Respect the Law (1941)

Moroni Olsen: Dr. Walter Terriss

Quotes 

• Dr. Walter Terriss : To achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people is the fundamental purpose of every law.

• Dr. Walter Terriss : Brennan caught three infected rats. That means there are ten or twenty times that many, still loose somewhere in the neighborhood where he caught them. And it might be anywhere in his territory, which extends from the waterfront ten miles to the city hall. I tell you, Mac, you've got to get Brennan - or we'll have an new epidemic that'll make this one look like a tea party!

  Lt. Edward Macroy : But if Brennan located infected rats, why can't your men relocate them?

  Dr. Walter Terriss : It would take from four days to four weeks to find those burrows, depending upon luck - and by that time, the plague could spread beyond our control.

• Dr. Walter Terriss : Most of the work's done by the Rodent Control Bureau.

  Reporter : Oh - by exterminating all the rats in town?

  Dr. Walter Terriss : That's physically impossible. There are twice as many rats as there are humans in the average American city.

• Dr. Walter Terriss : One of the most insidious menaces operating against civic, state and national welfare in America is the attitude of unthinking individuals toward our complex system of laws and ordinances. Now, those laws have been placed upon the statute books only after long and careful deliberation by men who have devoted whole lifetimes to the job of lawmaking. All too frequently, the individual permits selfish indulgence to stand in the way of public welfare. Failure to respect the law very often places the burden of one man's selfishness upon the shoulders of the entire community.