Good evil Quote by Walter Isaacson
““God is “all wise, all good, all powerful,” he posited. Therefore, everything that exists or happens is with his consent. “What He consents to must be good, because He is good; therefore evil doth not exist.” Furthermore, happiness existed only as a contrast to unhappiness, and one could not exist without the other. Therefore, they balanced out: “Since pain naturally and infallibly produces a pleasure in proportion to it, every individual creature must, in any state of life, have an equal quantity of each.””
About This Quote
Source Book: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, 2011
The quote argues that if a deity is all‑wise, all‑good, and all‑powerful, then everything that occurs must be good, and that pain and pleasure are balanced opposites.
In simple terms: If God is perfect, all events are good and pain balances pleasure.
Key Takeaway
Question the assumption that all events are inherently good.
Themes
theology
philosophy
ethics
duality
theodicy
Mood
contemplative
skeptical
Type
philosophical
theological
When to use this quote
- personal belief
- moral reasoning
- theological debate
Key Concepts
Divine omniscience
moral realism
hedonistic balance
Questions to Reflect On
- Is every painful experience justified by a greater good?
- Can we accept that evil does not exist?
A Different Perspective
The argument overlooks suffering that appears unjust or gratuitous.
![“If you like happiness, then worship that wherein happiness is inherent. Happiness is in God. God is an abode of infinite bliss. If you worship the inanimate (the non-Self, [Jad]), then you will have pain because there is only pain in the inanimate.” quote by Dada Bhagwan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c27/dada-bhagwan-31_bliss_if-you-like-happiness-then-worship-that_352072.jpg)
![“2. The Errors of Philosophical Pessimists and Religious Optimists. Philosophical pessimists[FN#214] maintain that there are on earth many more causes of pain than of pleasure; and that pain exists positively, but pleasure is a mere absence of pain because we are conscious of sickness but not of…” quote by Kaiten Nukariya](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/584/kaiten-nukariya-793_hope_2-the-errors-of-philosophical-pessimists_98837.jpg)
