“Sir, there is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea.”

—  Samuel Johnson

When asked by Maurice Morgann whom he considered to be the better poet — Smart or Derrick, 1783, p. 504
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Sir, there is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea." by Samuel Johnson?
Samuel Johnson photo
Samuel Johnson 362
English writer 1709–1784

Related quotes

Samuel Johnson photo

“Why, Sir, it is difficult to settle the proportion of iniquity between them.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

Feb. 15, 1766, p. 145
Said of Rousseau and Voltaire
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II

“Government doesn’t louse up everything, but it sure louses up a lot of what it promises to deliver.”

Jim Geraghty (1975) American journalist

Ten Reasons We Can't, and Shouldn't, Be Nordic (2018)

Bernard Cornwell photo

“"Why do they call them vaulters?" "Vaulters?" "Voltigeur, Sharpe. French for vaulter." "God knows, sir." "Because the jump like fleas, sir, when you shoot at them. But don't worry yourself about that one, sir. He's a good voltigeur, that one. He's dead."”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Colonel Claud Runciman, Captain Richard Sharpe, and Sergeant Patrick Harper, p. 331
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Battle (1995)

Albert Camus photo

“The preceding merely defines a way of thinking. But the point is to live.”

Albert Camus book The Myth of Sisyphus

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), An Absurd Reasoning

“It is much easier to settle a point than to act on it.”

Richard Cecil (clergyman) (1748–1810) British Evangelical Anglican priest and social reformer

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 4.

Benjamin Disraeli photo

“That is the fourth course, which in future I trust the right hon. Gentleman (Sir R. Peel) will not forget. The right hon. Gentleman tells us to go back to precedents; with him a great measure is always founded on a small precedent. He traces the steam-engine always back to the tea-kettle. His precedents are generally tea-kettle precedents.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1845/apr/11/maynooth-college in the House of Commons (11 April 1845).
1840s

Mark Twain photo

“Probable nor'east to sou'west winds, varying to the soutard and westard and eastard and points between; high and low barometer, sweeping round from place to place; probable areas of rain, snow, hail, and drought, succeeded or preceded by earthquakes with thunder and lightning.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

New England Weather, speech to the New England Society (December 22, 1876)

“The point now before us is a settled case, and therefore there is no need to enter into arguments about it.”

Thomas Denison (1699–1765) British judge (1699–1765)

Rex v. Jarvis (1756), 1 Burr. Part IV. 154.

Benjamin N. Cardozo photo

“What has once been settled by a precedent will not be unsettled overnight, for certainty and uniformity are gains not lightly sacrificed. Above all is this true when honest men have shaped their conduct on the faith of the pronouncement.”

Benjamin N. Cardozo (1870–1938) United States federal judge

Other writings, The Paradoxes of Legal Science (1928)

Jack Vance photo

““Sir Tristano spoke: “Stop! You are taking the great green pearl!”
“Naturally!” said the voice from a point close behind. “That is the whole point of robbery: to acquire the victim’s valuables!””

Jack Vance Lyonesse Trilogy

Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 1, section 4 (p. 375)

Related topics