"Don't get mad, get even."

[Fred Shapiro]

On Tue, 9 Jan 2007, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> Usually attributed to _Animal House_ (1978).  That's when I first heard
> it.  Any older?

The soberingly well-researched new quotation dictionary, The Yale Book of
Quotations, has the following:

Don't get mad, get even.
        Joseph P. Kennedy, Quoted in Ben Bradlee, _Conversations with
Kennedy_ (1975).  An earlier occurrence appeared in the _Chicago Tribune_,
21 Feb. 1967: "The motto of the Irish Mafia which Bobby [Kennedy]
inherited has always been, 'Don't get mad -- get even,' a slogan which
predates the Kennedys in Massachusetts politics."

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press
Yale Law School                             ISBN 0300107986
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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