"Flog A Dead Horse"
The first recorded use of the expression with its modern meaning is by John Bright, referring to the Reform Bill of 1867, which called for more democratic representation in Parliament, an issue about which Parliament was singularly apathetic. The Oxford English Dictionary cites The Globe, 1872, as the earliest verifiable use of flogging a dead horse, where someone is said to have "rehearsed that... lively operation known as flogging a dead horse".
Read more about this topic: John Bright
Famous quotes containing the words flog, dead and/or horse:
“You are all fundamentalists with a top dressing of science. That is why you are the stupidest of conservatives and reactionists in politics and the most bigoted of obstructionists in science itself. When it comes to getting a move on you are all of the same opinion: stop it, flog it, hang it, dynamite it, stamp it out.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“I wouldn’t pray just for a old man that’s dead because he’s all right. If I was to pray, I’d pray for the folks that’s alive and don’t know which way to turn. Grampa here, he ain’t got no more trouble like that. He’s got his job all cut out for him. So cover him up and let him get to it.”
—Nunnally Johnson (1897–1977)
“I am a good horse to travel, but not from choice a roadster. The landscape-painter uses the figures of men to mark a road. He would not make that use of my figure.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)