An Old Man's Thoughts on Many Things, Of Education I
“Fashions have done more harm than revolutions.”
Letter to Frederick Ayers (5 May 1943), published in The Patton Papers 1940-1945 (1996) edited by Martin Blumenson, p. 242
Context: The publicity I have been getting, a good deal of which is untrue, and the rest of it ill considered, has done me more harm than good. The only way you get on in this profession is to have the reputation of doing what you are told as thoroughly as possible. So far I have been able to accomplish that, and I believe I have gotten quite a reputation from not kicking at peculiar assignments.
“The plow has probably done more harm — in the long run — than the sword.”
Source: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990), Ch. 11 : Money Et Cetera, p. 100
“Love is not always evil, truth to tell;
Though harm he does, he serves the good as well.”
Dunque Amor sempre rio non si ritrova:
Se spesso nuoce, anco talvolta giova.
Canto XXV, stanza 2 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“On balance Mao did more good than harm.”
On BBC One's This Week during a debate over who was the history's worst dictator. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/11/27/diane-abbott-said-on-balance-mao-did-more-good-than-harm_n_8660910.html (27/11/2015)
2010s, 2015
Quoted in "Tony Abbott says climate change is 'probably doing good'" https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/10/tony-abbott-says-climate-change-is-probably-doing-good, The Guardian, October 10, 2017
2017
“There is far more danger of harm than there is hope of good in any radical changes.”
Source: 1920s, Speech on the Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (1926)
As quoted in The Jewish Chronicle, 26 December 2014, p. 20.
