“Lost causes are the only causes worth fighting for.”

—  Ethel Lina White , book The Wheel Spins

The Wheel Spins (1932), p 270.
A variation of this quote also appears in the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Jan. 7, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Lost causes are the only causes worth fighting for." by Ethel Lina White?
Ethel Lina White photo
Ethel Lina White 1
British writer 1876–1944

Related quotes

Clarence Darrow photo

“Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for.”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

This quote is from Ethel Lina White's The Wheel Spins (1936). It was popularized in the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). In this film a similar line was spoken by "Jefferson Smith".
Misattributed

Albert Camus photo

“There are causes worth dying for, but none worth killing for.”

Albert Camus (1913–1960) French author and journalist

Widely attributed to Camus on the internet, the earliest attribution of such a statement to him yet located is an unsourced citation in Quotations from the Wayside (1999) by Brenda Wong: "Many things are worth dying for, but none worth killing for." The earliest occurrence yet located of such a statement, by anyone, is one by Albert Dietrich in a 31 January 1943 letter to his conscientious objector status Hearing Officer, reported in Army GI, Pacifist CO : The World War II Letters of Frank and Albert Dietrich (2005) https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3o4JN_C69VwC edited by Scott H. Bennett: "There are perhaps many causes worth dying for, but to me, certainly, there are none worth killing for."
Prior to the attribution to Camus, the most widely publicized occurrence of such an expression was probably in the song "Too Long A Soldier" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoQcU1ecPOc by Neil Giraldo and Myron Grombacher, sung by Pat Benatar on her album Wide Awake In Dreamland (1988): "I've seen so much worth dying for, so little worth killing over."
Misattributed

Paul R. Ehrlich photo

“Whatever your cause, it’s a lost cause without population control.”

Paul R. Ehrlich (1932) American scientist and environmentalist

Paul Ehrlich and the population bomb
Context: Solving the population problem is not going to solve the problems of racism… of sexism… of religious intolerance… of war… of gross economic inequality—But if you don’t solve the population problem, you’re not going to solve any of those problems. Whatever problem you’re interested in, you’re not going to solve it unless you also solve the population problem. Whatever your cause, it’s a lost cause without population control.

Václav Havel photo

“The only lost cause is one we give up on before we enter the struggle.”

Václav Havel (1936–2011) playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and 1st President of the Czech Republic

Quoted in Amnesty International's essay "From Prisoner to President – A Tribute" http://www.artforamnesty.org/aoc/biog_havel.html

Mike Pence photo

“We stand with Israel because your cause is our cause, your values are our values, and your fight is our fight.”

Mike Pence (1959) 48th Vice President of the United States

Remarks by Vice President Mike Pence in Special Session of the Knesset — https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-vice-president-mike-pence-special-session-knesset/ (January 22, 2018)
2010s

Freeman Dyson photo

“A good cause can become bad if we fight for it with means that are indiscriminately murderous. A bad cause can become good if enough people fight for it in a spirit of comradeship and self-sacrifice. In the end it is how you fight, as much as why you fight, that makes your cause good or bad.”

Freeman Dyson (1923) theoretical physicist and mathematician

Disturbing the Universe (1979)
Context: A good cause can become bad if we fight for it with means that are indiscriminately murderous. A bad cause can become good if enough people fight for it in a spirit of comradeship and self-sacrifice. In the end it is how you fight, as much as why you fight, that makes your cause good or bad. <!-- Pt. 1, Ch. 4

“I was trying to warn you. But… you have no Cause. You and I, we have no Cause. We have only the army. But if a soldier fights only for soldiers, he cannot ever win. It is only the soldiers who die.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

General Robert E. Lee, Part IV, CH 5: Longsteet, p.361
The Killer Angels (1974)

Ayn Rand photo

“Do you know that my personal crusade in life (in the philosophical sense) is not merely to fight collectivism, nor to fight altruism? These are only consequences, effects, not causes. I am out after the real cause, the real root of evil on earth — the irrational.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, 2009, p. 100

Vladimir Lenin photo

“Whenever the cause of the people is entrusted to professors, it is lost.”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

Related topics