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Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.

Evil

Evil events from evil causes spring.
Aristophanes.

Evil and good are God’s right hand and left.
Bailey—Prelude to Festus.

Evil beginning houres may end in good.
Beaumont and Fletcher—The Knight of Malta. Act II. Sc. 5.

Souvent la peur d’un mal nous conduit dans un pire.
Often the fear of one evil leads us into a worse.
Boileau—L’Art Poétique. I. 64.

From envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness.
Book of Common Prayer. Litany.

The world, the flesh, and the devil.
Book of Common Prayer. Litany.

I have wrought great use out of evil tools.
Bulwer-Lytton—Richelieu. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 49.

The authors of great evils know best how to remove them.
Cato the Younger’s Advice to the Senate to put all power into Pompey’s hands. Plutarch—Life of Cato the Younger.

Como el hacer mal viene de natural cosecha, fácilmente se aprende el hacerle.
Inasmuch as ill-deeds spring up as a spontaneous crop, they are easy to learn.
Cervantes—Coloquio de los Perros.

Ex malis eligere minima oportere.
Of evils one should choose the least.
Cicero—De Officiis. Bk. III. 1. Same idea in Thomas á Kempis. Imit Christi. 312.

Omne malum nascens facile opprimitur; inveteratum fit pleurumque robustius.
Every evil in the bud is easily crushed: as it grows older, it becomes stronger.
Cicero—Philippicæ. V. 11.

Touch not; taste not; handle not.
Colossians. II. 21.

Evil communications corrupt good manners.
I Corinthians. XV. 33.

Et tous maux sont pareils alors qu’ils sont extrêmes.
All evils are equal when they are extreme.
Corneille—Horace. III. 4.

Superbia, invidia ed avarizia sono
Le tre faville che hanno i cori accesi.
Three sparks—pride, envy, and avarice—have been kindled in all hearts.
Dante—Inferno. VI. 74.

E duobus malis minimum eligendum.
Of two evils choose the least.
Erasmus—Adages.

Den Bösen sind sie los, die Bösen sind geblieben.
The Evil One has left, the evil ones remain.
Goethe—Faust. I. 6. 174.

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.
Guicciardini—Storia d’Italia.

He who does evil that good may come, pays a toll to the devil to let him into heaven.
J. C. and A. W. Hare—Guesses at Truth. P. 444.

But evil is wrought by want of Thought,
As well as want of Heart!
Hood—The Lady’s Dream. St. 16.

Of two
Evils we take the less.
Hooker—Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Bk. V. Ch. LXXXI.

Quid nos dura refugimus
Ætas, quid intactum nefasti
Liquimus?
What has this unfeeling age of ours left untried, what wickedness has it shunned?
Horace—Carmina. I. 35. 34.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.
Isaiah. V. 20.

Magna inter molles concordia.
There is great unanimity among the dissolute.
Juvenal—Satires. II. 47.

Fere fit malum malo aptissimum.
Evil is fittest to consort with evil.
Livy—Annales. I. 46.

Notissimum quodque malum maxime tolerabile.
The best known evil is the most tolerable.
Livy—Annales. XXIII. 3.

Evil springs up, and flowers, and bears no seed,
And feeds the green earth with its swift decay,
Leaving it richer for the growth of truth.
Lowell—Prometheus. L. 263.

Solent occupationis spe vel impune quædam scelesta committi.
Wicked acts are accustomed to be done with impunity for the mere desire of occupation.
Ammianus Marcellinus—Historia. XXX. 9.

It must be that evil communications corrupt good dispositions.
Menander. Found in Dubner’s edition of his Fragments appended to Aristophanes in Didot’s Bibliotheca Græca. P. 102. L. 101. Quoted by St. Paul. See I Corinthians. XV. 33. Same idea in Plato—Republic. 550.

Que honni soit celui qui mal y pense.
Ménage. Ascribed to Tallemant in the Historiettes of Tallemant des Reaux. Vol. I. P. 38. Second ed. Note in Third ed., corrects this. Honi soit qui mal y pense. Evil to him who evil thinks. Motto of the Order of the Garter. Established by Edward III, April 23, 1349. See Sir Walter Scott—Essay on Chivalry.

And out of good still to find means of evil.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. I. L. 165.

Genus est mortis male vivere.
An evil life is a kind of death.
Ovid—Epistolæ Ex Ponto. III. 4. 75.

Mille mali species, mille salutis erunt.
There are a thousand forms of evil; there will be a thousand remedies.
Ovid—Remedia Amoris. V. 26.

Omnia perversas possunt corrumpere mentes.
All things can corrupt perverse minds.
Ovid—Tristium. II. 301.

Hoc sustinete, majus ne veniat malum.
Endure this evil lest a worse come upon you.
Phædrus—Fables. Bk. I. 2. 31.

Ut acerbum est, pro benefactis quom mali messem metas!
How bitter it is to reap a harvest of evil for good that you have done!
Plautus—Epidicus. V. 2. 53.

Pulchrum ornatum turpes mores pejus cœno collinunt.
Bad conduct soils the finest ornament more than filth.
Plautus—Mostellaria. I. 3. 133.

Male partum male disperit.
Ill gotten is ill spent.
Plautus—Pœnulus. IV. 2. 22.

E malis multis, malum, quod minimum est, id minimum est malum.
Out of many evils the evil which is least is the least of evils.
Plautus—Stichus. Act I. 2.

Timely advis’d, the coming evil shun:
Better not do the deed, than weep it done.
Prior—Henry and Emma. L. 308.

Of two evils I have chose the least.
Prior—Imitation of Horace. Bk. I. Ep. IX.

Maledicus a malefico non distat nisi occasione.
An evil-speaker differs from an evil-doer only in the want of opportunity.
Quintilian—De Institutione Oratorio. XII. 9. 9.

For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Romans. VII. 19.

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans. XII. 21.

Multitudes think they like to do evil; yet no man ever really enjoyed doing evil since God made the world.
Ruskin—Stones of Venice. Vol. I. Ch. II.

Al mondo mal non e senza rimedio.
There is no evil in the world without a remedy.
Sannazaro—Ecloga Octava.

Das Leben ist der Güter höchstes nicht
Der Uebel grösstes aber ist die Schuld.
Life is not the supreme good, but the supreme evil is to realize one’s guilt.
Schiller—Die Braut von Messina.

Das eben ist der Fluch der bösen That,
Das sie fortzeugend immer Böses muss gebären.
The very curse of an evil deed is that it must always continue to engender evil.
Schiller—Piccolomini. V. 1.

Per scelera semper sceleribus certum est iter.
The way to wickedness is always through wickedness.
Seneca—Agamemnon. CXV.

Si velis vitiis exui, longe a vitiorum exemplis recedendum est.
If thou wishest to get rid of thy evil propensities, thou must keep far from evil companions.
Seneca—Epistolæ Ad Lucilium. CIV.

Solent suprema facere securos mala.
Desperate evils generally make men safe.
Seneca—Œdipus. CCCLXXXVI.

Serum est cavendi tempus in mediis malis.
It is too late to be on our guard when we are in the midst of evils.
Seneca—Thyestes. CCCCLXXXVII.

Magna pars vulgi levis
Odit scelus spectatque.
Most of the giddy rabble hate the evil deed they come to see.
Seneca—Troades. XI. 28.

The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.
Julius Cæsar. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 80.

But then I sigh; and, with a piece of Scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil.
Richard III. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 334.

We too often forget that not only is there a “soul of goodness in things evil,” but very generally a soul of truth in things erroneous.
Spencer—First Principles.

So far any one shuns evils, so far as he does good.
Swedenborg—Doctrine of Life. 21.

Mala mens, malus animus.
A bad heart, bad designs.
Terence—Andria. I. 1. 137.

Aliud ex alio malum.
One evil rises out of another.
Terence—Eunuchus. V. 7. 17.

But, by all thy nature’s weakness,
Hidden faults and follies known,
Be thou, in rebuking evil,
Conscious of thine own.
Whittier—What the Voice Said. St. 15.