Necessary Evil Quotes

Most "necessary evils" are far more evil than necessary.

It is said that government is a necessary evil, but it is far more evil than it is necessary.

While in some quarters it is felt that the critic is just a necessary evil, most serious-minded, decent, talented theater people agree that the critic is an unnecessary evil.

the fateful equating of power with violence, of the political with government, and of government with a necessary evil has begun.

I hate dealing with the press. But I think it is a necessary evil.

Government is a necessary evil

When you start with a necessary evil, and then over time the necessity passes away, what's left?

Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins ... Society is in every state a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

The world is the best of all possible worlds, and everything in it is a necessary evil.

Do not let us mistake necessary evils for good.

Rock music is, is a necessary evil, like beating my children with penny loafers

THE TEACHER AS A NECESSARY EVIL. Let us have as few people as possible between the productive minds and the hungry and recipient minds! The middlemen almost unconsciously adulterate the food which they supply. It is because of teachers that so little is learned, and that so badly.

The law is an expression of God 's holy will and as such must be honored and loved," said the preacher piously. "Rubbish," said the Master. "The law is a necessary evil and as such must be cut down to the barest minimum. Show me a lover of the law and I will show you a muttonheaded tyrant .

Yeah, I don't think you can live anywhere else - it's such a great city [New York]. L.A. is kind of a necessary evil, but man, I love going back to New York.

Woman -a foe of friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil.

Marriage, if one will face the truth, is an evil, but a necessary evil.

The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.

Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.

The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Politics is a way of ruling in divided societies without undue violence...politics is not just a necessary evil; it is a realistic good.

For centuries the leaders of Christian thought spoke of women as a necessary evil, and the greatest saints of the Church are those who despise women the most.

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay.

A critic is a necessary evil, and criticism is an evil necessity.

I think the paparazzi is a necessary evil...and if ya don't like it, and ya don't want to do this, go to Iowa and do some community theatre. It's all about self-promotion and it's not always the fun part of it.

The editing process is a necessary evil. I can write until the cows come home but it is all garbage until it gets edited.

Generalities are intellectually necessary evils.

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

Woman is a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic peril, a deadly fascination, and a painted ill.

The Founders recognized that Government is quite literally a necessary evil, that there must be opposition, between its various branches, and between political parties, for these are the only ways to temper the individual's greed for power and the electorates' desires for peace by submission to coercion or blandishment.

Compression is a necessary evil. The artists I know want to sound competitive. You don't want your track to sound quieter or wimpier by comparison. We've raised the bar and you can't really step back.

Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of necessary evil to the luxury of baseball, like the odor that follows an automobile.

Any communitys arm of force - military, police, security - needs people in it who can do necessary evil, and yet not be made evil by it. To do only the necessary and no more. To constantly question the assumptions, to stop the slide into atrocity.

Religion is a by-product of fear. For much of human history it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary? Isn’t killing people in the name of god a pretty good definition of insanity?

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

The right-of-centre parties still often compete with left-of-centre ones to proclaim their attachment to all the main programmes of spending, particularly spending on social services of one kind or another. But this foolish as well as muddled. It is foolish because left-of-centre parties will always be able to outbid right-of-centre ones in this auction - after all, that is why they are on the left in the first place. The muddle arises because once we concede that public spending and taxation are than a necessary evil we have lost sight of the core values of freedom.

The government's appearing to be a necessary evil does not oblige people to trust it. We face a choice of trusting government or trusting freedom-trusting overlords who have lied and abused their power or trusting individuals to make the most of their own lives.

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings.

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

The State is said by some to be a necessary evil; it must be made unnecessary.

And now, what has Anarchism to say to all this, this bankruptcy of republicanism, this modern empire that has grown up on the ruins of our early freedom? We say this, that the sin our fathers sinned was that they did not trust liberty wholly. They thought it possible to compromise between liberty and government, believing the latter to be 'a necessary evil,' and the moment the compromise was made, the whole misbegotten monster of our present tyranny began to grow. Instruments which are set up to safeguard rights become the very whip with which the free are struck.

I suspect that religion is a necessary evil in the childhood of our particular species. And that's one of the interesting things about contact with other intelligences: we could see what role, if any, religion plays in their development. I think that religion may be some random by-product of mammalian reproduction. If that's true, would non-mammalian aliens have a religion?

Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?

War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.

We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.

The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

The existence of poverty in the US should not be accepted as a necessary evil or insoluble problem, but should be considered a crisis requiring emergency measures. It is a matter of will and priorities, not a matter of resources.

There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses.

I see the canvas and I begin... It's a necessary evil to get into the work, and it's pretty marvelous to be able to get out of it.

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.