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Topics/Morality

Quotes about good and evil

192 quotes from 117 people

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‘Tis very strange Men should be so fond of being thought wickeder than they are.
Daniel Defoe1660–1731A System of Magick (1726).
The best of men cannot suspend their fate:
The good die early, and the bad die late.
Daniel Defoe1660–1731The Character of the Late Dr. Samuel Annesley, by Way of Elegy (1697)
- Life & Death
All evils are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse attends them.
Daniel Defoe1660–1731Robinson Crusoe (1719), Chapter IVIn context
There is evil! It’s actual, like cement.
Philip K. Dick1928–1982The Man in the High Castle (1962)
All evil in the world is the result of an imbalance between the people who benefit from shenanigans and the people who get screwed by shenanigans.
Cory Doctorowborn 1971Petard: A Tale of Just Deserts (2014), p. 317
The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Book III: The Sensualists, Chapter IIIIn context
- Beauty
People talk sometimes of bestial cruelty, but that’s a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Book V: Pro and Contra, Chapter IVIn context
- Animals
I think if the devil doesn’t exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Book V: Pro and Contra, Chapter IVIn context
- God
I find characters with a little evil in them much more interesting to play than the good guy. I’d rather play Doc Holliday than Wyatt Earp.
Kirk Douglas1916–2020Interview by Ron Miller (1984)
- Acting
The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?
Arthur Conan Doyle1859–1930The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), Chapter 3In context
I counsel you by way of caution to forbear from crossing the moor in those dark hours when the powers of evil are exalted.
Arthur Conan Doyle1859–1930The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), Chapter 2In context
- Advice
I have been Heaven’s substitute to recompense the good⁠—now the god of vengeance yields to me his power to punish the wicked!
Alexandre Dumas1802–1870The Count of Monte Cristo (1844), Volume Two, Chapter 30In context
- Justice
Religion amplifies the good and evil tendencies of individual souls.
Freeman Dyson1923–2020Progress In Religion (2000)
- Religion
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
Albert Einstein1879–1955
It is easier to denature plutonium than it is to denature the evil spirit of man.
Albert Einstein1879–1955The Real Problem Is in the Hearts of Men, The New York Times Magazine (June 23, 1946)