All it takes for evil to flourish is good men to stand by and do nothing. Was this Elie Wiesel or ???

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. It is mis-attributed to Edmund Burke.

There is no record that Burke said this. The quotation became popular after John F. Kennedy began using it in speeches but after careful research by many persons, no source could be found. Bartlett's discontinued attributing the saying to Burke.

It is a great quote though.

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Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

Hi!Here ya go,

and it's a great quote from one of my greatest heroes:

" The only thing required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." -Thomas Paine

best wishes for a PEACEful 2009.... -Doug

Do you have a citation for the Paine quote? This quote has been painstakingly researched by many people and the source was not found. Even Bartlett's removed it from their later editions.

The closest reference to this quote is the one by John Stuart Mill in "On Education" (1867): Bad men need nothing more to compress their ends than that the good men should look on and do nothing.

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Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov