Mastodawn

The sad truth of the matter is that most evil is done by people who never made up their minds to be or do either evil or good.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Life of the Mind, Vol. 1 “Thinking,” Part 3, ch. 18 “The two-in-one” (1977)

More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/1350/

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WIST Quotations Mar 4

A quotation from Hannah Arendt

As citizens, we must prevent wrongdoing because the world in which we all live, wrong-doer, wrong sufferer and spectator, is at stake.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Life of the Mind, Part 1, sec. 3, ch. 18 (1977)

More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/46319/

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Arendt, Hannah - The Life of the Mind, Part 1, sec. 3, ch. 18 (1977) | WIST Quotations

As citizens, we must prevent wrongdoing because the world in which we all live, wrong-doer, wrong sufferer and spectator, is at stake.

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WIST Quotations Feb 3

A quotation from Euripides

MEDEA: I think the unjust man who can speak cleverly
   incurs the greatest penalty for, feeling confident
   to cloak injustice in fair speech,
   he dares the utmost villainy.

[ΜΉΔΕΙΑ: ἐμοὶ γὰρ ὅστις ἄδικος ὢν σοφὸς λέγειν
   πέφυκε, πλείστην ζημίαν ὀφλισκάνει:
   γλώσσῃ γὰρ αὐχῶν τἄδικ᾽ εὖ περιστελεῖν
   τολμᾷ πανουργεῖν.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 580ff (431 BC) [tr. Ewans (2022)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/euripides/81800/

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Euripides - Medea [Μήδεια], l. 580ff (431 BC) [tr. Ewans (2022)] | WIST Quotations

MEDEA: I think the unjust man who can speak cleverly incurs the greatest penalty for, feeling confident to cloak injustice in fair speech, he dares the utmost villainy. [ΜΉΔΕΙΑ: ἐμοὶ γὰρ ὅστις ἄδικος ὢν σοφὸς λέγειν πέφυκε, πλείστην ζημίαν ὀφλισκάνει: γλώσσῃ γὰρ αὐχῶν τἄδικ᾽ εὖ περιστελεῖν τολμᾷ πανουργεῖν.] (Source (Greek)).…

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WIST Quotations Has Moved!Dec 9

A quotation from Hannah Arendt

When I speak of the banality of evil, I do so only on the strictly factual level, pointing to a phenomenon which stared one in the face at the trial. Eichmann was not Iago and not Macbeth, and nothing would have been farther from his mind than to determine with Richard III “to prove a villain.” Except for an extraordinary diligence in looking out for his personal advancement, he had no motives at all. And this diligence in itself was in no way criminal; he certainly would never have murdered his superior in order to inherit his post. He merely, to put the matter colloquially, never realized what he was doing.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Postscript (1963)

More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/80707/

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Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Postscript (1963) - Arendt, Hannah | WIST Quotations

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WIST Quotations Has Moved!Feb 12, 2025

A quotation from Marcus Aurelius

But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own — not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him.

[ἐγὼ δὲ τεθεωρηκὼς τὴν φύσιν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ὅτι καλόν, καὶ τοῦ κακοῦ ὅτι αἰσχρόν, καὶ τὴν αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἁμαρτάνοντος φύσιν ὅτι μοι συγγενής, οὐχὶ αἵματος ἢ σπέρματος τοῦ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ νοῦ καὶ θείας ἀπομοίρας μέτοχος, οὔτε βλαβῆναι ὑπό τινος αὐτῶν δύναμαι: αἰσχρῷ γάρ με οὐδεὶς περιβαλεῖ: οὔτε ὀργίζεσθαι τῷ συγγενεῖ δύναμαι οὔτε ἀπέχθεσθαι αὐτῷ.]

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 2, ch. 1 (2.1) [tr. Hays (2003)]

Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/7474…

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WIST Quotations moves again!Dec 24, 2024

A quotation from Bierce, Ambrose:

«
MALEFACTOR, n. The chief factor in the progress of the human race.
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/bierce-ambrose/73617/

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WIST Quotations moves again!Jun 6, 2024

A quotation from Cicero, Marcus Tullius:

«
What pleasures habitual wrongdoing provides for men without principle or sense of shame, when they have escaped punishment and found themselves given a free hand!

[O consuetudo peccandi, quantam habes iucunditatem improbis et audacibus, cum poena afuit et licentia consecuta est!]
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/69763/

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In Verrem [Against Verres; Verrine Orations], Action 3, ch. 76 / sec. 176 (3.76.176) (70 BC) [tr. Greenwood (1928)] - Cicero, Marcus Tullius | WIST Quotations

What pleasures habitual wrongdoing provides for men without principle or sense of shame, when they have escaped punishment and found themselves given a free hand! [O consuetudo peccandi, quantam habes iucunditatem improbis et audacibus, cum poena afuit et licentia consecuta est!] (Source (Latin)). Alternate translations: O you habit of sinning,…

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WIST Quotations moves again!May 30, 2023

A quotation from Adler, Felix:

«««««
Vile deeds are vile, no matter whether we know or do not know what, after death, will be the fate of the doer. We know, at least, what his fate is now, namely to be wedded to the vileness.
»»»»»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/adler-felix/49224/

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