Good And Bad

[katieq]

"There is good and bad in every action."
"There is the good and bad in every action."

I am confused about the mandatoriness of "the" before "good and bad".

[BobK]

Don't be . It's mandatory not to use it! You can also say 'Every action has a good and a bad side'.

b

[katieq]

Then it is

"One should take good with bad."

not

"One should take the good with bad."

nor

"One should take the good with the bad."
?

[5jj]

"One should take good with bad." X
"One should take the good with bad." X
"One should take the good with the bad."

[katieq]

I am confused that "the" is not required in:

"There is good and bad in every action."

but mandatory in:

"One should take the good with the bad."

[5jj]

You'll just have to accept them as idiomatic expressions,

[BobK]

You do, but there is a way of looking at it that stops it seeming paradoxical. In 'There is good and bad in every action' there are lots of different sorts of what is good. The phrases 'the good/bad' refer to an abstract - 'whatever is good/bad'/ 'the principle of goodness/badness'. It seems to me to make sense that the words 'good' and 'bad' behave differently when they mean different things.

But this is a bit of a navel-gazing argument. Go with 5jj's answer.

b