
“Take a straw and throw it up into the air — you may see by that which way the wind is.”
Libels.
Table Talk (1689)
"A Ruler of Men" Rolling Stones http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3815/3815-h/3815-h.htm (1913)
“Take a straw and throw it up into the air — you may see by that which way the wind is.”
Libels.
Table Talk (1689)
“Happiness is a Slurpee and a hot pink straw.”
Source: It's Not Summer Without You
Source: EU referendum: Leaving EU a 'leap in the dark' says Cameron https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35634239 BBC News (22 February 2016)
“[T]he only mark-to-market thing in politics is Election Day; everything else is hot air.”
2010s, 2018, Interview with Bill Kristol (2018)
"Holmes-Pollock Letters : The Correspondence of Mr. Justice Holmes and Sir Frederick Pollock, 1874-1932" (2nd ed., 1961), p. 109.
Often quoted as "I wouldn't give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity; I would give my right arm for the simplicity on the far side of complexity" and attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr..
1930s
Source: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), Ch. I : Apprentice, The Twelve-Inch Rule and Common Gavel, p. 1
Context: Force, unregulated or ill-regulated, is not only wasted in the void, like that of gunpowder burned in the open air, and steam unconfined by science; but, striking in the dark, and its blows meeting only the air, they recoil, and bruise itself. It is destruction and ruin. It is the volcano, the earthquake, the cyclone; — not growth and progress. It is Polyphemus blinded, striking at random, and falling headlong among the sharp rocks by the impetus of his own blows.
“The only way to avoid No Deal is to vote for a deal.”
Brexit: Corbyn tells May to rule out no deal at meeting https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47052227 BBC News (30 January 2019)
2010s, On Brexit
“It seems to me that the argument of the defendant's counsel blows hot and cold at the same time.”
L'Anson v. Stuart (1787), 1 T. R. 753. Compare: ". . . . This would be blowing hot and cold". Lawrence, J., Berkeley Peerage Case (1811), 4 Camp. 412; "Hot and cold were in one body fixt; And soft with hard, and light with heavy mixt", Dryden.
“Writing without making mistakes is like vomiting hot air.”
Source: Nervous Stillness on the Horizon (2006), P. 261 (2003)