when w. h. auden said âevil is unspectacular and always humanâ and ursula k. leguin said âthis is the great treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of painâ
when toni morrison said âi just think goodness is more interesting. evil is constant. you can think of different ways to murder people, but you can do that at age five. but you have to be an adult to consciously, deliberately be good â and thatâs complicated.â
when simone weil said âimaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.â
when hannah arendt said âgood 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. it defies thought, for as soon as thought tries to engage itself with evil and examine the premises and principles from which it originates, it is frustrated because it finds nothing there. that is the banality of evil.â
when t.s. elliot said âthis is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimperâ
