Bad people have good ideas, and good people bad.

The evil done on purpose (or in spite of the knowledge that it is evil) tends to be venal and relatively harmless.  The really horrible sins are usually committed by those who sincerely belive they are doing God’s work, acting in the best interests of Humanity or Earth or some entity more important to their own souls.

It is therefore more terrible to be wrong than to be bad.  And wrongness is not usually a matter of opinion.

The Canadian politician who decided it made no economic sense to buy Alaska from the Russians was wrong.  Objectively wrong.  Demonstrably wrong.

Our greatest moral duty is therefore to cultivate and refine and develop wisdom — the integration of knowledge with experience and critical thinking with creativity.

Relativism, ignorance and mental laziness are the principle allies of evil.

(Written on a long flight, probably from Alaska to Tokyo in 1983.)