Quote#Freedom
...but if you succeed in persuading this poor devil to part with…
Quote byJoseph Ritson · 1752–1803
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The legal profession, The Letters of Joseph Ritson, Volume I p. 155.
English (original)
...but if you succeed in persuading this poor devil to part with every penny of his own profits, in stripping him to the skin, in picking him to the bone, Jonathan Wild was a fool to you, that's all. You have my full and free consent to do whatever you please with the fellow, and god send him a good deliverance. But you won't forget to lend me the cash!
— Joseph Ritson
More from Joseph Ritson
It has been frequently said that fools make knaves; it is equally true, I believe, that credulity is the parent of falsehood.
You complain, I see, that I have too much acidity in my composition; and, I think, you have too much puritanism. St. Matthew, vii. 5.
I am much obliged by the pains you have taken in detecting the blunders of the English Anthology. Some of them, however, are those of the author himself, or of the authority, at least, whence the piece is taken, and for these, of course, …
Ritson: "That same power, one may answer, which authorises kings to take where it can be worst spared, and give it where it is least wanted. Our hero, in this respect, was a knight-errant; and wanted no other commission than that of …
Dr. Fuller to Ritson: "But Who made him[Robin Hood] a judge? or gave him a commission to take where it might be best spared, and give where it was most wanted?"
As writing seems to be attended with some difficulty if not uneasiness, you have only to put down a figure of 4 or 5 before a cypher to satisfy me of the verity of the matter: a nod, you know, is as good as a wink to a blind horse.