Why Do Evil?So That Everything Might Be Destroyed. Ah, How Nice It Would Be If Everything Were Destroyed!

“Why do evil?” “So that everything might be destroyed. Ah, how nice it would be if everything were destroyed! [...]."

-Fyodor Dostoevsky, from ’The Brothers Karamazov’, first published in 1880. (as translated by Constance Garnett)

"Brigandage was an access of heroic folly and desperate savagery, a desire for wreaking death and ruin, with no hope of final victory. "If the world had only one enormous heart, I'd tear it out," said Caruso, one of the most fearful brigand chiefs."

-Carlo Levi, as translated by Frances Frenaye, from ‘Christ Stopped at Eboli’, first published in 1945.

“In his library he had been always sure of leisure and tranquillity; and though prepared, as he told Elizabeth, to meet with folly and conceit in every other room of the house, he was used to be free from them there; […].”

— Jane Austen, from ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (1813)

"I'm the storm and I'm the center".

Chelsea Wolfe, in 'The Liminal', from 'She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She', published in 2024.

"Beautiful lonely walk [...]."

Franz Kafka, from a diary entry dated December 8th 1911, featured in 'Diaries'. (translated by Joseph Kresh)

"[...], to stare at others with the eyes of an animal, "

Franz Kafka, from a diary entry dated February 5th 1912, featured in 'Diaries'. (translated by Joseph Kresh)

"There's endless versions of the thing/ That keeps me driftin' back to darkness."

Louis Tomlinson, in 'Holding On To Heartache', from 'Faith In The Future', published in November 2022.