Zoroaster — "May the good spirit prevail over the evil spirit in all hearts."
May the good spirit prevail over the evil spirit in all hearts.
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More from Zoroaster
"Excessive liberty and excessive servitude are equally dangerous, and produce nearly the same effect."
"The path of the righteous is not always easy, but it is always right. And sometimes, it involves a lot of sheep. You wouldn't believe the amount of sheep."
"Truth is the best of all things. As righteousness, it is happiness."
"The wise man chooses good. The very wise man chooses good and then immediately finds a comfortable rock to sit on."
"Indeed, I shall speak forth concerning this world’s two spirits, of which the one is good, the other evil, as to thought, as to word, as to deed. Between these two, the discerning have chosen aright, …"
About Zoroaster (c. 1500-1000 BCE (debated))
Iranian prophet who founded Zoroastrianism, the first major religion of cosmic dualism between good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Angra Mainyu). Closely associated with The Buddha (near-contemporary Eastern moral-cosmological revolutionary). For an intellectual contrast, see Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher of 'beyond good and evil' — Nietzsche appropriated Zarathustra's name for Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883) precisely to invert the original's moral cosmology — the historical Zoroaster founded the good-versus-evil framework Nietzsche's character announces the end of.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
This is a hope that the impulse toward honesty, kindness, and constructive action wins out over the pull toward cruelty, deceit, and harm inside every person. It frames the real battleground as internal: each human mind is a contested space where two opposing drives compete, and the outcome of that inner contest shapes the outer world. The speaker is wishing everyone's better nature the victory.
Relevance to Zoroaster
Zoroaster built his entire religion around exactly this dualism. He taught that Ahura Mazda, the wise good spirit, and Angra Mainyu, the destructive spirit, are locked in cosmic struggle, and that every person must actively choose sides through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. As a priest-prophet who reformed older Iranian polytheism, he placed moral choice at the center of worship, making this line a direct summary of his core doctrine.
The era
Zoroaster preached in ancient Iran roughly 1500–1000 BCE, when surrounding cultures worshipped many amoral nature gods through animal sacrifice and magical ritual. Tribal raiding, blood feuds, and priest-caste abuses were common. Against that backdrop, insisting that the universe runs on a moral axis of good versus evil, and that ordinary hearts decide the outcome, was radical. It seeded ideas of heaven, hell, judgment, and free will that later shaped Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
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