“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
“Whatever your cause, it’s a lost cause without population control.”
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.
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Paul R. Ehrlich 11
American scientist and environmentalist 1932Related quotes
“Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart. The rest of it will take care of itself.”
Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
“Population pressure is the ultimate cause of every war.”
Source: Rite of Passage (1968), Chapter 1 (p. 9).
Faiz Ahmad Faiz
(1911–1984) Punjabi poet
Source: Poetry, Poems by Faiz, translated by Victor Kiernan, 1971, p. 49
“Whatever is, is in its causes just.”
John Dryden
(1631–1700) English poet and playwright of the XVIIth century
Act III, scene i.
Œdipus (1679)
Source: A People's History of the United States
“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
“Whenever the cause of the people is entrusted to professors, it is lost.”
Vladimir Lenin
(1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution