
In reply to the question 'Are you a crook?', from BBC Panorama http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/7243095.stm interviewer Fergal Keane, 11 February 2008
Spade
Source: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
In reply to the question 'Are you a crook?', from BBC Panorama http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/7243095.stm interviewer Fergal Keane, 11 February 2008
“The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men.”
Part I, chapter 11.
Proverbs (1546), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“I would always love Alaska Young, my crooked neighbor, with all my crooked heart.”
Miles "Pudge" Halter, p. 218
Looking for Alaska (2005)
Address in Memphis, Tennessee (25 October 1905) http://www.trsite.org/content/pages/speaking-loudly
1900s
“Skinnner: "OK, half the Tories opposite are not crooks."”
There is no evidence that Skinner said this. But see quotation from 1 April 1981, above.
It is an old joke which has been around since at least 1927 http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/04/19/half-fools/.
Misattributed
Variant: Skinner: "Half the Tories opposite are crooks."
Source: "Dennis Skinner Did Not Call Half the Tories Crooks (and How to Verify Other Quotes from Parliament)" https://clioseyeroll.wordpress.com/2016/12/03/dennis-skinner-did-not-call-half-the-tories-crooks-and-how-to-verify-other-quotes-from-parliament/, 03 December 2016.