Herman Melville Quotes

Quite often good things have harmful consequences… men have been ruined by their money or killed by their courage.

In history, good intentions do not always make good consequences

The intent of sincere humanitarians is to do good to society, just as the intent of the child who kills a bird by to much fondling is to do good to the bird.

Half of the results of a good intentions are evil; half the results of an evil intention are good.

People do things that turn out badly, often for the most benevolent of reasons.

History isn't just the story of bad people doing bad things. It's quite as much a story of people trying to do good things. But somehow, something goes wrong.

People don't necessarily do evil deeds because they want to; people happen to do something with horrible consequences even if they meant to be kind.

Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.

Actions can have unintended adverse consequences.

There are people who do what they believe is right, but as they say, 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.'

People love talking about the banality of evil and the fact that ordinary people do bad things. I actually want to stay away from that.

It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done.

Danger is a side effect of what I do, not the reason behind it.

To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as morals.

The Second Rule is that the greatest harm can result from the best intentions. It sounds a paradox, but kindness and good intentions can be an insidious path to destruction. Sometimes doing what seems right is wrong, and can cause harm. The only counter to it is knowledge, wisdom, forethought, and understanding the First Rule. Even then, that is not always enough.

God save us from people who mean well.

If only we could see in advance all the harm that can come from the good we think we are doing.

It's hard to hear that your good intentions are making things worse and tragic.

Be careful what you yearn for, because that which you desire most will either complete you or destroy you, and you don't get to choose.

Perdition awaits at the end of a road constructed entirely from good intentions, the devil emerges from the details and hell abides in the small print.

There is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners. The contemporary world, with its open wounds which affect so many of our brothers and sisters, demands that we confront every form of polarization which would divide it into these two camps.

My question is, do you believe in an evil possessed of its own purity? or does every act intend some good?

We know that it is possible to harness desire to many interests, that evil is one form of a desire, and not the nature of it.

There's no way to explain to a child that the line between good and evil isn't nearly as black and white as a fairy tale would lead you to believe. That an ordinary person can turn into a villain, under the right circumstances. That sometimes we dragon slayers do things we aren't proud of.

I find that the interesting challenges, because there's obvious things where, you know, don't be unethical, don't be evil, you know, don't break the law, don't do immoral things, those are all straightforward and don't create ethical dilemmas. The thing that's interesting is when you actually have multiple interests at stake and you have to kind of navigate your way through it.