Evil brings men together.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), (attributed)

Evil draws men together.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Rhetoric¹

We must as second best...take the least of the evils.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Nichomachean Ethics²

The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it.

Ayn Rand (1905 - 1982), Atlas³ Shrugged⁴, 1957

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade⁵ the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.

Ayn Rand (1905 - 1982), Capitalism⁶: The Unknown Ideal, 1966

I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room.

Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.

Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

We are all capable of evil thoughts, but only very rarely of evil deeds: we can all do good deeds, but very few of us can think good thoughts.

Cesare Pavese (1908 - 1950)

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)

I know indeed what evil I intend to do,

but stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury,

fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils.

Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Medea, 431 B.C.

Every minute you are thinking of evil, you might have been thinking of good instead. Refuse to pander⁷ to a morbid⁸ interest in your own misdeeds. Pick yourself up, be sorry, shake yourself, and go on again.

Evelyn Underhill

Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 - 1881)

Evil is obvious only in retrospect⁹.

Gloria Steinem (1934 - ), Outrageous¹⁰ Acts and Everyday Rebellions, 1983

Do not seek evil gains; evil gains are the equivalent of disaster.

Hesiod (~800 BC), Works and Days

He harms himself who does harm to another, and the evil plan is most harmful to the planner.

Hesiod (~800 BC), Works and Days

Often an entire city has suffered because of an evil man.

Hesiod (~800 BC), Works and Days

Evil deeds do not prosper¹¹; the slow man catches up with the swift.

Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Odyssey¹²

A person may cause evil to others not only by his action but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.

John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873)

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

Joseph Conrad (1857 - 1924), Under Western Eyes, 1911

Evil to him who evil thinks.

(Honi Soit Qui Mal Pense)

King Edward the Third (1312 - 1377), Motto of the order of the Garter

A scoundrel will forever be a scoundrel, no matter which coat he wears.

Laura Moncur (1969 - ), The Secret Heart of Charlotte Lucas, 2014

Whenever evil befalls us, we ought to ask ourselves, after the first suffering, how we can turn it into good. So shall we take occasion, from one bitter root, to raise perhaps many flowers.

Leigh Hunt (1784 - 1859)

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.

Mae West (1892 - 1980), Klondike Annie (1936 film)

It is bitter to lose a friend to evil, before one loses him to death.

Mary Renault, The Praise Singer, 1978

Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter.

Oliver Goldsmith (1730 - 1774)

All things may corrupt¹³ when minds are prone¹⁴ to evil.

Ovid (43 BC - 17 AD)

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.

Plato (427 BC - 347 BC), Dialogues, Apology

Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty.

Simone Weil (1909 - 1943), Gravity and Grace, 1947