Sayings about Evil
The mouth is the door of evil. ~ Japanese Proverbs
Evil enters like a needle and spreads like an oak tree. ~ Ethiopian Proverb
The evil weed produces the largest number of weeds. ~ Maltese Proverb
Break the legs of an evil custom. ~ Italian Proverbs
Those who dig an evil hole will fall into it. ~ Palestinian Proverbs
Mankind fears an evil man but heaven does not. ~ Chinese Proverb
If you have never done anything evil, you should not be worrying about devils knocking at your door. ~ Chinese Proverb
Look for the good, not the evil, in the conduct of members of the family. ~ Jewish Proverb
He who does no evil does a lot of good. ~ Norwegian Proverb
The mouth prays to Buddha, but the heart is full of evil. ~ Vietnamese Proverb
Work relieves us from three great evils, boredom, vice, and want. ~ French Proverb
Goodness speaks in a whisper, evil shouts. ~ Tibetan Proverb
He who is accustomed to evil is offended by good. ~ Mexican Proverb
Set good against evil. ~ English Proverbs
He who has done evil, expects evil. ~ Guinean Proverb
He who seeks evil will find it. ~ French Proverb
Evil knows where evil sleeps. ~ Nigerian Proverb
It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest. ~ Greek Proverbs
Of two evils, it is always best to vote for the least hypocritical. ~American Proverbs
Money is the root of all evil. ~ English Proverb
The word “yes” brings trouble; the word “no” leads to no evil. ~ African Proverb
The betrothed of good is evil; the betrothed of life is death; the betrothed of love is divorce. ~ Malawian Proverb
Put off the evil hour as long as you can. ~ Traditional Proverb
It is more fun doing evil than putting it right. ~ Nigerian Proverb
If you have never seen evil, look closely at yourself some time. ~ Arabian Proverb
One does evil enough when one does nothing good. ~ German Proverbs
He who did evil expects evil. ~ French Guianese Proverb
A face that never laughs betrays an evil heart. ~ Basque Proverb
Avoid the evil, and it will avoid thee. ~ Gaelic Proverb
Evil thoughts often come from idleness. ~ Gaelic Proverb
To do nothing teaches evil. ~ Dutch Proverb
Evil people know one another. ~ Arabian Proverb
Virtuous for ten years is still not enough; evil for one day is too much already. ~ Chinese Proverb
Where old age is evil, youth can learn no good. ~ English Proverb
Thistles and thorns prick sore, but evil tongues prick even more. ~ Dutch Proverb
The love of evil is the root of all money. ~ American Proverb
He who does not punish evil invites it. ~ German Proverb
He who lives a long life must pass through much evil. ~ Spanish Proverb
Quotations about Evil
They that know no evil will suspect none. ~ Ben Jonson
We often do good in order that we may do evil with impunity. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld
Evil be to him who evil thinks. ~ Edward II
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. ~ Edmund Burke
Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon fouls, but runs itself clear of taint. ~ Samuel Butler
And shares our bed and eats at our own table. ~ W.H. Auden
What we call evil, it seems to me, is simply ignorance bumping its head in the dark. ~ Henry Ford
To do no evil is good, to intend none better. ~ Claudius
We may draw good out of evil; we must not do evil, that good may come. ~ Maria Weston Chapman
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it. ~ Buddha
There is hardly a man clever enough to recognize the full extent of the evil he does. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld
Our evil actions do not attract as much persecution and hatred as our good qualities. ~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld
Evil is something you recognize immediately when you see it: it works through charm. ~ Brian Masters
All concerns of men go wrong when they wish to cure evil with evil. ~ Sophocles
The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. ~ Joseph Conrad
Even an evil man can have principles—he can be true to his own evil, which is not always so easy. ~ Norman Mailer
No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from. ~ George Eliot
It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak. ~ Eric Hoffer
The soul that has conceived one wickedness can nurse no good thereafter. ~ Sophocles
Many evil things there are that your strong walls and bright swords do not stay. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien
Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult. ~ Anne Rice
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; they put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! ~ Bible
Evil events from evil causes spring. ~ Aristophanes
Evil and good are God’s right hand and left. ~ Philip James Bailey
Love is the medicine of all moral evil. By it the world is to be cured of sin. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
There are evils that have the ability to survive identification and go on for ever… money, for instance, or war. ~ Saul Bellow
It is some compensation for great evils that they enforce great lessons.~ Christian Nestell Novee
All evils are equal when they are extreme. ~ Pierre Corneille
Conquer thy own evils before you judge others. ~ Edward Counsel
Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table. ~ W. H. Auden
I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries. ~ Madame Marie Curie
Some people show evil as a great racehorse shows breeding. They have the dignity of a hard chancre. ~ Ernest Hemingway
Nature, in her indifference, makes no distinction between good and evil. ~ Anatole France
A resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible. ~ Thomas Hardy
If there was no moral evil upon earth, there would be no physical evil. ~ Joseph De Maistre
Evil is a point of view. ~ Anne Rice
We are tainted by modern philosophy which has taught us that all is good, whereas evil has polluted everything and in a very real sense all is evil, since nothing is in its proper place. ~ Joseph De Maistre
When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil. ~ Max LernerAll things truly wicked start from an innocence. ~ Ernest Hemingway
Must I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? 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. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
How many things are now called the worst evil, which are only twelve feet wide and three months long! But some day greater dragons will come into the world. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
But evil is wrought by want of thought as well as want of heart! ~ Thomas Hood
There can be no existence of evil as a force to the healthy-minded individual. ~ William James
For neither good nor evil can last for ever; and so it follows that as evil has lasted a long time, good must now be close at hand. ~ Miguel De Vervantes
Now I know the full power of evil. It makes ugliness seem beautiful and goodness seem ugly and weak. ~ August Strindberg
The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it seems to me the deepest root of all evil that is in the world. ~ Max Born
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction. ~ Blaise Pascal
Evil then results from imperfection.~ Philip James Bailey
Only evil grows of itself, while for goodness we want effort and courage. ~ Henri-Frederic Amiel
Nothing in the nature around us is evil. ~ John Berger
It is much easier at all times to prevent an evil than to rectify mistakes. ~ George Washington
Evil is done without effort, naturally, it is the working of fate; good is always the product of an art. ~ Charles Baudelaire
In many cases, it is very hard to fix the bounds of Good and Evil, because these part, as Day and Night, which are separated by Twilight. ~ Benjamin Whichcote
Don’t let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter. ~ Oliver Goldsmith
The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding. ~ Albert Camus
Why was so much evil pleasant, pretty on the outside, like poisoned candy? ~ Laurell K. Hamilton
There surely is in human nature an inherent propensity to extract all the good out of all the evil. ~ Benjamin Haydon
The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.~ Hannah Arendt
It is a cursed evil to any man to become as absorbed in any subject as I am in mine. ~ Charles Darwin
Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other ones invariably slink in after it. ~ Baltasar Gracian
I would far rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evils.~ Aeschylus
There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it, senseless. ~ W. Somerset Maugham