Tzvetan Todorov Quotes

Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

For evil to take place, the acts of a few people are not sufficient; the great majority also has to remain indifferent. That is something of which we are all quite capable.

I make little distinction between those who commit evil and those who stand by and do nothing.

For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all—the apathy of human beings.

Undoubtedly, to salve your conscience, you have now and then helped some miserable human being, but millions of human beings were murdered and nary a protest was heard.

I have no love for those who consider themselves 'good people' but stand idly by as the world crumbles around them. It's not enough to personally not do damage. If you're present as someone else destroys what's around you and you do nothing, you helped them.

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.

The worst people on earth are not only those who commit evil, but those who stand by and turn a blind eye

To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.

Those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters, for without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves we collude with it through our apathy.

Evil prospers when good men do nothing.

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

Men are accomplices to that which leaves them indifferent.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it.

If we don't accept the uncomfortable proposition that every perpetrator of virtually every act of evil in our history has been a human being like us, then we actually foreclose the possibility of understanding how we do this to one another and therefore make it impossible to figure out how we might prevent these things.

One expects decent people to stand up for the good of all. Decent people shut their doors and hide behind them as decent people do. Massacres could never happen if it weren't for decent people.

Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

To see evil and not call it evil is evil.

Srebrenica's not simply another reminder of man's inhumanity to man, but how intelligent people can always come up with intelligent reasons to do nothing.

Evil prevails when good people do nothing.

The worst thing of all is standing by when folks are doing something wrong.

It's not just dead men who tell no tales. Live ones don't have much to say for themselves, either.