Quote#Truth
The manner of the transaction was to gild over and conceal the truth;…
Quote byJohn Eardley Wilmot · 1709–1792
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Collins v. Blantern (1767), 2 Wils. 349..
English (original)
The manner of the transaction was to gild over and conceal the truth; and whenever Courts of law see such attempts made to conceal such wicked deeds they will brush away the cobweb varnish and show the transactions in their true light.
— John Eardley Wilmot
More from John Eardley Wilmot
The time makes no difference in the reason of the thing.
There is no merit in a settlement: it depends upon positive law.
If once we go upon niceties of construction, we shall not know where to stop. For one nicety is made a foundation for another; and that other for a third; and so on, without end.
It is the principle of the common law, that an officer ought not to take money for doing his duty.
Nothing could be of worse consequence, than that an officer of the Court should combine with a criminal to frustrate the sentence of the Court.
It is a strange, wild jurisdiction, where the jurors are judges both of law and fact, and ignorant country fellows2 are to determine the nicest points of law.