“Lost causes are the only causes worth fighting for.”
The Wheel Spins (1932), p 270.
A variation of this quote also appears in the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
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
“Lost causes are the only causes worth fighting for.”
The Wheel Spins (1932), p 270.
A variation of this quote also appears in the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
“An intelligent person fights for lost causes, realizing that others are merely effects”
“The only lost cause is one we give up on before we enter the struggle.”
Quoted in Amnesty International's essay "From Prisoner to President – A Tribute" http://www.artforamnesty.org/aoc/biog_havel.html
“Anything worth having is worth fighting for.”
Source: Heaven, Texas
“I’d rather fight than switch. It’s worth fighting.”
Twitter post https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1038771343918096385 (9 September 2018)
2010s, 2018
“There are causes worth dying for, but none worth killing for.”
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
“There are things worth fighting for.”
Rand al'Thor
(15 October 1994)