“The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.”

— Samuel Butler

Public Opinions
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XVII - Material for a Projected Sequel to Alps and Sanctuaries

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this …" by Samuel Butler?

Samuel Butler 232

novelist 1835–1902

Michael Klaper (1947) American physician

Speech of July 19, 1985. Quoted in David Robinson Simon, Meatonomics (Conari Press, 2013), p. 193 https://books.google.it/books?id=PY0KUnaIU5AC&pg=PA193.

“Truth, Sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

July 21, 1763, p 514 http://books.google.com/books?id=JOseAAAAMAAJ&q="Truth+Sir+is+a+cow+which+will+yield+such+people+no+more+milk+and+so+they+are+gone+to+milk+the+bull1"&pg=PA514#v=onepage
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I
Context: Hume, and other sceptical innovators, are vain men, and will gratify themselves at any expence. Truth will not afford sufficient food to their vanity; so they have betaken themselves to errour. Truth, Sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull. If I could have allowed myself to gratify my vanity at the expence of truth, what fame might I have acquired.

“The more you think about things, the weirder they seem. Take this milk. Why do we drink COW milk?? Who was the guy who first looked at a cow and said, 'I think I'll drink whatever comes out of these things when I squeeze 'em!'?”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Source: The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes

“A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

Source: Things Fall Apart

“The sweet mellifluous milking of the cow.”

Sam Walter Foss (1858–1911) American writer

The Milking of the Cow, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“In 1974 the Federal Trade Commission finally began to catch up with the dairy industry. Specifically, the FTC issued a "proposed complaint" against the California Milk Producers Advisory Board and Cunningham and Walsh, its advertising agency. In the complaint they charged that the dairymen's campaign to stimulate milk sales constituted false, misleading, and deceptive advertising. The dairy industry was shocked. After all, what had they done other than to proclaim that "Everybody Needs Milk?" The public has heard that line for years. This time the FTC wasn't buying the slogan. They couldn't. Too much scientific evidence had been accumulated which indicated that people didn't need milk and, in fact, that it could be harmful to your health.”

Frank Oski (1932–1996) American pediatrician

Source: Don't Drink Your Milk! (1983), pp. 65-66

“We didn't starve. We spent wisely. Like I tell people in the ghetto, "If you can buy guns and bullets, why can't you buy food? You can buy heroin and crack cocaine, so why can't you buy bread and butter and milk? Why can't you pay your rent?" There's a lot of people in the ghetto who go out and get a fancy car and all that. The car costs more than their house. Meanwhile, your kids need shoes. That's not cool.”

Mr. T (1952) American actor and retired professional wrestler

The Onion A.V. Club, June 26th, 2002

“Dubai is now reduced to its component sounds: do-buy”

Bassel Khartabil (1981–2015) free culture and democracy activist, Syrian political prisoner

Tweet Jan 6, 2010, 5:45PM https://twitter.com/basselsafadi/status/7462123817 at Twitter.com

“[Compared to cow's milk] soy milk is only deficient in blood pus, antibiotics, artery-clogging fat, and cholesterol.”

Michael Greger (1972) American physician, author, and vegan health activist

Quoted in Jeffrey M. Masson, The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food https://books.google.it/books?id=-LeUV2wr2BoC&pg=PA0 (Norton & Company, 2009), p. 194.

“You may not sell the cow and sup the milk.”

Edward Macnaghten, Baron Macnaghten (1830–1913) Anglo-Irish rower, barrister, politician and Lord of Appeal in Ordinary

Quoting an old adage in Nordenfelt v. Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Co. (1894), L. R. App. Cas. (1894), L. R. App. Ca. Part 5, p. 572.

“The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Samuel Butler 232

Related quotes

Related topics