Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke · Political philosophy · Enlightenment · familiar form is 20th century, not 1790
What does it mean?
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. This sentence is not in the Reflections or his other works. Related thoughts appear in various nineteenth-century writers. A rival reading says the warning is true, passivity helps evil, so Burke is a reasonable sponsor for a modern drumbeat. The sentence makes him sound like a different kind of writer than the Reflections, which are winding, specific, and about the French Revolution. A false ancestor is still useful to a political team. That usefulness is why the check matters.
Did Edmund Burke really say this?
The library’s label is Misattributed. This sentence is not in the Reflections or Burke's other works. Related thoughts about the success of evil when good people fail to oppose it appear in various 19th-century writers, including John Stuart Mill in another form. The quotation people attribute to Burke is a later set piece. His real line about society as a partnership across generations is in this library.
Where it comes from
No source in Burke; the familiar form is modern
Approximate date: familiar form is 20th century, not 1790.
How to use it
If the warning is one you want to live by, own it, at a council or in a union branch. If you want Burke, quote the partnership across generations and deal with what that actually commits you to, including the parts a modern campaign may not want. The drumbeat is easier. The book is the one with his name on it.
A mindset reading
Political teams adopt ancestors by quotation. The familiar form is twentieth-century. John Stuart Mill wrote a different sentence in the neighbourhood. Neighbourhood is not identity.
Understand the philosophy
Hearing the difference between this drumbeat and Burke's voice is an education in evidence. The fake is memorable because it is simple. He was not simple, which is the first reason to doubt the mug.
- ethics
- society
- justice
FAQ
What does it mean?
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. This sentence is not in the Reflections or his other works. Related thoughts appear in various nineteenth-century writers. A rival reading says the warning is true, passivity helps evil, so Burke is a reasonable sponsor for a modern drumbeat. The sentence makes him sound like a different kind of writer than the Reflections, which are winding, specific, and about the French Revolution. A false ancestor is still useful to a political team. That usefulness is why the check matters.
Did Edmund Burke really say this?
Misattributed. This sentence is not in the Reflections or Burke's other works. Related thoughts about the success of evil when good people fail to oppose it appear in various 19th-century writers, including John Stuart Mill in another form. The quotation people attribute to Burke is a later set piece. His real line about society as a partnership across generations is in this library.
Which work is it in?
No source in Burke; the familiar form is modern Approximate date: familiar form is 20th century, not 1790.