"There is such a thing as doing good that evil may come"
About this Quote
A single clause flips the moral slogan most people carry around like a talisman: “do good, and good will follow.” Butler’s line is a warning shot at virtue that’s too pleased with itself. By inverting the older maxim “do evil that good may come,” he exposes a quieter danger: benevolence can be an instrument of harm when it’s unexamined, paternalistic, or simply allergic to consequences.
The intent isn’t to sneer at goodness so much as to demystify it. “Doing good” is framed as an action, a performance with real-world effects, not a haloed inner state. The syntax makes the twist land cleanly: the phrase “such a thing as” sounds almost domestic, like he’s pointing out a minor household hazard, and then he smuggles in the bigger claim. That tonal restraint is the point. Butler’s cynicism isn’t theatrical; it’s clinical.
Subtextually, he’s poking at moral certainty and the self-credentialing of reformers. Good intentions can license overreach: the missionary convinced he’s saving souls while erasing cultures; the social improver who “rescues” the poor by policing them; the philanthropist who treats charity as a substitute for justice. Butler, writing in Victorian England, lived amid aggressive confidence in progress, empire, and moral reform - a world that regularly called itself humane while building systems that were anything but.
The line works because it refuses the comforting math of ethics. It insists that goodness isn’t proven by motive or rhetoric, only by what it produces - and by who gets to define “good” in the first place.
The intent isn’t to sneer at goodness so much as to demystify it. “Doing good” is framed as an action, a performance with real-world effects, not a haloed inner state. The syntax makes the twist land cleanly: the phrase “such a thing as” sounds almost domestic, like he’s pointing out a minor household hazard, and then he smuggles in the bigger claim. That tonal restraint is the point. Butler’s cynicism isn’t theatrical; it’s clinical.
Subtextually, he’s poking at moral certainty and the self-credentialing of reformers. Good intentions can license overreach: the missionary convinced he’s saving souls while erasing cultures; the social improver who “rescues” the poor by policing them; the philanthropist who treats charity as a substitute for justice. Butler, writing in Victorian England, lived amid aggressive confidence in progress, empire, and moral reform - a world that regularly called itself humane while building systems that were anything but.
The line works because it refuses the comforting math of ethics. It insists that goodness isn’t proven by motive or rhetoric, only by what it produces - and by who gets to define “good” in the first place.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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