Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 837 |
| AUTHOR: | Proverb |
| QUOTATION: | He declares himself guilty who justifies himself before accusation. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Proverb.—Robert Christy, Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages, p. 470, no. 12 (1888). The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, 3d ed., rev. F. P. Wilson, p. 234 (1970), has “He who excuses himself, accuses himself.” Shakespeare expressed it as, “And oftentimes excusing of a fault / Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.”—King John, act IV, scene ii, lines 30–31. |
| SUBJECTS: | Guilt |