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Anime and Manga
Kouji: My answer? It is still the same. I am not going to take part in your criminal plans.
Baron Ashura: Criminal plans...? But what...? How I can make you understand? Get this through your head! Why distinguish between good and evil? Who decided that? Humans! They established that! Because they are weak! They are not even capable to protect themselves! Those cowards spend the whole time chattering... about peace and justice! But the real world is very different! Since prehistoric times, the weak and unfit has succumbed to the will of the strong, and the strong has survived! What is good or evil about that? The unfit are defeated! It is so simple! Might makes right! If you are not strong, you do not survive! That is the only rule in this planet!
Baron Ashura: Criminal plans...? But what...? How I can make you understand? Get this through your head! Why distinguish between good and evil? Who decided that? Humans! They established that! Because they are weak! They are not even capable to protect themselves! Those cowards spend the whole time chattering... about peace and justice! But the real world is very different! Since prehistoric times, the weak and unfit has succumbed to the will of the strong, and the strong has survived! What is good or evil about that? The unfit are defeated! It is so simple! Might makes right! If you are not strong, you do not survive! That is the only rule in this planet!
— Mazinger Z, one of the manga chapters penned by Gosaku Ota.
Fan Works
Nihilus: [wheezing] You wish... to make me an apprentice? Into... a Sith?
Darth Traya: That... is a mere label that limits what you can potentially become. I see much within you, of what you can possibly accomplish, should you shed the archaic preconceptions the Jedi have indoctrinated you with.
Darth Traya: That... is a mere label that limits what you can potentially become. I see much within you, of what you can possibly accomplish, should you shed the archaic preconceptions the Jedi have indoctrinated you with.
Cinder: I need you to not react negatively to anything [Adam] might say.
Jaune: [deadpan] He's evil, isn't he?
Cinder: Evil is a subjective term, Jaune.
Jaune: Cinder...
Cinder: Would you call me evil?
Jaune: Cinder...
Cinder: The world is not so black and white. It is made of a thousand different shades of grey.
Jaune: And I'm guessing he's a particularly dark shade, right?
Jaune: [deadpan] He's evil, isn't he?
Cinder: Evil is a subjective term, Jaune.
Jaune: Cinder...
Cinder: Would you call me evil?
Jaune: Cinder...
Cinder: The world is not so black and white. It is made of a thousand different shades of grey.
Jaune: And I'm guessing he's a particularly dark shade, right?
— White Sheep (RWBY), chapter 40
Film — Animated
"What is evil, anyway?
Is there reason to the rhyme?
Without evil there can be no good
So it must be good to be evil sometimes"
Is there reason to the rhyme?
Without evil there can be no good
So it must be good to be evil sometimes"
Film — Live-Action
"Lesson number one: Heroes. There is no such thing."
— The Mandarin, Iron Man 3 trailer
Literature
"I can do no wrong, for I do not know what it is."
Pastor Oats: There are so many shades of grey...
Granny Weatherwax: Nope. There's no greys, only white that's got grubby... And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.
Pastor Oats: It's a lot more complicated than that—
Granny Weatherwax: No. It ain't. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they mean they're worried that they won't like the truth. People as things, that's where it starts.
Granny Weatherwax: Nope. There's no greys, only white that's got grubby... And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.
Pastor Oats: It's a lot more complicated than that—
Granny Weatherwax: No. It ain't. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they mean they're worried that they won't like the truth. People as things, that's where it starts.
"He's travelled so far beyond right and wrong he couldn't see them with a telescope on a nice clear night."
— Mister Croup, on the Angel of Islington, Neverwhere
Video Games
Player Character: I thought Talos was an evil god... how is he is openly worshipped here?
Talon Zogaz: Evil? Is a hurricane evil as it thunders across the coast with its wind? The power of destruction lies in all men's hands. We must respect its potency. Talos is only as vindictive as nature itself.
Talon Zogaz: Evil? Is a hurricane evil as it thunders across the coast with its wind? The power of destruction lies in all men's hands. We must respect its potency. Talos is only as vindictive as nature itself.
"They told us that the world consists of 'good' and 'evil'. But what is 'good'? What is 'evil'? How do I know that I am 'good' or 'evil'?"
— Ellen, Pale Blue
Visual Novels
"A warrior might declare his battle good and his enemy's evil, but good and evil are far from absolute. The cause you believe to be just may seem to your foe to be the height of villainy, and the goal you despise as inhuman may be worth your enemy body and soul."
— Ginseigo, Full Metal Daemon Muramasa
Webcomics
"Son, labels like 'Good' and 'Evil' are just words. Words with many possible capitalizations. They are outdated concepts that do nothing but cause conflict. What I'm trying to do here is move beyond those ideas into a world where no one has any reason to fight one another. But you can't make an omelette without ruthlessly crushing dozens of eggs beneath your steel boot and then publicly disemboweling the chickens that laid them as a warning to others."
— General Tarquin, The Order of the Stick
Digger: This is probably a strange question, but... what's your definition of evil? ... All I could come up with was "hurting people for no reason".
Ed: What? No. No! Digger-mousie is not knowing evil very well. Evil is having reason, always, many and many. If hunter beats mate, has reason, always. Mate is lazy, burning food, is stupid, is speaking on and on, is always being a reason.
Digger: What? But Ed, those aren't good reasons!
Ed: No, but evil is still ... always being reason. Is punishing world for not being... like in head.
Ed: What? No. No! Digger-mousie is not knowing evil very well. Evil is having reason, always, many and many. If hunter beats mate, has reason, always. Mate is lazy, burning food, is stupid, is speaking on and on, is always being a reason.
Digger: What? But Ed, those aren't good reasons!
Ed: No, but evil is still ... always being reason. Is punishing world for not being... like in head.
Web Original
Blake: In what world do you live in where attacking the innocent is the right thing to do?!
Ilia: The same one as you! There's no such thing as innocent! There's no right thing to do! Only what's best for us!
Ilia: The same one as you! There's no such thing as innocent! There's no right thing to do! Only what's best for us!
— RWBY, "Alone Together"
The most dubious thing about moral relativism is that it's never promoted by anyone you'd actually want to be around- it's always the guy eating a baby who claims that good and evil depend on your cultural baggage.
— Pooka, Spacebattles.com
Western Animation
Ahsoka: I am here to bring you to justice.
Maul: Justice is merely the construct of the current power base. A base which, hmm, according to my calculations, (inhales) is about to change.
Maul: Justice is merely the construct of the current power base. A base which, hmm, according to my calculations, (inhales) is about to change.
Real Life
"Good people are always so sure they're right."
— Barbara "Bloody Babs" Graham, convicted murderer
