Is the Party Over?
Document Type
Article
Abstract
ll that is Necessary for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing." You may know this as the most famous sentence that Edmund Burke never wrote. It's attributed to Burke all over the internet, in film, on a card for sale in the Dublin Writers Museum, and on a poster I tacked to my wall back in high school. But while the faux quotation sounds the call to gallant effort by individuals, the likely source actually encourages ordinary people to join together for ordinary political objectives. The closest thing Burke ever wrote to the line so often misattributed to him was, "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
Department(s)
English and Journalism
Publication Title
National Affairs
Volume
No. 31
Publication Date
Spring 2017
Recommended Citation
Ritchie, D. (2017). Is the Party Over? National Affairs, No. 31 (Spring).