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> I have a question for you: Did Jefferson say, "All that is > required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."? The quote in question is from Edumund Burke. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." --Edmund Burke (1729-1797). The closest thing that Jefferson said thereto was: "Lethargy [is] the forerunner of death to the public liberty." --Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787. "It behooves our citizens to be on their guard, to be firm in their principles, and full of confidence in themselves. We are able to preserve our self-government if we will but think so." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., 1800. "If our fellow-citizens, now solidly republican, will sacrifice favoritism towards men for the preservation of principle, we may hope that no divisions will again endanger a degeneracy in our government." --Thomas Jefferson to Richard M. Johnson, 1808. "We, I hope, shall adhere to our republican government and keep it to its original principles by narrowly watching it." --Thomas Jefferson to ------, 1793.