Sam Harris

Don’t see a problem with any meaningless buzzwords, myself, but far too many gullies do, and that’s the scary part.

The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.
Hannah Arendt, in The Life of the Mind (1978), “Thinking”.

Good can imagine Evil, but Evil cannot imagine Good.
W. H. Auden, in A Certain World (1970).

To cease from evil, to do good, and to purify the mind yourself, this is the teaching of all the Buddhas.
Gautama Buddha, in the Dhammapada, Verse 183.

A thing may look specious in theory, and yet be ruinous in practice; a thing may look evil in theory, and yet be in practice excellent.
Edmund Burke, Impeachment of Warren Hastings, 19th Feb. 1788.

I think the old, sound, and honest maxim that “you shall not do evil that good may come,” is applicable in law as well as in morals. C. J. Cockburn, in Reg. v. Hicklin and another (1868), 11 Cox, C. C. 27; S. C. 3 L. R. Q. B. 372; reported in Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904) by James William Norton-Kyshe, p. 92.

Let us never forget the Christian maxim “that we should not do evil that good may come of it.” ‘
Crampon, J., R. v. O’Connell (1843), 5 St. Tr. (N. S.) 703; reported in Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904) by James William Norton-Kyshe, p. 92.

He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done.Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks.

It’s no use crying over spilt evils. It’s better to mop them up laughing.
Eleanor Farjeon, in Gypsy and Ginger (1920).

Evil beginning houres may end in good.
John Fletcher, The Knight of Malta (1647), Act II, scene 5.

Where two evils present, a wise administration, if there be room for an option, will choose the least.
J. Foster, in Case of Pressing Mariners (1743), 18 How. St. Tr. 1330; reported in Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904) by James William Norton-Kyshe, p. 91.

Non è male alcuno nelle cose umane che non abbia congiunto seco qualche bene.
There is no evil in human affairs that has not some good mingled with it.
Francesco Guicciardini, Storia d’Italia (1537-1540).

Being against evil doesn’t make you good.
Ernest Hemingway, Islands in the Stream (1970), Part 1: Bimini, Section 4.

The man who does evil to another does evil to himself,
and the evil counsel is most evil for him who counsels it.
Hesiod, Works and Days (8th century BC), line 265, translated by Richard Lattimore.

It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind (1954).

Of two evils, the less is always to be chosen.
Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, Book III, Chapter 12.

It is the evil that lies in ourselves that is ever least tolerant of the evil that lies in others. Maurice Maeterlinck, Wisdom and Destiny (1898), translated by Alfred Sutro

There is Good and there is Evil and Evil must be punished. Even in the face of Armageddon, I shall not compromise in this.
Alan Moore, in a line for Rorschach, in Watchmen.

Of two evils I have chose the least.
Matthew Prior, “Imitation of Horace”, a reference to E duobus malis, minimum eligendum, Cicero, De Officiis; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 92.

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows..

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Evil.

Well,thank you for the quote,then therefore,the quote does tell us that there exist no good,only evil if evil cannot imagine good.It us the Good that does make the Evil because it imagines the Evil,then.

anneyours - 23 September 2012 10:56 PM

Well,thank you for the quote,then therefore,the quote does tell us that there exist no good,only evil if evil cannot imagine good.It us the Good that does make the Evil because it imagines the Evil,then.

............................I like to watch TV….................

anneyours - 23 September 2012 10:56 PM

Well,thank you for the quote,then therefore,the quote does tell us that there exist no good,only evil if evil cannot imagine good.It us the Good that does make the Evil because it imagines the Evil,then.

>>

The point I was trying to make was that evil is just a buzzword, a term people cannot relate with—more descriptive terms would be murderer, wife beater, rapist. thief, liar, traitor, etc—actual crimes.

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What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is WHAT WE DO. 
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

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rickoshay86 - 24 September 2012 02:56 PM

anneyours - 23 September 2012 10:56 PM

Well,thank you for the quote,then therefore,the quote does tell us that there exist no good,only evil if evil cannot imagine good.It us the Good that does make the Evil because it imagines the Evil,then.

>>

The point I was trying to make was that evil is just a buzzword, a term people cannot relate with—more descriptive terms would be murderer, wife beater, rapist. thief, liar, traitor, etc—actual crimes.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is WHAT WE DO. 
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

anneyours,

Evil is a religious word and as such is loaded down with irrational baggage, Evil belongs to those three wretched desert religions which most of us have been conditioned to just from living in the culture, for it is permeated through and through with this babble. That is why these archaic religions are so hard for a society to shake off. In fact, there is that which we like and that which we do not like, that which is acceptable and that which is unacceptable, all very human. “To god all things are right and good, only to man, somethings are and somethings are not,”  Heraclitus How do we get rid of this meme/mental virus, this Christian/Muslim/Jewish blight upon our thinking—-any suggestions?

rickoshay86 - 24 September 2012 02:56 PM

anneyours - 23 September 2012 10:56 PM

Well,thank you for the quote,then therefore,the quote does tell us that there exist no good,only evil if evil cannot imagine good.It us the Good that does make the Evil because it imagines the Evil,then.

The point I was trying to make was that evil is just a buzzword, a term people cannot relate with—more descriptive terms would be murderer, wife beater, rapist. thief, liar, traitor, etc—actual crimes.

But there are many evils that aren’t crimes.

For example, its evil to yell at one’s child. But its not a crime.

If i understand OP correctly he is arguing against the use of the word evil?

rickoshay86 - 24 September 2012 02:56 PM

anneyours - 23 September 2012 10:56 PM

Well,thank you for the quote,then therefore,the quote does tell us that there exist no good,only evil if evil cannot imagine good.It us the Good that does make the Evil because it imagines the Evil,then.

>>

The point I was trying to make was that evil is just a buzzword, a term people cannot relate with—more descriptive terms would be murderer, wife beater, rapist. thief, liar, traitor, etc—actual crimes.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is WHAT WE DO. 
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

.

Oh, I missed this post. I dont agree its a buzzword. Just substitute “evil” with “the worst thing the author can imagine” and youll be see that.
The word “evil” is like the word “tasty”, its meaing is defined by whoever wrote it.

For me the problem with the term evil is its faith based connotations. Because there are competing untestable faiths there is no way to verify claims of religious evil, which can lead to moral confusion, skepticism, cynicism etc. To replace evil with welfare is to give a secular and intuitive definition corroborated phenomenologically in disclosed existential states of positive worth for the subject. they were the foundation of the religious jargon, just as shooting stars were related to spirits in some faiths but the spirit language was caused by meteors. The problem is loosing touch with the evolved bedrock and originary revelation and having a podged understanding. Knowledge may be power but ignorance can have consequences (eg auto de fes) too. So i hope sams science will prove a benign force. (it is hopefully a precision instrument where metaphysics knowledge and praxis meet in beauty truth and justice. Of of and to the onto- epistenic-volitional order which is the nexus of the human condition. Meaning man acts in a material value scape and to respond morally is to do himself justice by causing his own good in an intelligent proper (fitting, just, because the good is worthy) fashion. Otherwise in the mirror symmetry of justice he will in the darkness of ignorance cause the darkness of anti welfare through dark action.  Thus there is a form of world anti world pair of sorts. One which flees from being and vandalises its potentialities and another which replicates and embraces it spiritually so to speak and makes something good from the inchoate plasticity of the future. If the meme scape is technically adept (skillful generative of moral fitness) the future looks bright).