Fleas Quotes

• You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Dog, Justice, African American

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• The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.

  John Adams

  Strength, Peace, Tyrants

  John Adams (1794). “A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America: Against the Attack of M. Turgot in His Letter to Dr. Price, Dated the Twenty-second Day of March, 1778”, p.385

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• Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum, And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on, While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.

  Augustus De Morgan

  Ems, Goes On, Littles

  Augustus De Morgan (1872). “A Budget of Paradoxes”, p.377

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• That's a valiant flea that dares eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.

  William Shakespeare

  Courage, Breakfast, Lions

  William Shakespeare, J. M. Jephson (1866). “The Works of William Shakespeare”, p.454

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• He that lieth down with Dogs, shall rise up with Fleas.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Funny, Dog, 4th Of July

  Benjamin Franklin (2007). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.9, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• It's a good thing for a dog to have fleas; keeps his mind off being a dog.

  Mark Twain

  Dog, Mind, Good Things

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• To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be that have tried it.

  Herman Melville

  Book, Writing, Literature

  Moby Dick ch. 104 (1851)

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• Crooks aren't the worst people, just the stupidest. The fleas of the world.

  Orson Welles

  People, Stupidity, Crooks

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• The flea, though he kill none, he does all the harm he can.

  John Donne

  Doe, Ethics, Morality

  John Donne, John Carey (2000). “John Donne: The Major Works”, p.340, Oxford University Press, USA

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• But was there ever dog that praised his fleas?

  William Butler Yeats

  Dog

  1909 'To a Poet, who would have me Praise certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine', complete poem. Collected in The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910).

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• On the neck of a giraffe a flea begins to believe in immortality.

  Bill Vaughan

  Believe, Necks, Giraffe

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• When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.

  Unknown

  Dog, Lying, Get Up

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• If you go long enough without a bath, even the fleas will let you alone.

  Ernie Pyle

  Funny, Long, Baths

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

  Samuel Johnson

  Settling, Flea Markets

  On the relative merits of two minor poets, in James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 4, p. 192 (1783)

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• A reasonable amount of fleas is good for a dog; it keeps him from brooding over being a dog.

  Edward Noyes Westcott

  Dog, Humor, Brooding

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• Fine writers should split hairs together, and sit side by side, like friendly apes, to pick the fleas from each others fur.

  Logan Pearsall Smith

  Hair, Friendly, Together

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• Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man. But they don't bite everybody.

  Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

  Men, Thinking, Make You Think

  "Unkempt Thoughts". Book by Stanisław Jerzy Lec, translated by Jacek Galazka, 1962.

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• A professor must have a theory as a dog must have fleas.

  H. L. Mencken

  Dog, Professors, Theory

  H.L. MENCKEN (1958). “PREJUDICES A SELECTION”

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• Flea and Anthony are into funk, like old school Meters and stuff like that.

  Chad Smith

  School, Stuff, Meter

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• We always feel pretty creative as far as writing songs. We write them together; we just get in a room, or on occasion in Flea's garage. We just sort of improvise, like jazz musicians.

  Chad Smith

  Song, Writing, Creative

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• But we used to go to flea markets and things, and look for old 78 records that had silly song titles.

  Neil Innes

  Song, Silly, Titles

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• So, naturalists observe, a flea; Hath smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller fleas to bite 'em, And so proceed ad infinitum.

  Jonathan Swift

  Ems, Mathematics, Insects

  On Poetry" l. 337 (1733)

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• I am not sure how much I would like being married if I wasn't married to him. A man who likes flea markets and isn't gay? I knew I was lucky.

  Lynda Barry

  Gay, Men, Lucky

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• I actually picked up copies of Decline I and II at a flea market once. I walked out without paying.

  Penelope Spheeris

  Aggravation, Flea Markets, Decline

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• When I go to a country, I go to flea markets, antique stores. I am always looking for something.

  Ursula Andress

  Country, Antiques, Flea Markets

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