Malevolence Quotes

• The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame.

  Edgar Allan Poe

  Soul, Body, Flight

  Edgar Allan Poe (1927). “Tales by Edgar Allan Poe”, p.35, Dimitrios Spyridon Chytiris

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• The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding.

  Albert Camus

  Life, Hate, War

  "The Plague". Book by Albert Camus, 1947.

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• Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Incompetence, Attributes, Dues

  Arthur C. Clarke (2012). “3001: The Final Odyssey”, p.155, RosettaBooks

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• What I want you to understand, is the full evil of those who claim to have become convinced that this earth, by its nature, is a realm of malevolence where the good has no chance to win. Let them check their premises. Let them check their standards of value. Let them check - before they grant themselves the unspeakable license of evil-as-necessity - whether they know what is the good and what are the conditions it requires.

  Ayn Rand

  Winning, Evil, Want

  Ayn Rand (1957). “Atlas Shrugged”

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• I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge - even wisdom. Like art.

  Toni Morrison

  Art, Pain, Important

  "No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear" by Toni Morrison, www.thenation.com. March 23, 2015.

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• No one heals himself by wounding another.

  Ambrose

  Hurt, Healing, Saint

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• Dark and sour humours, especially those which have a spice of malevolence in them, are vastly disagreeable. Such men have no music in their souls.

  Abigail Adams

  Dark, Men, Soul

  Abigail Adams, John Adams (1840). “Letters of Mrs. Adams: The Wife of John Adams”, p.214

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• Malevolence is shameful but satisfying.

  Mason Cooley

  Evil, Shameful, Satisfying

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• We mute the realization of malevolence- which is too threatening to bear - by turning offenders into victims themselves and by describing their behavior as the result of forces beyond their control.

  Anna C Salter

  Realization, Bears, Threatening

  Anna C. Salter (2004). “Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders : who They Are, how They Operate, and how We Can Protect Ourselves and Our Children”, Basic Books (AZ)

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• No one can truly be prepared for such devastation and pure malevolence, but the United Kingdom can always look to the United States as an ally resolved to stand firm in the war on terrorism.

  Michael C. Burgess

  War, Looks, Devastation

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• Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

  Epicurus

  God, Spiritual, Religious

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• There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and thus free ourselves from the responsibility for acts which are prompted by our own questionable inclinations and impulses.

  Eric Hoffer

  Powerful, Responsibility, Hands

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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• My specialty is detached malevolence.

  Alice Roosevelt Longworth

  Specialty, Detached

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• Islam emphasized the internal purity of man that is achieved through the purity of the mind in realizing the Right and the purity of feelings through having the pure intention towards man, far away from the meanness of malevolence and hatred and through the purity of the movement that is not lunched except for the sake of justice, Good and life.

  Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah

  Men, Justice, Hatred

  "The mutual love between Allah and His servants". english.bayynat.org.lb.

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• A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence.

  Arthur Miller

  Political, Moral, Policy

  Arthur Miller (2015). “The Crucible”, p.33, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• The arrows of malevolence ... however barbed and well pointed, never can reach the most vulnerable part of me; though, whilst I am up as a mark, they will be continually aimed.

  George Washington

  Arrows, Vulnerable, Mark

  George Washington (1839). “Letters official and private, from the beginning of his presidency to the end of his life. May, 1789, to November, 1794 (v.10) November, 1794, to Demember, 1799 (v.11)”, p.359

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• The malevolence of men revealed itself to his mind in all of its ugliness

  Voltaire

  Men, Mind, Ugliness

  Francois Voltaire (1977). “The Portable Voltaire”, p.197, Penguin

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• A lawsuit is to ordinary life what war is to peacetime. In a lawsuit, everybody on the other side is bad. A trial transcript is a discourse in malevolence.

  Janet Malcolm

  War, Law, Ordinary

  Janet Malcolm (2011). “The Journalist and the Murderer”, p.63, Vintage

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• Twenty-one years ago, when I first heard Mia Farrow had accused me of child molestation, I found the idea so ludicrous I didn't give it a second thought. We were involved in a terribly acrimonious breakup, with great enmity between us and a custody battle slowly gathering energy. The self-serving transparency of her malevolence seemed so obvious I didn't even hire a lawyer to defend myself. It was my show business attorney who told me she was bringing the accusation to the police and I would need a criminal lawyer.

  Woody Allen

  Breakup, Children, Self

  "Woody Allen Speaks Out". www.nytimes.com. February 7, 2014.

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• The individualism of current economic theory is manifest in the purely self-interested behaviour it generally assumes. It has no real place for fairness, malevolence, and benevolence, nor for the preservation of human life or any other moral concern.

  Herman E. Daly

  Real, Self, Behaviour

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• Much of the most important evils that mankind have to consider are those which they inflict upon each other through stupidity or malevolence or both.

  Bertrand Russell

  Evil, Stupidity, Important

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Unpopular Essays”, p.143, Routledge

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• A certain combination of incompetence and indifference can cause almost as much suffering as the most acute malevolence.

  Bruce Catton

  Stupidity, Suffering, Causes

  Bruce Catton (1984). “Bruce Catton's Civil War: three volumes in one”, Outlet

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• The judgment of posterity is truer, because it is free from envy and malevolence.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Envy, Judgment, Posterity

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• There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and thus free ourselves from the responsibility for acts which are prompted by our own questionable inclinations and impulses. Both the strong and the weak grasp at this alibi. The latter hide their malevolence under the virtue of obedience: they acted dishonorably because they had to obey orders. The strong, too, claim absolution by proclaiming themselves the chosen instrument of a higher power -- God, history, fate, nation, or humanity.

  Bruce Lee

  Strong, Powerful, Responsibility

  Bruce Lee (2015). “Bruce Lee: Artist of Life”, p.240, Tuttle Publishing

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• The notion is that human beings are born, (as my Guru has explained many times,) with equivalent potential for both contraction and expansion. The ingredients of both darkness and light are equally present in all of us, and then it's up to the individual (or the family, or the society) to decide what will be brought forth - the virtues or the malevolence. The madness of this planet is largely a result of human being's difficulty in coming into virtuous balance with himself. Lunacy (both collective and individual) results.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Light, Darkness, Balance

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.236, A&C Black

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