Gene Wolfe Quotes

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

I don't believe that pure evil exists, personally.

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.

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?

An animal takes freely anything that it wishes: it commits no sin and is not held responsible for its action because it knows no better. But as soon as the idea of 'mine' and 'thine' has been imprinted upon our consciousness, then also the responsibility comes.

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

And does man simply choose evil, or does he create it?

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

I have a controversial opinion about evil, because I don't believe evil exists. I believe that actions are dark and destructive but I don't believe evil is a thing. I believe it's a by-product of man's fear and desperation.

Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.

The 'I think' which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the 'I breathe' which actually does accompany them.

I have an interest in understanding evil. Who is the bad guy - the vampire who kills people and sucks their blood, or the survivalists who kill people to save their own lives? Is evil merely a creation of people? Or is there an evil nature? Or is it in the eye of the beholder? I really like these questions.

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.

There is no right in acting.

The problem here is with a human being, not with a monster, not with an animal. The human being does things that even the monster does not do, because the human is more sophisticated.

I find that people... very few people think that what they're doing is bad, and usually the people who think what they're doing is bad it has more to do with guilt.

I don't think any of us know how we would react until we were put in a situation where we have to do something bad or do something good. I think I'd like to believe I'd act like a decent human being, but I'm realistic to know I don't know.

Men are more moral than they think and far more immoral than they can imagine.

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

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.

Nobody wakes up in the morning thinking, 'I'm a bad guy.' They think they're the right guy.

A democracy cannot of course engage in an explicit preventive war. I lament the inability to comprehend the depth of evil to which individuals and communities may sink, particularly when they try to play the role of God to history.

A man's conscience and his judgment is the same thing, and, as the judgment, so also the conscience may be erroneous.

There is no rational creature which is not capable both of good and evil