Evil quotes

Evil

5.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

5.3K quotes

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Browse quotes that often appear alongside evil — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.

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Evil quotes (page 61 of 265)

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Aristotle Philosopher
Evil

"In bad or corrupted natures the body will often appear to rule over the soul, because they are in an evil and unnatural condition. At all events we may firstly observe in living creatures both a despotical and a constitutional rule; for the soul rules the body with a despotical rule, whereas the intellect rules the appetites with a constitutional and royal rule. And it is clear that the rule of the soul over the body, and of the mind and the rational element over the passionate, is natural and expedient; whereas the equality of the two or the rule of the inferior is always hurtful."

Two Soul Evil
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Aristotle Philosopher
Evil

"For the lesser evil is reckoned a good in comparison with the greater evil, since the lesser evil is rather to be chosen than the greater. ."

Evil Greater Chosen
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Ayn Rand Philosopher, Novelist
Evil

"Whatever may be open to disagreement, there is one act of evil that may not, the act that no man may commit against others and no man may sanction or forgive. So long as men desire to live together, no man may initiate—do you hear me? no man may start—the use of physical force against others."

Men Long Evil
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Ayn Rand Philosopher, Novelist
Evil

"I cannot stand Tolstoy, and reading him was the most boring literary duty I ever had to perform, his philosophy and his sense of life are not merely mistaken, but evil, and yet, from a purely literary viewpoint, on his own terms, I have to evaluate him as a good writer."

Reading Philosophy Evil
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Ayn Rand Philosopher, Novelist
Evil

"When one acts on pity against justice, it is the good whom one punishes for the sake of the evil; when one saves the guilty from suffering, it is the innocent whom one forces to suffer. There is no escape from justice, nothing can be unearned and unpaid for in the universe, neither in matter nor in spirit—and if the guilty do not pay, then the innocent have to pay it."

Evil Suffering Justice
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Angelina Jolie Actress, Filmmaker, Humanitarian
Evil

"The side of fairytales I don't like is that they always have happy endings, that there's just good and evil, and things are perfect. But life is a little more complicated, and that's what I try to teach my kids."

Kids Evil Perfect
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Edmund Burke Philosopher, Politician
Evil

"Nothing is so rash as fear; and the counsels of pusillanimity very rarely put off, whilst they are always sure to aggravate, the evils from which they would fly."

Evil Anticipation
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Wayne Dyer Author, Motivational Speaker
Evil

"We can sit here and talk about all the negativity, which we've done a little bit, but for every act of evil in the world, there are a million acts of kindness. Basically, our nature is to love each other and care about each other, and most of us do that. Most of us have no quarrel with anybody who's living on another side of the planet and who might have a different religious persuasion. It's just these small minorities to the far right and the far left who get all of the news time and print space."

Religious Evil Kindness
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Evil

"The press, important as is its office, is but the servant of the human intellect, and its ministry is for good or for evil, according to the character of those who direct it. The press is a mill which grinds all that is put into its hopper. Fill the hopper with poisoned grain, and it will grind it to meal, but there is death in the bread."

Character Evil Office
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Winston Churchill Politician, Writer, Historian
Evil

"Delight in smooth sounding platitudes, refusal to face unpleasant facts ... genuine love of peace and pathetic belief that love can be its sole foundation ... the utter devotion of the Liberals to sentiment apart from reality ...though free from wickedness or evil design, played a definite part in the unleashing upon the world of horrors and miseries [WWII]"

Reality Evil Genuine Love
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Ursula K. Le Guin Author, Poet, Essayist
Evil

"Animals do neither good nor evil. They do as they must do.We may call what they do harmful or useful, but good and evil belong to us, who chose to choose what we do. [. . .] The animals need only be and do.We're yoked, and they're free. So to be with an animal is to know a little freedom."

Needs Animal Evil
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Saint Augustine Theologian, Philosopher
Evil

"For, were it not good that evil things should also exist, the omnipotent God would almost certainly not allow evil to be, since beyond doubt it is just as easy for Him not to allow what He does not will, as for Him to do what He will."

Doe Evil Doubt
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Veronica Roth Author
Evil

"The reason the factions were evil is because there was no way out of them. They gave us the illusion of choice without actually giving us a choice."

Giving Choices Evil
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