"TOLERANCE AND APATHY ARE THE LAST VIRTUES OF A DYING SOCIETY"

[FightingIrish]

That quote, attributed to Aristotle, appeared in a link from an earlier post. I Googled it and got nothing but right wing web sites and forums using it to defend their racist points of view and right to possess assault weapons. I searched the MIT collection of Aristotle's works and Project Gutenberg. I couldn't find anything even close. Are they just making this shit up? DU is one place you might actually find an Aristotelian scholar so I thought I'd ask.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. No go... all were places like oh Rense.com

though he might have written it in the Politics. Would have to take the text and go through it

And quite honestly sounds a tad more like Cato...but that is a whole different matter

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[rfranklin]

3. What do you mean, "ther's no place for that here?"

I am refraining from making any assumptions about your leanings until you have a chance to explain yourself.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. Interesting. It's probably a lot of fun to make up quotes you wished people had said.

You certainly did a pretty good job of loooking in logical places for original source. They very well might be "just making this shit up" and good on you for calling them on it.

Is anyone of stature quoting this? Or did this just suddenly appear in emails and the like? What is the oldest refernce?

[FightingIrish]

6. It seems to part of the teabag mantra

I can't find anyone of stature or with any credibility using. They all seem to be quoting each other and giving Aristotle the credit, or blame.

[Jeep789]

5. Closest I could find wasn't a quote by Aristotle at all

but by Sir James Goldsmith

"Tolerance it a tremendous virtue, but the immediate neighbors of tolerance are apathy and weakness."

FYI I found one from Plato that we now can see the wisdom of:

"The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."