Old SF/F book - Looking for the source of a quote

[Jeremy]

OK, this one might be tough.
I remembered a line that I read a long time ago in a vintage fantasy/science fiction novel (probably 1950s or 60s, maybe as late as the 70s), but I can't for the life of me remember which novel or the author.

The line was, "Take your hand off my arm or I'll take your hand off your arm." It was spoken by the young protagonist to an older, patronizing character (maybe a guardsman of some sort).

That's all I've got, sorry. I can't remember any context or other details. No help from Google.
I have a vivid memory of reading the passage and saying 'Wow, what a great line, I've gotta remember that.' And I did... but nothing about the source. Argh!

Any help would be appreciated.

[Krazykiwi]

A quick search at Google books shows only one precise match, from this book: The Staked Goat which is way too new.

That said, there's quite a lot of similar sentiments. My favourite was "Take your hand off my arm or I'll take your arm off and beat you with it", closely followed by "Take your hand off my arm," I said. "Or I will break your fuckin' fingers", but even most of those were from books written in the last 5 years or so, with a few outliers, including a Louis L'Amour book, but nothing that jumped out at me as the right era fantasy/sci-fi. That said, 50's through 70's is in that grey area of stuff that's still possibly copyrighted and isn't in Google Books corpus, or at least isn't searchable.

It's also quite similar to an arabic proverb apparently "Take your hand off, or may you lose it".

I also found other people using it, for instance on reddit, but nothing indicating it's a quote.

I suspect it's like "I just came here to chew gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum", just part of general pop culture, and has been repeated and bent so many times, nobody remembers the canonical source (the movie "They Live", for that one :)

All told, finding this book might be pretty difficult, but it'd be fun to find out.

[Jon]

“Reacher said, "So here's the thing Brett. Either you take your hand off my chest, or I'll take it off your wrist.”
― Lee Child, Worth Dying For

[Jeremy]

Thanks, Jon. That's pretty close, but the one I'm searching for is much much older than the Jack Reacher series.

[Jeremy]

Here's a little background info - When I was in my teens (early to mid-eighties), I found a box of thirty or so of my dad's old vintage science fiction and fantasy novels in our attic. The books were a mix of fantasy and sci-fi and the publication dates were mostly in the 50s, 60s with a few from the early 70s. As an example of the publication era, there were several first-run books by James Schmitz and Clifford D. Simak.
The quote was in one of the books in that box (not necessarily in the Schmitz or Simak books).

[Justanotherbiblophile]

Is your dad still alive? If so, maybe ask him?

[Jeremy]

Unfortunately, my dad passed away a few years ago.

[Al]

Clifford D Simak was writing a long time by the 60's. Ihave a book or two of his, I'll have a look through. I don't have any books by Schmitz.

[Al]

I looked in the only Simak book I have. I thought I had more. It is Cosmic Engineers. Reading Simak's style, the quote in question doesn't seem to be his style. My edition is copyright 1950, printed 1967 from original short novel by same author copyright 1939.

[Leiah]

Jeremy wrote: "Here's a little background info - When I was in my teens (early to mid-eighties), I found a box of thirty or so of my dad's old vintage science fiction and fantasy novels in our attic. The books we..."

You are so lucky to have found such a treasure!

[Jeremy]

Just to be clear - the quote was not necessarily in one of the Schmitz or Simak books. I was just giving those as an example of the publication period.

[Jeremy]

As an aside - If you guys have never read The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz, I highly recommend it.

[Justanotherbiblophile]

Just a note, the expanded novelette was republished in 2005 (along with most of Schmitz's corpus), as well as two sequels, not by Schmitz (but by top-level authors).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wit...

[Jeremy]

bump.

[Justanotherbiblophile]

*Thanksgiving Bump*

Also, I saw this meme in the movie: _The Book of Eli_

[Jeremy]

bump

[Amanda]

Ok soooo looking i found this.....https://books.google.com/books?id=TEZ... by William Harvey Canfieldand it says "take your hand off or I will cut it off" and it was written in 1861 according that site.....however i dont know where to go from there here is the link for what goodreads has on it Outline Sketches of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Including Its History from the First Marks of Man's Hand to 1891 and Its Typography, Both Written and Illustrated: Volume Second: Baraboo, Ninth Sketch but they all say its printed in 2000+ ....kinda new to this site but there seems to be something missing between these links and i have no idea how to figure it out..... but maybe the book looks familiar from the first link where it lets you read some of it.... if so it might be an edition between the two you had and maybe someone else can find the next step, hope it helps or at least eliminates it from the competition

[Mark-]

Blunt Darts by Jeremiah Healy has a very similar quote: “Take your hand off his jacket or I'll take your hand off your arm.” Happy hunting.

[Jeremy]

bump again