The Only Thing Necessary For The Triumph Of Good

There is a quote often attributed to Edmund Burke that goes, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Consider the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man on his way to Jericho was waylaid and left for dead. You could say that evil would have its final victory if the man were to succumb to his wounds and perish. And with each good man who passed by on the other side and did nothing, evil got closer and closer to its triumph. But in the end, evil did not triumph. And why did it not? Because there was one good man who did something. The Good Samaritan saw that evil was winning and he acted. His actions didn't rid the whole world of all evils, nor did he make it so that this particular man would never have to face evil again, but in this specific battle of good and evil, it was good that triumphed because the Good Samaritan acted. If we accept the premise that evil may triumph simply through the apathy and inaction of good men, then we must accept that the following is also true: the only thing necessary for the triumph of good is for good men and good women to do something. Our actions may at times be misguided, they may be unwanted, they may even seem at times to cause more harm than good, but every time that we choose to do something instead of nothing, then we push back the darkness and we delay the triumph of evil. Whether we push back the darkness by an inch or by a mile, and whether we delay evil's triumph by a minute or by a millennium, we have still for this moment made it possible for good to triumph. If there seems to be more darkness and evil in the world today than there was a month or a year or a decade ago, it is because more good men and women are finding it easier to do nothing than to do something. Evil doesn't care if we do nothing because we are lazy or scared or lack confidence or worry that our action is too little too late or that we're not qualified or that we hope that others will do it instead of us. It triumphs all the same. And the Lord doesn't care if we bear our testimony with a stutter, or volunteer to feed the homeless even though we struggle even to boil water, or that we pay our tithing with nickels and dimes, or that all of our family home evenings seem to start with a prayer and end with a wrestling match, or that we doze off during General Conference, or that we've read First Nephi a hundred times and Third Nephi only once or twice. We are good and we are doing something, and that is all that is necessary for the triumph of good.