Necessary Evil quotes:

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A baseball manager is a necessary evil. -- Sparky Anderson
Work is a necessary evil to be avoided. -- Mark Twain
The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man. -- Franz Kafka
The world is the best of all possible worlds, and everything in it is a necessary evil. -- F. H. Bradley
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. -- Thomas Paine
It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good. -- Margaret Mead
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. -- Christy Mathewson
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. -- Annie Besant
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. -- Percy Bysshe Shelley
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. -- Jimmy Carter
Generalities are intellectually necessary evils. -- Aldous Huxley
Dialogue is a necessary evil. -- Fred Zinnemann
Most "necessary evils" are far more evil than necessary. -- Richard Branson
Do not let us mistake necessary evils for good. -- C. S. Lewis
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I hate dealing with the press. But I think it is a necessary evil. -- Amy Carter
Marriage, if one will face the truth, is an evil, but a necessary evil. -- Menander
There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. -- Andrew Jackson
When you start with a necessary evil, and then over time the necessity passes away, what's left? -- Matthew Scully
Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody's got to pay for them so they're a necessary evil. -- Michael Bloomberg
I used to think the press was a necessary evil and now I don't think it is. I think it's something you choose. -- Daniel Craig
A lot of auditions are not fun; they're just a necessary evil, and, if you're lucky, you have a few moments that are fun. -- Kristen Connolly
There's no way we could take cars off the planet and not have our society fall apart. So they're a necessary evil, in that sense. -- Lindsay Wagner
Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one. -- Thomas Paine
The Founders never intended for Americans to trust their government. Our entire Constitution was predicated on the notion that government was a necessary evil, to be restrained and minimized as much as possible. -- Rand Paul
There are necessary evils. Money is an important thing in terms of representing freedom in our world. And now I have a daughter to think about. It's really the first time I've thought about the future and what it could be. -- Johnny Depp
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I've heard it said that umpires are necessary evil. Well, we are necessary, but we are not evil. We are hard-working and dedicated people whose primary interest is to make sure the game is played fairly. We are the integrity of the game. -- Doug Harvey
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. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. -- Andrew Jackson
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. -- David Mamet
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. -- Thomas Paine
I think it takes a lot of trickery to keep up with the media and its perception of you. I don't know if I have it in me most of the time to care. The music is made first, and the interviews or photos to keep it alive come later as a necessary evil, I suppose. -- Jack White
You will find that you cannot do without politicians. They are a necessary evil in this day and time. You may not like getting money from one source and spending it for another. But the thing for the school people to do is that if the politicians are going to steal, make them steal for the schools. -- Huey Long
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... -- Thomas Paine
Marriage is a necessary evil -- Amit Abraham
Government is a necessary evil -- Thomas Paine
The most necessary learning is that which unlearns evil. -- Antisthenes
Woman -a foe of friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil. -- Saint John Chrysostom
A little evil is often necessary for obtaining a great good. -- Voltaire
That government is not a necessary good but an unavoidable evil. -- Lyn Nofziger
Evil is a necessary part of the order of the universe. -- W. Somerset Maugham
Controversy, though always an evil in itself, is sometimes a necessary evil. -- Richard Whately
A critic is a necessary evil, and criticism is an evil necessity. -- Carolyn Wells
Rock music is, is a necessary evil, like beating my children with penny loafers -- Thom Yorke
The State is said by some to be a necessary evil; it must be made unnecessary. -- Benjamin Tucker
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
As sure as God is good, so surely there is no such thing as necessary evil. -- Robert Southey
Faith is, necessary to explain anything, and to reconcile the foreknowledge of God with human evil. -- William Wordsworth
For me, Spotify is not even a necessary evil. It helps me do what I want to do. -- Ed Sheeran
Reason is a necessary instrument, to be used for good or evil, but it has no moral qualities. -- Reinhard Bendix
It is said that government is a necessary evil, but it is far more evil than it is necessary. -- James Cook
Doubtless there are times when controversy becomes a necessary evil. But let us remember that it is an evil. -- Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. -- Joseph Conrad
It is the evil in man that makes democracy necessary, and man's belief in justice that makes democracy possible. -- Reinhold Niebuhr
Separation from evil is the necessary first principle of communion with Him ... Separation from evil is His principle of unity -- John Nelson Darby
Larger deficits are necessary and proper means to mitigate unemployment as the far greater evil in terms of human welfare. -- William Vickrey
Thus does a 'necessary evil' become an idol. Maybe we're stuck with it. But do we have to worship it? -- Joseph Sobran
The law's a necessary evil--we canna be doing without it--but do ye not think it a poor substitute for conscience? -- Diana Gabaldon
It is very necessary to have markers of beauty left in a world seemingly bent on making the most evil ugliness. -- Thornton Wilder
the fateful equating of power with violence, of the political with government, and of government with a necessary evil has begun. -- Hannah Arendt
Woman is a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic peril, a deadly fascination, and a painted ill. -- Saint John Chrysostom
It is necessary to believe that the mixture of evil has produced the greatest possible good: otherwise the evil would not have been permitted. -- Gottfried Leibniz
Politics is a way of ruling in divided societies without undue violence...politics is not just a necessary evil; it is a realistic good. -- Bernard Crick
Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a "necessary evil", it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil. -- Sydney J. Harris
The editing process is a necessary evil. I can write until the cows come home but it is all garbage until it gets edited. -- Kim Smith
A lot of auditions are not fun; theyre just a necessary evil, and, if youre lucky, you have a few moments that are fun. -- Kristen Connolly
It is not enough, citizens, to have destroyed the factions, it is necessary now to repair the evil that they have done to the country. -- Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
My brother, are war and battle evil? Necessary, however, is the evil; necessary are the envy and the distrust and the back-biting among the virtues. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by providence as an evil to mankind. -- Jonathan Swift
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. -- Willem de Kooning
How evil life must be if it were indeed necessary that such imploring cries, such cries of physical and moral wretchedness, should ever and ever ascend to heaven! -- Emile Zola
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. -- Jean Kerr
In order to forgive reason for the evil it has wrought on the majority of men, we must imagine for ourselves what man would be without his reason. 'Tis a necessary evil. -- Nicolas Chamfort
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. -- Will Arnett
War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other's children. -- Jimmy Carter
Government is only a necessary evil, like other go-carts and crutches. Our need of it shows exactly how far we are still children. All governing overmuch kills the self-help and energy of the governed. -- Wendell Phillips
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. -- Butch Vig

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