Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“But there is this terrible thing in evil thoughts, that evil minds soon grow familiar with them.”
- Source
- The Black Tulip
- Date
- 1850
- Local voice
- Fictional narrator · Narrator
- English wording
- Uncredited translator in the represented Routledge / Project Gutenberg edition · from French
Meaning of “But there is this terrible thing in evil…”
The narrator warns that repeatedly entertaining a harmful idea can reduce the resistance a person initially feels toward acting on it.
Where does it come from?
The Black Tulip, Chapter VIII, “An Invasion,” Project Gutenberg #965. Exact-witness review corrects the inherited Chapter VI locator: the narrator says that evil minds soon grow familiar with evil thoughts immediately after Boxtel first shrinks from informing against Van Baerle and before he rationalizes the act.
Why the local voice matters
The Black Tulip, Chapter VIII, “An Invasion.” The narrator comments as Boxtel becomes accustomed to the idea of informing against Van Baerle; it is translated literary narration, not a modern psychological finding.