[PW] The good of the many

[Even Flood]

On Sat, Mar 15, 2008 at 1:09 PM, Carolyn <dcma at vermontel.net> wrote:
> Good morning --
>
>  I am once again seeking the source of an adage, trying to determine
>  whether it's a true quotation or just a philosophical remark that's
>  been around for ages. My online searching has not answered the question.
>
>  The saying as I've always known it is: "The good of the many
>  outweighs the needs of the one."
>
>  A version appeared in one of the Star Trek movies, wherein Spock
>  saves the day by sacrificing himself, with his dying words being,
>  "The good of the many outweighs the good of the one." Variations of
>  this are all over the Internet, and it's the only attribution I've
>  uncovered. Yet I am positive that the saying originates well before Star Trek!
>
>  Can anyone shed light on this subject. Many thanks.
>

For one version you can go to the Bible, John 11, 49-50:
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them,
"You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that
one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish."

Even

-- 
Even Hartmann Flood, Senior Academic Librarian
Ilevollen 3e
N 7018 Trondheim, Norway.
Phone: +47 73 52 53 53/ +47 95 11 58 14
even.flood at gmail.com
http://home.broadpark.no/~evflood/
"Come, and take choice of all my library, and so beguile thy sorrow."
 (Shakespeare)