If Moses had gone to Harvard Law School and spent three years working on the Hill, he would have written the Ten Commandments with three exceptions and a saving clause.

The quote "If Moses had gone to Harvard Law School and spent three years working on the Hill, he would have written the Ten Commandments with three exceptions and a saving clause" by Charles Morgan humorously reflects the complexity and legal nuances that often arise in modern lawmaking. Morgan is drawing a contrast between the simplicity and directness of the Ten Commandments, which were presented as moral absolutes, and the modern tendency to complicate laws with exceptions and loopholes.

The origin of the quote comes from Morgan's observations of the evolution of legal systems. As a lawyer himself, he recognized the tendency for contemporary laws to become more intricate, often adding layers of exceptions, clauses, and stipulations. He suggests that the moral clarity of the Ten Commandments would have been diminished if Moses had been influenced by modern legal education and politics, symbolized by Harvard Law and working on Capitol Hill.

This quote is a critique of the modern legal process, where laws are often crafted with so many conditions and exceptions that they lose their original intent. Morgan implies that modern lawmakers, shaped by the intricacies of law and political compromise, may be more focused on crafting laws that can withstand scrutiny, rather than focusing on moral clarity or simplicity.