Milking the bull

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The proverb illustrated on a playing card in about 1535 by Hans Schäufelein.

Milking the bull is a proverb which uses the metaphor of milking a bull to indicate that an activity would be fruitless or futile.[1][2]

In the 16th century, the German painter Hans Schäufelein illustrated the proverb on the eight of bells in a deck of playing cards.[3]

Dr Johnson used the proverb to criticise the work of David Hume and other skeptical philosophers.[4][5]

References

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