The Christian determination to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.
[Der christliche Entschluss, die Welt hässlich und schlecht zu finden, hat die Welt hässlich und schlecht gemacht.]
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], Book 3, § 130 (1882) [tr. Hill (2018)]
(Source)
Also known as La Gaya Scienza, The Joyful Wisdom, or The Joyous Science.
(Source (German)). Alternate translations:
The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad, has made the world ugly and bad.
[tr. Common (1911)]
The Christian resolve to find the world ugly and bad, has made the world ugly and bad.
[tr. Kaufmann (1974)]
The Christian decision to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.
[tr. Nauckhoff (2001)]
Quotations about:
evil
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
But, by all thy nature’s weakness,
Hidden faults and follies known,
Be thou, in rebuking evil,
Conscious of thine own.John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) American poet and abolitionist
“What the Voice Said,” st. 15, ll. 57-60 (1847)
(Source)
For it is in the person’s choice that wickedness and the commission of injustice are found.
[ἐν γὰρ τῇ προαιρέσει ἡ μοχθηρία καὶ τὸ ἀδικεῖν]
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Rhetoric [Ῥητορική; Ars Rhetorica], Book 1, ch. 13, sec. 10 (1.13.10) / 1374a.11 (350 BC) [tr. Bartlett (2019)]
(Source)
Often given as "The intention makes the crime." (Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:
For the criminality and injustice of the act stands essentially in the deliberate principle on which it is done.
[tr. Buckley (1850)]
For vice and wrong-doing depend on the moral purpose.
[tr. Jebb (1873)]
It is deliberate purpose that constitutes wickedness and criminal guilt.
[tr. Roberts (1924)]
For vice and wrongdoing consist in the moral purpose.
[tr. Freese (1926)]
For the immorality and wrongness of an act depend on intentional choice.
[tr. Waterfield (2018)]
Everything matters more than we think it does, and, at the same time, nothing matters so much as we think it does. The merest spark may set all Europe in a blaze, but though all Europe be set in a blaze twenty times over, the world will wag itself right again.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, “Sparks” (1912)
(Source)
Most of the members of the convent were old-fashioned Satanists, like their parents and grandparents before them. They’d been brought up to it and weren’t, when you got right down to it, particularly evil. Human beings mostly aren’t. They just get carried away by new ideas, like dressing up in jackboots and shooting people, or dressing up in white sheets and lynching people, or dressing up in tie-dye jeans and playing guitars at people. Offer people a new creed with a costume and their hearts and minds will follow.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Good Omens, 2. “Eleven Years Ago” (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
(Source)
And I have again observed, my dear friend, in this trifling affair, that misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence.
[Und ich habe, mein Lieber, wieder bei diesem kleinen Geschäft gefunden, dass Missverständnisse und Trägheit vielleicht mehr Irrungen in der Welt machen als List und Bosheit. Wenigstens sind die beiden letzteren gewiss seltener.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Die Leiden des jungen Werthers [The Sorrows of Young Werther], “Letter from May 4th” (1774)
Alt. trans.: "Misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent."
It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Good Omens, 2. “Eleven Years Ago” (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
(Source)
We too often forget that not only is there “a soul of goodness in things evil,” but very generally also, a soul of truth in things erroneous.
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) English philosopher, naturalist
First Principles, Pt. I “The Unknowable,” ch. 1 “Religion and Science”” (1862)
(Source)
Quoting Shakespeare.
If a man really believes that God once upheld slavery; that he commanded soldiers to kill women and babes; that he believed in polygamy; that he persecuted for opinion’s sake; that he will punish forever, and that he hates an unbeliever, the effect in my judgment will be bad. It always has been bad. This belief built the dungeons of the Inquisition. This belief made the Puritan murder the Quaker.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Interview, The Sunday Union, New Haven, Conn. (10 Apr 1881)
(Source)
He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
[Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.]
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
Jenseits von Gut und Böse [Beyond Good and Evil], Aphorism 146 (1886) [tr. Hollingdale (1973, 1990)]
(Source)
Alternate translations:
He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby becomes a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.
[tr. Zimmern (1906)]
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
[tr. Kaufmann (1966)]
Therefore the good man, although he is a slave, is free; but the bad man, even if he reigns, is a slave, and that not of one man, but, what is far more grievous, of as many masters as he has vices.
[Proinde bonus etiamsi seruiat, liber est; malus autem etiamsi regnet, seruus est, nec unius hominis, sed, quod est grauius, tot dominorum, quot uitiorum.]
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
City of God [De Civitate Dei], Book 4, ch. 3 (4.3) (AD 412-416) [ed. Dods (1871)]
(Source)
See 2 Peter 2:19 "For people are slaves to whatever masters them." The idea of being a slave to vices was also a Stoic belief. Compare to La Bruyere.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
And therefore he that is good is free though he be a slave, and he that is evil, a slave though he be a king. Nor is he slave to one man, but that which is worst of all, unto as many masters as he affects vices.
[tr. Healey (1610)]
Thus, a good man, though a slave, is free; but a wicked man, though a king, is a slave. For he serves, not one man alone, but, what is worse, as many masters as he as vices.
[tr. Zema/Walsh (1950)]
Hence even if a good man be a slave, he is free; whereas if a wicked man rule, he is a slave -- and a slave not to one man but, what is worse, to as many masters as he has vices.
[tr. Green (Loeb) (1963)]
The good man, though a slave, is free; the wicked, though he reigns, is a slave, and not the slave of a single man, but -- what is far worse -- the slave of as many masters as he has vices.
[tr. Bettenson (1972)]
Therefore the good man is free even if he is a slave, whereas the bad man is a slave even if he reigns: a slave, not to one man, but, what is worse, to as many masters as he has vices.
[tr. Dyson (1998)]
Thus the good person is free, even if a slave, and the evil person is enslaved, even if a ruler -- enslaved not to one master but, what is far worse, to as many masters as he has vices.
[tr. Babcock (2012)]
You say you’re supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense, I don’t have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.
Pat Robertson (1930-2023) American politician and televangelist
The 700 Club broadcast (1991-01-14)
(Source)
The earliest documentation of this quote I can find is in David Cantor, The Religious Right: The Assault on Tolerance & Pluralism in America, Sec. 1, ch. 1 (1994).
Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil … prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon …
Thus, then, stands the case. It is good, that authors should be remunerated; and the least exceptionable way of remunerating them is by a monopoly. Yet monopoly is an evil. For the sake of the good we must submit to the evil; but the evil ought not to last a day longer than is necessary for the purpose of securing the good.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
Speech on the Copyright Bill (5 Feb 1841)
(Source)
True, we have to hate evil; else we’re sentimental. But if we hate evil more than we love the good, we become damn good haters, and of those the world already has too many.
William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (1924-2006) American minister, social activist
Credo, “Faith, Hope, and Love” (2004)
(Source)
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)
(Source)
It doesn’t seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil — which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
Viewpoint interview by Bill Stout, KNXT (1 May 1959)
Reprinted in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track, ed. by Michelle Feynman, Appendix I (2006).
The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) Polish-English novelist [b. Teodor Josef Konrad Korzeniowski]
Under Western Eyes, Part 2, ch. 4 (1911)
(Source)
For the wicked are full of regrets.
[μεταμελείας γὰρ οἱ φαῦλοι γέμουσιν.]
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Nicomachean Ethics [Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια], Book 9, ch. 4 (9.4.10) / 1166b.24-25 (c. 325 BC) [tr. Welldon (1892)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:
For the wicked are full of remorse.
[tr. Chase (1847)]
Whence it is that the wicked are ever full of repentance.
[tr. Williams (1869)]
For those who are not good are full of remorse.
[tr. Peters (1893)]
For bad men are laden with repentance.
[tr. Ross (1908)]
The bad are always changing their minds.
[tr. Rackham (1934)]
For base people are full of regret.
[tr. Reeve (1948)]
For bad men are full of regrets.
[tr. Apostle (1975)]
For bad men are full of regrets.
[tr. Thomson/Tredennick (1976)]
For base people are full of regret.
[tr. Irwin/Fine (1995)]
For bad people are full of regrets.
[tr. Crisp (2000)]
For base people teem with regret.
[tr. Bartlett/Collins (2011)]
Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) English social philosopher, feminist, writer
The French Revolution, Book 5, ch. 4 (1794)
(Source)
Politics without principle.
Wealth without work.
Pleasure without conscience.
Knowledge without character.
Commerce and industry without morality.
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice.Frederick Lewis Donaldson (1860-1953) English Anglican priest and social activist
Sermon, Westminster Abbey, London (20 Mar 1925)
Summarized in a newspaper article (1 Apr 1925) where they are referred to as "the seven social evils," "the seven cardinal crimes of modern society," and "evils of the world." These were quoted by Mohandas Gandhi in an article in Young India, (22 Oct 1925), labeled as the "Seven Social Sins," and are often attributed to Gandhi.
More discussion: Seven Social Sins - Wikipedia.
The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any thing, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good. There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good. Almost every thing, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Remarks, House of Representatives (1848-06-20)
(Source)
Speaking on internal improvements (infrastructure) as part of governmental policy.
“Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature — that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance — and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth.”
“No, I wouldn’t consent,” said Alyosha softly.
Neutral men are the devil’s allies.
HENRY: God almighty,
There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
Would men observingly distill it out.
For our bad neighbor makes us early stirrers,
Which is both healthful and good husbandry.
Besides, they are our outward consciences
And preachers to us all, admonishing
That we should dress us fairly for our end.
Thus may we gather honey from the weed
And make a moral of the devil himself.
It is some compensation for great evils that they enforce great lessons.
Christian Nestell Bovee (1820-1904) American epigrammatist, writer, publisher
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, Vol. 1, “Compensation” (1862)
(Source)
For he that makes any thing his chiefest good, wherein justice or virtue does not bear a part, and sets up profit, not honesty, for the measure of his happiness; as long as he acts in conformity with his own principles, and is not overruled by the mere dictates of reason and humanity, can never do the offices of friendship, justice, or liberality: nor can he ever be a man of courage, who thinks that pain is the greatest evil; or he of temperance, who imagines pleasure to be the sovereign good.
[Nam qui summum bonum sic instituit, ut nihil habeat cum virtute coniunctum, idque suis commodis, non honestate metitur, hic, si sibi ipse consentiat et non interdum naturae bonitate vincatur neque amicitiam colere possit nec iustitiam nec liberalitatem; fortis vero dolorem summum malum iudicans aut temperans voluptatem summum bonum statuens esse certe nullo modo potest.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Officiis [On Duties; On Moral Duty; The Offices], Book 1, ch. 2 (1.2) / sec. 5 (44 BC) [tr. Cockman (1699)]
(Source)
Attacking the Epicurean "highest good" of avoiding pain and seeking personal detachment; Cicero supported the Stoic virtues of courage and moderation.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
He who teaches that to be the chief good which hath no connection with virtue, which is measured by personal advantage, and not by honor; if he be consistent with himself, and not sometimes overcome by the benignity of nature, can neither cultivate friendship nor practice justice nor liberality. That man cannot be brave who believes pain the greatest evil; nor temperate, who believes pleasure the supreme good.
[tr. McCartney (1798)]
For if a man should lay down as the chief good, that which has no connexion with virtue, and measure it by his own interests, and not according to its moral merit; if such a man shall act consistently with his own principles, and is not sometimes influenced by the good ness of his heart, he can cultivate neither friendship, justice, nor generosity. In truth, it is impossible for the man to be brave who shall pronounce pain to be the greatest evil, or temperate who shall propose pleasure as the highest good.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]
For he who so interprets the supreme good as to disjoin it from virtue, and measures it by his own convenience, and not by the standard of right, -- he, I say, if he be consistent with himself, and be not sometimes overcome by natural goodness, can cultivate neither friendship, nor justice, nor generosity; nor can he possibly be brave while he esteems pain as the greatest of evils, or temperate while he regards pleasure as the supreme good.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]
He who severs the highest good from virtue and measures it by interest and not by honour, if he were true to his principles and did not at times yield to his better nature, could not cultivate friendship, justice or liberality; and no one can be brave who declares pain the greatest evil, or temperate who maintains pleasure to be the highest good.
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]
For he who posits the supreme good as having no connection with virtue and measures it not by a moral standard but by his own interests -- if he should be consistent and not rather at times over-ruled by his better nature, he could value neither friendship nor justice nor generosity; and brave he surely cannot possibly be that counts pain the supreme evil, nor temperate he that holds pleasure to be the supreme good.
[tr. Miller (1913)]
Take, for example, the man who has established the kind of highest good that has nothing to do with virtue, that is, measured by the individual's convenience, not by his morality. If that man is consistent and is not in the meantime overcome by natural goodness, he cannot cultivate friendship, or justice, or openness of character. In fact, a man of courage who considers pain the greatest evil, or a temperate man who declares indulgence to be the greatest good, is surely an impossible contradiction.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]
No man can be brave who thinks pain the greatest evil; nor temperate, who considers pleasure the highest good.
[Source]
Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.
[Nunca se le ha de abrir la puerta al menor mal, que siempre vendrán tras él otros muchos, y mayores, en celada.]
Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 31 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)]
(Source)
(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translations:
We must not open the door to the least evil, for others, and those greater too, which lie in ambush come always after.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]
Never open the door to a small misfortune, for many more always creep in behind it, and greater ones, under its protection.
[tr. Fischer (1937)]
Never open the door to the least of evils, for many other, greater ones lurk outside.
[tr. Maurer (1992)]
Evil is unspectacular and always human
And shares our bed and eats at our own table.
Every evil in the bud is easily crushed: as it grows older, it becomes stronger.
[Omne malum nascens facile opprimitur; inveteratum fit pleurumque robustius.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Philippicae [Philippics], No. 5, ch. 11 / sec. 28 (5.28) (1 Jan AD 43)
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
Every evil is easily crushed at its birth; when it has become of long standing, it usually gets stronger.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]
Every evil is easily crushed at its birth; become inveterate it as a rule gathers strength.
[tr. Ker (1926)]
HAMLET: O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!
My tables — meet it is I set it down
That one may smile and smile and be a villain.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 1, sc. 5, l. 113ff (1.5.113-115) (c. 1600)
(Source)
If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains. If you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
(Attributed)
Widely attributed to Cicero, but no actual citations found. Sometimes the clauses are reversed:
If you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains. If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains.
The sad truth of the matter is that most evil is done by people who never made up their minds to be or do either evil or good.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Life of the Mind, Vol. 1 “Thinking,” Part 3, ch. 18 (1977)
(Source)
Sometimes rendered (possibly from the original lecture): "The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil."
THIRD CITIZEN: Ingratitude is monstrous.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Coriolanus, Act 2, sc. 3, l. 10 (2.3.10) (c. 1608)
(Source)
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Robert J. Hanlon, “Hanlon’s Razor,” Murphy’s Law, Book Two (ed. A. Bloch) (1980)
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious convictions.
[Jamais on ne fait le mal si pleinement et si gaiement, que quand on le fait par un faux principe de conscience.]
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
Pensées, ch. 14, Appendix: Polemical Fragments #895 (1669) [tr. Trotter (1910)]
(Source)
Also labeled as Part 2, Article 17, # 53. Sometimes also shown in slightly shorter French as "Jamais on ne fait le mal si pleinement et si gaiement que quand on le fait par conscience."
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
- "We never do evil so fully and cheerfully as when we do it out of conscience." [#813 (#895), tr. Krailsheimer]
- "We never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when we do it out of conscience." [Miscellaneous Thoughts 7: Sellier #658/Lafuma #813, tr. Ariew]
- "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it conscientiously."
Life often presents us with a choice of evils, rather than of goods.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 2, § 102 (1822)
(Source)
All sins are attempts to fill voids.
Simone Weil (1909-1943) French philosopher
Gravity and Grace [La Pesanteur et la Grâce], “To Desire Without An Object” (1947) [ed. Thibon] [tr. Crawford/von der Ruhr (1952)]
(Source)
Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Mere Christianity, Book 3 “Christian Behavior,” ch. 7 “Forgiveness” (1952)
(Source)
ALBANY: Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile.
Filths savor but themselves.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
King Lear, Act 4, sc. 2, l. 47ff (4.2.47-48) (1606)
(Source)
LORENZO: The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Merchant of Venice, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 92ff (5.1.92-97) (1597)
(Source)