Terry Eagleton Quotes

Evil is not something superhuman, it's something less than human.

There is poison in the fang of the serpent, in the mouth of the fly and in the sting of a scorpion; but the wicked man is saturated with it.

Evil changes everybody!

Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.

Evil is a miscellaneous collection of nasty things that nasty people do.

The most wicked thing that the dark side of human nature has ever come up with.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is evil in this world.

Evil requires no reason.

You can't dispute the ridiculous. You can't argue reasonably with evil.

Who isn't fascinated by evil?

Evil is unintelligible. It is just a thing in itself, like boarding a crowded commuter train wearing only a giant boa constrictor. There is no context which would make it explicable.

The world is increasing in wickedness.

For those whose wit becomes the mother of villainy, those it educates to be evil in all things.

Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.

I'm interested in villainy.

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

There is something sad about malevolence, to be wicked. I have always tried to make that come across in the villains I have played.

Piety is the most solid goodness, and the vilest of what is evil is vice.

I do believe quite strongly in evil.

As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist, one rarely meets him even once in a lifetime. The ordinary bad hat is always in part a decent fellow.

People do horrible things.

Goodness is weakness, pleasantness is poisonous, serenity is mediocrity and kindness is for losers. The best reason for committing loathsome and detestable acts – and let’s face it, I am considered something of an expert in this field – is purely for their own sake. Monetary gain is all very well, but it dilutes the taste of wickedness to a lower level that is obtainable by almost anyone with an overdeveloped sense of avarice. True and baseless evil is as rare as the purest good.

There are people who are dangerous, and evil is real.

It is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief.

What is an evil man? The man is evil who coerces obedience to his private ends, destroys beauty, produces pain, extinguishes life.