Quotes About Evil

The lesson is that any powerful emotion or desire, however virtuous in many circumstances, can be turned to evil purposes if it escapes ethical control.

Most men and women must suppress the good within them to be evil; just as, to be good, they must suppress the evil. There is no final victory of one or the other. Indeed

The man [Grant] who more than any other, save Lincoln, had changed us into a nation whose citizens were all freemen, realized entirely that these freemen would remain free only while they kept mastery over their own evil passions.

The lesson I learned was that some people will take what they want, whenever they want, with no guilt or thought of the consequences, and that evil people existed to prey upon the innocent. But from experience, I also knew cruelty wasn't always delivered by strangers. Sometimes abuse came directly from the people who should have cared the most, and it could take place in the dark heart of any family.

Atajar al principio el mal procura; si llega a echar raíz, tarde se cura (1): Porque primeramente se ofrece al alma el pensamiento sencillo; después, la importuna imaginación; luego, la delectación y el torpe movimiento y el. Consentimiento. Y así se entra poco a poco el maligno enemigo, y se apodera de todo, por no resistirle al principio.

The testimony of a good conscience is the glory of a good man. Have a good conscience and thou shalt ever have joy. A good conscience is able to bear exceeding much, and is exceeding joyful in the midst of adversities; an evil conscience is ever fearful and unquiet. Thou shalt rest sweetly if thy heart condemn thee not.

Many often err and accomplish little or nothing because they try to become learned rather than to live well. If men used as much care in uprooting vices and implanting virtues as they do in discussing problems, there would not be so much evil and scandal in the world, or such laxity in religious organizations. On the day of judgment, surely, we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done; not how well we have spoken but how well we have lived.

For the gifts of Nature belong to good and evil alike; but the proper gift of the elect is grace—that is, love— and they who bear the mark thereof are held worthy of everlasting life.

The beginning of all temptations to evil is instability of temper and want of trust in God;

Natural inclinations are present in things from God, who moves all things. So it is impossible for the natural inclinations of a species to be toward evil in itself. But there is in all perfect animals a natural inclination toward carnal union. Therefore it is impossible for carnal union to be evil in itself.

The act that anything evil puts forth is due to the strength of goodness, but a deficient goodness. For if there were nothing of good there, neither would there be any being, nor any action: again, if the goodness were not deficient, neither would there be any evil.

Esto es parte de la bondad infinita de Dios, que Él debe permitir que el mal exista, y de él se produzca el bien.

On the contrary, Augustine says (Enchiridion 14) that "evil exists only in good.

This is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He should allow evil to exist, and out of it produce good.

Reply to Objection 1: There is nothing wholly evil in the world, for evil is ever founded on good, as shown above (Q[48], A[3]). Therefore something is said to be evil through its escaping from the order of some particular good. If it wholly escaped from the order of the Divine government, it would wholly cease to exist.

But there are more wicked men to be found than good; according to Eccles. 1:15: "The number of fools is infinite.

Good can exist without evil whereas evil cannot exist without good.

Objection 1: It seems that God does not know evil things. For the Philosopher (De Anima iii) says that the intellect which is not in potentiality does not know privation. But "evil is the privation of good," as Augustine says (Confess. iii, 7). Therefore, as the intellect of God is never in potentiality, but is always in act, as is clear from the foregoing (A[2] ), it seems that God does not know evil things.

Reply to Objection 5: As was said above, the parts of the universe are ordered to each other, according as one acts on the other, and according as one is the end and exemplar of the other. But, as was said above, this can only happen to evil as joined to some good. Hence evil neither belongs to the perfection of the universe, nor does it come under the order of the same, except accidentally, that is, by reason of some good joined to it.

Night is a stealthy, evil Raven, Wrapt to the eyes in his black wings.

Night is a stealthy, evil Raven, wrapped to the eyes in his black wings.

But, Sire, the curse which shall ruin you eventually is the selfsame which ruins all men, irrespective of their actions good or evil, and that is Time, which is the issue of an incestuous act performed by God on reality.

like all wicked people he could do things which defied the means of honest men, for evil is always more easily managed than virtue.)

There is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction.