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Topics/Morality

Quotes about good and evil

192 quotes from 117 people

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The good and the bad mix themselves so thoroughly in our thoughts, even in our aspirations, that we must look for excellence rather in overcoming evil than in freeing ourselves from its influence.
Anthony Trollope1815–1882He Knew He Was Right (1869), Ch. 60
Jesus is no draughtsman of political blueprints, he is the one who vanquished evil through suffering. It looked as though evil had triumphed on the cross, but the real victory belonged to Jesus.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer1906–1945The Cost of Discipleship (1937), “Revenge”, p. 142
- Christianity
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
I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
Elie Wiesel1928–2016Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo (10 December 1986)
- Justice
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Jesus7 BC–AD 30The Sermon on the Mount
- Religion
We’ve come to know truths that we will never question: evil is real, and it must be opposed.
George W. Bushborn 1946The Axis of Evil (2002)
I urge you to beware the temptation of pride⁠—the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.
Ronald Reagan1911–2004The Evil Empire (1983)
- War & Peace
Let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the Earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world.
Ronald Reagan1911–2004The Evil Empire (1983)
- Government
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain!
William Shakespeare1564–1616Hamlet (c. 1600), Act I, Scene V, spoken by HamletIn context
- Truth & Lies
Remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Every where I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.
Mary Shelley1797–1851Frankenstein (1818), Chapter XIn context
- Happiness
- Virtue
All, save I, were at rest or in enjoyment: I, like the arch-fiend, bore a hell within me; and, finding myself unsympathised with, wished to tear up the trees, spread havoc and destruction around me, and then to have sat down and enjoyed the ruin.
Mary Shelley1797–1851Frankenstein (1818), Chapter XVIIn context
- Anger
Man is not truly one, but truly two.
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the CaseIn context
- Character
All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the CaseIn context
All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick.
Herman Melville1819–1891Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter XLIIn context
Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.
Mark Twain1835–1910Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Chapter XXXIIIIn context