“"I suppose you are an entomologist?"
"Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name. No man can be truly called an entomologist, sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp".”
The Poet at the Breakfast Table (1872)
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Oliver Wendell Holmes 135
Poet, essayist, physician 1809–1894Related quotes

The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine http://archive.org/stream/entomologistsmon321896oxfo#page/n5/mode/2up, Second Series, Vol. VII

Russell Harty Plus, ITV (1973), excerpted in "Odd Man Out", BBC TV profile by Michael Cockerell transmitted on 11 November 1995
1970s

“Miller was staring at him like an entomologist trying to figure out exactly where the pin went.”
Source: Leviathan Wakes (2011), Chapter 45 (p. 457)

“I have so little sex appeal that my gynecologist calls me "sir."”
As quoted in R. Byrne, Third and Possibly the Best 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said (1987)

Advice given to Dean John William Burgon, (29 November 1847), in response to the question: "Every studious man, in the course of a long and thoughtful life, has had occasion to experience the special value of some one axiom or precept. Would you mind giving me the benefit of such a word of advice?"; quoted in Lives of twelve good men, by John William Burgon, 1888, vol. 1 p. 73.

“But, Sergeant Osbern, Sir, I like my head.”

After being heckled by a voter during a campaign trail.
Source: [Gough Whitlam dead: His memorable quotes, 21 October 2014, 2 May 2019, https://www.smh.com.au/national/gough-whitlam-dead-his-memorable-quotes-20141021-1193jd.html, Sydney Morning Herald, smh.com.au, Murphy, D]
Source: [Gough Whitlam remembered for his quick wit, Mills, D; Rajca, J, news.com.au, News Corp Australia Network, https://www.news.com.au/national/gough-whitlam-remembered-for-his-quick-wit-and-that-tv-ad-for-leggos-pasta-sauce/news-story/007e66ff548bffb6b48cea049c16ff85, 21 October 2014, 2 May 2019]

“Uxbridge: By God, sir, I've lost my leg!
Wellington: By God, sir, so you have!”
Exchange said to have occurred at the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815), after Lord Uxbridge lost his leg to a cannonball; as quoted in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
Variant account:
Uxbridge: I have lost my leg, by God!
Wellington: By God, and have you!
Thomas Hardy, in The Dynasts, Pt. III Act VII, scene viii, portraying the incident.