"Above all else, my children, be hard. For what is done for love is beyond good and evil."
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
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Anime and Manga
"There is no good or evil in light, or darkness. It does not exist. If there is justice in this world, it may well lie in love, and naught else."
— Wizard King August, Fairy Tail
"Sasuke is basically a very pure person who doesn't think about whether what he does is good or bad. He just does what he wants to do, which causes troubles for others. He's very self-centered, only concerned with himself. Some people might think what he's doing is good, like avenging his parents or trying to realize his brother's ideals. But he is troubling others in this pursuit, so that aspect is bad."
Comic Books
"You must really hate me to go out of your way to concoct an unnecessarily sadistic moral dilemma like that. Or are you just mocking the whole conceit of morals? Maybe from your vantage point the whole idea of right and wrong seems like a silly little dance."
"What I'm trying to say is — there is no right or wrong apart from what you decide. Whom you choose to defend deserves to be defended simply because you chose them. You are the Fire Lord. What you choose, by definition, is right."
"There is no good and evil. What is evil to you depends on what side you are on. What is good to you is evil to the rat creatures, and vice versa."
— Roque Ja, Bone
"You would seek to punish me? I am beyond good and evil."
— Galactus, Fantastic Four
"The fact I derive pleasure from cruelty doesn't make me feel guilty, Frank... guilt is ridiculous. There is no 'good' or 'bad'. There is only pleasure and pain... with no Heaven or Hell at the end of it!"
— Colonel De Sade, The Punisher
"I am above such judgments as good, as evil! I am the judge! I am the ideal!"
— Barry Metzner to Supergirl, Supergirl (1982) #23
Adrian Veidt: I'd hope you'd understand, unlike Rorschach...
Doctor Manhattan: Yes, I understand, without condoning or condemning. Human affairs cannot be my concern. I'm leaving this galaxy for one less complicated.
Adrian Veidt: But you'd regained your interest in human life...
Doctor Manhattan: Yes, I have. I think perhaps I'll create some.
Doctor Manhattan: Yes, I understand, without condoning or condemning. Human affairs cannot be my concern. I'm leaving this galaxy for one less complicated.
Adrian Veidt: But you'd regained your interest in human life...
Doctor Manhattan: Yes, I have. I think perhaps I'll create some.
— Watchmen
Film — Animation
"I can do no wrong, for I do not know what it is."
Film — Live-Action
"As for the charges against me, I am unconcerned. I am beyond their timid lying morality, and so I am beyond caring."
— Col. Walter E. Kurtz, Apocalypse Now
"Look at 'em. They're cattle; pieces of meat. What difference does it make how their world ends? Plague... war... famine. Morality doesn't even enter into it. We're just a function of natural selection, man. The new race."
—Deacon Frost, Blade (1998)
"Evil is a point of view. God kills indiscriminately and so shall we. For no creatures under God are as we are, none so like him as ourselves."
—Lestat, Interview with the Vampire
"There is no good or evil. There is only power... and those too weak to seek it!"
— Lord Voldemort, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
"There is no good, there is no evil, there is only flesh. And the patterns to which we submit it."
— Pinhead, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth
"Whatever you need to do, you do it. There is no wrong. If someone needs to be killed, you kill 'em. That's the way."
— Baby Firefly, House of 1000 Corpses
"I don't put a gun to anybody's head and make them shoot. I admit, the shooting war is better for business, but I prefer people to fire my guns and miss, just as long as they keep firing."
— Yuri Orlov, Lord of War
"Moral concepts. I'm a scientist. To me there is no good or evil, only true or false. I work with one, discard the other."
— Dr. Alfred Morris, The Mad Ghoul
"The only rules that really matter are these: What a man can do and what a man can't do."
— Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
"People think in terms of good and evil, but really, time is the true enemy of us all. Time kills everything."
— Master Kaecilius, Doctor Strange (2016)
"Morality, what the hell is that? Good over evil? Morality is finished! It's over! So naive!"
— Dr. Gulik, Supersonic Man
Literature
"Nature, in her indifference, makes no distinction between good and evil."
—The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France
"You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny."
— Jadis, The White Witch, The Magician's Nephew
"There is no good and evil... there is only power, and those too weak to seek it..."
— Quirinus Quirrell (possessed by Lord Voldemort), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
"The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and reveling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom."
"On the front of the Octavo had been a representation of Bel-Shamharoth. He was not Evil, for even Evil has a certain vitality — Bel-Shamharoth was the flip side of the coin of which Good and Evil are but one side."
"Moral law is an invention of mankind for the disenfranchisement of the powerful in favor of the weak. Historical law subverts it at every turn. A moral view can never be proven right or wrong by any ultimate test."
— Judge Holden, Blood Meridian
Gandalf: The Nine have come forth again. They have crossed the River. So Radagast said to me.
Saruman: Radagast the Brown! Radagast the Bird-tamer! Radagast the Simple! Radagast the Fool! Yet he had just the wit to play the part that I set him. For you have come, and that was all the purpose of my message. And here you will stay, Gandalf the Grey, and rest from journeys. For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colors!
Gandalf: I like white better.
Saruman: White! It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten, and the white light can be broken.
Gandalf: In which case it is no longer white. And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has truly left the path of wisdom.
— The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
"Good and bad were weak words. Monsters didn’t care about intentions or ideals. The facts were simple. The South was chaos. The North was order. It was an order bought and paid for with blood and fear, but order all the same."
— Katie Harker, This Savage Song
"Don't think I didn't notice how you've looked at me since last night. Staring at me with condemnation in your eyes. What you don't understand is that men like me are beyond judgment. I do as I will, and the world must bear my discretions with submission and gratitude."
—Xu Ping An, The Rise of Kyoshi
Clay: It's...I don't think it's right.
Rip: What's right? If you want something, you have the right to take it. If you want to do something, you have the right to do it.
Rip: What's right? If you want something, you have the right to take it. If you want to do something, you have the right to do it.
There is no morality to him. No goodness. No evil intent when he killed Eo. He believes he is beyond morality. His aspirations are so grand that he has become inhuman in his desparate desire to preserve humanity.
— Darrow on Nero au Augustus, Golden Son (Red Rising)
Live-Action TV
"There are no absolutes, no right and wrong. Haven't you learned anything working for The Powers? There are only choices. I offered paradise; you chose this!"
— Jasmine, Angel
"Your whole life you've been told to be good. But good is only a matter of perspective. Always remember that your enemies think they're doing what's right. They think they're the hero and you're the villain. But now you know the truth. There is no good, there is no bad, only weak or strong. And now that we've shed our weakness, it's time to show our strength. And if you do that, I promise you, you will be unstoppable."
— John Kreese, ''Cobra Kai
"Good and evil has nothing to do with God. I collect church collapses, did you see the recent one in Sicily? The façade fell on sixty-five grandmothers attending a special mass. Was that evil? Was that God? If he's up there, he just loves it. Typhoid and swans, it all comes from the same place."
— Dr. Lecter, Hannibal
"Morals are for men, not gods."
— Gary Mitchell, Star Trek: The Original Series ("Where No Man Has Gone Before")
"You know full well this is merely a face concealing a vastness that will never cease, because your Good and your Bad are nothing to me. All that exists is to Win, or to Lose."
— The Toymaker to the Doctor, Doctor Who
Theatre
"I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right!"
— The Witch, Into the Woods
Video Games
Dracula: Child... it is power that always wins. Good and evil are only words, illusions created by the powerful.
Maria: I don't know what you mean, but I know you hurt a lot of people. No matter what you say, that's wrong!
Maria: I don't know what you mean, but I know you hurt a lot of people. No matter what you say, that's wrong!
The Contessa: Short-sighted fool. I have no interest in your narrow interpretation of morality. I'm above all that, above good and evil.
Sly: And you think I'd give the Eye to someone that's "above morality"?
Sly: And you think I'd give the Eye to someone that's "above morality"?
"Good and evil, savior and destroyer. These are subjective concepts that exist in the eye of the beholder. Wanting only salvation, fearful mankind saw the Ophiuchus as a savior, even thought its power transcended good and evil."
— RefleX
"Good and evil fade away. History... shall judge me... victorious."
— Megatron, Transformers: Cybertron Adventures
"Laws are made for cretins! The aristocracy doesn't need to know right from wrong. We are always right."
— Justine, Amnesia: Justine
"Good, evil... We have transcended such... limited concepts."
"I don't fight for good, and I don't fight for evil. I just fight!"
—Augus, Asura's Wrath
"Good... evil... that's the futile perspective of narrow-minded beings. There is no such distinction in wandering spirits."
—Bargainer Statue, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Web Original
"the wise man bowed his head solemnly and spoke: "theres actually zero difference between good and bad things. you imbecile. you fucking moron."
—dril
Western Animation
"There are no good and bad guys, jussst power. And I want it all!"
— Mos'quita-ra, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021)
Cable: The world won't stomach your evil forever.
Apocalypse: Evil? I am not malevolent! I simply AM!
Apocalypse: Evil? I am not malevolent! I simply AM!
Real Life
"My either/or does not denote in the first instance the choice between good and evil, it denotes the choice whereby one chooses good and evil or excludes them."
"Has the universe any unity of plan or purpose, or is it a fortuitous concourse of atoms? Is consciousness a permanent part of the universe, giving hope of indefinite growth in wisdom, or is it a transitory accident on a small planet on which life must ultimately become impossible? Are good and evil of importance to the universe or only to man?"
— Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy
"Nietzsche always escaped a question by a physical metaphor, like a cheery minor poet. He said, "beyond good and evil," because he had not the courage to say, "more good than good and evil," or, "more evil than good and evil." Had he faced his thought without metaphors, he would have seen that it was nonsense. So, when he describes his hero, he does not dare to say, "the purer man," or "the happier man," or "the sadder man," for all these are ideas; and ideas are alarming. He says "the upper man," or "over man," a physical metaphor from acrobats or alpine climbers. Nietzsche is truly a very timid thinker. He does not really know in the least what sort of man he wants evolution to produce."
— G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
