Quotes about good and evil
192 quotes from 117 people
Graham Greene1904–1991The Observer (London, January 2, 1983)
Mae West1893–1980I’m No Angel (1933)State interference is an evil, where it cannot be shown to be a good.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935The Common Law (1881), pp. 88-96The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer1906–1945“After Ten Years” (Christmas 1942), in Letters and Papers from PrisonI never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)‘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)It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult.
Elizabeth II1926–20221957 Christmas Broadcast; quoted on royal website (25 December 1957)He harms himself who does harm to another, and the evil plan is most harmful to the planner.
Hesiod776–700 BCWorks and Days (c. 700 BC)
Margaret Atwoodborn 1939The Progressive interview (2010)
Herbert Spencer1820–1903Social Statics (1851), Part I, Ch. 2: The Evanescence of Evil, § 1
Hannah Arendt1906–1975The Life of the Mind (1978), “Thinking”
William Golding1911–1993Lord of the Flies (1954), Ch. 12: The Cry of the Hunters
Cormac McCarthy1933–2023The Wall Street Journal, November 20, 2009, “Hollywood’s Favorite Cowboy” by John Jurgensen
José Martí1853–1895Our America (1891)