Joseph Conrad - A J P Taylor - John Maynard Keynes - Bill Schnoebelen - William Shakespeare - Sophocles - Confucius - Sigmund Freud - Niccolo Machiavelli - Ivy Compton-Burnett - Oscar Wilde - Lemony Snicket - D H Lawrence - Maximilien Robespierre - John Milton - Ernest Hemingway - Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1966 - Phaedrus - Punch magazine - Charlotte Bronte - Genesis 6:5 - Job 11:20 - Job 15:20 - Job 20:5-7 - Job 21:7 - Job 36:6 - Psalms 1:4-6 - Psalms 10:2-5 - Psalms 10:13-15 - Psalms 28:3-5 - Psalms 31:17 - Psalms 37:10&12&14&16&20&21&32&35&38-40 - Psalms 58:3 - Psalms 73:3&12 - Proverbs 3:25 - Proverbs 12:7&9-13 - Proverbs 14:2&11&17&19&32 - Proverbs 15:8&9&28&29 - Proverbs 17:23 - Proverbs 18:3&5 - Proverbs 21:10&12&18&27&29 - Isaiah 3:10&11 - Isaiah 48:22 - Isaiah 57:21 - Jeremiah 12:1 - Jeremiah 17:9 - Ezekiel 3:18-20 - Ezekiel 18:27 - Ezekiel 33:8&9 - Ezekiel 33:11-13 - Ezekiel 33:18 - Malachi 4:3 - Ephesians 6:12 - II Thessalonians 2:8-12 - Wisdom 5:13 - Book of Mormon: Alma 41:10 -
The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes
Human blunders usually, do more to shape history than human wickedness. A J P Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War, 1961
Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone. John Maynard Keynes
He [Aleister Crowley] had so many Masonic degrees he could fill up five pages of a book with them. This guy was probably the most highest-honoured Mason in the world. He styled himself the Wickedest Man in the World. He believed himself to be the Great Beast. And he changed his name to Aleister Crowley so it would add up in both English, Hebrew and Greek Kabbalah as 666. In 1904 Crowley had a communication with an extraterrestrial Being named Ewas and this Being through his wife a kind of channelling type of operation, brought forth a book called The Book of Law ... Crowley proclaimed the end of Christianity and the start of Crowlianity. Crowley taught that the way you could live for ever was by vampiring little children sexually. And he personally bragged of having slaughtered one hundred and fifty male children in one year. This is why he was called the Wickedest man in the world. Bill Schnoebelen
For ’tis not good that children should know any wickedness. Old folks, you know, have discretion, as they say, and know the world. William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor II ii 124-126, Mistress Quickly to Sir John
Those wicked creatures yet do seem well favoured
When others are more wicked. Not being the worst
Stands in some rank of praise. William Shakespeare, The History of King Lear II ii 415-417, Lear
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes. William Shakespeare, Macbeth IV i 44
The soul that has conceived one wickedness can nurse no good thereafter. Sophocles, Philoctetes
The small man thinks that small acts of goodness are of no benefit, and does not do them; and that small deeds of evil do no harm, and does not refrain from them. Hence, his wickedness becomes so great that it cannot be concealed, and his guilt so great that it cannot be pardoned. Confucius, The Wisdom of Confucius
The virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life. Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams
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
My point is that it [wickedness] is not punished, and that is why it is natural to be guilty of it. When it is likely to be punished, most of us avoid it. Ivy Compton-Burnett, 1884-1969
Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others. Oscar Wilde
It is very difficult to make one’s way in this world without being wicked at one time or another, when the world’s way is so wicked to being with. Lemony Snicket, The Penultimate Peril
This is the very worst wickedness, that we refuse to acknowledge the passionate evil that is in us. This makes us secret and rotten. D H Lawrence
Wickedness is the root of despotism as virtue is the essence of the Republic. Maximilien Robespierre 7th May 1794
If weakness may excuse,
What murderer, what traitor, parricide,
Incestuous, sacrilegious, but may plead it?
All wickedness is weakness; that plea, therefore,
With God or man will gain thee no remission. John Milton, Samson Agonistes, 1671
All things truly wicked start from innocence. Ernest Hemingway
My God, you’re a wicked woman. A deeply wicked person. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1966 starring Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton & George Segal & Sandy Dennis & Agnes Flanagan & Frank Flanagan, director Mike Nichols, him to her
The success of the wicked entices many more. Phaedrus, Fables II:3:7
It’s worse than wicked, my dear, it’s vulgar. Punch magazine Almanac 1876
If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust; the wicked people would have it all their own way: they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should – so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again. Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth; and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continuously. Genesis 6:5
But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost. Job 11:20
The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor. Job 15:20
That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;
Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he? Job 20:5-7
Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Job 21:7
He preserveth not the life of the wicked: but giveth right to the poor. Job 36:6
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Psalms 1:4-6
The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. Psalms 10:2-5
Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.
Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none. Psalms 10:13-15
Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.
Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.
Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up. Psalms 28:3-5
Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. Psalms 31:17
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.
A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.
But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.
The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.
But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble.
And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him. Psalms 37:10&12 &14&16&20&21&32&35&38-40