
“When you fight for a desperate cause and have good reasons to fight, you usually win.”
As quoted by Robert C. Martin in Software Development magazine (September 2005), p. 60
Disturbing the Universe (1979)
Context: A good cause can become bad if we fight for it with means that are indiscriminately murderous. A bad cause can become good if enough people fight for it in a spirit of comradeship and self-sacrifice. In the end it is how you fight, as much as why you fight, that makes your cause good or bad. <!-- Pt. 1, Ch. 4
“When you fight for a desperate cause and have good reasons to fight, you usually win.”
As quoted by Robert C. Martin in Software Development magazine (September 2005), p. 60
Remarks by Vice President Mike Pence in Special Session of the Knesset — https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-vice-president-mike-pence-special-session-knesset/ (January 22, 2018)
2010s
Letter to E.L. Godkin (24 December 1895)
1890s
“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
“The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of cause.”
Source: The Legacy of Heorot (1987), Chapter 22 “The Last Grendel” (p. 231; quoting William James)
“Tis known by the name of perseverance in a good cause — and of obstinacy in a bad one.”
Book I, Ch. 17.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)
1 Timothy 6:12; archaic spelling: Fyght ye good fyght of fayth.
Tyndale's translations