Wickedness

Wickedness is the state of being wicked, having an evil disposition, or tending toward immorality.

"Wicked" redirects here; see Wicked (musical) for the play

Quotes

• There is a method in man's wickedness,
  It grows up by degrees.
  • Beaumont and Fletcher, A King and No King, (1611; 1619), Act V, scene 4.

• I don't withdraw a word of my initial statement. But I do now think it may have been incomplete. There is perhaps a fifth category, which may belong under "insane" but which can be more sympathetically characterized by a word like tormented, bullied, or brainwashed. Sincere people who are not ignorant, not stupid, and not wicked can be cruelly torn, almost in two, between the massive evidence of science on the one hand, and their understanding of what their holy book tells them on the other. I think this is one of the truly bad things religion can do to a human mind. There is wickedness here, but it is the wickedness of the institution and what it does to a believing victim, not wickedness on the part of the victim himself.
  • Richard Dawkins "Ignorance Is No Crime", Free Inquiry 21 (3), Summer 2001, ISSN 0272-0701
  • Regarding his 1989 statement "It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that)."

• He who lifts up his hand in a threatening manner against a fellow-man, though he may not actually strike him, is designated a wicked man.
  • Exodus Rabbah 1, Tales and Maxims from the Midrash by Rev. Samuel Rapaport, (1907), p. 89

• The world loves a spice of wickedness.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hyperion (1839), Chapter VII, Book I.

• By the pricking of my thumbs,
  Something wicked this way comes.
  • William Shakespeare, Macbeth (c.1605), Act IV, Scene I, Second Witch.

• Are you call'd forth from out a world of men,
  To slay the innocent?
  • William Shakespeare, Richard III (c. 1591), Act I, scene 4, line 186.

• 'Cause I's wicked,—I is. I's mighty wicked, anyhow, I can't help it.
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Chapter XX.

• Whenever wickedness may cause trouble, Utu will not be idle!
  • Sumerian proverb from Urim, Text online at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, 3rd millennium BCE.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 868.

• Animi labes nec diuturnitate vanescere nec omnibus ullis elui potest.
  • Mental stains can not be removed by time, nor washed away by any waters.
  • Cicero, De Legibus, II. 10.

• Destroy his fib, or sophistry—in vain!
  The creature's at his dirty work again.
  • Alexander Pope, Prologue to the Satires, line 91.

• Better to stumble on the ground than to make a slip with the tongue; this is how easily the wicked fall.
  • Ben Sirach, Ecclesiasticus: Wisdom of Sirach Chapter 20 : 18

• O cæca nocentum consilia!
  O semper timidum scelus!
  • Oh, the blind counsels of the guilty!
    Oh, how cowardly is wickedness always!
  • Statius, Thebais, II, 489.

Bible

The Bible at Wikisource

• The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.” Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?” He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.” Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
  • Abraham to God regarding the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, in Genesis 18:22 - 32

• Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
  • Psalm 37:7

• Who will stand up for me against evildoers? Who will take his stand for me against those who do wickedness?
  • Psalm 94:16, (Study Bible)

• The wicked flee when no man pursueth; but the righteous are bold as a lion.
  • Proverbs, XXVIII. 1.

• As saith the proverb of the Ancients,
  Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked.
  • I Samuel, XXIV. 13. David to Saul. Said to be the oldest proverb on record.

• For wickedness, of its nature cowardly, testifies in its own condemnation,
  and because of a distressed conscience, always magnifies misfortunes.
  • Book of Wisdom 17:11