"Even a dog...."

[Fred Shapiro]

On Wed, 27 Dec 2000, Elizabeth Phillips wrote:

> During the December 11 oral arguments on the Florida recount, Justice
> Kennedy said:  "Even a dog knows the difference in being stumbled over and
> being kicked." Has anyone heard this expression before? If so, any clues as
> to its origin?

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote in his book _The Common Law_:

"Vengeance imports a feeling of blame, and an opinion, however distorted
by passion, that a wrong has been done.  It can hardly go very far beyond
the case of a harm intentionally inflicted: even a dog distinguishes
between being stumbled over and being kicked."

Fred Shapiro



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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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