Necessary Evil Quotes - Page 4

• Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a "necessary evil", it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Integrity, Evil, Looks

  Sydney J. Harris (1964). “On the Contrary”

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• I suspect that religion is a necessary evil in the childhood of our particular species. And that's one of the interesting things about contact with other intelligences: we could see what role, if any, religion plays in their development. I think that religion may be some random by-product of mammalian reproduction. If that's true, would non-mammalian aliens have a religion?

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Thinking, Play, Evil

  "God, science, and delusion". "Free Inquiry" Interview with Matt Cherry, March 22, 1999.

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• Any communitys arm of force - military, police, security - needs people in it who can do necessary evil, and yet not be made evil by it. To do only the necessary and no more. To constantly question the assumptions, to stop the slide into atrocity.

  Lois McMaster Bujold

  Military, People, Evil

  "Barrayar". Book by Lois McMaster Bujold, 1991.

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• The State is said by some to be a necessary evil; it must be made unnecessary.

  Benjamin Tucker

  Evil, Anarchy, Unnecessary

  Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (1972). “Instead of a Book”

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• The Founders never intended for Americans to trust their government. Our entire Constitution was predicated on the notion that government was a necessary evil, to be restrained and minimized as much as possible.

  Rand Paul

  Government, Evil, Constitution

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