The History of Freedom in Christianity (1877)
Context: That men should understand that governments do not exist by divine right, and that arbitrary government is the violation of divine right, was no doubt the medicine suited to the malady under which Europe languished. But although the knowledge of this truth might become an element of salutary destruction, it could give little aid to progress and reform. Resistance to tyranny implied no faculty of constructing a legal government in its place. Tyburn tree may be a useful thing; but it is better still that the offender should live for repentance and reformation. The principles which discriminate in politics between good and evil, and make states worthy to last, were not yet found.
“The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.”
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Marcus Tullius Cicero 180
Roman philosopher and statesman -106–-43 BCRelated quotes
“Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil not the strength to choose between the two.”
The Late Forties and the Fifties, 1956 entry.
The Journals of John Cheever (1991)
The Serpent, in Pt. V
1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)
“Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.”
“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: The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster: Diplomatic Papers and Miscellaneous Letters