Michael Ignatieff Quotes

As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy.

Of God and Evil, there is nothing simply and absolutely so; nor any common Rule of Good and Evil, to be taken from the nature of the objects themselves.

Why are we talking about this good and evil? They're just names for sides. We know that.

Good and evil both increase at compound interest.

So far as he is able, a prince should stick to the path of good but, if the necessity arises, he should know how to follow evil.

There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel.

I don't think good and evil are polarized.

One concept corrupts and confuses the others. I am not speaking of the Evil whose limited sphere is ethics; I am speaking of the infinite.

You can compromise between good, better, and best, and you can compromise between bad and worse and terrible. But you can't compromise between good and evil. And now people look at the other side as a completely different kind of animal and say, 'They are taking the country down the road to purgatory.' It's complete intolerance.

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

Most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.

Intelligence work has one moral law—it is justified by results.

We should not be simply fighting evil in the name of good, but struggling against the certainties of people who claim always to know where good and evil are to be found.

The border between good and evil is terribly fuzzy.

We live in a world where everyone thinks they do the right thing, so they are entitled to do the wrong thing. So ends can justify the means.

I've learned a lot about good and evil. They are not always what they appear to be.

Everyone spends their lives trying to balance their world between good and evil.

The 'morality of compromise' sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.

I think evil is very relative.

We always want to find good and bad guys, and I don't believe in that.

I don't think anybody's all good or all bad.

One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.

To conceive the good, in fact, is not sufficient; it must be made to succeed among men. To accomplish this less pure paths must be followed.

It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.

My idea of what's good and bad and right and wrong is maybe greyer than most, and I like writing about that.