That is the essence of a witch-hunt, that any questioning of the evidence or the procedures in itself constitutes proof of complicity.
Bergen Evans (1904-1978) American educator, writer, lexicographer
The Dictionary of Quotations (1968)
Quotations by:
Evans, Bergen
The mere abhorrence of vice is not a virtue at all.
Bergen Evans (1904-1978) American educator, writer, lexicographer
The Dictionary of Quotations (1968)
This is the sort of bellowing profundity that earns a man the awe of one generation and the contempt of the next.
Bergen Evans (1904-1978) American educator, writer, lexicographer
The Dictionary of Quotations (1968)
We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us. Ideas of the Stone Age exist side by side with the latest scientific thought. Only a fraction of mankind has emerged from the Dark Ages, and in the most lucid brains, as Logan Pearsall Smith has said, we come upon “nests of woolly caterpillars.”
Bergen Evans (1904-1978) American educator, writer, lexicographer
The Natural History of Nonsense, ch. 1 “Adam’s Navel” (1946)
Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.
Bergen Evans (1904-1978) American educator, writer, lexicographer
The Natural History of Nonsense, ch. 19 (1946)
Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.
Bergen Evans (1904-1978) American educator, writer, lexicographer
Quoted in “The Euphemism: Telling It Like It Isn’t,” Time (19 Sep 1969)
(Source)
Sometimes misquoted with the words "Euphemisms persist because," but these are non-quoted text leading up to the quotation.