Karamba,

After reading your very good piece, I decided to delve into the archives of
Literature.  I have managed to dig out  13 extracts about this human species
you talked about, which might help us understand them.  I am glad you used
the phrase "with a few exceptions",  of which Saul Khan has given an
adequate and acceptable example. But for the bulk of them, especially in our
beloved Motherland, you can choose your pick from below. As for me, number
one is the ONE. Number 8 and 13 are also my favourites. Take a good look at
Nr. 1 and discern for yourself what Dickens means. Number 8 is true of The
Gambia, for the situation in the Gambia was brought about by a LAWYER who
served in the two administrations we had. If another regime should emerge
today, he wouldn't hesitate to be part of it. I think Hamjatta would say
that these people have an idiosyncratic ideology. (See point 6 below). As
long as they could be paid, they are prepared to stand before God and plea
for a mass murderer for the gates of Al Jannah to open for him. Choose your
favourite:

1.) If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.
Charles Dickens. English novelist in "The Old Curiosity Shop."

2.) Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye
entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.
Bible: New Testament  "Luke 11:52 "

3.) Even an attorney of moderate talent can postpone doomsday year after
year, for the system of appeals that pervades American jurisprudence amounts
to a legalistic wheel of fortune, a game of chance, somewhat fixed in the
favour of the criminal, that the participants play interminably.
Truman Capote.  U.S. author "In Cold Blood."

4.) When one wanted one's interests looking after whatever the cost, it was
not so well for a lawyer to be over honest, else he might not be up to other
people's tricks.
George Eliot.  English novelist in "Felix Holt, The Radical."

5.)  Amongst the learned the lawyers claim first place, the most
self-satisfied class of people, as they roll their rock of Sisyphus and
string together six hundred laws in the same breath, no matter whether
relevant or not, piling up opinion on opinion and gloss on gloss to make
their profession seem the most difficult of all. Anything which causes
trouble has special merit in their eyes.
Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch humanist in "Praise of Folly. "

6.) A fox may steal your hens, Sir,
A whore your health and pence, Sir,
Your daughter rob your chest, Sir,
Your wife may steal your rest, Sir,
A thief your goods and plate.
But this is all but picking,
With rest, pence, chest and chicken;
It ever was decreed, Sir,
If lawyer's hand is fee'd, Sir,
He steals your whole estate.
John Gay, English dramatist in "The Beggar's Opera".


7.) Lawyers are like rhinoceroses: thick skinned, short-sighted, and always
ready to charge.
David Mellor (b. 1949), British Conservative politician.

8.) A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.
Mario Puzo, American novelist in "The Godfather".

9.) Lawyers enjoy a little mystery, you know. Why, if everybody came forward
and told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth straight out,
we should all retire to the workhouse.
Dorothy L. Sayers, British author in "Clouds of Witness".

10.) A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working
mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call
himself an architect.
Sir Walter Scott,  Scottish novelist in "Guy Mannering."

11.) Whenever you wish to do anything against the law, Cicely, always
consult a good solicitor first.
George Bernard Shaw, Anglo-Irish playwright in "Captain Brassbound's
Conversion".

12.) I said there was a society of men among us, bred up from their youth in
the art of proving by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black,
and black is white, according as they are paid. To this society all the rest
of the people are as slaves.
Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish satirist in "Gulliver's Travels."

13.) The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent
expediency.
Henry David Thoreau.  Philosopher and author in "On the Duty of Civil
Disobedience".

Talking about Lawyers.

Cheers

Prince

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