Noam Chomsky Quotes

It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.

The lesser evil is also evil.

The 'morality of compromise' sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.

Those who won't accept evil never get anything good.

Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.

When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil.

To do a great right do a little wrong.

If you have difficulties making a decision, choose the lesser of the two evils.

Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a trifle sharp to allow for an inevitable fall in playing.

Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.

A little hypocrisy is better than losing.

Be sensible, that is, cease to be honest.

[In a political contest] If you are faced with the lesser of two evils, you have the evil of two lesser.

In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.

Politically, the weakness of the argument has always been that those who choose the lesser evil forget very quickly that they chose evil.

It is better to inconsistently save some lives than to consistently save none.

Sometimes you have to forget your principles and do what’s right.

Men must learn now with pity to dispense; For policy sits above conscience.

If you choose the lesser of two evils, you are still choosing evil.

Still it might be nice, once in a while, not to have to choose between evils. Just once, couldn't I choose the lesser good?

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

When a man declares: "There are no blacks and whites [in morality]" he is making a psychological confession, and what he means is: "I am unwilling to be wholly good - and please don't regard me as wholly evil!"

Occasionally, a man must rise above principles.

Most "necessary evils" are far more evil than necessary.

Life's not black-and-white. Sometimes the ends justifies the means.