By Boyd D. Cathey
January 5, 2026
There is an old saying that "Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make [go] mad." In its original form the phrase appears to date back more than two millennia, to at least the Greek playwright Sophocles. But it was the Eighteenth Century English essayist and notable Latinist Samuel Johnson (Life of Samuel Johnson) who gave it more modern currency, rendering the phrase as "Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat" [Whom God would destroy, he first makes mad"].