ProverbMoralityLatin origin

He who permits wickedness commands it

Meaning: Silently allowing wrongdoing makes you as responsible as the wrongdoer.

Origin: Seneca's tragedy Troades has Agamemnon say: qui non vetat peccare, cum possit, iubet — he who does not forbid wrongdoing when he can, commands it. A related Latin legal maxim, qui non prohibet quod prohibere potest, assentire videtur, holds that whoever fails to forbid what he can forbid is taken to consent.

Equivalents in German

  • German: Wer schweigt, stimmt zu (literally: He who stays silent agrees)

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