A line, which had passed into a proverb in the time of Cicero, is attributed to him,- Fato Metelli Romae fiunt consules; to which the Metelli are said to have replied in the pithy Saturnian, Dabunt Malum Metelli Naevio poetae.
"The Roman Poets of the Republic"
W. Y. Sellar
Possibly there might be some ground for the recognition of the distinction between acts Malum in se and Malum prohibitum, acts which under every law, human and divine, are criminal, and those acts which are only criminal by virtue of some positive statute making them such.
"Memoirs of Orange Jacobs"
Orange Jacobs
The essential distinction between the two practices is much like that which lawyers were formerly in the habit of drawing in the case of crimes between Malum prohibitum and Malum in se.
"The Government of England (Vol. I)"
A. Lawrence Lowell