Careful Words

evil (n.)

evil (v.)

evil (adv.)

evil (adj.)

  I would far rather be ignorant than wise in the foreboding of evil.

Aeschylus (525-456 b c): Suppliants, 453.

  Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

New Testament: Romans xii. 21.

So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear,

Farewell remorse; all good to me is lost.

Evil, be thou my good.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 108.

  He who is bent on doing evil can never want occasion.

Publius Syrus (42 b c): Maxim 459.

  Evil communications corrupt good manners.

New Testament: 1 Corinthians xv. 33.

More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchang'd

To hoarse or mute, though fall'n on evil days,

On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book vii. Line 24.

  Death is not the worst evil, but rather when we wish to die and cannot.

Sophocles (496-406 b c): Electra, 1007.

  The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will.

Epictetus (Circa 60 a d): Of Courage. Chap. xxix.

  One that feared God and eschewed evil.

Old Testament: Job i. 1.

  For himself doth a man work evil in working evils for another.

Hesiod (Circa 720 (?) b c): Works and Days. Line 265.

And would'st thou evil for his good repay?

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book xvi. Line 448.

  Oft hath even a whole city reaped the evil fruit of a bad man.

Hesiod (Circa 720 (?) b c): Works and Days. Line 240.

  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.

Old Testament: Isaiah v. 20.

From seeming evil still educing good.

James Thomson (1700-1748): Hymn. Line 114.

There is some soul of goodness in things evil,

Would men observingly distil it out.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 1.

  He said that there was one only good, namely, knowledge; and one only evil, namely, ignorance.

Diogenes Laertius (Circa 200 a d): Socrates. xiv.

There shall never be one lost good! What was, shall live as before;

The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound;

What was good shall be good, with for evil so much good more;

On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven, a perfect round.

Robert Browning (1812-1890): Abt Vogler. ix.

But evil is wrought by want of thought,

As well as want of heart.

Thomas Hood (1798-1845): The Lady's Dream.

  Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.

Old Testament: Psalm xxxiv. 13.

  The love of money is the root of all evil.

New Testament: 1 Timothy vi. 10.

Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues

We write in water.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.

One impulse from a vernal wood

May teach you more of man,

Of moral evil and of good,

Than all the sages can.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): The Tables Turned.

  The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried.

Michael De Montaigne (1533-1592): Book iii. Chap. ix. Of Vanity.

For evil news rides post, while good news baits.

John Milton (1608-1674): Samson Agonistes. Line 1538.

In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt

But being season'd with a gracious voice

Obscures the show of evil?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act iii. Sc. 2.

  I know, indeed, the evil of that I purpose; but my inclination gets the better of my judgment.

Euripides (484-406 b c): Medea. 1078.

  Chilo advised, "not to speak evil of the dead."

Diogenes Laertius (Circa 200 a d): Chilo. ii.

  The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried.

Michael De Montaigne (1533-1592): Book iii. Chap. ix. Of Vanity.

And out of good still to find means of evil.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 165.

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;

All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;

All discord, harmony not understood;

All partial evil, universal good;

And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,

One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 289.

  Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

New Testament: Romans xii. 17.

  By evil report and good report.

New Testament: 2 Corinthians vi. 8.

  The love of money is the root of all evil.

New Testament: 1 Timothy vi. 10.

  Submit to the present evil, lest a greater one befall you.

Phaedrus (8 a d): Book i. Fable 2, 31.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act iii. Sc. 2.

  Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

New Testament: Matthew vi. 34.

Some say no evil thing that walks by night,

In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen,

Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost

That breaks his magic chains at curfew time,

No goblin, or swart fairy of the mine,

Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.

John Milton (1608-1674): Comus. Line 432.

The tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil.

New Testament: James iii. 8.

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;

All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;

All discord, harmony not understood;

All partial evil, universal good;

And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,

One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 289.

  Vice itself lost half its evil by losing all its grossness.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797): Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 332.

  All this [wealth] excludes but one evil,—poverty.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. ix. 1777.

  For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.

New Testament: Romans viii. 19.

by simon sarris • about