I've seen attack ships on fire on the shoulder of Orion, I've seen moon beams glisten at the Ten hauser gate, all those memories, lost like tears in the rain.
Rutger HauerRead
Most of the real bad guys in the world are people like you and me; they're not stupid, and you can't smell their horns.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that evil can reside in ordinary people and may not be easily recognizable.
Rutger Hauer's quote points to the unsettling reality that people who commit wrongful acts often appear normal or even amiable. It emphasizes that malevolence is not always evident and encourages a deeper understanding of human nature, where the capacity for good and evil coexists within us all. The suggestion that 'you can't smell their horns' indicates that these individuals do not fit the stereotype of what we typically envision as 'bad'βa reminder that appearances can be deceiving.
Themes
EvilHuman NatureRecognitionMoralityDeception
In practice
Example use cases
Discussing the complexities of morality in a philosophy class.
More from Rutger Hauer
All quotes βI've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Rutger HauerRead
I hate acting when I see it. I don't want to feel it, I don't want to see it, I want to be taken away with the story - I don't want the actor's ego in front of me. That's what I try to live when I do the work.
Rutger HauerRead
Similar quotes
I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God's creation, woman, the object of our lust.
Mahatma GandhiRead
To forge an untouchable, invulnerable identity is actually a sign of retreat from this world; of weakness, a sign of fear rather than strength, and betrays a strange misunderstandin g of an abiding, foundational and necessary reality: that untouched, we disappear.
David WhyteRead
One is made by all the things around one. There are many things that have made one. For a writer to go around looking for things that have made him is asking for trouble. It's like giving a character to yourself. Can't do it. Can't do it. These things are just there. Is that enough?
V. S. NaipaulRead
The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.
Mikhail BakuninRead
Unless a writer is extremely old when he dies, in which case he has probably become a neglected institution, his death must always be seen as untimely. This is because a real writer is always shifting and changing and searching. The world has many labels for him, of which the most treacherous is the label of Success.
James A. BaldwinRead
I don't think there is any such thing as a black writer or a white writer. Ultimately, there is someone whom one reads.
Derek WalcottRead