Attributed to Bonhoeffer on the Internet, and supposedly from Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy http://books.google.com/books?id=aG0q3X8TVpsC&pg=PA486#v=onepage (2010) by Eric Metaxas; however, there is no actual reference in that book. However, in advertising the book Metaxas does state on his site that the quote is from Bonhoeffer. http://ericmetaxas.com/books/bonhoeffer-pastor-martyr-prophet-spy/ First attributed to Bonhoeffer in Explorations 12:1 (1998), p. 3, as referenced by James Cone (2004) Theology's Great Sin: Silence in the Face of White Supremacy, Black Theology, 2:2, 139-152, footnote 1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/blth.2.2.139.36027
Compare "Not to Act, is to Act!" by Francis W. McPeek http://www.ergo-sum.net/pics/McPeek.jpg, The Missionary Herald at Home and Abroad, v.141-142 (1945-1946), "Missionary herald, 1945 - Congregational churches," pp.34-35 (We must realize that church inaction is a form of political action, and it is altogether negative. “Not to act, is to act.”)
Misattributed
“Chilo advised, "not to speak evil of the dead."”
Chilo, 2.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 1: The Seven Sages
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Diogenes Laërtius 107
biographer of ancient Greek philosophers 180–240Related quotes
“Hear no evil, speak no evil, and you won't be invited to cocktail parties.”
Source: Seven Against Thebes (467 BC), lines 683–685 (tr. Anna Swanwick)
“Take the dead from the dead, the old proverb said; only a corpse may speak true prophecy.”
Source: The Gunslinger
“There's only a shadow of me
In a manner of speaking, I'm dead”
"John My Beloved"
Lyrics, Carrie and Lowell (2015)
“The dead might as well try to speak to the living as the old to the young.”
One of Ours (1922), Bk. II, Ch. 6
"The Honored Dead" (1863) memorialized the Union dead; a popular piece for declamation among schoolchildren, also published as "Our Heroes Shall Live"
Miscellany
Context: Oh, tell me not that they are dead — that generous host, that airy army of invisible heroes. They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this nation. Are they dead that yet speak louder than we can speak, and a more universal language? Are they dead that yet act? Are they dead that yet move upon society, and inspire the people with nobler motives, and more heroic patriotism?
Ye that mourn, let gladness mingle with your tears. It was your son, but now he is the nation's. He made your household bright: now his example inspires a thousand households. Dear to his brothers and sisters, he is now brother to every generous youth in the land. Before, he was narrowed, appropriated, shut up to you. Now he is augmented, set free, and given to all. Before, he was yours: he is ours. He has died from the family, that he might live to the nation. Not one name shall be forgotten or neglected: and it shall by and by be confessed of our modern heroes, as it is of an ancient hero, that he did more for his country by his death than by his whole life.
“The dead may speak the truth only, even when it discredits themselves.”
The Golden Fleece (1944), Invocation.
General sources