Joseph de Maistre Quotes

It is widely assumed, contrary to fact, that theism necessarily involves the two assumptions which cannot be squared with the existence of so much suffering, and that therefore, per impossibile, they simply have to be squared with the existence of all this suffering, somehow.

Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil. I am content to observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape from it, and with this I begin and end.

The problem of evil... Why does God permit it? Or, if God is omnipotent, in which case permission and creation are the same, why did God create it?

There's too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will.

Some people turn from God because they cannot understand how a good God can permit evil in the world.

It is very difficult to give a 15 second sound bite on why there is pain and suffering in this world and not have it come off as being flippant or surface level or superficial.

If 'everything happens for a reason,' then every act of evil is ultimately God's doing.

I challenge anyone to tell me there isn't evil in this world.

The famine has been sent by God to teach the Irish a lesson.... The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people.

Anybody that has had a brush with what feels like undiluted evil often ends up asking themselves the same questions - whether it's something that was a consequence of their own actions or actions that were taken against them or actions that they were caught up in.

From the days of Cain and Abel, we know all too well there will always be evil. But that evil shouldn't take away our freedoms.

I don't really believe in evil at all.

Then, in the next place, we must know that every being which is endowed with reason, and transgresses its statutes and limitations, is undoubtedly involved in sin by swerving from rectitude and justice.

I think God gives every one of us our own will, and unfortunately, some people choose to do evil things with it.

See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil... I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life.

How do you live with evil? Art is traditionally - certainly with my secular background - the answer, but art is very self-referential, whereas religion claims to go beyond the bounds of human existence.

Evil is committed without effort, naturally, fatally; goodness is always the product of some art.

I don't believe in devils. Indifference and misunderstandings can create evil situations. Most of the time, people who appear to be evil are really victims of evil deeds.

The doctrine of original sin claims that all men sinned in Adam; but whether they did or whether it is merely a fact that all men sin does not basically affect the problem of suffering.

That is the true definition of sin; when knowing right you do the lower, ah, then you sin. Where there is no knowledge, sin is not present.

He who is in evil, is also in the punishment of evil.

I suspect that here theists and atheists would agree: Human beings have within them the ability to choose evil or good. We wake up each day facing the age-old struggle of good and evil. In some situations, mental illness clouds our judgment.

Evil is the product of the ability of humans to make abstract that which is concrete.

If our wondrous kindness is evidence for God, is our capacity for great evil proof of the Devil?

Evil is always possible. Goodness is a difficulty.