the greatest evil perpetrated is the evil committed by nobodies, that is, by human beings who refuse to be persons
No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary whatever the punishment once a specific crime has appeared for the first time its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been.
Quote Detail
No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary whatever the punishment once a specific crime has appeared for the first time its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been.
Quick Answer
What this quote page tells you
This canonical quote page keeps the full saying, the attributed author, any linked work, and the topic tags together so the quote can be cited from one stable URL.
Related Quotes
More quote cards from the same area
Evil thrives on apathy and cannot survive without it.
Good can be radical; evil can never be radical, it can only be extreme, for it possesses neither depth nor any demonic dimension yet--and this is its horror--it can spread like a fungus over the surface of the earth and lay waste the entire world. Evil comes from a failure to think.
You are quite right, I changed my mind and do no longer speak of __adical evil._ _ It is indeed my opinion now that evil is never __adical,_ that it is only extreme, and that it possesses neither depth nor any demonic dimension. It can overgrow and lay waste the whole world precisely because it spreads like a fungus on the surface. It is __hought-defying,_ as I said, because thought tries to reach some depth, to go to the roots, and the moment it concerns itself with evil, it is frustrated because there is nothing. That is its __anality._ Only the good has depth that can be radical.(letter to Scholem from December 1964)
Evil in the Third Reich had lost the quality by which most people recognize it__he quality of temptation.
Intent not followed by action is an insult to your design. Decide what you want, create a plan, and get your ass out there!