BOSWELL. But what do you think of supporting a cause which you know to be bad?
JOHNSON. “Sir, you do not know it to be good or bad till the Judge determines it. … It is his business to judge; and you are not to be confident in your own opinion that the cause is bad, but to say all you can for your client, and then hear the Judge’s opinion.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic

Comment (Spring 1768)

On being a lawyer. In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)