Good and evil are two opposing concepts which represent eternal duality that the human being experiences during the course of his life.
As many of you know, all of us as individuals are born with the innate ability to do both, good and evil, through our daily actions, guided by a unique and sometimes questionable value system.
It is thanks to wisdom and experience that most people learn to differentiate what is right and what is wrong, although there are also some people who do not reach the minimum level of wisdom for this.
Many thinkers of all time have written at some point in their lives about good and evil and how they have managed over time to know how to differentiate them and act in an ethical way.
If you are interested in knowing which are the 75 best phrases about good and evil, thanks to this article below you will have the opportunity to discover them.
1. To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it. (Martin Luther King Jr.)
As Martin Luther King tells us very well in this quote, not acting will never solve our problems.
2. The best men are not consistent in good, why should the worst men be consistent in evil? (Wilkie Collins)
As human beings we all evolve throughout our lives and it is precisely because of that that a person who has previously done evil may be able to do good tomorrow.
3. Within each of us, there is the seed of good and evil. It’s a constant fight over which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other. (Eric Burdon)
All human beings are born with the innate ability to do both good and evil and it will depend exclusively on ourselves, what action we will finally decide to carry out.
4. Each of us has a vision of good and evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good. (Pope Francisco)
Only if the entire society is committed to doing good will we be able to achieve the destiny that all of us as human beings deserve and that is why it is very important that we always encourage all those we come across to do good throughout their lives.
5. I like to see the difference between right and wrong like the foul line in a baseball game. It’s very thin, it’s made of something very fragile like lime, and if you cross it, it really starts to blur where fair becomes dirty and dirty becomes fair. (Harlan Coben)
Good and evil are actually much closer than some of us usually imagine and it is possibly because of this that many people end up crossing that barrier at some point in their lives.
6. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. (Edmund Burk)
Not acting against evil is an action that, even passively, helps to strengthen itself, which is why it is very important that we always act against injustices just when we witness them.
7. Men who believe in good and evil, and who believe that good must win, must be attentive to those moments in which it is possible to play God. (John Irving)
As the well-known quote says, keep your friends very close and your enemies even closer because only in that way will you have a remote opportunity to anticipate their actions.
8. Good and evil seem to be united in all cultures at the spine. (Flannery O’Connor)
All cultures in the world have their own point of view on what is good and what is evil and all of them tend to be very clear about the actions that make you place yourself on one side or the other of the dividing line. .
9. The web of our life is of a mixed thread, good and bad together. (William Shakespeare)
It is true that in modern society, both good and bad men are mixed, making it impossible to differentiate us with the naked eye, although all of us have been born with the innate ability to know how to discern between those who do good with their daily actions and those who do evil. .
10. The choice of life is not between fame and fortune, nor wealth and poverty, but between good and evil. (Boyd K. Packer)
The path of evil can be very tempting at certain times in our lives and if we are very strong in morals, we will manage not to fall into the temptation of following it.
11. Good people know both good and evil: bad people do not. (C.S. Lewis)
Lack of culture can make us fall into evil on many occasions, which is why we must ensure that our children receive an adequate education, especially during the first years of their lives.
12. There is an old illusion. It’s called good and evil. (Friedrich Nietzsche)
According to Nietzsche, both good and evil are simply a personal point of view and there are many who, today, still think that this philosopher’s ideas were completely right.
13. I don’t believe that good and evil are polarized. (Sam Mendes)
Good and evil are not as separate as many people tend to think, in reality they are practically next to each other.
14. The first idea that the child must acquire is the difference between good and evil. (Maria Montessori)
It is very important that our children learn to discern from an early age between good and evil because only in this way will they become profitable people tomorrow.
15. Good and evil have nothing to do with the gods. It has to do with us. (Matthew Woodring Stover)
Almost all the evil that exists in the world is created by human beings themselves and the ancestral idea that a god or a domain is its main cause has absolutely nothing to do with the reality that we all live today.
16. If men were born free, as long as they remained free, they would not form a conception of good and evil. (Baruch Spinoza)
It is very true that only by being free men can we have the ability to say which actions we should take whether we want to do good or whether we actually want to do evil.
17. It is not true that good can only follow good and evil only evil, but the opposite often happens. (Max Weber)
As people we are fully capable of doing both good and evil and what’s more, many of us tend to perform acts on both sides practically every day.
18. I hope that true love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world. (Charles Dickens)
Only with love and truth in our hearts will we ensure that our civilization can become a totally idyllic society in the future.
19. People could not become truly holy, he said, unless they also had the opportunity to be definitively evil. (Terry Pratchett)
The possibility of both doing good and doing evil will always be there and it will always depend on us, which of the two paths we will ultimately choose to follow in the course of our lives.
20. I have never met a truly evil person before. I feel quite scared. I’m afraid he’ll look the same as everyone else. (Oscar Wilde)
Evil is something that cannot be seen with the naked eye and in reality, many of the people we consider benevolent today may not actually be so.
21. And I must believe that man has the power to know the law, choose between good and evil and know that his choice has made a difference. (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
As human beings, knowing how to discern between good and evil is one of our greatest gifts because it is largely thanks to it that today many of us can enjoy a life that otherwise would not have been possible.
22. There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are things like angels, I hope they are organized along mafia lines. (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.)
Without a doubt this is a quote worth remembering because as individuals we should all know that with good organization and the strength of our perseverance, everything in life can really be within our reach.
23. In a certain aspect, the history of man is the story of the struggle between good and evil. (Martin Luther King)
Man has always had to decide throughout his entire existence between what is right and what is wrong, a decision that, most likely, will also accompany all of us throughout our entire life.
24. Do not let yourself be overcome by evil, if you do not overcome evil with good. We who are strong must bear the illnesses of the weak and not please ourselves. (Saint Paul)
Doing good can be a much harder task than some imagine, but still as human beings, we must never let evil take over our actions.
25. Kindness is the only investment that never fails. (Henry David Thoreau)
A kind person will always be a good person, since kindness is undoubtedly one of the purest expressions that good can adopt to materialize.
26. I couldn’t understand why men who knew everything about good and evil could hate and kill each other. (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
If history has taught us anything, it is that man tends to tend to end up doing evil, a way of being that as a society we have unfortunately not yet managed to eradicate.
27. False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil. (Plato)
Lying is something that we should all undoubtedly eradicate from our lives because, as they say, lying is something that will ultimately never get you anywhere.
28. What is done for love always happens beyond good and evil. (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Acts done out of love often do not understand good and evil, they are simply carried out in the hope of seeing the loved one again.
29. Of two evils, choose neither. (Charles Spurgeon)
A lesser evil will always remain an evil, if we ever find ourselves forced to choose between two evils, the best option will always be not to choose.
30. Good men are teachers of bad men, and bad men are the materials of good men. (Laozi)
Every act in the end always has its response and it is because of this that each act of evil ends up creating its adverse effect probably in another place in the world.
31. Good and evil increase like compound interest. (C.S. Lewis)
Good and evil are capable of spreading with great virulence and even encourage certain acts in people, which in most cases they had never imagined before.
32. Wisdom is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two. (John Cheever)
Knowing how to discern between good and evil is a clear symptom of wisdom, a very positive ability that even today many people do not possess.
33. I am very interested in good and evil and the moral nature of people. (Antonia Fraser)
Studying human beings can be something truly exciting because it is incredible how despite our great intelligence, we are totally capable of doing evil over and over again to all those around us.
34. The character of people is their behavior: we are all capable of good and evil. (Bertie Carvel)
A great quote from Bertie Carvel that undoubtedly holds great truth because we are all, as individuals, totally capable of both very positive acts and extremely negative acts towards others.
35. Religion as a human phenomenon is as full of potential for good and evil as any other phenomenon. (Richard John Neuhaus)
Religion has always been a double-edged sword and just as religious people have often helped many people, they have also been the cause on more than one occasion of some fratricidal wars.
36. I believe that you can make the forces of good and evil work for you, to get what you want. (GG Allin)
By living in society with the use of social relationships we can really go very far in life because as many of us will discover, in order to reach certain levels of notoriety it will be essential that we have the necessary support.
37. Being willing or preferring is the same with respect to good and evil, as judging is with respect to truth or falsehood. (Anthony Collins)
When choosing between good and evil we must be very sure that we have the correct point of view because on certain occasions, what sometimes seems like something very bad for the general interest may not actually be so.
38. Good and evil are happening. We have police. We have thieves. (Joe Mantegna)
The fight of law enforcement against criminals is a clear example of the fight that exists between good and evil, although we should know that a simple uniform never really determines whether a person is a benefactor or if they really are not.
39. Good and evil no longer exist for me. The fear of evil is simply a massive projection here and on Earth. (Hans Bender)
As we move forward in life, many of us begin to realize that “the bad guy” on most occasions is not actually as bad as it seemed because one of the greatest truths in life is that appearances often tend to cheat.
40. Everyone spends their lives trying to balance their world between good and evil. (Laurell K. Hamilton)
The path of both good and evil will always be there throughout our lives and as we will discover, our diaries will ultimately be in charge of leading us down one or the other.
41. I want to show people how there are variations and different interpretations of good and evil. (Hideo Kojima)
The same fact can be seen in many different ways, which is why the opinions of others should always be respected and listened to.
42. All human beings are mixed between good and evil. (Robert Louis Stevenson)
It is very normal that at some moments in our lives we do wrong to a certain extent, the key is that our count of positive and negative acts over time always remains mostly positive.
43. Even if we don’t always understand why God allows certain things to happen to us, we can know that He is able to bring good out of evil and triumph over suffering. (Billy Graham)
Although we are believers, we must think that God cannot always be there to free us from evil because in reality, we must always be the ones who throughout our lives choose to follow the path of righteousness.
44. When you feel that you cannot do good, at least desist from doing evil. (Sathya Sai Baba)
If we cannot do a positive act with respect to someone, the best option we can take will always be not to act.
45. All governments are, in equal measure, good and bad. The best ideal is anarchy. (Leo Tolstoy)
As we see, according to Tolstoy, governments are inherently evil, which is why the idea of a completely anarchic society was always very interesting to him from his own point of view.
46. In any compromise between good and evil, only evil can benefit. (Ayn Rand)
Evil seems to have the innate ability to feed itself, perhaps for this reason, in modern society we have not yet managed to eradicate it.
47. Good people don’t need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. (Plato)
We all have the ability to say in our lives whether we want to do good or perhaps do evil, this is a personal decision that each person must always make completely alone.
48. Let no one regret having done good, because others have done evil. (Henry Fielding)
When we do a positive act we should always be very proud of it regardless of anything that third parties may tell us.
49. Evil is always possible. And kindness is eternally difficult. (Anne Rice)
Kind people are extremely rare, that is why if one day we meet one, we must make sure that they always remain present in our lives.
50. In many cases, it is very difficult to fix the boundaries of Good and Evil, because they are separated, like Day and Night, which are separated by Twilight. (Benjamin Whichcote)
The dividing line between good and evil seems to be very blurry for some people and perhaps that is why so many people constantly move from one side to the other of this invisible moral border.
51. Everyone has good and bad forces working with them, against them and within them. (Suzy Kassem)
Life is, on most occasions, much more complicated than we really imagine, thousands of things constantly happen around us without us having any perception about them.
52. Poor God, how often he is blamed for all the suffering in the world. It’s like praising Satan for allowing all the good things to happen. (EA Bucchianeri)
Most of the evils that we suffer as human beings are almost always caused by ourselves, the reality is that there is neither a god nor a demon that is behind everything good or bad that happens to us.
53. Sometimes evil people tell us things just to confuse us, to torment our thoughts long after we have faced them. (Sarah J. Maas)
Throughout our lives we will encounter people who are experts in the art of malmetering on countless occasions, but with the passage of time, we all learn to turn a deaf ear to this type of individuals.
54. If your religion does not teach you the difference between good and evil, your religion is worse than useless. (Dennis Prager)
Religion was certainly the figure in charge in the past of telling people what was right and what was wrong.
55. People like to say that the conflict is between good and evil. The real conflict is between truth and lies. (Don Miguel Ruiz)
Truth and lies are another point of view of what some of us know as good and evil, which for practical purposes means that they are actually different ways of naming the same fact.
56. Nature has no principles. She makes no distinction between good and evil. (Anatole France)
As they say, nature in its wisdom never makes mistakes, because everything it does always has a relevant reason behind it.
57. The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil. (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
In ancient Rome, philosophers already knew the true importance of wisdom, which, as Cicero tells us in this quote, is responsible for giving us the ability to know how to discern between right and wrong.
58. The power to choose good and evil is available to everyone.
All of us at some point will have to say between good and evil, but not all of us will know how to differentiate when the time comes which is one and which is the other.
59. The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of people who are evil, but because of good people who don’t do anything about it. (Albert Einstein)
If we do not act in the face of injustice, we are indirectly complicit in it; therefore, if we do not wish to do evil, we are always obliged to do good with all our actions.
60. I oppose violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; The evil it does is permanent. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Gandhi did not teach that violence should always be rejected because if we study it carefully, we can realize that in reality it will always end up harming us.
61. Life is neither good nor bad, but only a place for good and evil. (Marcus Aurelius)
Good and evil will always be present in the lives of men because to tell the truth, all of us have at least a little of each of them within our own being.
62. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the last word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. (Martin Luther King)
Martin Luther King was a tremendously positive man because despite having suffered greatly throughout his life, he always had the illusion that truth, justice and goodness would end up conquering all of humanity.
63. The tree of knowledge is a tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Henry David Thoreau)
Only with knowledge and wisdom, man becomes capable of knowing how to differentiate in his daily life what is right and what is wrong.
64. People are not bad and people are not good. They live as best they can one day at a time. They come from dust, they return to dust, dusty feet, wingless, and whose fault is it? (Caryl Churchill)
We all have bad days from time to time and it is normal that during them, we are not as benevolent as we perhaps would be on some other occasion.
65. Good and evil are very difficult to explain or understand. I’m sure evil exists, but it’s hard to isolate. Good and evil are intertwined and impossible to separate. They are not completely opposites, and in fact, they are often the same. (Keith Haring)
There are certain actions that are actually neither bad nor good because a single one of these actions can have the capacity to do good to some and to do evil to others.
66. The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance. (Socrates)
If as a society we wish to move towards a better future for all of us, the only path we should all follow is the path to wisdom.
67. The battle line between good and evil runs through the heart of every man. (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
In this very interesting quote we can see once again the eternal duality that is always present in the human being himself. We ourselves are actually the direct causes of everything good and everything bad that happens to us.
68. Everyone has their own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow good and fight evil. That would be enough to make the world a better place. (Pope Francisco)
Pope Francis has always spoken out as a truly conciliatory man, a way of being that many of us could undoubtedly learn from.
69. No matter how hard evil tries, it can never match the power of Good, because evil is ultimately self-destructive. Evil may corrupt others, but in the process it corrupts itself. (John Connolly)
Just as John Connolly is in this phrase, all of us should also be much more positive, because good in the end in one way or another will always prevail.
70. I think life seems like a problem to you because you think there are good people and bad people. You’re wrong, of course. There are, always and only, bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides. (Terry Pratchett)
It may be that whoever does evil today ends up doing good tomorrow, because in reality there are no good or bad people, there are just plain people.
71. It is very difficult to be simple enough to be good. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Being a totally good person is something much more complicated than it seems, since most of us also have even a minimal part of evil within our being.
72. Kindness is love in action. (James Hamilton)
Kindness is the maximum expression of good and that is why we must make sure to surround ourselves as much as we can with these types of people.
73. Time spent trying to do good is not wasted. (Concepción Arenal)
All the time we spend doing good we can be sure that this will always be time really well spent.
74. The best life is not the longest, but the one richest in good actions. (Marie Curie)
A phrase that we should all undoubtedly remember. A good life is not measured in wealth or achievements but in the amount of your good deeds.
75. The best of men is he who does the most good to his fellow men. (Muhammad)
As Muhammad tells us very well in this quote, we must all do good to our fellow human beings if we want our lives to be more positive.
