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Killing two birds with one stone

Posted by ESC on October 20, 2010 at 14:05

In Reply to: Killing two birds with one stone posted by Kathy on October 19, 2010 at 20:53:

: The phrase; Killing two birds with one stone - origin?

"Achieve two objectives with a single effort. It would be remarkable indeed if someone slinging a stone at a bird got one bird, let alone two. Ovid had a similar expression in L*tin nearly 2,000 years ago. Related phrases were in English and French literature by the 16th century. Thomas Hobbes used the modern version in a work on liberty in 1656: 'T. H. thinks to kill two birds with one stone, and satisfy two arguments with one answer.'" The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Wings Books, Originally New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985).

 

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