Samuel Butler Quotes

There are people who do what they believe is right, but as they say, 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.'

The idea that we cause harm by doing what we perceive to be the right thing, that's another theme that interests me. Because most people don't intend to cause harm, they cause harm by doing the right thing - in their mind.

What 'True Blood' does really well is that it balances on the line between good and evil - you blur the distinction between the two.

History isn't just the story of bad people doing bad things. It's quite as much a story of people trying to do good things. But somehow, something goes wrong.

It's as boring to see a completely evil villain as it is to see a completely good guy.

I don't think anyone sets out to do something bad, it's just that it's very difficult.

It is not true that good can only follow from good and evil only from evil, but that often the opposite is true.

Whatever harm the evil may do, the harm done by the good is the most harmful harm.

In history, good intentions do not always make good consequences

If only we could see in advance all the harm that can come from the good we think we are doing.

I've learned a lot about good and evil. They are not always what they appear to be.

I purposefully try to make films in that grey area, where things are morally ambiguous. It's like life: good people do horrible things, and bad people do good things, and there's beauty in horror and horror in beauty.

There's good and bad in everybody. I wasn't looking for the good, or looking for the bad. This is a man who signed his pact with the devil 20 years ago, and he's learned to live with it. He's tried to protect his family from it.

Life - the way it really is - is a battle not between Bad and Good but between Bad and Worse.

Active Evil is better than Passive Good.

I always look at films as real stories with real people in real situations. That's why I struggle with the whole notion of calling someone the 'good guy' or the 'bad guy', because I think we all have potential to do good things and all have the potential to do bad things.

A good End cannot sanctify evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it.

There is no possible source of evil except good.

People don't necessarily do evil deeds because they want to; people happen to do something with horrible consequences even if they meant to be kind.

The bad guys are not typical; they are not just bad, they are interesting. They might be good or bad.

I know what's good for me. I can't play black or gray. I can't be a villain or anything close to one. I have to play white.

The evil that we know is best.

It's much less interesting as an actor playing someone who's purely good or purely evil.

As Faulkner says, all of us have the capacity in us for great good and for great evil, for love but also for hate. I wanted to write those kinds of complex character in a fantasy, and not just have all the good people get together to fight the bad guy.

There are people that really live by doing the right thing, but I don't know what that is, I'm really curious about that. I'm really curious about what people think they're doing when they're doing something evil, casually. I think it's really interesting, that we benefit from suffering so much, and we excuse ourselves from it.