"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:
“It is a crime to put a Roman citizen in chains, it is an enormity to flog one, sheer murder to slay one: what, then, shall I say of crucifixion? It is impossible to find the word for such an abomination.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“As dead as a doornail.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“A marchant was therwith a forked berd,
In mottelee, and hye on horse he sat,
Upon his heed a Flaundryssh bevere hat,
His bootes clasped faire and fetisly.
His resons he spak ful solempnely,”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)