Some men would be tempted to say, that nothing succeeds except the dark conspiracies of the wicked, and that the innocent intentions of the good are seldom or never accomplished.
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions (1782). copy citation

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Author Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Source Confessions
Topic intention good
Date 1782
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Samuel William Orson
Weblink https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Confessions_(Rousseau)

Context

“every part of the project was arranged the eve of his departure; nothing was left undetermined, except that which depends not upon men in the best concerted plans, posterior events. My disasters, his marriage, and finally, his death, separated us forever. Some men would be tempted to say, that nothing succeeds except the dark conspiracies of the wicked, and that the innocent intentions of the good are seldom or never accomplished. I had felt the inconvenience of dependence, and took a resolution never again to expose myself to it; having seen the projects of ambition, which circumstances had induced me to form, overturned in their birth.” source