Question for the quotation gurus

[Jonathan Lighter]

I saw that movie.  "B" is charitable.

  I don't know about the wording, but the sentiment is expressed somewhere in Walter Van Tilburg Clark's _The Ox-Bow Incident_ (1940), which I believe bases it on the words of a prominent philosopher.

  All the details escape me. Natch.  But I can find the book in no time.

  Stay tuned.

  JL

Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Alice Faber
Organization: Haskins Laboratories
Subject: Question for the quotation gurus
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The question has arisen on one of my newsgroups about the source of a
particular quotation: "the failure of justice is more damaging to
society than crime itself."

Googling suggests Clarence Darrow, but in an indirect way that doesn't
inspire confidence. (Bill Maher, quoted the phrase, with the attribution
to Darrow, on Larry King Live last December.) The only other googlits
are from the sigquote of a poster on skyscrapercity.com.

A newsgroup poster found, in a 1776 B movie, Lipstick: "Crime cannot be
avoided because no human being is perfect. But the failure of justice is
more damaging to society than crime itself."

We suppose it *could* be from the movie, but we'd all like to know if it
really was Darrow (or whether Darrow's just a magnet for legal
aphorisms) in the way that Dorothy Parker is for acerbic put-downs.

--
 =============================================================================
Alice Faber faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA fax (203) 865-8963

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