Who said this?

February 12, 2008 8:42 PM

Who said this quote: "Murder is the most expedient form of criticism"?

It sounds to me very much like something Quentin Crisp might have said. I don't know where I read it, and have tried a google search; maybe it was a graffito on a bathroom wall, but I think it's great and have wondered for years where it originated. Anyone know? Also, I'm interested in hearing some of you guys' favorite clever lines. Thanks!

posted by theperfectcrime to writing & language (5 comments total)

Wilfrid Sheed said something similar: "Suicide is about life, being in fact the sincerest form of criticism life gets".

There's also an unattributed "Murder is the most sincere form of criticism" here.
posted by iconomy at 9:04 PM on February 12, 2008

That's great! Thank you. I'm also thinking maybe Dorothy Parker.
posted by theperfectcrime at 9:25 PM on February 12, 2008

R. A. Lafferty expressed it the following way:
When you have shot and killed a man you have in some measure clarified your attitude toward him. You have given a definite answer to a definite problem. For better or worse you have acted decisively. In a way, the next move is up to him.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 9:26 PM on February 12, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

If we're thinking of the same quotation, you might mean George Bernard Shaw's "Assassination is the extremest form of censorship."
posted by roombythelake at 10:35 PM on February 12, 2008

Sorry, it seems to be simply "extreme," not "extremest" as I wrote above.
posted by roombythelake at 10:40 PM on February 12, 2008