| Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989. | | | |
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| | | NUMBER: | 560 |
| AUTHOR: | Edmund Burke (1729–97) |
| QUOTATION: | The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Attributed to EDMUND BURKE, but never found in his works. It may be a paraphrase of Burke’s view that “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle” (Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, April 23, 1770).—Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 15th ed., p. ix (1980).
See also No. 565. |
| SUBJECTS: | Evil |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia | | |
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