“Comparisons are odious.”
The earliest known use of that old adage dates from around 1440, when John Lydgate wrote in his “Debate between the horse, goose, and sheep” that “Odyous of olde been comparisonis, and of comparisonis engendyrd is haterede.” The line “comparisons are odious” also appears in the works of such writers as Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Christopher Marlowe.
