The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is not a problem of physics but of ethics. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil from the spirit of man.
—Albert Einstein
If art can reveal the truth, art can also lie. An artist can be not only divinely inspired, but diabolically inspired.
—George Bernard Shaw
You want to believe in black and white, good and evil, heroes that are truly heroic, villains that are just plain bad, but I’ve learned in the past year that things are rarely so simple. The good guys can do some truly awful things, and the bad guys can sometimes surprise the heck out of you.
—Karen Marie Moning in Darkfever
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
—Steven Weinberg
A belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.
—Joseph Conrad
Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.
—Baltasar Gracián
It can truly be said: Men are the devils of the earth, and the animals are the tormented souls.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.
—Soren Kierkegaard
The most painful moral struggles are not those between good and evil, but between the good and the lesser good.
—Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.
—George Carlin
For evil to succeed, all it needs is for good men to do nothing.
—Martin Luther King Jr.
The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.
—Joseph Conrad
What we call evil is only a necessary moment in our endless development.
—Franz Kafka
So you think that money is the root of all evil? Have you ever asked what is the root of money?
—Ayn Rand
The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart.… This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of hearts, there remains… an uprooted small corner of evil.
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn