Two Evils Quotes & Sayings

There are two things for which animals are to be envied: they know nothing of future evils, or of what people say about them. — Voltaire

This place isn't a refuge, it's a slave market. Why doesn't anyone see that?'
'Who says they don't see it? It's just that unwinding makes slavery look good. It's always the lesser of two evils.'
'I don't see why there have to be any evils at all. — Neal Shusterman

There is an old poor man, ... Oppress'd with two weak evils, age and hunger. — William Shakespeare

There are two things in life that a sage must preserve at every sacrifice, the coats of his stomach and the enamel of his teeth. Some evils admit of consolations, but there are no comforters for dyspepsia and the toothache. — Henry Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling And Bulwer

He felt her hand curl in the material of his shirt, and it was a glorious goddamn feeling. So if presented with an unknown threat, she would consider him the lesser of the two evils. Right. He could work with that. Some marriages had been founded on less, and he merely wanted to shag her senseless. — Tessa Bailey

Of two evils, it is perhaps less injurious to society, that good doctrine should be accompanied by a bad life, than that a good life should lend its support to a bad doctrine. — Charles Caleb Colton

And I was so tempted that night in Cippanhamm's royal church. There is such joy in chaos. Stow all the world's evils behind a door and tell men that they must never, ever, open the door, and it will be opened because there is pure joy in destruction. At one moment, when Ragnar was bellowing with laughter and slapping my shoulder so hard that it hurt, I felt the words form on my tongue. That is Alfred, I would have said, pointing at him, and all my world would have changed and there would have been no more England. Yet, at the last moment, when the first word was on my tongue, I choked it back. Brida was watching me, her shrewd eyes calm, and I caught her gaze and I thought of Iseult. In a year or two, I thought, Iseult would look like Brida. They — Bernard Cornwell

the poppy crop is the only thing keeping the economy going. And if we don't buy it terrorists will and use the enormous profits from dealing the drugs to attack us. Lesser of two evils; sometimes it's the only choice we have." "It's still wrong," Michelle persisted. "And what Valerie did was criminal." "Valerie was a rogue clear and simple. As crazy as it sounds I believe she was going to kill you both after the torture was done, and she probably believed she'd get away with it. The role of the — David Baldacci

In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no 'two evils' exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say. — W.E.B. Du Bois

She did not admire him any more than she had. It was merely that she considered him the Lesser of two evils. — Edgar Rice Burroughs

It's pretty sad when you have to choose between the lesser of two evils. — Meg White

Wrong is wrong. Wrong is out there and lives among us. When do you get tired of voting for the lesser of the two evils? Wrong cannot be fought unless you understand what you are fighting against. Wrong can be fought against by using its own energy against itself. Let the system destroy itself. Accelerate the process by backing your resources out of the system. The system may not collapse in your lifetime, but you have the ability to help set up future generations, your children's children, to have a better life even further away from the system. — Annie Berdel

Of two evils choose the least. — Desiderius Erasmus

In love there are two evils: war and peace. — Horace

The pendulum oscillates between these two terms: Suffering-that opens a window on the real and is the main condition of the artistic experience, and Boredom ... that must be considered as the most tolerable because the most durable of human evils. — Samuel Beckett

Of two evils, I always choose the lesser. — Gene Stratton-Porter

How many more of these stinking, double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote FOR something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils? — Hunter S. Thompson

Of two evils, the lesser must always be chosen De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum — Thomas A Kempis

If you choose the lesser of two evils, you are still choosing evil. — Ralph Nader

Whenever I'm caught between two evils, I take the one I've never tried. — Mae West

The Christian soldier must avoid two evils - he must not faint or yield in the time of fight, and after a victory he must not wax insolent and secure. When he has overcome, he is so to behave himself as though he were presently again to be assaulted. For Satan's temptations like the waves of the sea, do follow one in the neck of the other — George Downame

If you have difficulties making a decision, choose the lesser of the two evils. — Rajneesh

I'm just deeply disappointed that once again we may have to settle for the lesser of two evils. — Howard Dean

Abortion is not the lesser of two evils. It is a crime. It is to throw someone out in order to save another. — Pope Francis

between two evils you should always pick the one that you haven't yet tried. I — Ashwin Sanghi

For all evils there are two remedies - time and silence. — Alexandre Dumas

Knowing all and having the necessary tools are two different things. This is hardly a hospital. We make do with what we have, and none of that is Mahlia's fault. Tani is the victim of many evils, but Mahlia is not the beginning of that chain, nor the end. I am responsible, if anyone is. — Paolo Bacigalupi

Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both. — Oscar Wilde

The whole secret of the campaigns unleashed against Spain can be explained in two words: Masonry and Communism ... we have to extirpate these two evils from our land. — Francisco Franco

Thus have the gods spun the thread for wretched mortals: that they live in grief while they themselves are without cares; for two jars stand on the floor of Zeus of the gifts which he gives, one of evils and another of blessings. — Homer

Karaoke bars combine two of the nation's greatest evils: people who shouldn't drink with people who shouldn't sing. — Tom Dreesen

In the first place, it would efface from everybody's
conscience the distinction between justice and injustice.
No society can exist unless the laws are respected to a cer-
tain degree, but the safest way to make them respected is
to make them respectable. When law and morality are in
contradiction to each other, the citizen finds himself in
the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense, or of
losing his respect for the law - two evils of equal magni-
tude, between which it would be difficult to choose. — Frederic Bastiat

The lesser of two evils, or the least of the worst, is not good enough for the American people anymore. — Ralph Nader

To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less. — Plato

The lesser of two evils is still evil. — Solomon

Of two evils, choose the more interesting. — Thomas Dewar, 1st Baron Dewar

What does the Right have to show for eight years of a Republican presidency? I supported George W. Bush in 2000 because I thought he had a conservative bone in his body somewhere. I supported him in 2004 because I thought him the lesser of two evils. At this point, I wouldn't let the fool park his car in my driveway. Bruce Bartlett was right, every damn word. — John Derbyshire

Between two evils, I choose the one I've never tried before. — Heinlein Robert A.

Of two evils, choose neither. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil. — Max Lerner

Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order: there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people's money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency. — Franklin D. Roosevelt

Imitations of Horace. Of two evils I have chose the least. — Various

Some rule out of a lust for ruling; others, so as not to be ruled:Mto these it is merely the lesser of two evils. — Friedrich Nietzsche

Vladimir Nabokov said the two great evils of the 20th century were Marx and Freud. He was absolutely correct. — Dean Koontz

Where there is a choice of two evils, most men take both. — Austin O'Malley

Voting for the lesser of two evils is voting for your own enslavement. — Gerald Celente

Only men of moral and mental force, of a patriotic regard for the relationship of the two races, can be of real service as ministers in the South. Less theology and more of human brotherhood, less declamation and more common sense and love for truth, must be the qualifications of the new ministry that shall yet save the race from the evils of false teaching. — Fannie Barrier Williams

Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both. — Tryon Edwards

Two evils, monstrous either one apart, Possessed me, and were long and loath at going: A cry of Absence, Absence, in the heart, And in the wood the furious winter blowing. — John Crowe Ransom

the pursuit of our soul's satisfaction--our joy and delight and happiness--is not sin. Sin is the exact opposite: pursuing happiness where no lasting happiness can be found. "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jer. 2:13, RSV). Sin is trying to quench our unquenchable soul-thirst anywhere but in God. Or, more subtly, sin is pursuing satisfaction in the right direction, but with lukewarm, halfhearted affections (Rev. 3:16). — John Piper

Sometimes the only choice is the lesser of two evils. — Dan Brown

Well, I'm against Bush. I'm definitely not pro-Bush. I think he's a maniac and a mad man, and I think he needs to go. As far as Kerry
you know, I think that it really came down to a choice of the lesser of two evils, and unfortunately Bush won. — Roger Miret

We have a saying. My people call it 'choosing the path of fewest lashes.'"
"That's terrible," I murmur; half to myself.
"You mistake 'terrible' for 'different,'" he says. "You have a similar say, do you not? 'The lesser of two evils'? — Rae Carson

Take a look at the police and how they treat you,
Take a look at these corporations that cheat you.
Democrats and Republicans are all see-through.
Now we votin for the lesser of two evils ...
Man, don't let 'em deceive you.
This is an autocracy, not a democracy,
But to call this a democracy without mock interest
In the laws of society? That's called hypocrisy. — KRS-One

No society can exist if respect for the law does not to some extent prevail; but the surest way to have the laws respected is to make them respectable. When law and morality are in contradiction, the citizen finds himself in the cruel dilemma of either losing his moral sense or of losing respect for the law, two evils of which one is as great as the other, and between which it is difficult to choose. — Frederic Bastiat

Melville to Hawthorne: "In your stories, you seem to understand that the dramatic moments come not when a character must choose between right and wrong buy when he must choose between two wrongs. — Mark Beauregard

( ... ) personal prejudice and financial greed are the two great evils that threaten courts of law, and once they get the upper hand they immediately hamstring society, by destroying all justice. — Thomas More

The canard about the Civil Rights Movement is embedded within a larger deception that progressives uniformly put forward. This deception is intended to defuse the sordid history of the Democratic Party's two-century involvement in a parade of evils from slavery to segregation to lynching to forced sterilization to support for fascism to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. All these horrors are the work of the Democratic Party. — Dinesh D'Souza

When law and morality are in contradiction to each other, the citizen finds himself in the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense, or of losing his respect for the law - two evils of equal magnitude, between which it would be difficult to choose. It — Frederic Bastiat

I could choose what kind of people I preyed on, but in the end, I had to prey on someone. The lesser of the two evils was still evil. — Julie Kagawa

If it feels like you're choosing between the lesser of two evils, don't. There is always a higher choice. — Michael Neill

the space diaspora occurred as late capitalism writhed in its internal decision concerning whether to destroy Earth's biosphere or change its rules. Many argued for the destruction of the biosphere, as being the lesser of two evils — Kim Stanley Robinson

The U. S. is headed toward a period of business depression ... beginning within the next two years, which may exceed that which preceded the War ... The only thing that will save us is a new gold policy or the discovery of a new process or additional gold fields. If the fall [of gold production] is not prevented by design or accident we shall throttle business, wringing out all profits and experiencing all the evils of deflation. — Irving Fisher

When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before. — Mae West

People are clamoring to hear good ideas as opposed to the lesser of two evils ... Either the Democrats are going to win or the Republicans are going to win, but the losers are all of us out here as citizens that really do want meaningful change, and none of it's happening. There's no dialogue regarding meaningful change. — Gary Johnson

I vote because even the lesser of two evils is the lesser of two evils. — Ellen Goodman

Its easy to view politicians as corrupt and voting essentially an act of picking the lesser of two evils. I understand that perspective and feel it's valid. — Macklemore

The doctrine that war is always a greater evil seems to imply a materialist ethic, a belief that death and pain are the greatest evils. But I do not think they are ... All men die, and most men miserably. That two soldiers on opposite sides, each believing his own country to be in the right, each at the moment when his selfishness is most in abeyance and his will to sacrifice in the ascendant, should kill [each] other in plain battle seems to me by no means one of the most terrible things in this terrible world. — C.S. Lewis

And how many more of these stinking, double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote for something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils? I — Hunter S. Thompson

Two evils, of almost equal weight, may befall the man of erudition; never to be listened to, and to be listened to always. — Walter Savage Landor

You and I are stuck with the necessity of taking the worst of two evils or none at all. So-I'm taking the immature Democrat as the best of the two. Nixon is impossible. — Harry S. Truman

I think voting for the lesser of two evils in game theory always leads to more evil. — Penn Jillette

It's always the lesser of two evils.'
'I don't see why there have to be any evils at all.'
-Connor — Neal Shusterman

To be alone is the fate of all great minds - a fate deplored at times, but still always chosen as the less grievous of two evils. — Arthur Schopenhauer

Of two evils choose the prettier. — Carolyn Wells

knife. "Sure you have," Andy agreed. "But you don't do it. Because guys like us, Red, we know there's a third choice. An alternative to staying simon-pure or bathing in the filth and the slime. It's the alternative that grown-ups all over the world pick. You balance off your walk through the hog-wallow against what it gains you. You choose the lesser of two evils and try to keep your good intentions in front of you. And I guess you judge how well you're doing by how well you sleep at night... — Stephen King

Life is just a series of choices. We try to always make the best ones, but really we're just settling for the lesser of two evils. Or at least trying to. — S.L. Jennings

Of two evils, had not an author better be tedious than superficial! From an overflowing vessel you may gather more, indeed, than you want, but from an empty one you can gather nothing. — Hannah More

In the 1930s one was aware of two great evils - mass unemployment and the threat of war. — James Meade

The regime's policies, whether intentionally or unintentionally, had engendered a sharp divide between Muslims and Christians, in spite of the fact that generations of Muslims and Coptic Christians had lived together peacefully in the past. The regime was good at utilizing this divide to create a perception that without Mubarak in power, Egyptians would break out into sectarian warfare. As a result, Mubarak managed to market his police state successfully to the international community as the lesser of two evils. — Wael Ghonim

The lesser of two evils was still evil. — Julie Kagawa

There's a terrible danger in voting for the lesser of two evils because the parties can set it up that way. — Hunter S. Thompson

When choosing the lesser of two evils, always remember, it is still an evil. — Max Lerner

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before. — Mae West

He was not being courageous as he bore the freezing stream for his wife and children. He simply chose between the lesser of two evils - the pain and suffering he would endure in the river, a physical pain that he could stand to bear, or the pain and suffering he would feel if he had to watch his family wade across and freeze. It was not a decision. The choice had already been made the moment Ole proposed marriage to his wife and welcomed these beautiful daughters into the world. — Sage Steadman

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion. — Dylan Thomas

In that case, which would be the lesser of two evils - terror cabin with a psycho or beach estate with a weirdo? — K. Webster

One cold winter's day a number of porcupines huddled together quite closely in order, through their mutual warmth, to prevent themselves from being frozen. But they soon felt the effects of their quills on one another, which made them again move apart. Now, when the need for warmth once again brought them together, the drawback of the quills was repeated so they were tossed between two evils, until they discovered the proper distance from which they could best tolerate one another. Thus the needs for society, which springs from the emptiness and monotony of men's lives, drives them together but their many unpleasant and repulsive qualities once more drive them apart. — Irvin D. Yalom

The choice before human beings, is not, as a rule , between good and evil but between two evils. You can let the Nazis rule the world : that is evil; or you can overthrow them by war , which is also evil. There is no other choice before you, and whichever you choose you will not come out with clean hands. — George Orwell

The lesson for today, dear Rakshas , is between two evils you should pick the one that you haven't yet tried. — Ashwin Sanghi

Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. — Jerry Garcia

Good' did not triumph. 'Evil' did not triumph. The two resolved, destroyed each other and created new 'evils', new 'goods' which slew each other in their turn. — Eric Ambler

In politics the choice is constantly between two evils. — John Morley

You were all given a choice," Derek boomed. "Prison time or my time. One or the other. If you thought I was the lesser of two evils, you were wrong. You each have a skill that landed you in this room and I intend to use those skills to make Chicago safer. — Tessa Bailey

Although war is evil, it is occasionally the lesser of two evils. — McGeorge Bundy

We have two evils to fight, capitalism and racism. We must destroy both racism and capitalism. — Huey Newton

Our choices lie between the lesser of two evils, but it is still within our power to make these choices — Scott Peck

Lesser of two evils. — Jeane Kirkpatrick

I say I'm the only serious comedian in the presidential race. And I'd like to take this opportunity to ask both Romney and Obama to debate me. Because I think that both of those guys - I think that the American people are being given a false choice, because the choice between the lesser of two evils is a false choice. — Roseanne Barr

Of two Evils we take the less. — Richard Hooker