Origen Quotes

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

The more...we consider man to be free, the less we can say, that he can neglect to use reason, or choose evil in preference to good

No intelligent man believes that anybody ever willingly errs or willingly does base and evil deeds; they are well aware that all who do base and evil things do them unwillingly.

The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

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.

People's character is their behaviour - we're all capable of good and evil.

The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.

Evil, as evil, can never be chosen; and though evil is often the effect of our own choice, yet we never desire it but under the appearance of an imaginary good.

That free will was demonstrated in the placing of temptation before man with the command not to eat of the fruit of the tree which would give him a knowledge of good and evil, with the disturbing moral conflict to which that awareness would give rise.

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

I do not believe in the concept of good and evil in my personal life, in the real world. I just don't believe it. I never try to judge.

Every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular all his life long.

To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good... Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.

While early childhood experiences may impel, they do not compel. In the end, evil is a matter of choice.

Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It's a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other.

Were there no desire there would be no virtue, and because one man desires what another does not, who shall say whether the child of his desire be Vice or Virtue?

What 'Twilight Zone' did was show we all have a great capacity for good and evil.

All my books deal with the effect of intent upon action, how our understanding of good and evil depends heavily on context.

No one is born evil; it's just the choices that they make.

The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never made up their minds to be either good or evil.

Dangerous thing, giving humanity the knowledge of good and evil. And the capacity to make the wrong choice more often than not.

Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be.

Good and evil have nothing to do with gods. It has to do with us.