Moral Evil Quotes

• If there was no moral evil upon earth, there would be no physical evil.

  Joseph de Maistre

  Evil, Would Be, Earth

  11 Copy quote

• The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people.

  Charles Trevelyan

  Selfish, Real, Character

  "Writing the Frontier: Anthony Trollope between Britain and Ireland". Book by John McCourt, March 19, 2015.

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• The lack of money is the root of all evil.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Bible, Sarcastic

  Mark Twain, John Sutton Tuckey (1980). “The Devil's Race-track: Mark Twain's Great Dark Writings : the Best from Which was the Dream? and Fables of Man”, p.337, Univ of California Press

  153 Copy quote

  Show source

• "One impulse from a vernal wood

  William Wordsworth

  Nature, Tree, Woods

  1798 'The Tables Turned', stanzas 6-8.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Lack of money is the root of of all evil.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Money, Roots, Greatest Wealth

  65 Copy quote

• Selfishness is the root and source of all natural and moral evils.

  Nathanael Emmons

  Roots, Evil, Selfishness

  Nathanael Emmons (1860). “The Works of Nathanael Emmons, D.D., Third Pastor of the Church in Franklin, Mass: With a Memoir of His Life”, p.195

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Moral evil is the immorality and pain and suffering and tragedy that come because we choose to be selfish, arrogant, uncaring, hateful and abusive.

  Lee Strobel

  Pain, Selfish, Evil

  "Lee Strobel Probes 'Why?' During First Sunday Service After Colorado Shooting" by Alex Murashko, www.christianpost.com. July 23, 2012.

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• By the very constitution of our nature moral evil is its own curse.

  Thomas Chalmers

  Evil, Moral, Constitution

  Thomas Chalmers (1848). “Discourses on the Christian revelation, viewed in connection with the modern astronomy: To which are added, Discourses illustrative of the connection between theology & general science”, p.328

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is indeed probable that more harm and misery have been caused by men determined to use coercion to stamp out a moral evil than by men intent on doing evil.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Men, Thinking, Tyrants

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek. Part II: "Freedom and the Law". Chapter 9: "Coercion and the State", 1960.

  78 Copy quote

  Show source

• It [idolatry] nourishes mans ambition to domineer over his fellow man. Idolatry, therefore, is the source of all social and moral evil in the world.

  Abba Eban

  Ambition, Men, Evil

  Abba Eban (1969). “My people: the story of the Jews”, George Weidenfeld & Nicholson

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Abortion is without a doubt one of the greatest moral evils within modernity. As the "Advocate of Christian Memory," a pope must take up the mantle of defending the culture of life - a defense the Early Church held against the pagans of Rome.

  Pope Francis

  Christian, Memories, Rome

  8 Copy quote

• Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is more or less strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Strong, Evil, Moral

  18 Copy quote

• If the Irish once find out that there are any circumstances in which they can get free government grants, we shall have a system of mendicancy [begging] such as the world never knew”. After a million had starved to death he stated “The great evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people.

  Charles Trevelyan

  Selfish, Character, Government

  406 Copy quote

• And there is the matter of abortion. We must with calmness and resolve help the vast majority of our fellow Americans understand that the more than 112 million abortions performed in America in 1980 amount to a great moral evil, an assault on the sacredness of human life.

  Ronald Reagan

  America, Evil, Abortion

  6 Copy quote

• ...the right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example... Had the holding of slaves been a moral evil, it cannot be supposed that the inspired Apostles ... would have tolerated it for a moment in the Christian Church. In proving this subject justifiable by Scriptural authority [Luke 12:47], its morality is also proved; for the Divine Law never sanctions immoral actions.

  Richard Furman

  Christian, Law, Evil

  8 Copy quote

• One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can.

  William Wordsworth

  Nature, Educational, Men

  1798 'The Tables Turned', stanzas 6-8.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Natural good is' so intimately connected with moral good, and natural evil with moral evil, that I am as certain as if I heard a voice from heaven proclaim it, that God is on the side of virtue. He has learnt much, and has not lived in vain, who has practically discovered that most strict and necessary connection, that does and will ever exist between vice and misery, and virtue and happiness.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Voice, Evil, Heaven

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.145

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Love is the medicine of all moral evil. By it the world is to be cured of sin.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Love, Medicine, Evil

  Henry Ward Beecher, Truman Jeremiah Ellinwood (1897). “The original Plymouth pulpit”

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• The hell of human suffering, evil and oppression is paved with good intentions. The men who have most injured and oppressed humanity, who have most deeply sinned against it, were according to their standards and their conscience good men; what was bad in them, what wrought moral evil and cruelty, treason to truth and progress, was not at all in their intentions, in their purpose, in their personal character, but in their opinions.

  Robert Briffault

  Character, Men, Evil

  4 Copy quote

• ... moral evil is its own curse.

  Thomas Chalmers

  Evil, Moral, Curse

  Thomas Chalmers (1848). “Discourses on the Christian revelation, viewed in connection with the modern astronomy: To which are added, Discourses illustrative of the connection between theology & general science”, p.328

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Even papists could not see that a moral evil was detained in the soul through its physical connection with the body; and that it required the dissolution of this physical connection before the moral contagion could be removed.

  Adam Clarke

  Evil, Soul, Connections

  Adam Clarke (1842). “Christian Theology”, p.185

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Property is not the sacred right. When a rich man becomes poor it is a misfortune, it is not a moral evil. When a poor man becomes destitute, it is a moral evil, teeming with consequences and injurious to society and morality.

  Lord Acton

  Men, Evil, Sacred

  12 Copy quote

• The factory farm is . . . an obvious moral evil so sickening and horrendous. . . All this so we can have our accustomed veal or lamb or fried chicken or pork chop or hot dog.

  Matthew Scully

  Dog, Vegetarianism, Evil

  Matthew Scully (2011). “Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy”, p.138, Souvenir Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is not possible to speak of the right to choose when a clear moral evil is involved, when what is at stake is the commandment, Do not kill!

  Mother Teresa

  Christian, Evil, Abortion

  4 Copy quote

• The glory of this land has been its capacity for transcending the moral evils of our past. For example, the long struggle of minority citizens for equal rights, once a source of disunity and civil war, is now a point of pride for all Americans. We must never go back. There is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of ethnic and racial hatred in this country.

  Ronald Reagan

  Country, War, Struggle

  Remarks at the Annual Convention of the the National Association of Evangelicals, delivered 8 March 1983, Orlando, Florida

  32 Copy quote

  Show source