What is the original source of the quote "Only the good die young, to
protect them from corruption.  The evil live on that they might
repent."  that Billy Joel used a portion of in his well known song?

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Request for Question Clarification by tar_heel_v-ga on 18 Feb 2003 18:56 PST

I have not found that particular quote, however, there are some who
say that it comes from "Whom the gods love, die young"

Hello and thank you for your question.

The same question was raised in the alt.quotations newsgroup, which
provides the following sources:

"He whom the gods favor dies in youth."
     --Titus Maccius Plautus (254-184 BC)
      _Bacchides_, Act 4, Scene 7, Line 18

"So wise so young, they say, do never live long."
     --William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
      _King Richard III_ [1592-1593], Act III, Scene III, Line 79

"The best of men cannot suspend their fate:
The good die early, and the bad die late."
     --Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
      _Character of the late Dr. S. Annesley_ [1715]

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=1a5cjtsr2esb8g012os3d25vmcl9s3b8og%404ax.com

See also:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22good+die+early%22+defoe&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=E8IzFB.6DA%40world.std.com&rnum=4

http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/1/messages/2727.html

Search terms used (in Google Groups)
"good die young" source
"good die early" defoe

If you have any need for clarification of this answer, please be kind
enough to hold off on rating my work until I have an opportunity to
respond.

Cheers
Google Answers Researcher
Richard-ga

My rendition of the quote is not exact, but I do know that the actual
quote justifies youthful death as a protection from corruption, and
refers to longer life as an opportunity for repentence or redemption. 
The correct source would have to include these in the quote.

Hi, tarltonp-ga:

As you've clarified the request in your rating, the quotation takes on
a definite theological character.  For example, Mormon scripture
contains this verse:

"And the days of the children of men were prolonged, according to the
will of God, that they might repent while in the flesh;" 2 Nephi 2:21

but it is not immediately paired with the characteristic "good die
young" theme.

Your question is an interesting one, and I hope that in the future you
will be a bit more patient with the researcher.  Bear in mind that the
wording "original source of the quote" could be interpreted as perhaps
looking for the oldest known source of a phrase "like" the one given,
as opposed to trying to find a more exact match of less ancient
provenance.  Your rating comment would have made an excellent request
for clarification, and I'm sure that richard-ga would have done a
thorough job of following up.

regards, mathtalk-ga

I wasn't being impatient, I was trying to provide clarification.  I am
looking for the original author of the quote.  My rendition is not
precise, but it is very close.  So far, the responses I have gotten
have not been helpful because they have provided sources of similar
statements, but nothing that could be considered the origin of this,
specific, quote.
Thank you

I suspect that the source is a Mormon sermon which isn't on the web.
Try asking the folks at the Church of Latter Day Saints if it sounds
familiar.

My suspicion is based on a combination of the verse in Nephi (cited by
mathtalk-ga above), which says the second idea, and the following
paragraph from major Mormon figure Brigham Young, which says the first
idea:


To explain my views with regard to little children losing anything by
dying
in infancy I will ask a simple question. I will simplify it as much as
I
can, therefore I will direct my question to the little boys in the
congregation. Did you ever own that knife? "No sir, I never saw it
before."
Why did you lose it then? "I never did lose it, for I never possessed
it."
The boy's answers are an answer to Bro. Woolley's question whether
little
children lose anything by dying in infancy. It is impossible for a
person to
lose a thing they never possessed. If a person never possessed a farm
or a
good house in his lifetime, he could not say he had lost a house or a
farm.
So is it with children who die young. They do not meet with any loss
in the
next world by an early death in this. They meet with death, if that
can be
considered a loss. It may be said, "but they do not live long enough
to gain
that knowledge, and experience and do that good in the flesh, that
they
could if they lived till they were 50 years of age, is it therefore
not a
loss because they have not had an opportunity of gaining that they
might
have had?" Could you converse with a child who has died when 5 years
of age,
and ask him if he has lost anything by his death, he would say "no."
But,
little child, are you not sorry you did not live on earth longer to
gain
blessings you have not obtained through your early death?" "I am not
sorry,"
would be the reply, "because the Lord Jesus Christ has provided that
for me
which I could have obtained if I had lived on the earth to the full
age of
man." Why is this? The power of the enemy is so great upon the earth,
which
is experienced with such determined force upon mortal men, and upon
all
corruptible things, he had power to destroy the body of the child, the
spirit he could not destroy, but it returned to God who gave it. The
Lord,
in order to give every person an opportunity to obtain the fullness of
salvation, has made this wise provision for children, and thwarted the
wicked intent of the destroyer. Little children can, after death,
increase
in all the wisdom, power, glory, gifts, and blessings that pertain to
the
Celestial Kingdom. Take for example two children, and suppose one of
them
dies 50 years before the resurrection, and the other lives to the
resurrection; when they come together after the resurrection,--when
they
meet in the eternal world, one will have learned as much as the other,
though one died at 5 years old, and the other at fifty five.

Source:
BRIGHAM YOUNG ON THE RESURRECTION
http://www.wasatchnet.net/users/ewatson/4BYRes.htm

Strategy:

1) "that they might repent"

That yielded the Nephi quote. Based on that, I searched for:

2) mormon "die young"

That yielded the Young quote. 

Good luck!
ravuri-ga

I really don't think it is a Latter-Day-Saint (mormon) quote. 
Latter-day-saints believe life is a probationary period, a test
period, and repentance is key.  However, repentance doesn't have to
take place within this earthly probationary period.  It can also
happen after death in the spirit world while waiting until Christ's
second coming and the Judgement of God.  I don't think anyone in the
church would have said, "Only the good die young, to
protect them from corruption.  The evil live on that they might
repent." because it contradicts itself.  If the good died young, what
examples would there be to the evil to provide the desire and intent
to repent?

I found that the quote you refer to is from the Roman playwright
Plautus.  From freedomsnest.com and from a Classics professor I had in
college, the phrase, "Quem di diligunt, adolescens moritur" literally
could be translated as meaning, "Only the good die young", but is
supposedly more akin to the following quote,

"When the Greeks said, "Whom the gods love die young," they probably
meant, as Lord Sankey suggested, that those favored by the gods stay
young till the day they die; young and playful."  -Eric Hoffer

My classics professor actually tweaked it a little further, suggesting
that when we get old and are ready to die, those who are young at
heart are favored by the gods.

Hope this helps.