Evil

Good can imagine Evil, but Evil cannot imagine Good. ~ W. H. Auden

Evil is a term used to indicate acts or qualities involving needless or wanton harm or destruction, or the deliberate violation of some accepted moral codes of behavior. The philosophical questions which arise among various perceptions and definitions of the nature of evil and virtue are a primary focus of most ethical and religious systems of thought.

Quotes

To cease from evil, to do good, and to purify the mind yourself, this is the teaching of all the Buddhas. ~ Gautama Buddha

It’s no use crying over spilt evils. It’s better to mop them up laughing. ~ Eleanor Farjeon

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.

• Destroy the seed of evil, or it will grow up to your ruin.
  • Aesop, "The Swallow and the Other Birds" (c. 6th century BC)

• Some men aren't looking for anything logical. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
  • Alfred, in The Dark Knight

• One, who enters the places of evil repute has no right to complain against a man who speaks ill of him.
  • Ali, A Hundred Sayings

• The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.
  • Hannah Arendt, in The Life of the Mind (1978), "Thinking"

• Good can imagine Evil, but Evil cannot imagine Good.
  • W. H. Auden, in A Certain World (1970)

• To cease from evil, to do good, and to purify the mind yourself, this is the teaching of all the Buddhas.
  • Gautama Buddha, in the Dhammapada, Verse 183

• A thing may look specious in theory, and yet be ruinous in practice; a thing may look evil in theory, and yet be in practice excellent.
  • Edmund Burke, Impeachment of Warren Hastings, 19th Feb. 1788.

• I think the old, sound, and honest maxim that "you shall not do evil that good may come," is applicable in law as well as in morals.
  • C. J. Cockburn, in Reg. v. Hicklin and another (1868), 11 Cox, C. C. 27; S. C. 3 L. R. Q. B. 372; reported in Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904) by James William Norton-Kyshe, p. 92

• Let us never forget the christian maxim "that we should not do evil that good may come of it." '
  • Crampon, J., R. v. O'Connell (1843), 5 St. Tr. (N. S.) 703; reported in Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904) by James William Norton-Kyshe, p. 92

• He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done.
  • Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks

• It’s no use crying over spilt evils. It’s better to mop them up laughing.
  • Eleanor Farjeon, in Gypsy and Ginger (1920)

• Evil beginning houres may end in good.
  • John Fletcher, The Knight of Malta (1647), Act II, scene 5.

• Where two evils present, a wise administration, if there be room for an option, will choose the least.
  • J. Foster, in Case of Pressing Mariners (1743), 18 How. St. Tr. 1330; reported in Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904) by James William Norton-Kyshe, p. 91

• Non è male alcuno nelle cose umane che non abbia congiunto seco qualche bene.
  • There is no evil in human affairs that has not some good mingled with it.
  • Francesco Guicciardini, Storia d'Italia (1537-1540).

• Being against evil doesn't make you good.
  • Ernest Hemingway, Islands in the Stream (1970), Part 1: Bimini, Section 4

• The man who does evil to another does evil to himself,
  and the evil counsel is most evil for him who counsels it.
  • Hesiod, Works and Days (8th century BC), line 265, translated by Richard Lattimore.

• It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
  • Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind (1954)

• I must say that anyone who moved through those years [World War II] without understanding that man produces evil as a bee produces honey must have been blind or wrong in the head.
  • William Golding, "Fable", in The Hot Gates (1965), p. 87

• Every person has the choice between Good and Evil. Choose Good, and stand against those who would choose Evil.
  • Friedrich Kellner

• Of two evils, the less is always to be chosen.
  • Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, Book III, Chapter 12

• It is the evil that lies in ourselves that is ever least tolerant of the evil that lies in others.
  • Maurice Maeterlinck, Wisdom and Destiny (1898), translated by Alfred Sutro

• There is Good and there is Evil and Evil must be punished. Even in the face of Armageddon, I shall not compromise in this.
  • Alan Moore, in a line for Rorschach, in Watchmen

• How shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
  • Paul of Tarsus, in Romans, iii., 6-8 (KJV)

• Jamais on ne fait le mal si pleinement et si gaiement que quand on le fait par conscience.
  • Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it conscientiously.
  • Variant: Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction (trans. W.F. Trotter)
  • Blaise Pascal, Pensées (# 894 or 895, depending on differing editions)

• Of two evils I have chose the least.
  • Matthew Prior, "Imitation of Horace", a reference to E duobus malis, minimum eligendum, Cicero, De Officiis; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 92.

• Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows...
  • The Shadow, in Introductory words to the broadcast radio episodes of The Shadow, as quoted in Radio's Golden Age : The Programs and the Personalities (1966) by Frank Buxton and Bill Owen; also in Orson Welles : A Biography (1995) by Barbara Leaming, p. 123

• The evil that men do lives after them;
  The good is oft interred with their bones.
  • William Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar (1599), Act III, scene 2, line 80.

• But then I sigh; and, with a piece of Scripture,
  Tell them that God bids us do good for evil.
  • William Shakespeare, Richard III (c. 1591), Act I, scene 3, line 334.

• Now you see, Lone Starr, that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.
  • Dark Helmet, Spaceballs

• He who studies evil is studied by evil.
  • Ranjen Solbor, "The Changing Face of Evil", Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, inspired by the famous quote of Friedrich Nietzsche.

• Without followers, evil cannot spread.
  • Spock, "And The Children Shall Lead", Star Trek

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 239-41.

• Evil events from evil causes spring.
  • Aristophanes.

• Evil and good are God's right hand and left.
  • Philip James Bailey, Prelude to Festus.

• Souvent la peur d'un mal nous conduit dans un pire.
  • Often the fear of one evil leads us into a worse.
  • Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, L'Art Poétique, I. 64.

• From envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness.
  • Book of Common Prayer, Litany.

• The world, the flesh, and the devil.
  • Book of Common Prayer, Litany.

• I have wrought great use out of evil tools.
  • Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Richelieu (1839), Act III, scene 1, line 49.

• The authors of great evils know best how to remove them.
  • Cato the Younger's Advice to the Senate to put all power into Pompey's hands. Plutarch, Life of Cato the Younger.

• Como el hacer mal viene de natural cosecha, fácilmente se aprende el hacerle.
  • Inasmuch as ill-deeds spring up as a spontaneous crop, they are easy to learn.
  • Miguel de Cervantes, Coloquio de los Perros.

• Ex malis eligere minima oportere.
  • Of evils one should choose the least.
  • Cicero, De Officiis (44 B.C.), Book III. 1. Same idea in Thomas á Kempis. Imit Christi. 312.

• Omne malum nascens facile opprimitur; inveteratum fit pleurumque robustius.
  • Every evil in the bud is easily crushed: as it grows older, it becomes stronger.
  • Cicero, Philippicæ, V. 11.

• Touch not; taste not; handle not.
  • Colossians, II. 21.

• Evil communications corrupt good manners.
  • I Corinthians, XV. 33.

• Et tous maux sont pareils alors qu'ils sont extrêmes.
  • All evils are equal when they are extreme.
  • Pierre Corneille, Horace, III. 4.

• Superbia, invidia ed avarizia sono
  Le tre faville che hanno i cori accesi.
  • Three sparks—pride, envy, and avarice—have been kindled in all hearts.
  • Dante Alighieri, Inferno, VI. 74.

• E duobus malis minimum eligendum.
  • Of two evils choose the least.
  • Erasmus, Adages.

• Den Bösen sind sie los, die Bösen sind geblieben.
  • The Evil One has left, the evil ones remain.
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, I. 6. 174.

• He who does evil that good may come, pays a toll to the devil to let him into heaven.
  • J. C. and A. W. Hare, Guesses at Truth, p. 444.

• But evil is wrought by want of Thought,
  As well as want of Heart!
  • Thomas Hood, The Lady's Dream, Stanza 16.

• Of two
  Evils we take the less.
  • Richard Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Book V, Chapter LXXXI.

• Quid nos dura refugimus
  Ætas, quid intactum nefasti
  Liquimus?
  • What has this unfeeling age of ours left untried, what wickedness has it shunned?
  • Horace, Carmina, I. 35. 34.

• Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.
  • Isaiah. V. 20.

• Magna inter molles concordia.
  • There is great unanimity among the dissolute.
  • Juvenal, Satires, II, 47.

• Fere fit malum malo aptissimum.
  • Evil is fittest to consort with evil.
  • Livy, Annales, I, 46.

• Notissimum quodque malum maxime tolerabile.
  • The best known evil is the most tolerable.
  • Livy, Annales, XXIII, 3.

• Evil springs up, and flowers, and bears no seed,
  And feeds the green earth with its swift decay,
  Leaving it richer for the growth of truth.
  • James Russell Lowell, Prometheus, line 263.

• Solent occupationis spe vel impune quædam scelesta committi.
  • Wicked acts are accustomed to be done with impunity for the mere desire of occupation.
  • Ammianus Marcellinus, Historia, XXX. 9.

• It must be that evil communications corrupt good dispositions.
  • Menander. Found in Dubner's edition of his Fragments appended to Aristophanes in Didot's Bibliotheca Græca, p. 102, line 101. Quoted by St. Paul. See I Corinthians, XV. 33. Same idea in Plato, Republic, 550.

• Que honni soit celui qui mal y pense.
  • Ménage. Ascribed to Tallemant in the Historiettes of Tallemant des Reaux, Volume I, p. 38. Second ed. Note in Third ed., corrects this. Honi soit qui mal y pense. Evil to him who evil thinks. Motto of the Order of the Garter. Established by Edward III, April 23, 1349. See Sir Walter Scott, Essay on Chivalry.

• And out of good still to find means of evil.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book I, line 165.

• Genus est mortis male vivere.
  • An evil life is a kind of death.
  • Ovid, Epistolæ Ex Ponto, III. 4. 75.

• Mille mali species, mille salutis erunt.
  • There are a thousand forms of evil; there will be a thousand remedies.
  • Ovid, Remedia Amoris, V. 26.

• Omnia perversas possunt corrumpere mentes.
  • All things can corrupt perverse minds.
  • Ovid, Tristium, II. 301.

• Hoc sustinete, majus ne veniat malum.
  • Endure this evil lest a worse come upon you.
  • Phaedrus, Fables, Book I. 2. 31.

• Ut acerbum est, pro benefactis quom mali messem metas!
  • How bitter it is to reap a harvest of evil for good that you have done!
  • Plautus, Epidicus, V. 2. 53.

• Pulchrum ornatum turpes mores pejus cœno collinunt.
  • Bad conduct soils the finest ornament more than filth.
  • Plautus, Mostellaria, I. 3. 133.

• Male partum male disperit.
  • Ill gotten is ill spent.
  • Plautus, Pœnulus, IV. 2. 22.

• E malis multis, malum, quod minimum est, id minimum est malum.
  • Out of many evils the evil which is least is the least of evils.
  • Plautus, Stichus, Act I. 2.

• Timely advis'd, the coming evil shun:
  Better not do the deed, than weep it done.
  • Matthew Prior, Henry and Emma, line 308.

• Of two evils I have chose the least.
  • Matthew Prior, Imitation of Horace, Book I, Epistle IX.

• Maledicus a malefico non distat nisi occasione.
  • An evil-speaker differs from an evil-doer only in the want of opportunity.
  • Quintilian, De Institutione Oratorio, XII. 9. 9.

• For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.
  • Romans, VII. 19.

• Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
  • Romans, XII. 21.

• Multitudes think they like to do evil; yet no man ever really enjoyed doing evil since God made the world.
  • John Ruskin, Stones of Venice, Volume I, Chapter II.

• Al mondo mal non e senza rimedio.
  • here is no evil in the world without a remedy.
  • Jacopo Sannazaro, Ecloga Octava.

• Das Leben ist der Güter höchstes nicht
  Der Uebel grösstes aber ist die Schuld.
  • Life is not the supreme good, but the supreme evil is to realize one's guilt.
  • Friedrich Schiller, Die Braut von Messina.

• Das eben ist der Fluch der bösen That,
  Das sie fortzeugend immer Böses muss gebären.
  • The very curse of an evil deed is that it must always continue to engender evil.
  • Friedrich Schiller, Piccolomini, V. 1.

• Per scelera semper sceleribus certum est iter.
  • The way to wickedness is always through wickedness.
  • Seneca, Agamemnon, CXV.

• Si velis vitiis exui, longe a vitiorum exemplis recedendum est.
  • If thou wishest to get rid of thy evil propensities, thou must keep far from evil companions.
  • Seneca, Epistolæ Ad Lucilium, CIV.

• Solent suprema facere securos mala.
  • Desperate evils generally make men safe.
  • Seneca, Œdipus, CCCLXXXVI.

• Serum est cavendi tempus in mediis malis.
  • It is too late to be on our guard when we are in the midst of evils.
  • Seneca, Thyestes, CCCCLXXXVII.

• Magna pars vulgi levis
  Odit scelus spectatque.
  • Most of the giddy rabble hate the evil deed they come to see.
  • Seneca, Troades, XI. 28.

• We too often forget that not only is there a "soul of goodness in things evil," but very generally a soul of truth in things erroneous.
  • Herbert Spencer, First Principles.

• So far any one shuns evils, so far as he does good.
  • Emanuel Swedenborg, Doctrine of Life. 21.

• Mala mens, malus animus.
  • A bad heart, bad designs.
  • Terence, Andria, I. 1. 137.

• Aliud ex alio malum.
  • One evil rises out of another.
  • Terence, Eunuchus, V. 7. 17.

• But, by all thy nature's weakness,
  Hidden faults and follies known,
  Be thou, in rebuking evil,
  Conscious of thine own.
  • John Greenleaf Whittier, What the Voice Said, Stanza 15.

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

• Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil; I observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape it, and with this I begin and end.
  • John Newton, p. 213.

• Nothing is to be esteemed evil which God and nature have fixed with eternal sanction.
  • Jeremy Taylor, p. 213.

• The cardinal method with faults is to overgrow them and choke them out with virtues.
  • John Bascom, p. 213.

• Nothing can work me damage except myself. The harm that I sustain I carry about with me, and never am a real sufferer but by my own fault.
  • St. Bernard, p. 213.

• The best antidote against evils of all kinds, against the evil thoughts that haunt the soul, against the needless perplexities which distract the conscience, is to keep hold of the good we have. Impure thoughts will not stand against pure words and prayers and deeds. Little doubts will not avail against great certainties. Fix your affections on things above, and then you will less and less be troubled by the cares, the temptations, the troubles of things on earth.
  • Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, p. 214.

• Evil is just a word.Under the skin,it's simple Pain
  • Eleanor Lamb Bioshock