Christopher Paolini Quotes

I think every villain basically thinks that he or she is doing something to make his world, or the world in general, a better place.

All wrong doing is done in the sincere belief that it is the best thing to do.

I always tried to play the bad guys as guys who didn't know they were bad guys. There are villains we run into all the time, but they don't think they are doing anything wrong. If they do, they think they are cunning and smart. When people break laws and ethical rules, they justify it in their own terms.

I don't think any evil character thinks that they are evil - they think they have insight that people don't.

Every villain has their belief system that makes perfect sense to them.

I know the difference between right and wrong, and I can tell good from bad. But I also know that the more difficult decisions come when we have to choose between good and better. The toughest calls of all are those we have to make between bad and worse.

It’s a good thing when you don’t dare do something if you don’t think it’s right. But it’s not good when you think something’s not right because you don’t dare do it.

Moral sensibilities are nowadays at such cross-purposes that to one man a morality is proved by its utility, while to another its utility refutes it.

Every act has both good and evil results. The best we can do is lean to the light.

It is sometimes rational to do what is wrong, and sometimes irrational to do what is right

The choice before human beings, is not, as a rule, between good and evil but between two evils.

Everything wrong I've ever done has always seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

In the real world in which we live, you always have to choose between evils. And in choosing between evils, you have to have moral criteria for how to make those choices.

Choices of right or wrong are not presented to you in black and white. If they were, I'm sure most people would choose white.

I was fascinated that everybody in the story thinks that they're in the right.

Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons.

Invite characters of surprising and moral character, or at least those who grapple with what is right or those who make decisions that shock.

Wisdom is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes

Even people that are evil believe what they're doing is good. I don't agree with those people, but it's about understanding that there are those kinds of points of view.

I don't believe so much in good and evil.

The other possibility was that there was no right thing to say, that the choice wasn't between right and wrong but between wrong, more wrong, and as wrong as you can get.

I like to believe that most human beings go about things with a point of view that they're just doing what they feel like they need to do at that time. Sometimes people make bad decisions, but it's not evil, not malicious.

I consider myself to be a man of principle. But, what man does not? Even the cutthroat, I have noticed, considers his actions "moral" after a fashion. Perhaps another person, reading of my life, would name me a religious tyrant. He could call me arrogant. What is to make that man's opinion any less valid than my own? I guess it all comes down to one fact: In the end, I'm the one with the armies.

Sometimes you're going to be faced with situations where the line isn't clear between what's right and what's wrong.Your heart will tell you to do one thing and your brain will tell you to do something different. In the end, all that's left is to look at both sides and go with your best judgment.