"money takes flight when might conquers right"

[Jonathan Lighter]

> "When a nation is ruled by a tyrant (might) rather than by laws (right),
then persons
with property (money) will prefer to take it elsewhere (flight)."

It depends. Hitler was great for "Aryan" businesses heavily invested in
might. Or am I misinformed?

JL

On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 8:13 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "money takes flight when might conquers right"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 1/7/2013 02:19 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >That's my guess, especially since both versions sound like nonsense.
>
> Jon, surely you're joshing.  The saying (no
> matter when invented) seems both plain and
> true.*  "When a nation is ruled by a tyrant
> (might) rather than by laws (right), then persons
> with property (money) will prefer to take it
> elsewhere (flight)."  ("Flight" has it over "fright" in this
> interpretation.)
>
> And something that Isaac of York might be
> imagined to have said in an historical romance
> like "Ivanhoe".  Although when Ivanhoe, trying to
> induce Isaac to subsidize his entry in the
> forthcoming tournament, asked Isaac whether he
> would prefer remaining under John's persecution,
> Isaac replied: "There is little to choose between
> Black John and Richard, yea and nay, if you are a
> Jew."  (This too I did not find in the
> book.)  "Right" anticipating, of course, Magna Carta 20 years later.
>
> * Or did I mean "plain and tall"?
>
> Joel
>
>
> >Money is as at least as likely to take flight/fright when right conquers
> >might, particularly if it's been heavily invested in might.
> >
> >Or even when wrong conquers might, in cases where the might is the in the
> >right.
> >
> >JL
> >
> >On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 2:12 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      Re: "money takes flight when might conquers right"
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Isn't the simple answer that this combination of two traditional
> > > phrases was fabricated by the trio that wrote the screenplay of the
> > > movie?
> > > DanG
> > >
> > >
> > > On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 12:26 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net>
> wrote:
> > > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > > > Subject:      Re: "money takes flight when might conquers right"
> > > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > >
> > > > At 1/7/2013 10:19 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
> > > >>A website with movie subtitle (or caption) information suggests that
> a
> > > >>variant of the saying with the word "fright" was used in the dialog
> of
> > > >>Ivanhoe. Of course, captions are sometimes inaccurate.
> > > >
> > > > True, although "fright" has about 56 hits, versus
> > > > "money takes *flight*" + "might conquers right"
> > > > which yields only a hapax legomenon:
> > > >
> > > > "Apr 19, 2012 ­ To quote a line from one of my
> > > > favorite movies "When might conquers right, money
> > > > takes flight." From Ivanhoe 1952. All been posted before by ..."
> > > >
> http://hotcopper.co.nz/post_single.asp?fid=1&tid=1721404&msgid=9965717
> > > >
> > > > I can't swear whether I heard "flight" or "fright".  (Either would
> > > serve.)
> > > >
> > > > But still, did the saying appear earlier than in the movie?
> > > >
> > >
> >
> http://www.docstoc.com/docs/80908184/February-16_-2007-Quote-of-the-day-_quotMoney-takes-fright-when-might
> > > > attributes the "fright" formulation to Scott and
> > > > Ivanhoe, but I did not find it in Gutenberg's copy.
> > > >
> > > > Joel
> > > >
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> >
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