Thousands of bits of paper are falling into ballot-boxes today, all over the country. It is a little thing, and can be done very easily, but mighty consequences may hang on the result.
Private Wilbur Fisk of the Second Vermont, November 1864
If you are confronted with two evils, thus the argument runs, it is your duty to opt for the lesser one, whereas it is irresponsible to refuse to choose altogether. Those who denounce the moral fallacy of this argument are usually accused of a germ-proof moralism which is alien to political circumstances, of being unwilling to dirty their hands. . . .
Politically, the weakness of the argument has always been that those who choose the lesser evil forget very quickly that they chose evil. . . . Moreover, if we look at the techniques of totalitarian government, it is obvious that the argument of “the lesser evil” . . . is one of the mechanisms built into the machinery of terror and criminality. Acceptance of lesser evils is consciously used in conditioning government officials as well as the population at large to the acceptance of evil as such.
Hannah Arendt, Responsibility and Judgement
and it was you who taught them. The only plausible meaning of this opaque clause is that if you resent these disagreeable leaders with whom you are saddled, you have only yourself to thank for fastening the administration of your society on morally dubious figures who can now be exploited by your conquerors.
Robert Alter, commentary on Jeremiah 13:21