The Bible is very vague. Bits and pieces from lots of now-defunct religions got synthesized: The cloven feet from Pan, the horns from the gods of various cults in the near east. In the 15th and 16th century, these solidified into this personification of evil, seen as the great enemy of Christ, the Church, and mankind: a horned, bestial, furry figure.
The devil, you see, is that friend who never stays with us to the end.
How did the Devil come? When first attack?
Every man for himself, his own ends, the devil for all.
The Devil himself, which is the author of confusion and lies.
And bid the devil take the hin'most.
Nick Machiavel had ne'er a trick(Though he gave his name to our Old Nick).
Here is the devil-and-all to pay.
Long live the Devil.
Wherever God erects a house of prayer,The latter has the largest congregation.
Well the Devil went down to Georgia
The Devil is not the Prince of Matter; the Devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without smile, truth that is never seized by doubt. The Devil is grim because he knows where he is going, and, in moving, he always returns whence he came.
You see, Mr. Simpson—a man, well, he'll walk right into Hell with both eyes open. But even the Devil can't fool a dog!
One is always wrong to open a conversation with the devil, for, however he goes about it, he always insists on having the last word.
Why should the devil have all the good tunes?
Even a most evil man is better than the devil!
We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.
Now it came to be the day when the sons of the [true] God entered to take their station before Jehovah, and even Satan proceeded to enter right among them. Then Jehovah said to Satan: “Where do you come from?” At that Satan answered Jehovah and said: “From roving about in the earth and from walking about in it.”
And war broke out in heaven: Mi′cha·el and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled 8 but it did not prevail, neither was a place found for them any longer in heaven. 9 So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
The Devil is an ass, I do acknowledge it.
It is stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil, when he is the only explanation of it.
It is Lucifer,By us not understood.
Tell your master that if there were as many devils at Worms as tiles on its roofs, I would enter.
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
Again the Devil took him along to an unusually high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him: “All these things I will give you if you fall down and do an act of worship to me.”
The infernal serpent; he it was whose guile,The mother of mankind.
His form had yet not lostOf glory obscured.
From mornDropt from the zenith like a falling star.
Satan exalted sat, by merit raisedTo that bad eminence.
Black it stood as night,Satan was now at hand.
Incens'd with indignation Satan stoodShakes pestilence and war.
Abashed the Devil stood,And pined his loss.
Satan; so call him now, his former nameIs heard no more in heaven.
When Nietzsche said God is dead, he forgot to mention that Satan died in the same horrific accident.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
The true name for Satan, the Kabalists say, is that of Yahveh reversed; for Satan is not a black god, but the negation of God. The Devil is the personification of Atheism or Idolatry. For the Initiates, this is not a Person, but a Force, created for good but which may serve for evil. It is the instrument of Liberty or Free Will. (p. 102)
When there is question of saving souls, or preventing greater harm to souls, We feel the courage to treat with the devil in person.
I charge thee, Satan, hous'd within this man,I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven!
The devil hath powerTo assume a pleasing shape.
Nay, then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables.
He will give the devil his due.
The prince of darkness is a gentleman.
The devil can cite scripture for his purpose.
Let me say "amen" betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer.
The lunatic, the lover and the poet,One sees more devils than vast hell can hold.
This is a devil, and no monster; I will leave him; I have no long spoon.
What, man! defy the devil: consider, he's an enemy to mankind.
Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred.
God seeks comrades and claims love,The devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.
We may not pay Satan reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we can at least respect his talents.
A person [Satan] who has during all time maintained the imposing position of spiritual head of four-fifths of the human race, and political head of the whole of it, must be granted the possession of executive abilities of the loftiest order.
Don't you know there ain't no devil, there's just God when he's drunk.
Renounce the Devil and all his works.
Therefore it behooveth hire a full long spoonThat shal ete with a feend.
I call'd the devil, and he came,He talks quite glibly of church and state.
When the devil drives, needs must. (Needs must when the devil drives.)
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
What is got over the devil's back is spent under his belly.
Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.
The king of terrors.
The devil, my friends, is a woman just now.'Tis a woman that reigns in Hell.
Swings the scaly horror of his folded tail.
Bid the Devil take the slowest.
From his brimstone bed, at break of day, And see how his stock went on.
The Satanic school.
The bane of all that dread the Devil!