Quotes About Evil

When faced with pain and evil, we have to make a choice. We can choose to be taken by the evil. Or we can try to embrace the good.

It seemed the older he grew - and he had grown old - the more he understood that he could not understand this confusing contest between good and evil, and that maybe people were not meant to understand things here on earth.

Behind the man is the Tree of Life, bearing twelve fruits, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is behind the woman the serpent is twining round it.

Their actions highlight the curious self-righteousness of the American Progressive mind, and the belief among Progressives that their views once arrived at were beyond criticism; as with Wilson, opposition itself became a sign of disloyalty, even of evil.29

For Aquinas as for Aristotle, human freedom boils down to the power to make choices. In the end, the morality of our actions must always be judged by the active will and the intentions behind them. It also implies the freedom to choose good over evil and the mental capacity to know the one from the other (which is why dogs and infants can't commit mortal sins).

This point is fundamental for Plato and his legacy to the West. Knowledge is always the prerequisite of virtue, just as ignorance always leads us into evil. For Plato and all Platonists who come after him, grasping a standard of perfection is what we need in order to be virtuous and ultimately happy.

Boethius was deeply aware of the practical, humanistic side of Plato's thought in dialogues like the Republic, the Gorgias, and the Crito. He embraced Plato's belief that men need wisdom in order to confront and deal with evil in this world, as well as to prepare for the next. The proof is the reverence with which he invokes the name of Socrates.

Cicero's orator is a man built to heroic proportions. He must be a man of eloquentia, with the speaking skills necessary to move great crowds. He must be a patriot whose profound love of country allows him to identify with his audience, to feel what they feel and understand their needs and desires. And he must be a man who understands the true nature of good and evil. As with Aristotle, this last is the most important quality for a great statesman and orator.

ET DIABOLUS INCARNATE EST. ET HOMO FACTUS EST. ?

Siamo circondati da sacri mestieri del bene e del male, e viviamo e ci muoviamo in un mondo oscuro, un luogo di tenebre, caverne ed abitatori del crepuscolo. Talvolta accade che l'uomo si volga indietro sulle tracce della propria evoluzione, ed è mia opinione che esistano segreti paurosi non ancora dimenticati.

Et diabolus incarnate est. Et homo factus est./ Ve ÅŸeytan ete kemiÄŸe büründü. Ve insan oluÅŸtu.

ET DAIBOLUS INCARNATE EST. ET HOMO FACTUS EST.

I shuddered at the idea of this incarnate fiend, whose soul is black with shocking crimes, mingling free and unobserved amongst the harmless crowds, meditating perhaps a new and more fearful cycle of infamies. I tell you, sir, that an awful being stalks through the streets, a being before whom the sunlight itself should blacken, and the summer air grow chill and dank.

There are sacraments of evil as well as of good about us, and we live and move to my belief in an unknown world, a place where there are caves and shadows and dwellers in twilight. It is possible that man may sometimes return on the track of evolution, and it is my belief that an awful lore is not yet dead.

Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven.

God is not working at random: the gospel has been sent forth on no uncertain mission: the final outcome in the conflict between good and evil has not been left indeterminate; how many are to be saved or lost depends not on the will of the creature. Everything was infallibly determined and immutably fixed by God from the beginning, and all that happens in time is but the accomplishment of what was ordained in eternity.

The total depravity of human nature does not mean that it actually breaks forth into open acts of all kinds of evil in any one man.

We read the Scriptures in vain if we fail to discover that the actions of men, evil men as well as good, are governed by the Lord God.

All by nature are essentially evil, nothing but "flesh"; everything in us is contrary to holiness.

Nada hay más despreciable, ni peligroso, que un malvado que cada noche se va a dormir con la conciencia tranquila

nada hay más despreciable, ni peligroso, que un malvado que cada noche se va a dormir con la conciencia tranquila. Muy malo es eso. En especial, cuando viene parejo con la ignorancia, la superstición, la estupidez o el poder; que a menudo se dan juntos.

Quizás los malvados se cansan tanto como los corazones leales, pensé un instante. A fin de cuentas, nadie elige su destino.

Juro a vuestras mercedes que no lograba odiarla. Por el contrario, la certeza de que tenía parte en mi desgracia dejábame un regusto agridulce, que intensificaba el hechizo de su recuerdo. Era malvada –y aún lo fue más con el tiempo, voto a Cristo– pero era bellísima. Y justo esa connivencia de maldad y de belleza, tan ligadas una a otra, me causaba una fascinación intensa, un doloroso placer al sufrir trabajos y penar por su causa.

Hay héroes tanto en el mal como en el bien. La Rochefoucauld, Máximas