[1] The phrase "two wrongs infer one right" appears in a poem dated to 1734, published in The London Magazine.
Accusing another of not practicing what they preach, while appropriate in some situations,[a] does not in itself invalidate an action or statement that is perceived as contradictory.
Kavka refers back to philosophical concepts of retribution by Thomas Hobbes.
[3] Conservative journalist Victor Lasky wrote in his book It Didn't Start With Watergate that, while two wrongs do not make a right, if a set of immoral things are done and left unprosecuted, this creates a legal precedent.
[4] An orient star led, thro' his blind- Side, to a prize his eye of mind: The lightning said, its he; in Spight Of fate two wrongs infer one right.