George Steiner Quotes

Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons.

He was afflicted by the thought that where Beauty was, nothing ever ran quite straight, which no doubt, was why so many people looked on it as immoral.

I tried to walk a line between acting lawfully AND testifying falsely, but I now realize that I did not fully accomplish that goal.

I've learned a lot about good and evil. They are not always what they appear to be.

The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces.

I'm a traitor, but I don't consider myself a traitor.

The world, as transformed by this creative deed, is better than it would have been had all else remained the same, but had that deed of treason not been done at all.

There is a demand in these days for men who can make wrong appear right.

Evil borders upon good, and vices are confounded with virtues; as the report of good qualities is delightful to a well-disposed mind, so the relation of the contrary should not be offensive.

Necessity makes an honest man a knave.

Perhaps my information hurt the Soviet Union more than it helped. I have no idea. It was not something I ever discussed with the KGB officers that I was dealing with.

The true knowledge of good and evil arouses disturbances of the mind

This town leaks like a sieve. Sometimes I think that the easiest thing on the world would be to be a spy against the United States of America

If this isn’t good versus evil, what is?

Our virtues are often, in reality, no better than vices disguised.

Instead of playing heroes and righteous people, I'd rather portray characters with problems of conscience who have to lie, to betray, and then have to cope with that. They feel more true to me.

Every nation necessarily inhabits a morally compromised space. All too often our ideals seem to be held to ransom by what we believe, rightly or wrongly, to be objective reality.

Identify the moral dilemma driving the novel. the successful novel will haunt a reader because it deals with some ethical or moral dilemma that makes the reader wonder what he or she would do in the protagonist's place.

When honor and the Law no longer stand on the same side of the line, how do we choose[?]

I am doing the right thing, he told himself, so why do I feel so bad?

Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.

I guess sometimes you have to lie to find the truth.

A part of me was hoping someone would wake up and hear, so I wouldn't have to live with this lie anymore. But no one woke up and in the silence that followed, I understood the nature of my new curse: I was going to get away with it.

Even without them touching me, I feel dirty about what I do. Alex does even filthier things but says it all washes off with soap. I don’t believe that. I think it all leaves stains. Indelible stains.

This is pity,” he thought, and then he lifted his head in wonder. He thought that there must be something terribly wrong with a world in which this monstrous feeling is called a virtue.