Evil Inclination

Famous quotes containing the words evil and/or inclination:

    Whereas the comic confronts simply logical contradictions, the tragic confronts a moral predicament. Not minor matters of true and false but crucial questions of right and wrong, good and evil face the tragic character in a tragic situation.
    —Marie Collins Swabey. Comic Laughter, ch. 7, Yale University Press (1961)

    O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven;
    It hath the primal eldest curse upon ‘t,
    A brother’s murder. Pray can I not,
    Though inclination be as sharp as will;
    My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
    And like a man to double business bound
    I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
    And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
    Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood,
    Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
    To wash it white as snow?
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)