"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 evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles."

"...there is a perpetual struggle between manifested chaos and the unmanifested. It is the struggle of the Forces of Light with the dark forces. Christ Himself actively resisted evil... he drove the merchants from the Temple, and all his severe accusations against the scribes and Pharisees... If we try to read objectively the words... attributed to Christ, we shall see a Teaching which is severe in its mercy. Therefore, the words "resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also... If this law of Karma, "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," is inevitable and exact justice, it by no means follows that we ourselves, personally, should attempt to fulfil it in this way. If we do so, we shall never emerge from the magic circle of karma. Indeed, we must forgive our personal enemies, as who knows but that the blow one receives is a return blow, well-deserved under the law of Karma? By returning such a blow with another and with a feeling of revenge in our heart, we do not outlive this karma, but we continue and even intensify it in the worst way for ourselves. Moreover, by forgiving our enemies we decrease the amount of evil in space and become immune against many blows. Similarly, let us understand the words "Love thine enemies." However, with all this, we must resist evil, if we do not want to be entirely overwhelmed by it. (26 May 1934)"

"Now let us imagine the situation of Moses if he had not resisted evil and had allowed the worst and crudest elements to destroy the best—the one which was able to assimilate the ideas of morality and order. What would have happened to his task? His duty as a leader and an earthly lawgiver was to protect his people and to maintain order. Therefore, the resistance to evil was basically necessary. All teachings of antiquity declare active resistance to evil. Thus, the well-known sage and lawgiver of China, Confucius, used to say, "God for good, but for evil—justice.""

"Evil is not a political or scientific category. But, after Auschwitz, who could doubt that it exists, and that it manifested itself in the hate-driven genocide carried out by the Nazi regime? However, noting this fact does not permit us to circumvent our responsibility by blaming everything on a demonic Hitler. The evil manifested in the Nazi ideology was not without its precursors. There was a tradition behind the rise of this brutal ideology and the accompanying loss of moral inhibition. Above all, it needs to be said that the Nazi ideology was something that people supported at the time and that they took part in putting into effect."

"I happen to think that the singular evil of our time is prejudice. It is from this evil that all other evils grow and multiply. In almost everything I've written there is a thread of this: a man's seemingly palpable need to dislike someone other than himself."

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows."

"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil."

"The seeds of evil usually germinated in the footprints of people who knew how everybody else ought to behave and felt the need to tell them so."

"I believe in evil. It is the property of all those who are certain of truth. Despair and fanaticism are only differing manifestations of evil."

"Evil comes from unchecked power."

"God’s permission of evil in the things governed by Him is not inconsistent with the divine goodness. For, in the first place, the function of providence is not to destroy but to save the nature of the beings governed. The perfection of the universe requires the existence of some beings that are not subject to evil, and of other beings that can suffer the defect of evil in keeping with their nature. If evil were completely eliminated from things, they would not be governed by divine providence in accord with their nature; and this would be a greater defect than the particular defects eradicted."

"(見ざる, 聞かざる, 言わざる?)"

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve."

"We don't want apartheid liberalized. We want it dismantled. You can't improve something that is intrinsically evil."

"When the Devil is too busy, and Death's a bit too much, they call on me by name you see, for my special touch."

"Between two evils, I generally like to pick the one I never tried before."

"By that which you call evil do you define yourself - and by that which you call good. The biggest evil would therefore be to declare nothing evil at all."

"In the mirrors of the many judgments, my hands are the color of blood. I sometimes fancy myself an evil which exists to oppose other evils; and on that great Day of which the prophets speak but in which they do not truly believe, on the day the world is utterly cleansed of evil, then I too will go down into darkness, swallowing curses. Until then, I will not wash my hands nor let them hang useless."

"The usual devastating put-downs imply that a person is basically bad, rather than that he is a person who sometimes does bad things. Obviously, there is a vast difference between a "bad" person and a person who does something bad. Besides, failure is an event, it is not a person — yesterday ended last night."

"Evil events from evil causes spring."

"From envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness."

"The world, the flesh, and the devil."

"I have wrought great use out of evil tools."

"The authors of great evils know best how to remove them."

"Como el hacer mal viene de natural cosecha, fácilmente se aprende el hacerle."

"Ex malis eligere minima oportere."

"Omne malum nascens facile opprimitur; inveteratum fit pleurumque robustius."

"Touch not; taste not; handle not."

"Et tous maux sont pareils alors qu'ils sont extrêmes."

"Superbia, invidia ed avarizia sono Le tre faville che hanno i cori accesi."

"E duobus malis minimum eligendum."

"Den Bösen sind sie los, die Bösen sind geblieben."

"But evil is wrought by want of Thought, As well as want of Heart!"

"Of two Evils we take the less."

"Quid nos dura refugimus Ætas, quid intactum nefasti Liquimus?"

"Magna inter molles concordia."

"Fere fit malum malo aptissimum."

"Notissimum quodque malum maxime tolerabile."

"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."

"Solent occupationis spe vel impune quædam scelesta committi."

"Que honni soit celui qui mal y pense."

"Genus est mortis male vivere."

"Mille mali species, mille salutis erunt."

"Omnia perversas possunt corrumpere mentes."

"Hoc sustinete, majus ne veniat malum."

"Pulchrum ornatum turpes mores pejus cœno collinunt."

"Male partum male disperit."

"E malis multis, malum, quod minimum est, id minimum est malum."

"Timely advis'd, the coming evil shun: Better not do the deed, than weep it done."

"Of two evils I have chose the least."