“I hold that the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding states between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good. A positive good.”
In 1837 http://stoprepublicans.blogspot.com/2008/06/democrats-held-these-words-to-be-self.html
1830s
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John C. Calhoun 15
7th Vice President of the United States 1782–1850Related quotes
“Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.”
Source: A Dictionary of Thoughts, 1891, p. 68.
Kittredge Gardiner, in Harlot's Ghost : A Novel (1991)
Dalai Lama honours Tintin and Tutu, BBC (Friday, 2 June 2006) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5040198.stm
As quoted in Margaret Mead : Some Personal Views (1979) edited by Rhoda Métraux
As quoted in American Quotations (1992) by Gorton Carruth and Eugene H. Ehrlich
1970s
Variant: At times it may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.
“The choice before human beings, is not, as a rule, between good and evil but between two evils.”
"No, Not One," The Adelphi (October 1941), p. 7 http://books.google.com/books?id=hdwYAQAAIAAJ&q=%22The+choice+before+human+beings%22&pg=PA7#v=onepage- 8 http://books.google.com/books?id=hdwYAQAAIAAJ&q=%22is+not+as+a+rule+between+good+and+evil+but+between+two+evils%22&pg=PA8#v=onepage
Context: The choice before human beings, is not, as a rule, between good and evil but between two evils. You can let the Nazis rule the world: that is evil; or you can overthrow them by war, which is also evil. There is no other choice before you, and whichever you choose you will not come out with clean hands.
Source: Give Me Liberty! (1998), Ch. 15 : Black and White Together, p. 168
“There is a physical relation between physical things. But it is different with commodities.”
Vol. I, Ch. 1, Section 4, pg. 83.
(Buch I) (1867)
Auch wenn zwei Staaten in Deutschland existieren, sind sie doch füreinander nicht Ausland; ihre Beziehungen zueinander können nur von besonderer Art sein.
government policy statement on 28 October 1969, p. 2, bwbs.de http://www.bwbs.de/UserFiles/File/PDF/Regierungserklaerung691028.pdf (PDF file).
“If nowhere else, in the relation between Church and State, "good fences make good neighbors."”
McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203, 232 (1948).
Judicial opinions