No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for

"No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks." — Mary Wollstonecraft

In these luminous words, Mary Wollstonecraft, the fearless mother of modern thought, lays bare one of the deepest mysteries of the human soul. She reminds us that evil does not spring from the heart as a thing desired for its own sake. No man rises in the morning and says, “Today I shall be wicked.” Rather, he walks a crooked road believing it straight, deceived by the mirage of happiness. Every act, even the cruel and selfish, hides behind the mask of the good one hopes to gain — wealth, love, power, safety, or peace. Yet, like a traveler chasing light upon the water, he finds not joy but sorrow, not life but ruin.

Wollstonecraft wrote in an age of upheaval, when tyranny called itself order and inequality wore the cloak of tradition. She saw that men who oppressed others did not believe themselves to be villains. They thought their domination natural, even noble — that their power brought stability, their authority preserved virtue. But beneath these illusions, their souls had wandered far from truth. Thus, she sought to awaken reason, to show that ignorance and false desire are the mothers of evil. Her words echo the wisdom of the ancients: “No man does wrong willingly,” said Socrates, for all wrongdoing is blindness — the blindness of the heart.

Indeed, history is filled with the tragedy of those who mistook darkness for light. Consider Brutus, the Roman who plunged his dagger into the breast of his friend Caesar. He did not act from hatred, but from what he believed was virtue — the defense of the Republic. Yet his hand, guided by mistaken judgment, unleashed chaos upon Rome. In his heart, Brutus sought the good of liberty, but his vision was clouded by pride and the counsel of deceivers. Thus, Wollstonecraft’s insight rings true: men do not choose evil for its own sake; they choose it in their blindness, believing it to be the path of happiness.

To understand this is not to excuse wrongdoing, but to grasp the frailty of the human spirit. For every heart, however noble, is capable of delusion. The tyrant believes he brings peace through control; the liar believes he spares others pain; the thief believes he claims what the world unfairly denied him. So the seed of evil is not born in malice, but in error — in the clouded pursuit of the good unillumined by wisdom. Therefore, the battle between good and evil is not waged only in the outer world, but within the chambers of every human soul.

Wollstonecraft’s teaching, then, is both merciful and severe. It calls us not to hate, but to understand — and in understanding, to guard ourselves from the same deception. The wicked are not born in shadows; they drift into them, step by step, following the false dawn of desire. To live rightly, one must purify the mind’s eye so it sees clearly what true happiness is: not the indulgence of appetite, but the harmony of conscience; not the grasping of power, but the serenity of virtue.

Look upon the story of King Midas, who prayed that all he touched might turn to gold. He believed wealth would bring him happiness — yet when his daughter turned to lifeless metal in his arms, he wept for what his ignorance had wrought. Thus it is with all who mistake evil for the good they seek: their desires, untempered by wisdom, turn blessings into chains.

So, my child of the future, take this lesson deep into your soul: seek not only what you desire, but first learn whether it is truly good. Examine your motives as a sailor tests the wind, lest you mistake a storm for a breeze. Ask yourself — does this path bring peace to the heart, or turmoil? Does it uplift others, or wound them? For happiness built upon harm is no happiness at all, but a gilded sorrow.

To live wisely, then, is to pursue good with clear sight. Cultivate reflection; listen to the quiet voice of conscience. Let your reason be the lantern that guides desire, and your compassion the compass that steadies it. For when knowledge and kindness walk hand in hand, evil loses its disguise, and the soul walks in light. Thus you will not only avoid the snares of false happiness — you will find the true joy that no shadow can dim: the joy of a life lived in harmony with truth.