"There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it"
About this Quote
The intent is partly consolatory and partly disciplinary. Consolation: if cruelty and chaos are here, they can be made legible, even useful, in a cosmos that otherwise feels arbitrary. Discipline: “purity” isn’t a private feeling but a public proof, a standard you demonstrate under friction. The subtext is that moral identity is forged in contrast; without temptation, injury, and error, “good” risks becoming a soft label we apply to ourselves when nothing is at stake.
Context matters because pinning this to “Buddha” is culturally loaded. Early Buddhist teaching tends to treat good and evil less as eternal opposing substances and more as skillful vs. unskillful actions, rooted in craving, ignorance, and their consequences. Read through that lens, “evil” is not a necessary cosmic counterpart but the predictable byproduct of delusion. The quote still works because it speaks to a psychological truth Buddhism often targets: we notice our values most clearly at the moment they’re challenged.
The danger, of course, is the easy misread: that evil is justified because it’s useful. A sharper takeaway is narrower and harder: goodness without confrontation is untested; compassion without suffering is hypothetical.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Buddha. (2026, January 17). There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-has-to-be-evil-so-that-good-can-prove-its-33143/
Chicago Style
Buddha. "There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-has-to-be-evil-so-that-good-can-prove-its-33143/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-has-to-be-evil-so-that-good-can-prove-its-33143/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.









