Gail Simone Quotes

As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy.

What's distinctively shocking about Machiavelli is that he didn't care. He believed not only that politicians must do evil in the name of the public good, but also that they shouldn't worry about it. He was unconcerned, in other words, with what modern thinkers call 'the problem of dirty hands.'

Morality without a sense of paradox is mean.

Sometimes the right thing gets done for the wrong reason and sometimes, unfortunately, the wrong thing gets done for the right reason.

Intelligence work has one moral law—it is justified by results.

… by the logic of Concord, Lexington, and Bunker Hill, and by the principles enforced by this nation in its boasted Declaration of Independence, Capt. Brown was a hero, struggling against fearful odds, not for his own advantage, but to redeem others from a horrible bondage, to be justified in all that he aimed to achieve, however lacking in sound discretion. And by the same logic and the same principles, every slave-holder has forfeited his right to live, if his destruction be necessary to enable his victims to break the yoke of bondage; and they, and all who are disposed to aid them by force and arms, are fully warranted in carrying rebellion to any extent, and securing freedom at whatever cost.

Good and evil lay side by side.

Writers must be fair and remember even bad guys (most of them, anyway) see themselves as good—they are the heroes of their own lives. Giving them a fair chance as characters can create some interesting shades of gray—and shades of gray are also a part of life.

Under the rules of a society that cannot distinguish between profit and profiteering, between money defined as necessity and money defined as luxury, murder is occasionally obligatory and always permissible.

It might or might not be right to kill, but sometimes it is necessary.

I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.

Does the end justify the means? That is possible. But what will justify the end? To that question, which historical thought leaves pending, rebellion replies: the means.

It is a mean thief or a successful author that plunders the dead.

We aren't the good guys, Anita. We're the necessary guys. -Edward

In order to forgive reason for the evil it has wrought on the majority of men, we must imagine for ourselves what man would be without his reason. 'Tis a necessary evil.

The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.

Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction.

They were on the side of the angels, even if the angels weren't entirely sure that this was a good thing.

Lying is a delightful thing, for it leads to truth.

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

The end never justifies the means because there is no end; there are only means.

I'm still divided in my principles and what I think is right and what I'm actually able to do, whether talking about writing or being a citizen or being a husband or being a father. And I'm trying to get better.

A writer loves the dark, loves it, but is always fumbling around in the light.

I always think that there is the good and the bad of it all.

The same principle that forbids me to lie does not allow me to tell the truth.