Evil Quotes
Sad Quotes about Evil

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph
is for enough good men to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke

See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil.
- Japanese pictorial maxim (the Three Wise Monkeys)

I object to violence because
when it appears to do good,
the good is only temporary;
the evil it does is permanent.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil
to one who is striking at the root.
- Henry David Thoreau

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully
as when they do it from religious conviction.
- Blaise Pascal

If it turns out that there IS a God,
I don't think that he's evil.
I think that the worst you can say about him
is that basically he's an underachiever.
- the movie Love and Death

The lack of money is the root of all evil.
- Mark Twain

Man's nature is not essentially evil.
Brute nature has been known to
yield to the influence of love.
You must never despair of human nature.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

The universe we observe has precisely
the properties we should expect
if there is, at bottom, no design,
no purpose, no evil, no good,
nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.
- Charles Darwin

If God listened to the prayers of men,
all men would quickly have perished:
for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
- Epicurus

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil,
no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads.
This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world.
The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings.
- Soren Kierkegaard

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it
as he who helps to perpetrate it.
He who accepts evil without protesting against it
is really cooperating with it.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

An evil deed is not redeemed
by an evil deed in retaliation.
- Coretta Scott King (widow of Martin Luther King, Jr.)

It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.
- Henry David Thoreau

The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe,
that lures him to evil ways.
- The Buddha

The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing.
- Albert Einstein

Understanding does not cure evil,
but it is a definite help,
inasmuch as one can cope
with a comprehensible darkness.
- Carl Jung

Never do anything that taints your mind.
Wrong actions cause negative or evil mental vibrations
that are reflected in your whole appearance and personality.
Engage in those actions and thoughts that nurture
the good qualities you want to have.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Whenever you are angry, be assured that
it is not only a present evil,
but that you have increased a habit.
- Epictetus

Nothing is evil which is according to nature.
- Marcus Aurelius

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him.
If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought,
happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.
- The Buddha

If evil be spoken of you
and it be true, correct yourself,
if it be a lie, laugh at it.
- Epictetus

There is some good in the worst of us
and some evil in the best of us.
When we discover this,
we are less prone to hate our enemies.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Far from idleness being the root of all evil,
it is rather the only true good.
- Soren Kierkegaard

I have also seen children successfully
surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance.
That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

One who is injured ought not to return the injury,
for on no account can it be right to do an injustice;
and it is not right to return an injury,
or to do evil to any man,
however much we have suffered from him.
- Socrates

An insincere and evil friend is more
to be feared than a wild beast;
a wild beast may wound your body,
but an evil friend will wound your mind.
- The Buddha

When one has the feeling of dislike for evil,
when one feels tranquil,
one finds pleasure in listening to good teachings;
when one has these feelings and appreciates them,
one is free of fear.
- The Buddha

I do not concern myself with gods and spirits
either good or evil, nor do I serve any.
- Lao Tzu

We see what we ASSUME we will see.
If you believe the world is evil, you will see evil.
If you believe the world is good, you will see good.
To change how life looks, change how you see life -
change your expectations of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast,
It is not proud. It does not dishonor others,
It is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
It keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
- Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV)

The man who promises everything, is sure to fulfill nothing,
and everyone who promises too much is in danger of
using evil means in order to carry out his promises,
and is already on the road to perdition.
- Carl Jung

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world
that we must love our enemies - or else?
The chain reaction of evil -
hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars -
must be broken, or else we shall be plunged
into the dark abyss of annihilation.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is no evil and there are
no evil forces in the world.
There are only people of awareness,
and there are people who are fast asleep -
and sleep has no force.
The whole energy is in the hands of the awakened people.
And one awakened person can awaken the whole world.
One lighted candle can make millions of candles lighted
without losing it's light.
- Osho

Although the world is full of suffering,
it is full also of the overcoming of it.
My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil,
but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good
and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good,
that it may prevail.
- Helen Keller

Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of
necessary evil to the luxury of baseball,
like the odor that follows an automobile.
- Christy Mathewson

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive.
He who is devoid of the power to forgive
is devoid of the power to love.
There is some good in the worst of us
and some evil in the best of us.
When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

We, therefore, here in Britain stand shoulder to shoulder
with our American friends in this hour of tragedy,
and we, like them, will not rest until this evil is driven from our world.
- Tony Blair

Government is an unnecessary evil.
Human beings, when accustomed to taking responsibility for their own behavior,
can cooperate on a basis of mutual trust and helpfulness.
- Fred Woodworth

It is a cursed evil to any man to become as absorbed
in any subject as I am in mine.
- Charles Darwin

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil;
in its worst state,
an intolerable one.
- Thomas Paine

Every year of my life I grow more convinced that it
is wisest and best to fix our attention on the beautiful and the good,
and dwell as little as possible on the evil and the false.
- Richard Cecil

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love
will have the final word in reality.
That is why right, temporarily defeated,
is stronger than evil triumphant.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Cursed is the man who dies, but the evil done by him survives.
- Abu Bakr

I am one of those who think like Nobel,
that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries.
- Marie Curie

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.
- Epictetus

There has to be evil so that
good can prove its purity above it.
- The Buddha

The world needs anger.
The world often continues to allow evil because it isn't angry enough.
- Bede Jarrett

Microsoft isn't evil, they just make really crappy operating systems.
- Linus Torvalds

So you think that money is the root of all evil.
Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?
- Ayn Rand

I do not believe in the God of theology
who rewards good and punishes evil.
- Albert Einstein

Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it?
If not, we should be sincere enough to admit
that we love evil too well to give it up.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

False words are not only evil in themselves,
but they infect the soul with evil.
- Socrates

It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil,
but one must never label a necessary evil as good.
- Margaret Mead

It is a fact that cannot be denied:
the wickedness of others becomes our own wickedness
because it kindles something evil in our own hearts.
- Carl Jung

I don't buy into any of that hogwash.
They put that out to sell tickets.
It's just a classic horror movie, with the Greek drama
formula of good versus evil,
and lots of fear.
- Margot Kidder

I will begin with this confession: whatever I have
done in the course of my life,
whether it be good or evil, has been done freely;
I am a free agent.
- Giacomo Casanova

We all say, 'You don't have to run around playing all
these tournaments and trying to conquer the world like Dr. Evil.'
- Stuart Appleby

The principle of evil in Europe is the enervating spirit of Russian absolutism.
- Lajos Kossuth

He who is in evil, is also in the punishment of evil.
- Emanuel Swedenborg

The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle
of human actions than the prospect of good.
- John Locke

Evil is unspectacular and always human,
and shares our bed and eats at our own table.
- W. H. Auden

Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.
- Marcus Aurelius

He knew the lie of silence to be as evil as the lie of speech.
- Gilbert Parker

You may either win your peace or buy it:
win it,
by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil.
- John Ruskin

So certainly, if we can tell evil stories to make people sick,
we can also tell good myths that make them well.
- Rainer W. Fassbinder

No man chooses evil because it is evil;
he only mistakes it for happiness,
the good he seeks.
- Mary Wollstonecraft

The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts.
It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person.
- Eric Hoffer

Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil.
I am content to observe that there is evil,
and that there is a way to escape from it,
and with this I begin and end.
- John Newton