Monday, January 6, 2014

"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are"

A nice quotation but not from Ben Franklin (as usually attributed).

First, the quotation does not appear to be referred to anywhere prior to 2000.

Second the use of the word "outraged" is problematic. In the quotation it is used to describe the emotional state of an individual. But in the 18th century, the word "outraged" implied that something terrible had been done to someone (or something) without referring to how that made someone feel.

The quotation doesn't come from Ben Franklin.

5 comments:

tarobins said...

"The problem with internet quotes is that you can't always depend on their accuracy" -Abraham Lincoln, 1864

Anonymous said...

http://message.snopes.com/showpost.php?p=9409&postcount=20

Tom Pater said...



The quote may originate with Solon, the lawgiver of Athens. As quoted by Diogenes:

“When he was asked how men could be most effectually deterred from committing injustice, he said, ‘If those who are not injured feel as much indignation as those who are.’”

http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/diogenes/dlsolon.htm.

Anonymous said...

Those words are the start of a movie I'm watching. They are a great bunch of words put together and not that I'm a sort of authoritative of Benjamin Franklin but I've read his autobiography and don't recall ever reading those before I'm thinking he did not quote that.

Anonymous said...

That's funny stuff.