Question for the quotation gurus

[Jonathan Lighter]

Am not sure that "Antigone," which dramatizes a conflict between divine law and human law, expresses this precise idea, but it may come close.

  The source of Alice's quotation, though, remains untraced.

  JL

Brenda Lester <alphatwin2002 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
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This is all over ANTIGONE.

Jonathan Lighter wrote: Well, the idea is here in Chapter 2, but it isn't as concisely put :

" 'If we go out and hang two or three men...without doing what the law says, forming a posse and bringing the men in for trial, then by the same law we're...due to be hanged ourselves.'

" 'And who'll hang us?'

" 'Maybe nobody. Then our crime's worse than a murderer's. His act puts him outside the law, but keeps the law intact. Ours would weaken the law....And it's infinitely more deadly [to society] when the law is disregarded by men pretending to act for justice.' "

Surely this idea was not original with Clark.

JL



Alice Faber wrote:
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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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