an evil QUOTES

21 " I have heard that, with some persons, temperance – that is, moderation – is almost impossible; and if abstinence be an evil (which some have doubted), no one will deny that excess is a greater. Some parents have entirely prohibited their children from tasting intoxicating liquors; but a parent’s authority cannot last for ever; children are naturally prone to hanker after forbidden things; and a child, in such a case, would be likely to have a strong curiosity to taste, and try the effect of what has been so lauded and enjoyed by others, so strictly forbidden to himself – which curiosity would generally be gratified on the first convenient opportunity; and the restraint once broken, serious consequences might ensue. "

― Anne Brontë

22 " In this world, there is no absolute good, no absolute evil," the man said. " Good and evil are not fixed, stable entities, but are continually trading places. A good may be transformed into an evil in the next second. And vice versa. Such was the way of the world that Dostoevsky depicted in The Brothers Karamazov. The most important thing is to maintain the balance between the constantly moving good and evil. If you lean too much in either direction, it becomes difficult to maintain actual morals. Indeed, balance itself is the good. "

23 " The idea behind verses about the sealing of hearts appears to be the psychological law that if a person once does a good or an evil deed, his chances of repeating that kind of action increase and of doing its opposite proportionately decrease. With constant repetition of an evil or of a good action, it becomes almost impossible for a person to do the opposite, or even to think of it, so much so that while men's hearts become " sealed" and their eyes " blinded" if they do evil, their doing good produces such a state of mind that the devil himself can have no sway over it. Nevertheless, actions which create a psychological habit, however strong their influence may be, must not be construed as absolute determinants, for there is no " point of no return" for human behavior: genuine repentance (tauba) can turn an apparently wholly evil man into a paragon of virtue; on the other hand, although this is much more rare, an apparent paragon of virtue (even a prophet!) can turn into a near devil enmeshed in carnal pleasures . "

24 " We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavouring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still. "

― John Stuart Mill , On Liberty

25 " In spite of its alluring name, the welfare state stands or falls by compulsion. It is compulsion imposed upon us with the state’s power to punish noncompliance. Once this is clear, it is equally clear that the welfare state is an evil the same as every restriction of freedom. "

― Wilhelm Röpke

26 " Gabril’s voice was strong and sure. “I believe in you, and I’ve fought for you, because in a world full of people who crumble before an evil too terrifying to comprehend, you put up your fists and fight. "

― C.J. Redwine , The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire, #1)

27 " I believe that there is good in everyone, even an evil pirate such as you. "

― Carmela Dutra , Lorenzo the Bear: Encounter at Jellyfish Cove

28 " If one cannot gain recognition foranything else, he can rest well with the assurance that he is " good," which in most cases equates with " right" . Were it not for an evil to rail against he might just as well never have been born. Yes, evil is the great savior and sustainer of those whocondemn it most. "

29 " If one cannot gain recognition for anything else, he can rest well with the assurance that he is " good," which in most cases equates with " right" . Were it not for an evil to rail against he might just as well never have been born. Yes, evil is the great savior and sustainer of those who condemn it most. "

30 " Boredom is certainly not an evil to be taken lightly: it will ultimately etch lines of true despair onto a face. It makes beings with as little love for each other as humans nonetheless seek each other with such intensity, and in this way becomes the source of sociability. "

― Arthur Schopenhauer , The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 1

31 " We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavouring to stifle is a false opinion and if we were sure stifling it would be an evil still. "

32 " This persistence as private firms continued because it ensured the maximum of anonymity and secrecy to persons of tremendous public power who dreaded public knowledge of their activities as an evil almost as great as inflation. "

33 " The extravagant expenditure of public money is an evil not to be measured by the value of that money to the people who are taxed for it. "

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