#wickedness

It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope. ↗

— Niccolo Machiavelli

#act #always #arranges #evil #free

According to this way of arguing, there will be no true principles in the world; for there are none but what may be wrested and perverted to serve bad purposes, either through the weakness or wickedness of men. ↗

— Jonathan Mayhew

#arguing #bad #either #his way #may

Wickedness is its own punishment. ↗

— Francis Quarles

#punishment #wickedness

Tolerating evil leads only to more evil. And when good people stand by and do nothing while wickedness reigns, their communities will be consumed. ↗

— Bob Riley

#consumed #evil #good #good people #leads

No matter how an individual views Satan, whether they believe that he is a real character or that he is just the product of literary scholars and imaginations, no one can deny that each one of us has an aspect of the devil within us. By studying the character and nature of Satan, we learn about ourselves; and the more we know about ourselves, the better we can fight our own personal demons—metaphorical or otherwise—in order to create a better tomorrow ↗

— Nwaocha Ogechukwu

#evil #governance #religion #wickedness #imagination

You are vain and wicked- as a genius should be. ↗

— Günter Grass

#vanity #wickedness #vanity

The proposition that we should encourage wickedness and violence by exposing one side of the face to blows because we have been beaten on the other is too great an absurdity. ↗

— Thomas Mellon

#beaten #because #been #blows #encourage

I inquired what wickedness is, and I didn't find a substance, but a perversity of will twisted away from the highest substance – You oh God – towards inferior things, rejecting its own inner life and swelling with external matter. ↗

— Augustine of Hippo

#sin #wickedness #life

Melancholy and sadness are the start of doubt... doubt is the beginning of despair; despair is the cruel beginning of the differing degrees of wickedness. ↗

— Isidore Ducasse Lautreamont

#cruel #degrees #despair #differing #doubt

When may a revival be expected? When the wickedness of the wicked grieves and distresses the Christian. ↗

— Billy Sunday

#distresses #expected #grieves #may #revival