Quote of the day -- Whenever man commits a crime heaven finds a witness. -- Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

I like to read these because occasionally there will be something good for closing argument. This one, however, I don't get.

Does this mean that a criminal will get an angel on his side?

That God sees what he did?

Help me out here.

I read it as "even if Man can't prove what you did, God still knows about it."

Possibly this is one reason why the judgment of posterity places Bulwer-Lytton in the second rank of England's nineteenth-century novelists?

"Everyone has a criminal history. You just have to find it."

"Even as a historical novelist Bulwer-Lytton is universally held to be inferior to such masters as Hugo, Dickens and Scott, presumably as regards character, psychological drama, and other pure literary qualities." "Although he was a very famous novelist in his day nobody reads him any more. This is not much of an exaggeration." Taken from Bulwer-Lytton by John S Moore.

Possibly the quote works better in context.

quote:

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"Although he was a very famous novelist in his day nobody reads him any more.

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Wiht a name like "Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton," how could he not be easily forgotten? His literary agent should have had him change his name to something more marketable, like ... like ... "John Grisham" or "Dan Brown" or "Tom Clancy" ... now THOSE names can sell some books!!

Every year, a literary society conducts a contest to find the worst opening line to a novel or piece of literature. The contest is internationally reported every year and the winners (losers) are usually amazing examples of really, really bad writing. I believe that the competition is named after Messr. Bulwer-Lytton. That should explain everything.

I view it as a warning to the would be criminal that there is "no perfect crime". Even when the criminal thinks he has left no witness one will be found. Could not man's discovery of the use of DNA evidence be considered a heavenly intervention that created a witness where there once was none?

An investigator I know told me how his boss, the D.A., was a great worrier, and an extremely compulsive guy when it came to preparing for trial. What drove the DA crazy was his assist., who had a rather relaxed way of getting ready for trial. Even so, the investigator told me, the asst. almost always had great luck. Something always came along to pull his fat out of the fire.

Once the Asst. was trying a woman for murdering her husband. It was not the best prepared case, and towards the end of the state's case, it looked like everything had unraveled. He and the asst. DA were just hoping the jury would take more than 30 minutes to return a not guilty verdict.

They adjurned for lunch, but before the very dejected asst. could get out of the courtroom, a little wispy guy approached him.

"Excuse me, sir," the man said to the prosecutor. "I don't know if this is important or not. But, I'm the defendant's hairdresser. She told me, while I was doing her hair, about 2 weeks before her husband was killed, that she was going to have her husband killed. I didn't believe her at the time, but apparently he was killed just the way she said she'd do it. I don't know if this is important to you or not."

Well, the asst. DA thought it was highly important, and so did the jury, which, after hearing this fellow's testimony, convicted her.

"It was a dark and stormy night...."

quote:

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"It was a dark and stormy night...."

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I thought Snoopy was the original author of that line. Next you'll tell there's no Santa Claus.

Geez, what a way to end the week!

Let's don't write this book that starts out, "It was a dark and stormy night." And had anyone really heard of this Bulwer-Lytton guy before? I even took English Literature in college and this dude's name never came up.

Years ago in England, I was dragged screaming through a classical education and studied legal reform in the nineteenth century at law school there, but I don't recall this fellow's name--even though he was associated with Jeremy Bentham and other Philosophical Radicals. But maybe I was a poor student.

Jeremy Bentham's theory of motivation by hedonism (pleasure/pain principle) made alot more sense than the quote that started the thread.

The victim of a criminal justice undergrad major, I never heard of Bentham's contemporary either.

Quote of the day -- Whenever man commits a crime heaven finds a witness. -- Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

I think the original post requested the deeper meaning of this quote.
On the surface, it is the kind of statement that makes learned folks say 'Huh?' However, if you replace the literal definition of the word witness with the Southern colloquial use (as in 'Can I get a witness?').... I think the quote refers to the propensity of inmates to find religion while sitting in jail after the commission of a crime.
Did anyone run Bulwer-Lytton's CCH?

Richard Alpert gets it. What is wrong with the rest of you.

Because I am simple, I read the quote simply: There is always a way to show who is the guilty party. Injustice offends heaven, therefore heaven (God) will provide the means to do justice-a witness.