Authors:
  1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. T
  4. Theodor Adorno
  5. Evil

Theodor Adorno Quotes about Evil

All Theodor Adorno Quotes Art Auschwitz Authority Awareness Consciousness Culture Discipline Enlightenment Evil quotes Harmony Health Ideology Imitation Joy Language Life Love Lying Past Philosophy Progress Purpose Reality Revenge Risk Running Sickness Suffering Utopia Violence Writing
The creed of evil has been, since the beginnings of highly industrialized society, not only a precursor of barbarism but a mask of good. The worth of the latter was transferred to the evil that drew to itself all the

The creed of evil has been, since the beginnings of highly industrialized society, not only a precursor of barbarism but a mask of good. The worth of the latter was transferred to the evil that drew to itself all the hatred and resentment of an order which drummed good into its adherents so that it could with impunity be evil.

Theodor Adorno
Order, Evil, Hatred
Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.94, Verso

Very evil people cannot really be imagined dying.

Theodor Adorno
Evil People, People, Evil
Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.190, Verso

Triviality is evil - triviality, that is, in the form of consciousness and mind that adapts itself to the world as it is, that obeys the principle of inertia. And this principle of inertia truly is what is radically evil.

Theodor Adorno
Evil, Mind, Principles
Theodor W. Adorno, Rolf Tiedemann (2003). “Can One Live After Auschwitz?: A Philosophical Reader”, p.439, Stanford University Press

Newness only becomes mere evil in its totalitarian format, where all the tension between individual and society, that once gave rise to the category of the new, is dissipated. Today the appeal to newness, of no matter what kind, provided only that it is archaic enough, has become universal, the omnipresent medium of false mimesis. The decomposition of the subject is consummated in his self-abandonment to an ever-changing sameness.

Theodor Adorno
Self, Evil, Matter
Theodor W. Adorno, E. F. N. Jephcott (2005). “Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life”, p.238, Verso

You May Also Like: