Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Quem Deus Vult Perdere, Prius Dementat
Quem deus vult perdere, prius dementat.
Boswell’s Johnson, 1783.
Translated.—Whom the Lord wishes to ruin, he first deprives of reason; or, “When God will punish, he will first take away the understanding.”
Geo. Herbert.—Jacula Prudentum.
[After a long search (for this passage) for the purpose of deciding a bet, some gentlemen of Cambridge found it among the fragments of Euripides, where it is given as a translation of a Greek iambic.—Malone’s Note to Boswell’s Johnson.]
In quiet let him perish, for provident Jove hath deprived him of reason.
Buckley’s Homer.—The Iliad, Book IX. Page 161.
[The passage has reference to the condition of one who is advancing imperceptibly, though surely, to final ruin.—Kennedy, cited by Mr. Buckley, supra.]