John Fowles Quotes

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.

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

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

Evil prevails when good people do nothing.

Evil will never be countered while good men do nothing.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

In this very real world, good doesn't drive out evil. Evil doesn't drive out good. But the energetic displaces the passive.

So many people witness atrocities and can't take their eyes away from them, but that doesn't mean they're good.

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

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

The opposite of good is not evil; it's apathy.

Nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good.

The ultimate error is the refusal to look evil in the face.

So it is the fear, weakness, selfishness, and cowardice of onlookers that permit evil behavior to persist.

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

A wicked Hero will turn his back to an innocent coward.

Oh, this faithless world! Someone must deliver them. You. If not you, who? You have been saved for a reason. Show them the old demons. Remind them of their fear. Apathy is death. Without darkness, there is no light. Without evil, there is no good. Make them choose. Dark or light. Where is the fear? Where are the heroes? If not now, when?

In doing good, we are generally cold, and languid, and sluggish; and of all things afraid of being too much in the right. But theworks of malice and injustice are quite in another style. They are finished with a bold, masterly hand; touched as they are with the spirit of those vehement passions that call forth all our energies, whenever we oppress and persecute.

One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust ... is in reality expressing the highest respect for law ... We will not obey your evil laws.

You can't be afraid to do good in case evil results.

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.

As the mind of each man is conscious of good or evil, so does he conceive within his breast hope or fear, according to his actions.

Never be afraid of What is good; the good is always the road to what is true.

To see evil and not call it evil is evil.