Most of the harm in the world ...

Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends... ...when millions are slaughtered, when torture is practiced, starvation enforced, oppression made a policy, as at present over a large part of the world, and as it has often been in the past, it must be at the behest of very many good people, and even by their direct action, for what they consider a worthy object.
 Isabel Paterson

Quotes from the same author

The craving for power is in itself a sign of inferior abilities and unfitness for responsibility.
 Isabel Paterson
An abstraction will move a mountain: Nothing can withstand an idea.
 Isabel Paterson
Now the sole remedy for the abuse of political power is to limit it; but when politics corrupt business, modern reformers invariably demand the enlargement of the political power.
 Isabel Paterson
Every politically controlled educational system will inculcate the doctrine of state supremacy sooner or later. . . . Once that doctrine has been accepted, it becomes an almost superhuman task to break the stranglehold of the political power over the life of the citizen. It has had his body, property and mind in its clutches from infancy. An octopus would sooner release its prey. A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state.
 Isabel Paterson
As freak legislation, the antitrust laws stand alone. Nobody knows what it is they forbid.
 Isabel Paterson