It has been profoundly said, and how true it is, that the only thing necessary for evil to exist is for good people to remain silent...

The exact quote came from
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) - English statesman:

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Burke also said:

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."

"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion"

"The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts."

Edmund Burke on politics:
"Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument (compensation) from it, even though but for one year, can never willingly abandon it."

On superstition:
"Superstition is the religion of feeble minds."

On tradition:
"We owe an implicit reverence to all the institutions of our ancestors."

>From Edmund Burke's 1780 speech to the voter's of Bristol:

"...I must fairly tell you, that, so far as my principles are concerned, (principles that I hope will only depart with my last breath) I have no idea of a liberty unconnected with honesty and justice. Nor do I believe, that any good constitutions of government, or of freedom, can find it necessary for their security to doom any part of the people to a permanent slavery. Such a constitution of freedom, if such can be, is in effect no more than another name for the tyranny of the strongest faction; and factions in republics have been, and are, full as capable as monarchs of the most cruel oppression and injustice. It is but too true, that the love, and even the very idea, of genuine liberty is extremely rare..."