Evil Cannot Comprehend Good/Quotes

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

— The Bible, John 1:5

Evil... has every advantage but one - it is inferior in imagination. Good can imagine the possibility of becoming evil... but Evil, defiantly chosen, can no longer imagine anything but itself."

—W.H. Auden on The Lord of the Rings

You have to think about what you're doing. Who and what made you who you are. Your role models. The beliefs they instilled in you. Think of how the Joker could never understand that. It's what makes him who he is. Think.

—Jim Gordon, Hush

Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom or truth, perhaps peace, could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson, vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose, and all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although - only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? WHY DO YOU PERSIST?!

—Agent Smith, The Matrix Revolutions

Cartman: You see guys, it all worked itself out. Tadow, tadow, how you like me now? Feel a little silly now, Kyle? Tadow, how you like me now?
Kyle: I still feel bad, Cartman.
Cartman: What? Hu- How can you feel bad? Somebody else is gonna pay for our crime.
Kyle: Yeah. That makes it even worse.
Cartman: Bu... ...eh... Kyle, you don't seem to understand. We're not gonna get punished for this. Ever.
Kyle: I know.
Cartman: So... so then, how can you feel bad?
Stan: He feels guilty for doing it and for letting someone else pay for it.
Cartman: ...But he's not gonna get in trouble.
Stan: It doesn't matter if you get in trouble of not, you can still feel bad. [to Kyle] I think you're right, Kyle. Maybe we should confess.
Kenny: (Yeah, maybe we should)
Cartman: What?? Eh... [tries to be upbeat] Hey you guys! There's nothing to feel bad about! We're, we're off scot-free!
Kyle: We feel bad for other people.
Cartman: [looks at the other boys in disbelief] For oth-er... [winces] Uh. Oww. ...Ih ...Ih, ih, is it that ...you think you might get in trouble later?
Stan: Tomorrow in school we'll all tell the teacher it was us, and let her decide what to do. [points an accusing finger at Cartman] And Cartman, if you had any thread of a conscience at all, you'll do the same! [He, Kyle, and Kenny leave]

Cartman: Eh buh... eh... eh... Freakin' weirdos, man!

—South Park, "Toilet Paper"

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

—Mark Twain

Elan: I saved you 'cause I'm the Good twin, not the Neutral twin.

Nale: ... I don't get it.

Elan: Yup.

—The Order of the Stick #69

Blind you are, Morgoth Bauglir, and blind shall ever be, seeing only the dark. You know not what rules the hearts of men, and if you knew you could not give it.

—Hurin Thalion, The Children of Hurin

Sephiroth: Tell me what you cherish most. Give me the pleasure of taking it away.

Cloud: I pity you. You just don't get it all. There's not a thing I don't cherish!

—Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Agent 146: I'm stupid? Don't you realize the chip is power? Communications, politics, money ... anything! And you're pissing it away!

The Girl: No, we get it. We're just not that kind of people.

—A Girl and Her Fed, p. 664.

Cyber-Leader: (watching from above as humans and Cybermen fight) I ordered surrender.

Tenth Doctor: They're not taking instructions. Don't you understand? You're on every street, you're in their homes, you've got their children! Of course they're gonna FIGHT!

—Doctor Who, "Doomsday"

If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love.

—Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter

Zidane: As long as there's hope, I'm not going anywhere.

Kuja: (beaten) Then...I want you to erase me.

Zidane: What?

Kuja: The world has disowned me. I have been defeated by life itself.

(Zidane closes the distance between them. Kuja chuckles, perhaps expecting Zidane to go through with it - but Zidane offers him his hand)

Kuja: Why?

Zidane: Do I need a reason to help someone? Or is my help not good enough for you?

Kuja: It's likely that... I will hurt you again.

Zidane: I can take a beating.

Kuja: I don't think I will ever come to understand you.

—Dissidia Final Fantasy

Only you would regard love as a weakness.

—Goliath to Xanatos, Gargoyles

Tao En: Impossible. Why are you getting up? Don't you fear me? Why do you fight so hard for one another?!

Tao Ren: I can't answer that. But I know that if I were in their place... I'd do the same for them.

—Shaman King

There are those who say that to comprehend evil is to become evil; but they are merely pretending to be wise. Rather it is evil which does not know love, and dares not imagine love, and cannot ever understand love without ceasing to be evil. And I suspect that you can imagine your way into the minds of Dark Wizards better than I ever could, while still knowing love yourself.

—Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

It was a harrowing experience, but I don't hold a grudge. We should love our enemies. It makes them so damned mad.

—Jean-Luc Picard on his Twitter profile

You still don't get it, do you? Huh?! This ain't about your money, bro, your boy gave you up. That's right. And we ain't had to torture his ass neither!

—Omar Little, The Wire

Choudhury: What about the man in the red suit?
Tanek Nuro: It'll be easy to deal with him, now that we've found out who he really is. First we'll take a hostage. Who does he care about?
Choudhury: Well, he has an ex-wife and a son...

Nuro: I bet he hates his ex and would sell his son to the gypsies if he could. I would.

—Doctor Solar Man of the Atom #6

Forget about [the Chum Bucket], I just can't take so much kindness in one sitting! Need... hatred...

—Plankton, SpongeBob SquarePants "Walking Small"

[Supreme Chancellor Fey'lya] lives in a world where alliances shift by the moment. Borsk does what Borsk needs to do, at any given moment, to benefit Borsk. And he's so jaded by that political philosophy that he thinks everyone else plays by the same rules.

—Luke Skywalker, Vector Prime

A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping… Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.

—Mere Christianity

Saffron: Everybody plays each other. That's all anybody ever does. We play parts.

Mal: You got all kinds a learnin’ and you made me look the fool without even trying, and yet here I am with a gun to your head. That’s 'cause I've got people with me, people who trust each other, who do for each other, and ain't always looking for the advantage.

—Firefly

Man is mortal, and doomed to death and failure and loss.

This lies beyond our comprehension - why do you not despair?

—Spirit of the Daedra, The Elder Scrolls.

Logical? Is it? To a machine, perhaps. Yes... A soulless machine might make that deduction. But not Lex Luthor. I know better! I know that no man with the power of Superman would ever pretend to be a mere human! Such power is to be constantly exploited. Such power is to be used!!

—Lex Luthor, from the 1980s DC Comics revamp, on why Clark Kent cannot be Superman