Quotes on Wickedness

Foolishness is indeed the sister of wickedness.

More harm is done by fools through foolishness than is done by evil-doers through wickedness.

The man who does evil to another does evil to himself, and the evil counsel is most evil for him who counsels it.

The judge should not be young, he should have learned to know evil, not from his own soul, but from late and long observation of the nature of evil in others.

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness.

If you punish a child for being naughty, and reward him for being good, he will do right merely for the sake of the reward; and when he goes out into the world and finds that goodness is not always rewarded, nor wickedness always punished, he will grow into a man who only thinks about how he may get on in the world, and does right or wrong according as he finds advantage to himself.

Saw so much of the wickedness of my heart that I longed to get away from myself...I felt almost pressed to death with my own vileness. Oh what a body of death is there in me...Oh the closest walk with God is the sweetest heaven that can be enjoyed on earth!

No wickedness proceeds on any grounds of reason.

Human blunders usually do more to shape history than human wickedness.

Evil men by their own nature cannot ever prosper.

How ridiculous not to flee from one's own wickedness, which is possible, yet endeavor to flee from another's which is not.

While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.

No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion; it is an evil government.

We often do shallow good in order to accomplish evil with impunity.

The evils of popular government appear greater than they are; there is compensation for them in spirit and energy it awakens.

Good and evil lie close together. Seek no artistic unity in character.

Evil springs up, and flowers, and bears no seed, And feeds the green earth with its swift decay, Leaving it richer for the growth of truth.

The way to avoid evil is not by maiming our passions, but by compelling them to yield their vigor to our moral nature.

The writer cultivates, extends, raises and inflates his imagination, sure that this is his destiny, his usefulness, his contribution to the understanding of good and evil. As he inflates his imagination he inflates his capacity for evil.

An infant prodigy of nine is shoved upon the stage in white. She starts off in a dismal whine about a dark and stormy night, a burglar, whose heart is true, despite his wicked-looking face, who puts the little child in doom, to save her mamma's jewel case. This may bring tears to every eye; it does not set my heart on fire. I'd like to stand serenely by and watch that horrid child expire.