Nature Of Evil Quotes

• Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity.

  Xunzi

  Evil, Human Nature, Goodness

  41 Copy quote

• Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.

  William Shakespeare

  Stars, Halloween, Dark

  William Shakespeare, Isaac Reed, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens (1817). “The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare: With the Corrections and Illustrations of Dr. Johnson, G. Steevens, and Others”, p.279

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• The true nature of evil is that it is so very casual.

  James St. James

  Evil, Casual, True Nature

  "Party animal". www.theguardian.com. April 25, 1999.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The nature of evil, the nature of it, it exists. It exists and I think within us we have the tools. If we have the will, we can combat it. I think the power is within us and it lies in our own conceptualization of God and positivity and compassion and love.

  Vera Farmiga

  Lying, Positivity, Thinking

  "Vera Farmiga and Paranormal Investigator Lorraine Warren Talk THE CONJURING, the Nature of Evil, Their Relationship, and More". Interview with Steve 'Frosty' Weintarub, collider.com. July 17, 2013.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been know to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Love You, Men, Yield

  Mahatma Gandhi (1977). “Collected Works”

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I've come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It's the one characteristic that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.

  G. M Gilbert

  Men, Thinking, Evil

  30 Copy quote
• 

  The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

  Edmund Burke

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Witty

  337 Copy quote

• The judge should not be young, he should have learned to know evil, not from his own soul, but from late and long observation of the nature of evil in others.

  Plato

  Should Have, Long, Evil

  Plato, General Press (2016). “The Republic”, p.299, GENERAL PRESS

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.

  William Shakespeare

  Kindness, Play, Lady Macbeth

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 1, sc. 5, l. [16]

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.

  William Shakespeare

  Halloween, Wicked, Thumbs

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 4, sc. 1, l. 44

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• The lack of money is the root of all evil.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Bible, Sarcastic

  Mark Twain, John Sutton Tuckey (1980). “The Devil's Race-track: Mark Twain's Great Dark Writings : the Best from Which was the Dream? and Fables of Man”, p.337, Univ of California Press

  150 Copy quote

  Show source

• It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.

  William Shakespeare

  Blood, Important Macbeth, Macbeth Key

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 3, sc. 4, l. 122

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• The real thing about evil," said the Witch at the doorway, "isn't any of what you said. You figure out one side of it - the human side, say - and the eternal side goes into shadow. Or vice versa. It's like the old saw: What does a dragon in its shell look like? Well no one can ever tell, for as soon as you break the shell to see, the dragon is no longer in its shell. The real disaster of this inquiry is that it is the nature of evil to be secret.

  Gregory Maguire

  Real, Dragons, Evil

  5 Copy quote

• ..to change something you do not understand is the true nature of evil.

  Jeanette Winterson

  Evil, True Nature

  Jeanette Winterson (2007). “Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit”, p.141, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Whoever originated the cliche that money is the root of all evil knew hardly anything about the nature of evil and very little about human beings.

  Eric Hoffer

  Roots, Evil, Littles

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but, in their stead, / Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, / Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not" (5.3.25-28).

  William Shakespeare

  Heart, Troops, Looks

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 3, l. 22

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The whole tradition of cinema is dominated, really, by films about good guys versus bad guys, good versus evil. But we have very few films about the nature of evil itself.

  Joshua Oppenheimer

  Evil, Guy, Cinema

  "Lights, Camera, Murder!". Interview with Amos Roberts, www.sbs.com.au. October 15, 2013.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Certainly, it includes that. I want the story to be interpreted in as many ways as possible, and of course, the bad blood aspect of it included. For instance, perhaps this is a story not about the hereditary nature of evil, but rather you could interpret it from a different perspective, too.

  Park Chan-wook

  Blood, Evil, Perspective

  "Park Chan-wook, Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode Talk STOKER, First Impressions to the Script, Reactions to the Completed Film and More". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. February 24, 2013.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• I tell myself I write because I want to say something true and original about the nature of evil. That is very ambitious - to say something about the human condition that hasn't been written before. Probably I will never succeed but that is what I strive to do.

  Jo Nesbo

  Writing, Evil, Ambitious

  4 Copy quote

• For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with columbine innocence, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent: his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest; that is, all forms and natures of evil: for without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced.

  Francis Bacon

  Wisdom, Men, Evil

  6 Copy quote

• The sick-room becomes the scene of intense convictions; and among these, none, it seems to me, is more distinct and powerful than that of the permanent nature of good, and the transient nature of evil.

  Harriet Martineau

  Powerful, Sick, Evil

  Harriet Martineau (1845). “Life in the Sick-room: Essays”, p.17

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When it comes to judging individuals, I do not like remarks such as 'too good to be true.' They speak as though one is rewarding the nature of evil. Yet, ironically, we still wonder where all the good people have gone.

  Criss Jami

  Judging, People, Evil

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.90, Criss Jami

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• At teenage parties he was always wandering into the garden, sitting on a bench in the dark . . . staring up at the constellations and pondering all those big questions about the existence of God and the nature of evil and the mystery of death, questions which seemed more important than anything else in the would until a few years passed and some real questions had been dumped into your lap, like how to earn a living, and why people fell in and out of love, and how long you could carry on smoking and then give up without getting lung cancer.

  Mark Haddon

  Love, Teenage, Giving Up

  4 Copy quote