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Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a necessary evil, it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil.


Sydney J. Harris

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Any community's arm of force - military, police, security - needs people in it who can do necessary ...
LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil a...
MARGARET MEAD War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a go...
JIMMY CARTER Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.
MARK TWAIN Politics is a necessary evil, or a necessary annoyance, a necessary conundrum.
P. J. O'ROURKE War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a go...
JIMMY CARTER We see more and more of our Presidents and know less and less about what they do.
BILL MOYERS We are what we are. Nothing more, nothing less. There is good and evil among every kind of people. I...
ANNE BISHOP War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a go...
JIMMY CARTER LAW 4
Always Say Less Than Necessary

When you are trying to impress people with wo...
ROBERT GREENE I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ...
KELLY JONES Marriage is a necessary evil
AMIT ABRAHAM Dialogue is a necessary evil.
FRED ZINNEMANN Evil is not something superhuman, it's something less than human.
AGATHA CHRISTIE No matter how hard Evil tries, it can never quite match up to the power of Good, because Evil is ult...
JOHN CONNOLLY Evil cannot and will not be vanquished by evil. Dark will only swallow dark and deepen. The good and...
NORA ROBERTS If we have need of a strong will in order to do good, it is still more necessary for us in order not...
MOLE When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him...
C.S. LEWIS When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him...
C.S. LEWIS Work is a necessary evil to be avoided.
TERENCE (PUBLIUS TERENTIUS AFER) A baseball manager is a necessary evil.
SPARKY ANDERSON Nothing is necessary except God, and nothing is less necessary than pain.
JOSEPH DE MAISTRE Evil is not something superhuman, it's something less than human.
AGATHA CHRISTIE We have more and more ways to communicate, as Thoreau noted, but less and less to say.
PICO IYER A sizable percentage of humans have once contemplated suicide,but only the less hopeful,more despera...
DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) Marriage, if one will face the truth, is an evil, but a necessary evil.
MENANDER But people may do great good accidentally, though with evil intentions - conversely people may do gr...
MICHAEL MOORCOCK What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more l...
SAMUEL GOMPERS I've heard it said that umpires are necessary evil. Well, we are necessary, but we are not evil....
DOUG HARVEY The world is the best of all possible worlds, and everything in it is a necessary evil.
F. H. BRADLEY I used to think the press was a necessary evil and now I don't think it is. I think it's som...
DANIEL CRAIG A specialist is a man who knows more and more about less and less.
WILLIAM J. MAYO Good and evil are the key elements that make a human.
ROSA M. BETANCES I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.
CHARLES DICKENS The world is the best of all possible worlds, and everything in it is a necessary evil.
FRANCIS H. BRADLEY The world is the best of all possible worlds, and everything in it is a necessary evil.
FRANCIS H. BRADLEY For good or evil, we are a single people: the more we become conscious of this, the less difficult a...
PRIMO LEVI Psychology doesn't like to talk about evil. It likes to talk about bad childhoods. But I very mu...
LAURA SCHLESSINGER Generalization is necessary to the advancement of knowledge; but particularly is indispensable to th...
THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY There is no denying that there is evil in this world but the light will always conquer the darkness.
IDOWU KOYENIKAN I thought the war was a simple matter, with one side good and the other evil. But the more I read, t...
LEMONY SNICKET Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil...
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man.
FRANZ KAFKA Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
THOMAS PAINE I hate dealing with the press. But I think it is a necessary evil.
AMY CARTER But such occasions of excellence became less and less frequent. As her technique became sounder, [he...
THORNTON WILDER The most necessary learning is that which unlearns evil
ANTISTHENES Sometimes, by pretending neutrality, in a conflict between evil and truth, one can inflict more dama...
DR HITESH C SHETH There is no one who is completely evil as to lack some goodness in him.
BANGAMBIKI HABYARIMANA Our time is so specialised that we have people who know more and more or less and less.
ALVAR AALTO Before we set out to do good, it is necessary to consider if it will result in evil. It is equally n...
OSHO One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.
EDMUND BURKE I saw the truth, I saw and I know that people can be beautiful and happy without losing the ability ...
FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY This is a struggle of good and evil. And we're the good.
HOWARD DEAN Good to evil seems evil
RAY BRADBURY It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have...
JONATHAN SWIFT When you start with a necessary evil, and then over time the necessity passes away, what's left?
MATTHEW SCULLY Words were with them forms of expression which varied with individuals, but falsehood was more or le...
HENRY BROOKS ADAMS It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph.
EDWARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON BULWER-LYTTON, FIRST BARON LYTTON It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph.
EDMUND BURKE We are putting more and more power into a system which is less and less able to carry it reliably.
PAUL GILLMOR We live less and less, and we learn more and more. Sensibility is surrendering to intelligence.
REMY DE GOURMONT When a person denies his conscience for too long, it can become seared. That person becomes suscepti...
HENRY HON Going into debt is never easy and, in your case, going deeper into debt is a necessary evil.
GREG ZANDLO It is necessary to examine, in a detailed way, the contemporary theory of Evil, the ideology of huma...
ALAIN BADIOU Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of necessary evil to the luxury of baseball, like t...
CHRISTY MATHEWSON What if evil doesn't really exist? What if evil is something dreamed up by man, and there is nothing...
LIBBA BRAY I don't think that you have any insight whatsoever into your capacity for good until you have some w...
JORDAN B. PETERSON Only Evil in the world is the one inside your mind.
RAYMOND TIO I have never met any really wicked person before. I feel rather frightened. I am so afraid he will l...
OSCAR WILDE With this software employees are spending a lot less time waiting for reports and gathering informat...
ANDREW BURNHAM Marriage, Sir, is much more necessary to a man than to a woman; for he is much less able to supply h...
SAMUEL JOHNSON There's no way we could take cars off the planet and not have our society fall apart. So they...
LINDSAY WAGNER We become distracted from productive labors by our perceived opponents; we become focused on them an...
CORY BOOKER It's a necessary evil. There's no question the more people in the area, the more stress there is on ...
CAROL WHITESIDE Repentance is necessary because it shows the person how evil their sin is. True repentance leads to ...
NORM TOMLINSON Sometimes, the wicked will tell us things just to confuse us–to haunt our thoughts long after we'v...
SARAH J. MAAS We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.
JEAN BAUDRILLARD Well-read people are less likely to be evil.
LEMONY SNICKET A rock is harder than a feather, you can talk and jabber and make exceptions, but in the end, if you...
ANDREW KLAVAN We shouldn't live in a world where we live in constant terror. We need less dying and more living. W...
IMANIA MARGRIA What if it becomes less about how we look and more about how much we care? What if it becomes less a...
AMY LEIGH MERCREE Can anyone maintain power without lying? It looks to me like living without breathing. Morality apar...
BANGAMBIKI HABYARIMANA All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.
EDMUND BURKE I don't think good and evil are polarized.
SAM MENDES You know how confusing the whole good-evil concept is for me.
JIM BUTCHER We absolutely must battle with every bit of determination we can muster to root out the harm that wo...
WESS STAFFORD Love more, hurt less. Laugh more, cry less. Live more, worry less. Give more, take less. Hug more, f...
ABHISHEK KUMAR A lot of auditions are not fun; they're just a necessary evil, and, if you're lucky, you hav...
KRISTEN CONNOLLY European CEOs have to act much more as business politicians ... in the vacuum left over by a world w...
KLAUS SCHWAB We took this challenge before our Lord and our conscience, and it must be done, because this man, Hi...
CLAUS VON STAUFFENBERG Larger deficits are necessary and proper means to mitigate unemployment as the far greater evil in t...
WILLIAM VICKREY All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.
CARLTON SMITH I am proud of the President's leadership. I am proud to support him in saying: Yes, we are going to ...
KAY HUTCHISON Less is more.
LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary on...
ALEXANDR SOLZHENITSYN If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary onl...
ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN Once you learn to look at architecture not merely as an art more or less well or more or less badly ...
LOUIS SULLIVAN As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to live it more and more
JULES RENARD A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there ar...
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

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ALGERNON SYDNEY Many things are unknown to the wisest, and the best men can never wholly divest themselves of passio...
ALGERNON SYDNEY Laws and constitutions ought to be weighed... to constitute that which is most conducing to the esta...
ALGERNON SYDNEY God leaves to Man the choice of Forms in Government; and those who constitute one Form, may abrogate...
ALGERNON SYDNEY Everyone sees they cannot well live asunder, nor many together, without some rule to which all must ...
ALGERNON SYDNEY All the nations they had to deal with, had the same fate.
ALGERNON SYDNEY A general presumption that Icings will govern well, is not a sufficient security to the People... th...
ALGERNON SYDNEY In my second year, after moving to the Medical School, I began the courses of Anatomy and Physiology...
SYDNEY BRENNER I have, alas, only one illusion left, and that is the Archbishop of Canterbury.
SYDNEY SMITH People ask me over and over how is it that I work with stars. How do you work with Barbra Streisand,...
SYDNEY POLLACK Good actors aren't enough. You need charisma. Can you imagine 'Casablanca' without Bogar...
SYDNEY POLLACK When you first start out, you want to be Fellini, or you want to be Bergman.
SYDNEY POLLACK It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding.
SYDNEY SMITH That knuckle-end of England--that land of Calvin, oat-cakes, and sulphur.
SYDNEY SMITH I do not mean to be disrespectful, but the attempt of the Lords to stop the progress of reform, rem...
SYDNEY SMITH Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that...
SYDNEY SMITH American movies are the most popular movies everywhere, and it is true that the quality is far from ...
SYDNEY POLLACK The lens is the actor's best critic... showing his mind more clearly than on the stage. You can ...
SYDNEY GREENSTREET There's nothing wrong with crooks having lawyers. Everyone is entitled to a lawyer.
SYDNEY POLLACK Depicting a terrorist act in a film isn't going to incite terrorism.
SYDNEY POLLACK It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason for the faith that is within him.
SYDNEY SMITH Whatever you are from nature, keep to it; never desert your own line of talent. Be what nature inten...
SYDNEY SMITH