The wheels of justice...

Posted by Graham Cambray on January 24, 2009 at 18:25

In Reply to: The wheels of justice... posted by June Ainsworth on January 24, 2009 at 08:03:

: Where does the quotation "The wheels of justice grind slowly" originate from?

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Probably the most useful thing I can do is to guide you to earlier discussions.
www.phrases.org.uk bulletin_board 22 messages 885.html and www.phrases.org.uk bulletin_board 9 messages 842.html talk largely about the mills of God grinding slowly (and take this phrase back a lot earlier than the Kipling poem I immediately thought of). But "Wheels of Justice" is clearly a respectable phrase in its own right - see justicewheels.org/ , for example. Nor is it uncommon to find people using the quotation you cite. But I can only take you this far. I suspect the "grinding slowly" bit has trasferred across from the "mills of God" quotation (which goes back to classical Greek), but other, wiser contributors to this forum may possibly be able to confirm this. (GC)