“To the grim poor there need be no pourquoi tale about where evil arises; it just arises; it always is. One never learns how the witch became wicked, or whether that was the right choice for her--is it ever the right choice? Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil...?”

Gregory Maguire
Wisdom Wisdom

Explore This Quote Further

Quote by Gregory Maguire: “To the grim poor there need be no pourquoi tale … - Image 1

Similar quotes

“One never learns how the witch became wicked, or whether that was the right choice for her~is it ever the right choice? Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil?”


“One never knows how the witch became wicked, or whether that was the right choice for her — is it ever the right choice? Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil? It is the very least question of definitions.”


“And in the cave there lived a wicked old witch. Did she ever some out? Not yet.”


“And there the wicked witch stayed for a long long time.'Did she ever come out?'Not yet.”


“It's hard to find evil in this world,' said the Witch. Evil is always more easily imagined than good, somehow.”


“The real thing about evil," said the Witch at the doorway, "isn't any of what you said. You figure out one side of it - the human side, say - and the eternal side goes into shadow. Or vice versa. It's like the old saw: What does a dragon in its shell look like? Well no one can ever tell, for as soon as you break the shell to see, the dragon is no longer in its shell. The real disaster of this inquiry is that it is the nature of evil to be secret.”