Problem of evil

Explore 13 quotes about Problem of evil

If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?

Voltaire

Candide

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Topic

Problem of evil

Author

Voltaire

Source

Candide

Medium

Novel

Genre

Satire

Statement Type

Question

Language

French

Time

1759 1750s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Voltaire. Candide, ou l'Optimisme [Candide: or, All for the Best]. Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759, ch. 6.

Current Citation

Voltaire. Candide, edited by Nicholas Cronk. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, ch. 6.

All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

Voltaire

Candide

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Topic

Problem of evil Nature of the world The world

Speaker

Pangloss

Author

Voltaire

Source

Candide

Medium

Novel

Genre

Satire

Language

French

Time

1759 1750s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Voltaire. Candide, ou l'Optimisme [Candide: or, All for the Best]. Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Voltaire. Candide, edited by Nicholas Cronk. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, ch. 1.

What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the height of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.

John Milton

Paradise Lost

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Topic

Problem of evil Theodicy

Author

John Milton

Source

Paradise Lost

Medium

Poem

Genre

Epic poem Religious literature

Language

English

Time

1667 1660s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. London: Samuel Simmons, 1667, bk. 1, I. 22.

Current Citation

"Paradise Lost." John Milton: Major Works, edited by Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 1, I. 22.

There is only one question which really matters: why do bad things happen to good people?

Harold S. Kushner

When Bad Things Happen to Good People

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Topic

Problem of evil

Author

Harold S. Kushner

Source

When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Statement Type

Question

Language

English

Time

1981 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kushner, Harold. When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Schocken Books, 1981, ch. 1.

If all evil were prevented, much good would be absent from the universe. A lion would cease to live, if there were no slaying of animals; and there would be no patience of martyrs if there were no tyrannical persecution.

St. Thomas Aquinas

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Topic

Problem of evil

Author

St. Thomas Aquinas

Source

Summa Theologicae

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Latin

Time

1265 1260s 13th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Saint Thomas Aquinus. Summa Theologica. c. 1274, pt. 1.

Current Citation

Saint Thomas Aquinus. The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Provinc. Christian Classics, 1981, pt. 1.

Wherefore not without cause has one of your own followers asked, "If God is, whence come evil things? If He is not, whence come good?"

Boethius

The Consolation of Philosophy

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Topic

Problem of evil

Author

Boethius

Source

The Consolation of Philosophy

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Latin

Time

523 520s 6th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Boethius. De Consolatione Philosophiae [On the Consolation of Philosophy]. 524, bk. 1, poem 4.

Current Citation

Boethius. The Consolation of Philosophy, translated by Victor Watts. Penguin Classics, 1999, bk. 1, poem 4.

Just are the ways of God,
And justifiable to men;
Unless there be who think not God at all.

John Milton

Paradise Regained

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Topic

Problem of evil

Author

John Milton

Source

Samson Agonistes Paradise Regained

Medium

Poem

Genre

Tragedy (play)

Language

English

Time

1671 1670s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Milton, John. "Samson Agonistes." Paradise Regained, A Poem in 4 Books, to which is added Samson Agonistes. London: John Starkey, 1671, I. 293.

Current Citation

Milton, John. "Samson Agonistes." Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and the Complete Shorter Poems, edited by William Kerrigan, John Rumrich, and Stephen M. Fallon. Modern Library, 2012, I. 293.

A belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

Joseph Conrad

Under Western Eyes

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Topic

Problem of evil God and man Human nature

Author

Joseph Conrad

Source

Under Western Eyes

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1911 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Conrad, Joseph. Under Western Eyes. Harper & Brothers/Methuen Publishing, 1911, pt. 2, ch. 4.

Current Citation

Conrad, Joseph. Under Western Eyes. Dover Publications, 2003, pt. 2, ch. 4.

Siri, why does God allow suffering?

Veep

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Topic

Problem of evil

Speaker

Mike McLintock

Actor

Matt Walsh

Source

Veep

Medium

TV program

Genre

Comedy (TV) Comedy

Statement Type

Question

Language

English

Time

2014 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

"Crate." Veep, written by Simon Blackwell and Georgia Pritchett and Armando Iannucci, directed by Chris Addison, season 3, episode 9, Home Box Office and Dundee Productions, 2014.

And malt does more than Milton can
To justify God's ways to man.

A.E. Housman

More information about this quote

Topic

Alcohol Problem of evil

Author

A.E. Housman

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1896 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Housman, Alfred Edward. A Shropshire Lad. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, & Co., 1896, no. 62, I. 21.

Current Citation

Housman, Alfred Edward. "A Shropshire Lad." A Shropshire Lad and Other Poems, edited by Archie Burnett. Penguin Classics, 2010, no. 62, I. 21.

I have too much respect for the idea of God to make it responsible for such an absurd world.

Georges Duhamel

More information about this quote

Topic

Problem of evil Existence of God God

Author

Georges Duhamel

Language

French

Time

1937 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Duhamel, Georges. Le Desert de Bievre [The Desert of Bièvres]. Mercure de France, 1937, ch. 2.

The book of nature tells us distinctly that God cares not a rap for us—nor for any living creature.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Divine indifference Problem of evil God and man God

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Journals of Mark Twain

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1898 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Notebook, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. The Mark Twain Company, 1932, ch. 31. Originally from Notebook, c. 1898.

I had no intention to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world.

Charles Darwin

More information about this quote

Topic

Problem of evil

Author

Charles Darwin

Source

Letters of Charles Darwin

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1860 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Darwin, Charles. Letter to Asa Gray. 22 May 1860.

Current Citation

Darwin, Charles. Letter to Asa Gray, 22 May [1860]." The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, edited by Frederick Burkhardt and James A. Secord. Vol. 8: 1860. Cambridge University Press, 2022, no. 2814.