Destroy the seed of evil, or it will grow up to your ruin. ~Aesop
Evil is a term used to indicate acts or qualities involving needless or wanton harm or destruction, or the deliberate violation of some accepted moral codes of behavior. The philosophical questions which arise among various perceptions and definitions of the nature of evil and virtue are a primary focus of most ethical and religious systems of thought. Inreligion,ethics,philosophy, andpsychology "good and evil" is a very commondichotomy.
What makes it so plausible to assume thathypocrisy is thevice of vices is thatintegrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only thehypocrite is really rotten to the core.
Aristotle, inRhetoric Book I, 1362.b39: Quoting a proverb
An evil deed... is like fire smoldering in the ashes, which burns the fool. ~H.P. Blavatsky
Leibniz believed theuniverse is the expression of Perfect Reason. Therefore, it must be the best of all possible worlds. All apparent evil would be transformed by a larger view of the universe.
Albert Edwin Avey,Handbook in the History of Philosophy. New York: Barnes & Noble. 1954. p. 151.
I shall shed mylight overdark evil. For the dark things cannot stand the light[.] ~Alfred Bester
The distribution of the world's resources and the settled unity of the peoples of the world are in reality one and the same thing, for behind all modernwars lies a fundamental economic problem. Solve that and wars will very largely cease....Unity,peace andsecurity will come through the recognition — intelligently assessed—of the evils which have led to the present world situation, and then through the taking of thosewise,compassionate and understanding steps which will lead to the establishing of right human relations, to the substitution ofcooperation for the present competitive system, and by the education of the masses in every land as to the nature of truegoodwill and its hitherto unused potency. What at this moment appears to prevent world unity... ? The answer is not hard to find and involves all nations:nationalism,capitalism,competition, blind stupidgreed.The mass of men need arousing to see that good comes to all men alike and not just to a few privileged groups, and to learn also that "hatred ceases not by hatred but that hatred ceases by love". This love is not a sentiment, but practical goodwill, expressing itself through individuals, in communities and among nations. The world economic council (or whatever body represents the resources of the world) must free itself from fraudulent politics, capitalistic influence and its devious scheming; it must set the resources of the earth free for the use of humanity. This will be a lengthy task but it will be possible when world need is better appreciated. An enlightened public opinion will make the decisions of the economic council practical and possible. Sharing and cooperation must be taught instead of greed and competition.
Alice Bailey inProblems Of Humanity, Chapter VI - The Problem of International Unity (1944)
The major weapon now being used by the combined Forces of Evil ischaos, disruption, lack of established security, and consequentfear. . . . The entire rhythm of international thinking has to be altered, and that constitutes a slow and arduous task; the evil personalities which, in every country, are responsible for the chaos and uncertainty, have eventually to be replaced by those who can work inco-operation with the rhythm of the seventh ray, and thus produce ordered beauty.
Alice Bailey,The Externalization of the Hierarchy, p. 668, (1957)
Materialism andSpirituality: There are today three major human trends: First of all, a trend towards a spiritual and free way of life; secondly, a trend towardsintellectual unfoldment; and lastly, a potent trend towards material living andaggression. At present, the last of these innate tendencies is in the saddle, with the second, the intellectual attitude, throwing its weight upon the side of the material goals. A relatively small group is throwing the weight of humanaspiration upon the side of the spiritual values.
The war between the pairs of opposites —materialism andspirituality — is raging fiercely. Only as men turn away from material aggression and towards spiritual objectives will the world situation change, and men — motivated bygoodwill — force the aggressors back to their own place and release humanity fromfear andforce. We are today reaping the results of our own sowing. The recognition of the cause of the problem provides humanity with the opportunity to end it. The time has arrived in which it is possible to institute those changes in attitude which will bring an era ofpeace andgoodwill, founded onright human relations. These two forces —materialism andspirituality — face each other. What will be the outcome? Will men arrest the evil and initiate a period ofunderstanding,cooperation and right relationship, or will they continue the process of selfish planning and of economic and militantcompetition? This question must be answered by the clear thinking of the masses and by thecalm and unafraid challenges of thedemocracies.
The difference between White and Black Magic lies in the motive which determines the Will; when that Will is set to benefit others, to help and bless all who come within its scope, then is the man a White Magician, and the results which he brings about by the exercise of his trained Will are beneficial, and aid the course of human evolution. He is ever expanding by such exercise.
When the Will is exercised for the advantage of the lower self, when it is employed for personal ends and aims, then is the man a Black Magician, a danger to the race, and his results obstruct and delay human evolution.
The Will of the Black Magician has the strength of iron, pointing ever to the personal end, and it strikes against the great Will, and sooner or later must shiver itself into pieces against it.
There exists no spot on the earth, or in the sky, or in the sea, neither is there any in the mountain-clefts, where an evil deed does not bring trouble to the doer. ...Empty thy mind of evil, but fill it with good. ...People talk of the Devil. Every man has seen him; he is in every sinful heart. (April)
Even a good man sees evil days, as long as his good deeds have not ripened; but when they have ripened, then does the good man see happy days. ... By oneself the evil is done, by oneself one suffers; by oneself the evil is left undone... ...If thou hast done evil deeds, or if thou wouldst do them, thou mayest arise and run where'er thou wilt, but thou canst not free thyself of thy suffering. ... An evil deed does not turn on a sudden like curdling milk; it is like fire smoldering in the ashes, which burns the fool. ... An evil deed kills not instantly, as does a sword, but it follows the evil-doer into his next and still nextrebirth. (May)
The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.
Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes (1911), Pt. II, ch. 4
Evil is relative, Annalist. You can’t hang a sign on it. You can’t touch it or taste it or cut it with a sword. Evil depends on where you are standing, pointing your indicting finger.
As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy.
Of what use to destroy thechildren of evil? It is evil itself we must destroy at the roots. ~Eleanor FarjeonIt's no use crying over spilt evils. It’s better to mop them uplaughing. ~Eleanor Farjeon
All evil in the world is the result of an imbalance between the people who benefit from shenanigans and the people who get screwed by shenanigans.
Cory Doctorow,Petard: A Tale of Just Deserts (2014), reprinted inRich Horton (ed.),The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015 (p. 317)
Where two evils present, a wise administration, if there be room for an option, will choose the least.
J. Foster, inCase of Pressing Mariners (1743), 18 How. St. Tr. 1330; reported inDictionary of Legal Quotations (1904) by James William Norton-Kyshe, p. 91.
It’s a little hard for me to know that I am “disordered” or again to quoteRatzinger, “that i am guilty of a moral evil” simply by fulfilling my sexual destiny as I see it. It’s…it’s hard for me to be told, to be told that I’m evil, because I think of myself as someone who is filled with love, whose only purpose in life was to achieve love, and who feels love for so much of nature and the world and for everything else and who like anybody decent and with education realizes that in order, to achieve and receive love, it’s a struggle.
I must say that anyone who moved through those years [World War II] without understanding that man produces evil as abee produceshoney must have been blind or wrong in the head.
Whenthe Prophet saw injustice, either on the part of men or on the part of Providence, he did not inquire closely into its causes, nor bend the knee to necessity, and judge the evil-doers leniently; nor again did he give himself up to despair, or doubt the strength of Righteousness, or the possibility of its victory. He simply complained, pouring out his soul in words of fire; then went his way again, fighting for his ideal, and full of hope that in time—perhaps even "at the end of time"—Righteousness would be lord over all the earth.
Ahad Ha'am, "Priest and Prophet" (1893) inSelected Essays (1904), p. 133.
There surely is an inherent propensity to extract all the good out of Evil, in human nature, [that] one can.
Benjamin Haydon, diary entry (January 16, 1846), inThe Diary of Benjamin Robert Haydon, ed. Willard Bissell Pope (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1963), Vol. 5, p. 511.
Sometimes misquoted as "There surely is in human nature an inherent propensity to extract all the good out of all the evil."
Every man knows there are evils in this world which need setting right. Every man has pretty definite ideas as what these evils are. But to most men one in particular stands out vividly. To some, in fact, this stands out with such startling vividness that they lose sight of other evils, or look upon them as the natural consequence of their own particular evil-in-chief.
Rabidsuspicion has nothing in it ofskepticism. The suspiciousmindbelieves more than itdoubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person.
Eric Hoffer,The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955), Section 184.
At least two thirds of our miseries spring from humanstupidity, humanmalice, and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols.
Aldous Huxley, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1952).
When we think of evil, we think of something violent or demonic, something filled with hatred and wretchedly hungry to devour the good. But what if evil eats a salad at lunch and is polite, speaking rationally with nice table manners?
Evil works best, not as a growling beast crouching in the darkness, but in a rational, scientific voice. It is the way it's always worked, the way it worked years ago, the way it works now.
Our ideas on Evil. Evil has no existence per se and is but the absence of good and exists but for him who is made its victim. It proceeds from two causes, and no more than good is it an independent cause in nature. Nature is destitute of goodness or malice; she follows only immutable laws when she either gives life and joy, or sends suffering and death, and destroys what she has created. Nature has an antidote for every poison and her laws a reward for every suffering. The butterfly devoured by a bird becomes that bird, and the little bird killed by an animal goes into a higher form. It is the blind law of necessity and the eternal fitness of things, and hence cannot be called Evil in Nature. The real evil proceeds from human intelligence and its origin rests entirely with reasoning man who dissociates himself from Nature. Humanity then alone is the true source of evil. Evil is the exaggeration of good, the progeny of human selfishness and greediness. Think profoundly and you will find that save death—which is no evil but a necessary law, and accidents which will always find their reward in a future life—the origin of every evil whether small or great is in human action, in man whose intelligence makes him the one free agent in Nature. It is not nature that creates diseases, but man... the chief cause of nearly two-thirds of the evils that pursue humanity ever since that cause became a power... isreligion under whatever form and in whatever nation. It is the sacerdotal caste, the priesthood and the churches.
Man needs a certain moral sense of right and wrong. There is such a thing called evil, and it is not the result of being a victim of society. You are just an evil man, prone to do evil things, and you have to be stopped from doing them.
There was an evil in Pandora's box Beyond all other ones, yet it came forth In guise so lovely, that men crowded round And sought it as the dearest of all treasure.
He thought of the jungle, already regrowing around him to cover the scars they had created. He thought of the tiger, killing to eat. Was that evil? And ants? They killed. No, the jungle wasn't evil. It was indifferent. So, too, was the world.Evil, then, must be the negation of something man had added to the world. Ultimately, it was caring about something that made the world liable to evil. Caring. And then the caring gets torn asunder. Everybody dies, but not everybody cares.
It occurred to Mellas that he could create the possibility of good or evil through caring. He could nullify the indifferent world. But in so doing he opened himself up to the pain of watching it get blown away. His killing that day would not have been evil if the dead soldiers hadn't been loved by mothers, sisters, friends, wives. Mellas understood that in destroying the fabric that linked those people, he had participated in evil, but this evil had hurt him as well.He also understood that his participation in evil, was a result of being human. Being human was the best he could do. Without man there would be no evil. But there was also no good, nothing moral built over the world of fact. Humans were responsible for it all. He laughed at the cosmic joke, but he felt heartsick.
The whole Christian system, like every other similar system, goes to pieces upon the problem of evil. Its most adepttheologians, attempting to reconcile the Heavenly Father of their theory with the dreadful agonies of man in His world, can only retreat behindChrysostom's despairingmaxim that "a comprehended God is no God."
He that has light within his own cleer brest May sit i'th center, and enjoy bright day, But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the mid-day Sun; Himself is his own dungeon.
John Milton, "A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634," lines 380–84, republished inThe Works of John Milton (1931), vol. 1, part 1, p. 99. The title was changed to "Comus" for the stage version in 1737.
Because we have sought to cover up past evil, though it still persists, we have been powerless to check the new evil of today. Evil unchecked grows, Evil tolerated poisons the whole system. And because we have tolerated our past and present evils, international affairs are poisoned and law and justice have disappeared from them.
Jawaharlal Nehru,The Unity of India : Collected Writings, 1937-1940 (1942), p. 280
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.
He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.
Matthew Prior, "Imitation of Horace", a reference toE duobus malis, minimum eligendum,Cicero,De Officiis; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe,Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 92.
I spent, I probably spent my whole life to understand what evil was, and more importantly, what can be done about it. It is strange pursuit in some ways for an academic, because academics talk about academic things. One thing you can say about evil is that whatever it is, it is not bloody well academic. It is not an intellectual issue, it is an existential issue. And, it is not an theoretical issue, it is an issue that deals with absolute nature ofreality. And I guess sometimes I think that people would go in academia to shield themselves from having to ask questions about absolute nature of reality.
Is then he who has aclearargument from hisLord similar to him to whom his evilconduct is made fair-seeming; and they follow their lowdesires. ~ TheQuran
We are fascinated by evil. We watch dramatic representations of serial killers, psychopaths, and the kings of organized crime, gang members, rapists, contract killers, and spies. We voluntarily frighten and disgust ourselves with thrillers and horror films—and it is more than prurientcuriosity.
It will not be in accordance with your vain desires nor the vain desires of thePeople of the Book. Whoever does evil, will be requited for it and will not find for himself besides God aguardian nor asavior.
Responding to evil A superior being does not render evil for evil, this is the maxim one should observe; the ornament of virtuous persons is their conduct. (...) A noble soul will ever exercise compassion even towards those who enjoy injuring others.
The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.
...there is a perpetual struggle between manifestedchaos and the unmanifested. It is the struggle of the Forces of Light with the dark forces.Christ Himself actively resisted evil... he drove the merchants from the Temple, and all his severe accusations against the scribes and Pharisees... If we try to read objectively the words... attributed to Christ, we shall see a Teaching which is severe in its mercy. Therefore, the words "resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also... If this law ofKarma, "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," is inevitable and exactjustice, it by no means follows that we ourselves, personally, should attempt to fulfil it in this way. If we do so, we shall never emerge from the magic circle of karma. Indeed, we must forgive our personal enemies, as who knows but that the blow one receives is a return blow, well-deserved under the law of Karma? By returning such a blow with another and with a feeling of revenge in our heart, we do not outlive this karma, but we continue and even intensify it in the worst way for ourselves. Moreover, by forgiving our enemies we decrease the amount of evil in space and become immune against many blows. Similarly, let us understand the words "Love thine enemies." However, with all this, we must resist evil, if we do not want to be entirely overwhelmed by it. (26 May 1934)
Helena Roerich,Letters of Helena Roerich Volume I: 1929-1935
Now let us imagine the situation ofMoses if he had not resistedevil and had allowed the worst and crudest elements to destroy the best—the one which was able to assimilate the ideas ofmorality andorder. What would have happened to his task? His duty as a leader and an earthly lawgiver was to protect his people and to maintain order. Therefore, the resistance to evil was basically necessary. All teachings of antiquity declare active resistance to evil. Thus, the well-known sage and lawgiver of China,Confucius, used to say, "God for good, but for evil—justice."
Helena Roerich,Letters of Helena Roerich Volume I: 1929-1935 (26 May 1934)
Who knows what evil lurks in thehearts ofmen? The Shadowknows. ~The ShadowFalse words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil. ~Socrates
Evil is not a political or scientific category. But, afterAuschwitz, who could doubt that it exists, and that it manifested itself in the hate-drivengenocide carried out by theNazi regime? However, noting this fact does not permit us to circumvent our responsibility by blaming everything on a demonicHitler. The evil manifested in the Nazi ideology was not without its precursors. There was a tradition behind the rise of this brutal ideology and the accompanying loss of moral inhibition. Above all, it needs to be said that the Nazi ideology was something that people supported at the time and that they took part in putting into effect.
I happen to think that the singularevil of our time isprejudice. It is from this evil that all other evilsgrow and multiply. In almost everything I've written there is a thread of this: a man's seemingly palpable need to dislike someone other than himself.
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.
The Shadow, in Introductory words to the broadcast radio episodes ofThe Shadow, as quoted inRadio's Golden Age : The Programs and the Personalities (1966) by Frank Buxton and Bill Owen; also inOrson Welles : A Biography (1985) byBarbara Leaming, p. 123.
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve.
In the mirrors of the many judgments, my hands are the color of blood. I sometimes fancy myself an evil which exists to oppose other evils; and on that great Day of which the prophets speak but in which they do not truly believe, on the day the world is utterly cleansed of evil, then I too will go down into darkness, swallowing curses. Until then, I will not wash my hands nor let them hang useless.
The usual devastating put-downs imply that a person is basically bad, rather than that he is a person who sometimes does bad things. Obviously, there is a vast difference between a "bad" person and a person who does something bad. Besides,failure is an event, it is not a person — yesterday ended last night.
Variant:Failure is an event, not a person. Yesterday ended last night.
Ménage. Ascribed to Tallemant in the Historiettes of Tallemant des Reaux, Volume I, p. 38. Second ed. Note in Third ed., corrects this.Honi soit qui mal y pense. Evil to him who evil thinks. Motto of the Order of the Garter. Established by Edward III, April 23, 1349. See SirWalter Scott,Essay on Chivalry.
Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil; I observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape it, and with this I begin and end.
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