Contents
-AUTHOR INDEX -KEYWORD INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
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NUMBER:
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560 |
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AUTHOR:
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Edmund Burke (1729–97) |
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QUOTATION:
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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. |
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ATTRIBUTION:
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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. |
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SUBJECTS:
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Evil |
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