas and principles that do harm are as a rule, though not always, cloaks for evil passions.
-- Bertrand Russell -
One of the chief obstacles to intelligence is credulity, and credulity could be enormously diminished by instructions as to the prevalent forms of mendacity. Credulity is a greater evil in the present day than it ever was before, because, owing to the growth of education, it is much easier than it used to be to spread misinformation, and, owing to democracy, the spread of misinformation is more important than in former times to the holders of power.
-- Bertrand Russell -
Goodness is something that makes us serene and content; it is magnificent. Those who are not good are evil.
-- Bhumibol Adulyadej -
I believe it to my soul that you're the devil in nylon hose, for the harder I worker the faster my money goes.
-- Big Joe Turner -
There's more evil in the charts than an Al-Qaeda suggestion box.
-- Bill Bailey -
I think it is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction bequeathed to the nation-states, on to a surprising and terrible empowerment of extreme individuals.
-- Bill Joy -
Know, he that foretells his own calamity, and makes events before they come, twice over, doth endure the pains of evil destiny.
-- Bill Vaughan -
Look for strength in people, not weakness; for good, not evil. Most of us find what we search for.
-- Bill Vaughan -
I wasn't into Tolkien at school really. But the story is timeless, the themes that it touches on are contained in cultures all around the world. The innocent on a quest, the pretender, an inanimate object that holds evil - it's really strange that these themes are there in so many different countries' folklore.
-- Billy Boyd -
Even if we may not always understand why God allows certain things to happen to us, we can know He is able to bring good out of evil, and triumph out of suffering.
-- Billy Graham -
The cross is offensive because it directly confronts the evils which dominate so much of this world.
-- Billy Graham -
Evil is real - but so is God's power and love.
-- Billy Graham -
I can't explain 9/11, except the evil of man.
-- Billy Graham -
Man has always been dexterous at confusing evil with good. That was Adam's and Eve's problem, and it is our problem today. If evil were not made to appear attractive, there would be no such thing as temptation.
-- Billy Graham -
You may never understand How the stranger is inspired For he is not always evil, And he is not always wrong.
-- Billy Joel -
They say there's a heaven for those who wait, some say it's better I say it ain't.
-- Billy Joel -
She'll carelessly cut you and laugh while you're bleeding.
-- Billy Joel -
I got a story, ain't no moral, I let the bad guy win every now and then.
-- Billy Preston -
There has always been a battle between good and evil.
-- Billy Ray Cyrus -
Love of money is the mother-city (metropolis) of all evils.
-- Bion of Borysthenes -
Pedaling through the dark currents, I find an accurate copy. A blue print of the pleasure in me.
-- Bjork -
All human evil comes from a single cause, man's inability to sit still in a room.
-- Blaise Pascal -
We sometimes learn more from the sight of evil than from an example of good; and it is well to accustom ourselves to profit by the evil which is so common, while that which is good is so rare.
-- Blaise Pascal -
Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world. Almost any evil you'd care to name comes from working or from living in a world designed for work. In order to stop suffering, we have to stop working.
-- Bob Black -
History buffs probably noted the reunion at a Washington party a few weeks ago of three ex-presidents: Carter, Ford and Nixon - See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Evil.
-- Bob Dole -
There they are. See no evil, hear no evil, and...evil.
-- Bob Dole -
One of my most often repeated quips was the one I made when former Presidents Carter, Ford and Nixon stood by each other at a White House event. 'There they are,' I said. 'See no evil, hear no evil, and . . . evil.'
-- Bob Dole -
Remember Killer Moth, the most ingenuous rogue ever to defy the dynamic duo, Batman and Robin ?Perhaps you recall how the weird beam from the Moth Signal summoned the Gangland Guardian to the aid of desperate criminals ?And who can forget the eerie Moth Cave where new and startling implements of crime were produced by this evil genius !
-- Bob Kane -
There are a lot of people, especially the younger generation who don't feel that they need to support the artists by buying their music because they grew up learning that record companies are evil.
-- Bob Mould -
Tolerating evil leads only to more evil. And when good people stand by and do nothing while wickedness reigns, their communities will be consumed.
-- Bob Riley -
With only one thing in common, they got the fire down below.
-- Bob Seger -
She gave me a false address, took off with my American Express, sunspot baby, sure had me way out guessed.
-- Bob Seger -
It's not that Good doesn't triumph over Evil, it's that the point spread is too small.
-- Bob Thaves -
According to the Sutras, evil deeds result in hardships and good deeds result in blessings.
-- Bodhidharma -
Neither gods nor men can foresee when an evil deed will bear its fruit.
-- Bodhidharma -
The ignorant mind, with its infinite afflictions, passions, and evils, is rooted in the three poisons. Greed, anger, and delusion.
-- Bodhidharma -
Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.
-- Bodhidharma -
If there is a God, whence proceed so many evils? If there is no God, whence cometh any good?
-- Boethius -
Good men seek it by the natural means of the virtues; evil men, however, try to achieve the same goal by a variety of concupiscences, and that is surely an unnatural way of seeking the good. Don't you agree?
-- Boethius -
The principle of recognition of evil under all its guises is at the basis of the true education of man.
-- Boris Sidis -
Superstitions, and especially the early cultivation of religion, with its "fear of the Lord" and of unknown mysterious agencies, are especially potent in the development of the instinct of fear. Even the early cultivation of morality and conscientiousness, with their fears of right and wrong, often causes psychoneurotic states in later life. Religious, social, and moral taboos and superstitions, associated with apprehension of threatening impending evil, based on the fear instinct, form the germs of psychopathic affections.
-- Boris Sidis -
A little threat of evil is always the far better way to fill the seats. But sometimes the monsters aren't who we think they are.
-- Brad Meltzer -
It is something like the way dame Nature gathers round a foreign body an envelope of some insensitive tissue which can protect from evil that which it would otherwise harm by contact. If this be an ordered selfishness, then we should pause before we condemn any one for the vice of egoism, for there may be deeper root for its causes than we have knowledge of.
-- Bram Stoker -
Give a good deed the credit of a good motive; and give an evil deed the benefit of the doubt.
-- Brander Matthews -
Does one deserve to have evil done to her by consequence of putting herself where evil can reach her?
-- Brandon Sanderson -
There's a difference between people who do hurtful things because they're evil and people who do bad things because of their circumstances.
-- Bree Despain -
Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement, and death will be part of your journey, but the Kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever.
-- Brennan Manning -
Whatever we have done in the past, be it good or evil, great or small, is irrelevant to our stance before God today. It is only NOW that we are in the presence of God.
-- Brennan Manning -
To affirm a person is to see the good in them that they cannot see in themselves and to repeat it in spite of appearances to the contrary. Please, this is not some Pollyanna optimism that is blind to the reality of evil, but rather like a fine radar system that is tuned in to the true, the good, and the beautiful.
-- Brennan Manning -
Evil is simple and empty. Evil has no mysterious depths. We stare into a dark hole and fill it with our fears, but it is only a hole.
-- Brent Weeks -
My question is, do you believe in an evil possessed of its own purity? or does every act intend some good?...
-- Brent Weeks -
Is evil something you are? Or is it something you do?
-- Bret Easton Ellis -
There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone, in fact I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape, but even after admitting this there is no catharsis, my punishment continues to elude me and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself; no new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant nothing.
-- Bret Easton Ellis -
She sits before me, sullen but hopeful, characterless, about to dissolve into tears. I squeeze her hand back, moved, no, touched by her ignorance of evil. She has one more test to pass. Do you own a briefcase?†I ask her, swallowing.
-- Bret Easton Ellis -
Its as boring to see a completely evil villain as it is to see a completely good guy.
-- Brian Helgeland -
Weapons may be carried by creatures who are evil, dishonest, violent or lazy. The true warrior is good, gentle and honest. His bravery comes from within himself; he learns to conquer his own fears and misdeeds. —Matthias
-- Brian Jacques -
There is no greater evil than killing. I don't care whether they call it war or justice. Life is precious.
-- Brian Jacques -
They’d say, ‘If you play the record backwards, you can hear evil things like 'grrrr!'’ and I would think, ‘Geez, I didn’t know the devil sounded like that. I thought he was coherent like the rest of us.’
-- Brian Johnson -
But other vampire stories? Well, no, I really haven't read too many, and I can't say I'm crazy about romantic vampires anyway - to me the vampire is simply an evil monster.
-- Brian Lumley -
Evil is something you recognize immediately you see it: it works through charm
-- Brian Masters -
If your neighbors talk about you, and you think that they do wrong in speaking evil of you, do not let them know that your ever heard a word, and conduct yourselves as if they always did right, and it will mortify them, and they will say, "We'll not try this game any longer."
-- Brigham Young -
Let not the tongue give utterance to the evil that is in thine heart, but command thy tongue to be silent until good shall prevail over evil.
-- Brigham Young -
I never play a villain that I don't have something I can either do or say so the audience sees there is something redeemable about them. In other words, I don't want to do evil for evil's sake. I don't want to do Jason slasher movies. There's no point in that.
-- Brion James -
We cheerfully assume that in some mystic way love conquers all, that good outweighs evil in the just balances of the universe and at the 11th hour something gloriously triumphant will prevent the worst before it happens.
-- Brooks Atkinson -
The evil that men do lives on the front pages of greedy newspapers, but the good is oft interred apathetically inside.
-- Brooks Atkinson -
'Evil Dead 1' was never supposed to have a sequel.
-- Bruce Campbell -
Men see things late, and it may be that at times an evil fate drives them on.
-- Bruce Catton -
Don't be forecasting evil unless it is what you can guard against. Anxiety is good for nothing if we can't turn it into a defense.
-- Bruce Lee -
I got involved in improv comedy. It settled me down when I was getting wild. I was sort of an evil teenager smashing up my cars and drinking and driving, let's just say, a lot.
-- Bruce McCulloch -
The evil of storytelling is you're trying to make the audience complicit in murder - 'Kill the guy! Jump him!' And then once you've done it, it's like, 'I've killed this guy, now what?
-- Bruno Heller -
What we call evil doesn't necessarily deserve any kind of respect or understanding, by any means; it just deserves an acknowledgement of its complexity so we can better understand it - so we can help prevent it.
-- Bryan Singer -
I'm on the verge of suicide, so what's murder?
-- Bushwick Bill -
Compression is a necessary evil. The artists I know want to sound competitive. You don't want your track to sound quieter or wimpier by comparison. We've raised the bar and you can't really step back.
-- Butch Vig -
War provides an outlet for every evil element in man's nature. It enfranchises cupidity and greed gives a charter to petty tyranny, glorifies cruelty and places in positions of power the vulgar and base.
-- C. E. M. Joad -
Do not let us mistake necessary evils for good.
-- C. S. Lewis -
Free will, though it makes evil possible, also makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.
-- C. S. Lewis -
You and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness.
-- C. S. Lewis -
The descent to hell is easy and those who begin by worshipping power, soon worship evil.
-- C. S. Lewis -
We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it.
-- C. S. Lewis -
Evil can be undone, but it cannot 'develop' into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound, bit by bit, 'with backward mutters of dissevering power' - or else not.
-- C. S. Lewis -
I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A sum can be put right: but only by going back til you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot 'develop' into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound, bit by bit, 'with backward mutters of dissevering power' --or else not.
-- C. S. Lewis -
Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.
-- C. S. Lewis -
Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good.
-- C. S. Lewis -
Good and evil increase at compound interest. That's why the little decisions we make every day are of infinite importance.
-- C. S. Lewis
