“The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended.”
What this quote means
A good cause can survive open attacks, as they spark debate and clarify issues. But clumsy defense, with weak arguments or mistakes, can discredit the cause itself. This insight applies to any endeavor you believe in: it's not enough to be right; you must demonstrate it with rigor. In a debate, a blunder can do more damage than a hostile assault.
How to apply it daily
Before defending an idea you care about, prepare your arguments, anticipate objections, and choose concrete examples to strengthen your case.
Continue
Related quotes
Same author or same theme — keep reading.
“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”Create visual
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”Create visual
“The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”Create visual
“War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.”Create visual
“The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.”Create visual
“Insurrection is an art, and like all arts, it has its laws.”Create visual
More quotes by Frédéric Bastiat
“The state is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else.”Create visual
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”Create visual