Necessary Evil Quotes - Page 3

• Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody's got to pay for them so they're a necessary evil.

  Michael Bloomberg

  Success, Business, Responsibility

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• As sure as God is good, so surely there is no such thing as necessary evil.

  Robert Southey

  Evil

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• In order to forgive reason for the evil it has wrought on the majority of men, we must imagine for ourselves what man would be without his reason. 'Tis a necessary evil.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Men, Order, Evil

  Sébastien-Roch-Nicolas Chamfort (1902). “The Cynic's Breviary: Maxims and Anecdotes from Nicolas de Chamfort”

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• Religion is a by-product of fear. For much of human history it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary? Isn’t killing people in the name of god a pretty good definition of insanity?

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Atheist, Names, People

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• For particulars, as everyone knows, make for virtue and happiness; generalities are intellectually necessary evils. Not philosophers but fretsawyers and stamp collectors compose the backbone of society.

  Aldous Huxley

  Brave New World, Evil, Philosopher

  "Brave New World". Book by Aldous Huxley. Chapter 1, 1932.

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• Woman -a foe of friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil.

  Saint John Chrysostom

  Punishment, Evil, Foe

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• I believe you can divide the people in to two basic groups, those who believe government is a necessary good and those who believe it is a necessary evil, those who want government to take care of them, those who want government to leave them alone.

  Lyn Nofziger

  Believe, Government, Two

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• The government's appearing to be a necessary evil does not oblige people to trust it. We face a choice of trusting government or trusting freedom-trusting overlords who have lied and abused their power or trusting individuals to make the most of their own lives.

  James Bovard

  Government, People, Evil

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• It is said that government is a necessary evil, but it is far more evil than it is necessary.

  James Cook

  Government, Evil, Said

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• The Founders recognized that Government is quite literally a necessary evil, that there must be opposition, between its various branches, and between political parties, for these are the only ways to temper the individual's greed for power and the electorates' desires for peace by submission to coercion or blandishment.

  David Mamet

  Party, Government, Evil

  "Hands Off Our Guns" by David Mamet, www.realclearpolitics.com. January 28, 2013.

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• For me, Spotify is not even a necessary evil. It helps me do what I want to do.

  Ed Sheeran

  Evil, Want, Helping

  "The copyright-worrying return of the monkey selfie - Open thread" by Stuart Dredge, www.theguardian.com. December 12, 2014.

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• No matter how deeply wedded one may be to the free enterprise system (and I, for one, am wedded for life), one has to accept the need for positive government; one has to consider government action on a sizable scale as desirable rather than as a necessary evil.

  Peter Drucker

  Government, Evil, Needs

  Peter F. Drucker (2011). “Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New”, p.178, Transaction Publishers

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• Compression is a necessary evil. The artists I know want to sound competitive. You don't want your track to sound quieter or wimpier by comparison. We've raised the bar and you can't really step back.

  Butch Vig

  Artist, Track, Evil

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• I'm lucky to have a job doing something I really love to do, and I'm happy to accept the pressures of relentless deadlines or reader expectations as necessary evils. It's probably not as stressful as mining coal or leading men into battle.

  Grant Morrison

  Jobs, Men, Expectations

  Interview with Leonard Pierce, www.avclub.com. July 22, 2009.

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• Doubtless there are times when controversy becomes a necessary evil. But let us remember that it is an evil.

  Arthur Penrhyn Stanley

  Evil, Remember, Controversy

  Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1859). “Sermons Preached Before His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales: During His Tour in the East in the Spring of 1862 with Notices of Some of the Localities Visited”, p.284

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• I think it takes a lot of trickery to keep up with the media and its perception of you. I don't know if I have it in me most of the time to care. The music is made first, and the interviews or photos to keep it alive come later as a necessary evil, I suppose.

  Jack White

  Thinking, Media, Evil

  "Jack White: 'Is it fun to make music? I don't really know' - an in-depth Q&A from the vaults". Interview with Barney Hoskyns, www.theguardian.com. April 3, 2012.

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• It is impossible! It has never happened - it cannot happen in the very nature of things. Marriage is something against nature. Marriage is an imposition, an invention of man - certainly out of necessity, but now even that necessity is out of date. It was a necessary evil in the past, but now it can be dropped. And it should be dropped: man has suffered enough for it, more than enough. It is an ugly institution for the simple reason that love cannot be legalized. Love and law are contradictory phenomena.

  Rajneesh

  Marriage, Past, Simple

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• The right-of-centre parties still often compete with left-of-centre ones to proclaim their attachment to all the main programmes of spending, particularly spending on social services of one kind or another. But this foolish as well as muddled. It is foolish because left-of-centre parties will always be able to outbid right-of-centre ones in this auction - after all, that is why they are on the left in the first place. The muddle arises because once we concede that public spending and taxation are than a necessary evil we have lost sight of the core values of freedom.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Party, Sight, Attachment

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• Generalities are intellectually necessary evils.

  Aldous Huxley

  Evil, Chaos, Generalities

  Aldous Huxley (1950). “The Collected Works of Aldous Huxley: Brave new world”

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• I think the paparazzi is a necessary evil...and if ya don't like it, and ya don't want to do this, go to Iowa and do some community theatre. It's all about self-promotion and it's not always the fun part of it.

  Gail O'Grady

  Fun, Thinking, Self

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Most "necessary evils" are far more evil than necessary.

  Richard Branson

  Business, Evil

  Richard Branson (1999). “Losing my virginity: how I've survived, had fun, and made a fortune doing business my way”, Crown Business

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• And now, what has Anarchism to say to all this, this bankruptcy of republicanism, this modern empire that has grown up on the ruins of our early freedom? We say this, that the sin our fathers sinned was that they did not trust liberty wholly. They thought it possible to compromise between liberty and government, believing the latter to be 'a necessary evil,' and the moment the compromise was made, the whole misbegotten monster of our present tyranny began to grow. Instruments which are set up to safeguard rights become the very whip with which the free are struck.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Father, Believe, Rights

  Voltairine de Cleyre (2012). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.99, SUNY Press

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• Rock music is, is a necessary evil, like beating my children with penny loafers

  Thom Yorke

  Children, Rocks, Evil

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• You will find that you cannot do without politicians. They are a necessary evil in this day and time. You may not like getting money from one source and spending it for another. But the thing for the school people to do is that if the politicians are going to steal, make them steal for the schools.

  Huey Long

  School, People, Evil

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• Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Atheist, Names, People

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