Such familiar figures as a messed-up clown (John Malkovich) and a hyper-rational man of science (Donald Pleasence) either suffer the torments of love or try to find the root of evil.

NEWYORKER: Shadows and Fog

It is said that the love of money is the root of all evil.

FORBES: What Drives The Best Entrepreneurs? Hint: It's Not Money

Once again, money is the root of all evil.

FORBES: Apple's iCloud and the Dilemma of the Walled Garden

Pachauri now jets around the world preaching a gospel in which carbon dioxide is the root of all evil, urging such measures as a global meat-free day each week (apparently, with ginger-marinated French-cut breast of chicken on the dinner menu, this wasn't one of them).

FORBES: Dinner With The Green Glitterati

Given that they think The Great Gatsby is a tale of social mobility and not one of a self-created hero, these two economists seem to think our inequality is the root of all evil, that no one can move in society because the rungs of the ladder are too far apart, so to speak.

FORBES: Paul Krugman Gets Economics Wrong, The Great Gatsby Too

From one source at root: a wrong standard of morality, of good and evil.

FORBES: By Eliminating Failure, The Government Robs Us Of Success