When I titled this commentary Wise Words from Criminal Minds—I did not actually mean criminal minds, but rather, quotes from the TV show Criminal Minds.
The fictional series follows a group of criminal profilers who work for the FBI as members of its Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). They use behavioural analysis and profiling to help investigate crimes and find the suspect—known as the unsub [unknown subject].
The show features one or more quotes at the start of most episodes and sometimes at the end. The quotes are often from historical figures.
Below are just some examples.
“The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary. Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.”
—Joseph Conrad, a Polish writer working in England regarded as one of the greatest novelists in the English language.
“Evil is always unspectacular, and always human, and shares our bed, and eats at our table.”
—Wystan Hugh Auden, (Anglo-American) poet known for his vast poetic work in many forms on many themes.
Better to be violent if there’s violence in our hearts than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence.” —Gandhi
“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.” — Gandhi.
“The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.”
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Lutheran pastor, theologian, a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and founding member of the Confessing Church. (The Nazi regime executed him on 9 April 1945.)
“We can easily forgive a child who’s afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” —Plato.
“In order to learn the important lessons in life, one must each day surmount a fear.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century.
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
“Nothing is easier than denouncing the evildoer. Nothing more difficult than understanding him.”
—Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. (Numerous literary critics regard him as one of the greatest novelists in all of world literature, as many of his works are considered highly influential masterpieces.)
“He who does not punish evil commands it to be done.”
—Leonardo da Vinci
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” —Edmund Burke, Irish statesman and author
“I’m not afraid of death. It’s the stake one puts up in order to play the game of life.” —Jean Giraudoux, French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright
“There is no present or future; only the past, happening over and over again now.”
—Eugene O’Neill, American playwright and Nobel Laureate in Literature.
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” —Albert Einstein
“Your memory is a monster; it summons with a will of its own. You think you have a memory, but it has you.”
—John Irving, an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter (The Cider House Rules, based on his novel of the same name)
So, that’s what NBC programmer Dick Cline did. “I waited and waited,” he said later, “and I heard nothing. We came up to that magic hour and I thought, ‘Well, I haven’t been given any counter-order so I’ve got to do what we agreed to do.’”
was taped for an episode of The Jenny Jones Show, in which he admitted to being a secret admirer of Jonathan Schmitz, who lived near him in Lake Orion, Michigan.Until the taping, Schmitz had no idea who his secret admirer was. Schmitz stated that he went on the show out of curiosity, and he later claimed that the producers implied that his admirer was a woman,although the producers of the show claim that they did tell Schmitz that the admirer could be male or female.
History of Sorts 
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