Margaret Deland Quotes

As the greatest liar tells more truths than falsehoods, so may it be said of the worst man, that he does more good than evil.

All of the films I have made, that I have chosen to make, are all about the thin line between good and evil. And also the thin line that exists in each and every one of us. That's what my films are about.

There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.

Morality without a sense of paradox is mean.

The best men are not consistent in good--why should the worst men be consistent in evil?

Most people aren't good or bad. They're naive.

Our actions are neither so good nor so evil as our impulses.

And one of the elders of the city , said , speak to us of good and evil. And he answered : You are good in countless ways , and you are not evil when you are not good .

Is it good or bad?" she asked Issa. The wrong question, she knew. She just couldn't help herself. "It's both, sweet girl," said Issa. "like everything.

Everybody is naughty, everybody is good.

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice. Where is the skillful swordsman who can give clean wounds, and not rip up his work with the other edge?

Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil. For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst? Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.

Good and evil appear to be joined in every culture at the spine.

There is some good in the worst of us, and some evil in the best of us.

Most of us have learned to be dispassionate about evil, to look it in the face and find, as often as not, our own grinning reflections with which we do not argue, but good is another matter. Few have stared at that long enough to accept that its face too is grotesque, that in us the good is something under construction. The modes of evil usually receive worthy expression. The modes of good have to be satisfied with a cliche or a smoothing down that will soften their real look.

People with the purest souls are capable of the greatest evils.

Good and bad may not be dissevered; There is, as there should be, a commingling.

Good and evil lie close together. Seek no artistic unity in character.

I purposefully try to make films in that grey area, where things are morally ambiguous. It's like life: good people do horrible things, and bad people do good things, and there's beauty in horror and horror in beauty.

In the midst of vice we are in virtue, and vice versa.

Be virtuous and you will be vicious.

Nobody's all good or bad, and nobody's all light or dark. Every human being has so many different aspects and facets to them. And there can be something noble and something really dark and dangerous going on in a person all at the same time.

Only a writer who has the sense of evil can make goodness readable.

There's a dark side to everything.

If I play a villain, I try to find his lightness and his good side. And if I play a hero or a good guy, I'll try to find his darkness or his flaws. Because I don't believe in good and evil. I believe in grays.