# Quotes about evil - Quotes: 19 - Authors: 14 - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil ## Quotes > In every deed of mischief he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > Vice itself lost half its evil by losing all its grossness. Reflections on the Revolution in France · p. 332 Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > The snake stood up for evil in the Garden. [Robert Frost](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-frost.md) · [New Hampshire](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-frost/new-hampshire.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-frost/new-hampshire/the-snake-stood.md) Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > Of what use to destroy the children of evil? It is evil itself we must destroy at the roots. Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > [M]y father's rejection of all that is called religious belief, was not, as many might suppose, primarily a matter of logic and evidence: the grounds of it were moral, still more than intellectual. He found it impossible to believe that a world so full of evil was the work of an Author combining infinite power with perfect goodness and righteousness. Autobiography · p. 39 Topics: [faith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > I have been trying, friend Julius, to understand some remarks Elijah made to me earlier. Perhaps I am beginning to, for it suddenly seems to me that the destruction of what should not be, that is, the destruction of what you people call evil, is less just and desirable than the conversion of this evil into what you call good. > > He hesitated, then, almost as though he were surprised at his own words, he said, “Go, and sin no more!” [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [The Caves of Steel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-caves-of-steel.md) · p. 202 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-caves-of-steel/i-have-been.md) Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > The people were divided into the persecuted and those who persecuted them. That wild beast, which lives in man and does not dare to show itself until the barriers of law and custom have been removed, was now set free. The signal was given, the barriers were down. As has so often happened in the history of man, permission was tacitly granted for acts of violence and plunder, even for murder, if they were carried out in the name of higher interests, according to established rules, and against a limited number of men of a particular type and belief. A man who saw clearly and with open eyes and was then living could see how this miracle took place and how the whole of a society could, in a single day, be transformed. In a few minutes the business quarter, based on centuries of tradition, was wiped out. It is true that there had always been concealed enmities and jealousies and religious intolerance, coarseness and cruelty, but there had also been courage and fellowship and a feeling for measure and order, which restrained all these instincts within the limits of the supportable and, in the end, calmed them down and submitted them to the general interest of life in common. Men who had been leaders in the commercial quarter for forty years vanished overnight as if they had all died suddenly, together with the habits, customs and institutions which they represented. [Ivo Andric](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ivo-andric.md) · [The Bridge on the Drina](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ivo-andric/the-bridge-on-the-drina.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ivo-andric/the-bridge-on-the-drina/the-people-were.md) Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > Like those antique monsters whose redoubtable domains were covered with skeletons, she rested her feet on human skulls. She was ringed round with catastrophes. Nana Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > The rage for debasing things was inborn in her. It did not suffice her to destroy them, she must soil them too. Nana Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > Whatever we may do, excess will always keep its place in the heart of man, in the place where solitude is found. We all carry within us our places of exile, our crimes and our ravages. But our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to fight them in ourselves and in others. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Rebel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel/whatever-we-may.md) Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > Metaphysical rebellion is a claim, motivated by the concept of a complete unity, against the suffering of life and death and a protest against the human condition both for its incompleteness, thanks to death, and its wastefulness, thanks to evil. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Rebel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel/metaphysical-rebellion-is-a-claim.md) Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [suffering](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering.md), [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > 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. On the whole men are more good than bad; that, however, isn't the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance which fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. There can be no true goodness, nor true love, without the utmost clear-sightedness. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Plague](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-plague.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-plague/the-evil-that.md) Topics: [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md), [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > 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. Walden · p. 87 Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > Human beings can be awful cruel to one another. [Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [Adventures of Huckleberry Finn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn/human-beings-can.md) Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > “Kill? Who said anything about killing? I would kill him if he was here; but not her. When you want to get revenge on a woman you don’t kill her—bosh! you go for her looks. You slit her nostrils—you notch her ears like a sow!” [Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [The Adventures of Tom Sawyer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer/kill-who-said.md) Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md), [hatred](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred.md) > The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty. [George Bernard Shaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw.md) · [Major Barbara](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/major-barbara.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/major-barbara/the-greatest-of-evils.md) Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > As these ruffians turned and turned, their matted locks now flung forward over their eyes, now flung backward over their necks, some women held wine to their mouths that they might drink; and what with dropping blood, and what with dropping wine, and what with the stream of sparks struck out of the stone, all their wicked atmosphere seemed gore and fire. The eye could not detect one creature in the group free from the smear of blood. [Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [A Tale of Two Cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/as-these-ruffians.md) Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > A beautiful world we live in, when it IS possible, and when many other such things are possible, and not only possible, but done—done, see you!—under that sky there, every day. Long live the Devil. Let us go on. [Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [A Tale of Two Cities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/a-beautiful-world.md) Topics: [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md) > The meaning of this story is not found in the drowning of the Egyptian soldiers, for no one should rejoice at the death or defeat of a human being. Rather, this story symbolizes the death of evil and of inhuman oppression and unjust exploitation. [Martin Luther King, Jr.](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr.md) · [Strength to Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love.md) · p. 73 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love/the-meaning-of-this.md) Topics: [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md), [evil](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil.md)