Esi Quotes

Folks think a lifetime is a thing stretched out over years. It ain't. It can happen quick as a match in a dark room.

You want to know what weakness is? Weakness is treating someone as though they belong to you. Strength is knowing that everyone belongs to themselves.” Esi

It's like that, I guess, when the past come to collect what you owe.

Sometimes you have to stand and fight. Sometimes running away isn't an option.

I guess mercy is a muscle like any other. You got to exercise it, or it just cramp right up.

Tapai mediku, o pamatei, kad esi mėsininkas, tai mesk gydęs, nes imsi žmones pjauti. Taip pat ir su kunigyste.

Katrai dienai ir uzliesmojums. Ja tu visu dienu esi gājis un neesi to redzējis, tad gaidi. Nemirkšķini acis. Varbūt tas notiek tai brīdī, kad tavas acis aizmirkšķinās.

We must all take on faith the stories of our birth, for though we are in them, we are not yet present.

She tried to smile, but she had been born during the years of Esi's unsmiling, and she had never learned how to do it quite right. The corners of her lips always seemed to twitch upward, unwillingly, then fall within milliseconds, as though attached to that sadness that had once anchored her own mother's heart.

You were more concerned that slavery should be a moral stain upon white men than by the actual damage it wreaks on black men.

There are several kinds of happiness, Washington. Sometimes it is not for us to choose, or even understand, the one granted us.

Mīlestība nav tavā varā. Tā atnāk un ir tevī. Un tu savādāk nevari. Tu atkal esi viena gabala. Tev nav jautājumu.

Pats cīnies, palīdz, domā, spried un sver, Pats esi kungs, pats laimei – durvis ver!

You took me on because I was helpful in your political cause. Because I could aid in your experiments. Beyond that I was of no use to you, and so you abandoned me.” I struggled to get my breath. “I was nothing to you. You never saw me as equal. You were more concerned that slavery should be a moral stain upon white men than by the actual damage it wreaks on black men.

Negroes are God’s creatures also, with all due rights and freedoms. Slavery is a moral stain against us. If anything will keep white men from their heaven, it is this.

I understood there were many ways of being in the world, that to privilege one rigid set of beliefs over another was to lose something. Everything is bizarre, and everything has value. Or if not value, at least merits investigation.

Dari ar mani, ko gribi. Bet dari. Tūkstoš sejas man saplūst par vienu- par vienu laimīgo tavu, par tādu, kādu es gribu un varu to padarīt. Nē, nevis gribu. Vai tad debesīs iesniedzies tornis ko grib ? Viņš ir, un viņš citādi nevar. Dari ar mani, ko gribi. Nē, esi. Esi tāds, kāds tu citādi nevari.

Rokas vēziens, plaukstas mājiens, acumirklis, un tu jau esi pavisam cits. Cilvēks nevar neko par sevi zināt, izrādās. Nevar neko paredzēt, kaut šķietas sevi pazīstam...

I hesitate, I suppose it is only from a general dread of company. We all of us wish for it, in our solitude, but on the eve of a great visit, we shudder.

The cabbie's eyes sort of glazed over. Canada kills any conversation quick, I learned long ago. It's a little trick of mine.

The kid come in at a strange angle, made the notes glitter like crystal.

To me, chocolate was the sole reason we on this earth.

Such a thing is not possible." I peered quietly at him. "Nothing is possible, sir, until it is made so.

for the rest of her life Esi would see a smile on a white face and remember the one the soldier gave her before taking her to his quarters, how white men smiling just meant more evil was coming with the next wave.

Lemties neįmanoma įžvelgti, nebent jei sapnuoji ar esi apsvaigęs iš meilės.

What a strange journey we embarked upon that afternoon, full of anguish and desire and wonder.

Kadaise ir aš turėjau svajonę – susipažinti su savim. Bet vis neišdrįsau... O jei nepatiks? Geriau atokiau... Kai pamiršti, kad esi, kartais net gyvent imi...

Kad tu, cilvēks, ar visu sirdi un dvēseli esi pieķēries vienai vietai, mantām un cilvēkiem, liktenis tevi noteikti izraus no mierpilnās dzīves un aizpūtīs tālu prom,lai tikai tu neiesūnotu.

Now, hearing Tansi speak, Afua resumed her crying, but it was as though no one heard. These tears were a matter of routine. They came for all of the women. They dropped until the clay below them turned to mud. At night, Esi dreamed that if they all cried in unison, the mud would turn to river and they could be washed away into the Atlantic.

Hell," he said with a grin. "It's early yet. It's always early, while you still alive.

Ain't no glory made from being dependable.

Chip said it was his piano hands - one ain't never doing the same thing as the other.

Ji pati iš savęs žino, kaip ramina gamtos balsas, vėjo ūžavimas klevo viršūnėje, kapinaičių medžiuose. Ypač rudens naktimis, pavasario vėtrose: esi vienas savo troboj, aplinkui siautėja baisingos jėgos - naktys, tamsos, lietūs, perkūnijos, o vis tiek žinai, kad niekas tavęs nepalies: gina medžiai, užstoję būstą, jie grumiasi, girgžda ir traška, bet jie neišduos tavęs, gyvenančios viršum jų šaknų, po jų viršūnėmis: tu jiems - savo žmogus, jie - tavo medžiai". "Gyvenimas po klevu", R. Granauskas

How could he have treated me so, he who congratulated himself on his belief that I was his equal? I had never been his equal. To him, perhaps, any deep acceptance of equality was impossible. He saw only those who were there to be saved, and those did the saving.

What is luck but something made to run out.

Ain't no man can outrun his fate.

The wrecked visage I was forced to carry like an unwanted warning to others was to her a known thing, a familiar mask. She seemed to see beneath it something of her own suffering and recovery—the acceptance of a life-changing wound, the will to go on.

Prisimeni kosminį dėsnį? Toks tokį traukia. Tiesiog būk koks esi: ramus, šviesus ir giedras. Kai leidžiame sušvisti visai savo esybei, kai kiekvieną minutę klausiame savęs, ar iš tikro norime taip elgtis ir darome tai tik atsakę sau "Taip", tuomet savaime atstumiame nuo savęs tuos, kurie nieko iš mūsų negali išmokti, ir pritraukiame ne tik gebančius mokytis iš mūsų, bet ir tuos, iš kurių patys turime ką perimti.

Un Sergejs Ivanovičs nostādīja viņu dilemmas priekšā: vai nu tu esi tik neattīstīts, ka nespēj saskatīt visu to, ko tu varētu darīt, vai arī negribi ziedot savu mieru, godkāri un nezin ko vēl, lai to paveiktu.

But for the rest of her life Esi would see a smile on a white face and remember the one the soldier gave her before taking her to his quarters, how white men smiling just meant more evil was coming with the next wave.

Tu esi gan labais, gan sliktais. Es esmu vispār. Man vajadzēja klusēt. Un tad caur klusumu tu ienāktu manī. Mīlestība - tā ir Senās Divupes valsts, viens veselums - Divupe, kas patiesībā, kā tu zini, tiek ierobežota ar Tigru (viens vesels) un Eifratu (viens vesels). Starp Tigru un Eifratu ir tuksnesis, tur dzīvoja gudrie šumeri - viens no pirmajiem Dieva pakāpieniem lejup. Bet reiz un galu galā šīs abas upes atkal ietek vienā veselā - Sarkanajā jūrā.

Grūtums mans vai mana vienaldzība – Viss vienalga – tu man kaut kas esi, Viss vienalga – tu mans atoms esi, Un tu zini, ka viens atoms maina Visas cilvēciskās asinsgrupas. Nepazūdi. Asins pārliešanā Tad var iznākt liktenīga kļūda.

The first rule of science, Captain, is to doubt appearances and to seek substances in their stead.

How easy it is, to waste a life.

This sky, Sid.It's the sky of the great epics.The great Polish epics. Of Pan Tadeusz

Do you still call it talent, if it blooms without any kind of nurturing? That's got to be something else. She made talent sound like a damned insult.

Be faithful to what you see, Washington, and not to what you are supposed to see.

The dead have no compassion for the living.

Life holds a sanctity for them we can scarcely begin to imagine; it therefore struck them as absurd that someone would choose to end it.

How strange it felt to be alive, and whole, and astonishingly worth saving.

Es esmu ļoti slikts biedrs, Robij." "To es ceru," sacīju. "Es arī negribu sievieti par biedru. Es gribu mīļāko." "Tā es arī neesmu," viņa nomurmināja. "Kas tad tu esi?" "Ne puse, ne kas vesels. Tikai fragments..." "Tā arī vislabāk," es teicu. "Tas ierosina fantāziju. Tādas sievietes var mūžam mīlēt. Gatavas sievietes drīz apnīk. Vērtīgās arī. Fragmenti nekad.

But I thought I understood what she would not ask. I understood she desired to know if I had found what I was seeking, if this trip would finally satisfy my erratic pursuit of an unanswerable truth, if it would calm my sense of rootlessness, solve the chaos of my origins for me. She wanted to know if anything would be laid to rest, or if we’d continue to drift through the world together, going from place to place until I made her like me, so lacking a foothold anywhere that nowhere felt like home.

But human faces are so interesting,” said I. “Yes, to be sure. But when you are looking at one face, you are not looking at another. You are privileging that face. You are deciding who is worthy of observation and who is not. You are choosing who is worth preserving.

Tu esi miers, miers, miers Pasaule guļ mums pie kājām Ar Tevi kopā ik vietu Es saucu par savām mājām. Tu esi prieks, prieks, prieks Debesis augstas. Balts klusums Es nolieku galvu Tev uz krūtīm Un dusu. Tu esi spēks, spēks, spēks Bezgala skaists un kluss... Es ticu - bezgala ceļi Man ar Tevi vēl jāiet būs. Tu esi miers, miers, miers Zinu: sadegs šī dzīve radot. Vai Tu vari šim vienam mūžam Savu mieru man atdot?

I thought of my existence before Titch's arrival, the brutal hours in the field under the crushing sun, the screams, the casual finality edging every slave's life, as though each day could very easily be the last. And that, it seemed to me clearly, was the more obvious anguish- that life had never belonged to any of us, even when we'd sought to reclaim it by ending it. We had been estranged from the potential of our own bodies, from the revelation of everything our minds and bodies could accomplish.

Her lips was hot, like the ridge of a cooking dish.

Tell me bout this caveman with the clam moustache been barkin speeches all over Germany.

The only time I ever saw him untidy was after a fight. What a sight that was. James Bond run through a blender. You know the other fella probably got off worse.

Chip recons that he is charming as hell, and who am I to poke holes in his theory. That means that sometimes lies leave his mouth dressed like truth. He just can’t help it.

She laughed. I closed my eyes. It sounded damn mournful, that laugh of hers echoing off the square.

Freedom, Wash, is a word with different meanings to different people,” he said, as though I did not know the truth of this better than he.

Everything is bizarre, and everything has value. Or if not value, at least merits investigation.

Children know everything about beauty,” Titch countered softly. “It is adults who have forgotten.

...a good parent is as rare as snow in summer, I am afraid. Well." He smiled sadly. "It is possible I have some prejudices in this respect.

Nav nekā nežēlīgāka par to, kā kad tev neļauj tikt vaļā no tā, ko tu esi pazaudējis.

Ja svaigi remontētās kafejnīcas šur tur pilsētā vēl varēja radīt ilūziju,ka joprojām esi Eiropā, tad vecā labā apkalpošana to momentāli sagrāva.#Rīga

Bet kai esi labai protingas, tai, manau, kas nors gali išmušti tave iš vėžių, jeigu nepasisaugosi

Bimbalai tam i yra, ka iestų, o tu esi, ka duotum krauja. Nes o ką tu geresnia pasauliui davei? Viską tik jami.

Asmeninėms pergalėms niekas nestatys paminklų, tačiau jos primena, kad už viską atsakingas esi tu pats.

There's all sorts of ways to live, Chip. Some of them you give a lot. Some of them you take a lot. Art, jazz, it was a kind of taking. You take from the audience, you take from yourself.

Though a child, I did not picture a monster—he was no creature all teeth, all vicious blue eyes behind mangled wire spectacles; his voice was not slow and reptilian, his hands not huge black claws. I knew the nature of evil; I knew its benign, easy face. He would be a man, simply.

I had long seen science as the great equalizer. No matter one's race, or sex, or faith - there were facts in the world waiting to be discovered. How little thought I'd given to the ways in which it might be corrupted.

It ain’t fair. Gifts is divided so damn unevenly. Like God just left his damn sack of talents in a ditch somewhere and said, “Go help yourselves, ladies and gents.Them’s that get there first can help themselves to the biggest ones. In every other walk of life, a jack can work to get what he want. but ain’t no amount of toil going get you a lick more talent than you born with. Geniuses ain’t made, brother, they just is. and I just was not.

Stīgros staipekņos, steidzīgi stiegu. Tu savilki cietā mezglā manu dvēseli, noziedzīgais būri. Tā es savilkšu tavus stieņus.! Tu esi apvijis ar stieņiem manu augumu, bet nekad tu nevarēsi savus stieņus ievīt man galvā. Te slēpjas mans spēks un tavs nespēks. Manas domas kā putni ir svabadas. Ja arī nomiršu, vienalga, kā pīslis izvējošu cauri stieņiem, būšu brīvs atomu pirmsākumā, bet tu, būri, sarūsēsi un sabirzīsi, jo neviens būris vēl nav mūžīgs. Tikai mēs- cilvēki.

My current life, I realized, was constructed around an absence; for all its richness I still felt as if the floors might give way, as if its core were only a covering of leaves, and I would slip through, falling endlessly, never to get my footing.

Pieņemsim. Es to sauktu par personību. Ja runājam par tavu personību, tad tā ir pietiekami perversa, lai neliktu man riebumā noskurināties. Ciest nevaru normālas un veselīgas personības. Tu, paldies Dievam, esi absolūti nenormāla. Lai arī Dieva nav.

Esi stared at her mother then, and it was though she was seeing her for the first time. Maame was not a whole woman. There were large swaths of her spirit missing, and no matter how much she loves Esi, and no matter how much Esi loved her, they both knew in that moment that love could never return what Maame had lost. And Esi knew, too, that her mother would die rather than run into the woods ever again, die before capture, die even if it meant in her dying, Esi would inherit that unspeakable sense of loss, learn what it meant to be un-whole.

Saliņu maizi Kalifornijā neizcepsi – izstiepies vai saraujies. Kādā valstī dzīvo, tādu maizi ēd… Ābeles šejienes karstumā neaug. Bērziņi nīkuļo. Nevar jau svešumā ietaisīt gabalu no Latvijas. To, mīļie, var uzcelt tikai iedomās. Bet, ja esi sirdī kārtīgs latvietis, tad sēdi mierīgs zem kaktusiem un palmām, tie nekaitēs tev nenieka.

Why didn't your grandfather leave me? God knows I wasn't esy to live with. You';ll have to ask him. I imagine it's for the same reason. Stay and survive. Find joy.

It ain't really Czechoslovakian,' I said, coughing. 'We used to call it the Cheque. Like, you drink it up now, you pay for it later.

I had never been his equal. To him, perhaps, any deep acceptance of equality was impossible. He saw only those were there to be saved, and those who did the saving.

There was but a thread between life and death, and he had stumbled blamelessly onto the wrong side of it.

Namuose esame tokie, kokius mus mato tėvai, draugai, darbdaviai. Sudėtinga likti vienam, pabūti su savimi, jei tokį save tikrai pažįstame. Aptingstame būti "kitaip", tam nėra nei reikalo, nei noro, nei būtinybės. Namuose su savimi tampomės visą praeities bagažą: vaikystės, jaunystės, pirmosios meilės prisiminimus. Kartais tai slegia, o kartais - labai patogu. Svetimoje šalyje esi vienas. Dažnai nesuprastas, neišgirstas. Nematomas. Neturintis kam paskambinti ir pasikalbėti "iš širdies". Esi svečias, turi prisitaikyti, išmokti taisyklių. Turi laiko vakarais pamąstyti, kas esi, ko norėtum, kas tau patinka, ko stinga, apsibrėžti, kuo buvai ir kuo norėtum būti. Svetimoje šalyje esi lyg baltas lapas. "Sveiki, mano vardas.." - sakai, ir prasideda nauja tavo istorija.

They never returned. Only the old were left. And they began to die off. Those who did not die left the village by other means. In the end there was only one widow left, a dressmaker, and she began to sew the visages of those who had vanished. She hand-stitched the bodies and the clothes; she perfected the faces. Each and every doll was a precise replica of someone who once lived there.

With a great sign Titch rose from his creaking seat. The impossible occurs so infrequently in this world, even to those who would devote their lives to studying it. But anyone could see: he ached to believe.

It was I who had failed in my understanding, you see. Life holds a sanctity for them (referring to Solomon Islanders) we can scarcely begin to imagine; it therefore struck them as absurd that someone would choose to end it. A great ludicrous act. In any case, it was then I recognized that my own values - the tenets I hold dear as an Englishman - they were not the only, nor the best values in existence. I understood there were many ways of being in the world, that to privilege one rigid set of beliefs over another was to lose something. Everything is bizarre, and everything has value. Or if not value, at least merits investigation.

Mister Philip was merely a man of his class, nothing more. His great passions were not passions but distractions; one day was but a bridge to the next. He took in the world with a mild dissatisfaction, for the world was of little consequence.

This was not the only hazard, though it was the worst of them. White men were everywhere aggrieved, and they would sometimes rise up against us black devils, the miserable black scourge who would destroy their livelihood by labouring at cheaper rates.

Ensimmäinen sukupuuttoaalto seurasi metsästäjä-keräilijöiden levittäytymistä ja toinen tuli maanviljelijöiden levittäytymisen jälkeen. Toinen aalto antaa meille tärkeän näkökulman kolmanteen sukupuuttoaaltoon, jonka teollinen toiminta nykyään aiheittaa. Älä usko puunhalaajia, jotka väittävät esi-isiemme eläneen sopusoinnussa luonnon kanssa. Jo kauan ennen teollista vallankumousta Homo sapiens piti hallussaan ennätystä useimpien kasvi- ja eläinlajien ajamisesta sukupuuttoon. Meillä ihmisillä on kyseenalainen kunnia olla biologian historin tappavin laji. s. 90

Jazz. Here in Germany it become something worse than a virus. We was all of us damn fleas, us Negroes and Jews and low-life hoodlums, set on playing that vulgar racket, seducing sweet blond kids into corruption and sex. It was a plague sent out by the dread black hordes, engineered by the Jews. Us Negroes, see, we was only half to blame - we just can't help it. Savages just got a natural feel for filthy rhythms, no self-control to speak of. But the Jews, brother, now they cooked up this jungle music on purpose. All part of their master plan to weaken Aryan youth, corrupt its janes, dilute its bloodlines.

1 pamoka: Geras būdas apkartinti savo laimę - lyginti. 2 pamoka: Laimė dažnai aplanko netikėtai. 3 pamoka: Daug žmonių tikisi būti laimingi tik ateityje. 4 pamoka: Daug žmonių mano, kad laimė - būti turtingesniam ir svarbesniam. 5 pamoka: Kartais laimė yra ko nors nesuprasti. 6 pamoka: Laimė - tai smagus pasivaikščiojimas gražiuose neregėtuose kalnuose. 7 pamoka: Klaidinga manyti, kad laimė yra tikslas. 8 pamoka: Laimė - būti su mylimais žmonėm. 9 pamoka: Laimė - kai tavo šeimai nieko netrūksta. 10 pamoka: Laimė - turėti mėgstamą užsiėmimą. 11 pamoka: Laimė - turėti namą ir sodą. 12 pamoka: Laimė sunkiausiai pasiekiama šalyse, kurias valdo negeri žmonės. 13 pamoka: Laimė - kai tavęs reikia kitiems. 14 pamoka: Laimė - kad tave mylėtų tokį, koks esi iš tikrųjų. 15 pamoka: Laimė - jaustis kupinam gyvenimo džiaugsmo. 16 pamoka: Laimė - tai švęsti. 17 pamoka: Laimė - tai galvoti apie laimę tų, kuriuos myli. 18 pamoka: Laimė - tai galimybė mylėti kelias moteris tuo pačiu metu. 19 pamoka: Saulė ir jūra - tai visiems prieinama laimė. 20 pamoka: Laimė priklauso nuo to, kaip mes suvokiame pasaulį. 21 pamoka: Baisus laimės nuodas - noras su kuo nors varžytis. 22 pamoka: Moterys dėmesingesnės kitų laimei nei vyrai. 23 pamoka: Laimė - tai rūpintis kitų laime. *Būti dėmesingam kitiems. *Neskubėti, kai grožiesi pasauliu.

We will make land at Norfolk,' Titch said, as if this was some reassurance. It meant little to me, of course. Titch explained we would be entering Chesapeake Bay, and would therefore soon be leaving the ship. We would also, however, find ourselves subject to the laws of American freedom. 'Freedom, Wash, is a word with different meanings to different people,' he said, as though I did not know the truth of this better than he.

kidnappers generally roamed the coast, and in the rainy, grey dusk they would stun a freed man in the street and drag him half-conscious onto a ship bound for the Southern states, to make of him a slave again. This was not the only hazard, though it was the worst of them. White men were everywhere aggrieved, and they would sometimes rise up against us black devils, the miserable black scourge who would destroy their livelihood by labouring at cheaper rates.

I thought of my existence before Titch’s arrival, the brutal hours in the field under the crushing sun, the screams, the casual finality edging every slave’s life, as though each day could very easily be the last. And that, it seemed to me clearly, was the more obvious anguish—that life had never belonged to any of us, even when we’d sought to reclaim it by ending it. We had been estranged from the potential of our own bodies, from the revelation of everything our bodies and minds could accomplish.

It had happened so gradually, but these months with Titch had schooled me to believe I could leave all misery behind, I could cast off all violence, outrun a vicious death. I had even begun thinking I'd been born for a higher purpose, to draw the earth's bounty, and to invent; I had imagined my existence a true and rightful part of the natural order. How wrong-headed it had all been. I was a black boy, only - I had no future before me, and little grace or mercy behind me. I was nothing I would die nothing, hunted hastily down and slaughtered.

She thought often of her own death, but without fear, loss having been her only belonging in this life. For years, acceptance had been her only means of survival. She knew that no matter how miserable or wretched life became, all she could do with her meek piece of time was sustain it. Decades of guilt, lost faith, the betrayal by those few people she'd let herself love - it was worth enduring these things, if only for the gift of a single, exalted moment. And such moments happened, even frequently, in the lives of people wise enough to see them.

I thought he throw us in the scullery fire for trying to get back to Dahomey. This, this nothing, boy. You never seen a bit of blood?' Of course I had. We had lived in blood for years, my entire life. But something about that evening - the gleaming beauty of the master's house, the refinements, the lazy elegance - made feel a profound, unsettling sense of despair. It was not only William's mutilation that day, knowing his head stared out over the fields even now, in the darkness. What I felt at that moment, though I then lacked the language for it, was the raw, violent injustice of it all.

The sexton studied me; again he clicked his tongue twice. “The boy, yes,” he said in his soft voice. “I do not much care for childhood. It is a state of terrible vulnerability, and is therefore unnatural and incompatible with human life. Everyone will cut you, strike you, cheat you, everyone will offer you suffering when goodness should reign. And because children can do nothing for themselves, they need good advocates, good parents. But a good parent is as rare as snow in summer, I am afraid. Well.” He smiled sadly. “It is possible I have some prejudices in this respect.” “You are an orphan yourself, are you

More troubling for myself, even beyond the unsettling idea of Titch's father surviving his own icy death, was the person of John Francis Willard. Who was he? Though a child, I did not picture a monster - he was no creature all teeth, all vicious blue eyes behind mangled wire spectacles; his voice was not slow and reptilian, his hands not huge black claws. I knew the nature of evil; I knew its benign, easy face. He would be a man, simply. And it was his very anonymity that would make it impossible to see him coming. When I tried to set it from my mind, to close my eyes, I saw his pale, expressionless face looming, and I did not want to live past this night.

Có một sự liên kết thật gần gũi giữa điều thiện và Đức Chúa Trời với điều ác và ma quỷ. Thật ra, trong mỗi trường hợp sự khác nhau chỉ là một chữ cái! (Good & God; evil & devil). Đàng sau sức mạnh của điều thiện là chính mình Đấng Thiện Lành. Trực tiếp hoặc gián tiếp nằm sau những tham muốn xấu xa của chúng ta và những cám dỗ của thế gian là hiện thân của điều ác, tức ma quỷ. Bởi vì có quá nhiều điều ác trên thế gian nên nhiều người cho rằng tin vào ma quỷ thì dễ hơn là tin vào Chúa. ‘Trong chừng mực có liên quan đến Đức Chúa Trời, thì tôi là một người không tin Ngài (tôi không thấy công việc Ngài)...còn đối với ma quỷ, vâng, lại là một điều khác, nó lúc nào cũng thể hiện những công việc xấu xa gian ác của nó ở khắp mọi nơi, mọi lúc’, William Peter Blatty người đã viết và xuất bản cuốn The Exorcist nói như vậy. Trái lại, nhiều người phương Tây thấy rằng tin nơi ma quỷ thì khó hơn tin vào Chúa. Có lẽ một phần là do họ có cái nhìn sai trật về ma quỷ. Nếu hình ảnh về Chúa là một ông già râu tóc trắng ngồi trên đám mây là trừu tượng và khó tin, thì hình ảnh về ma quỷ là một con quỷ có sừng đang lê bước qua cảnh địa ngục của nhà thờ Dante cũng giống như vậy. Ở đây chúng ta không bàn đến một thứ lực xa lạ ở tận bên ngoài vũ trụ mà với một lực lượng tội ác có thật, liên quan đến một cá nhân, kẻ đang hoạt động tích cực trong thế giới ngày nay. Một khi chúng ta đã đến chỗ tin nơi một Đức Chúa Trời siêu việt, thì dường như chỉ lúc ấy, chúng ta mới thật sự nhận biết rằng có ma quỷ. Niềm tin vào một sức mạnh siêu việt lớn lao của điều ác chẳng thêm bất cứ điều gì vào những khó khăn bị áp đặt bởi niềm tin nơi một sức mạnh siêu việt của điều thiện. Nếu đã tin có ma quỷ thì cũng dễ để tin rằng có Đức Chúa Trời. Bởi vì nếu không có Satan, thì khó mà chống cự lời kết luận cho rằng Đức Chúa Trời vừa là một kẻ tàn ác vừa là Thượng đế vì cớ những gì Ngài làm trong thiên nhiên, và điều Ngài cho phép trong sự gian ác của loài người. Theo quan điểm Kinh Thánh thì đằng sau điều ác trong thế giới nầy chính là ma quỷ. Từ ngữ Hy lạp dành cho chữ ma quỷ, diabolos , dịch sang từ ngữ Hêbơrơ là satan . Chúng ta không được Kinh Thánh cho biết nhiều lắm về nguồn gốc của Satan. Có một lời ám chỉ cho thấy Satan có thể là một thiên sứ sa ngã (EsIs 14:12-23). Hắn xuất hiện một vài dịp trong các sách Cựu Ước (Gióp 1; I Sửký 21:1;). Hắn không phải chỉ là một lực lượng mà là một thân vị. Trong Tân Ước chúng ta được cho thấy một hình ảnh rõ ràng hơn về những hoạt động của nó. Ma quỷ là một hữu thể thuộc linh có thân vị đang tích cực hoạt động chống nghịch Đức Chúa Trời và có tư cách lãnh đạo trên nhiều quỷ giống chính mình nó. Phaolô bảo chúng ta ‘hãy đứng vững mà địch cùng các mưu chước của ma quỷ. Vì chúng ta không đánh trận cùng thịt và huyết, bèn là cùng chủ quyền, cùng thế lực...cùng các thần dữ ở các miền trên trời vậy’ (Eph Ep 6:11-12). Theo Phaolô, ma quỷ cùng các thiên sứ nó không nên bị đánh giá quá thấp. Chúng rất xảo quyệt (‘các mưu kế của ma quỷ’ c.11) chúng đầy quyền lực (‘chủ quyền, thế lực, thần dữ’ c.12). Chúng gian ác (‘các thần dữ’ c. 12). Vì vậy chúng ta không nên ngạc nhiên khi chịu dưới một cuộc tấn công dữ dội từ nơi kẻ thù.