count angels on pinheads

present singular third person counts angels on pinheads · participle present counting angels on pinheads · participle past counted angels on pinheads · past counted angels on pinheads

1. idiomaticTo focus on obtaining the correct details of something which are largely irrelevant or unimportant.

   It is not concerned with theological disputation; he does not count angels on pinheads.

   1995, Henry David Thoreau, Walter Roy Harding, Walden: an annotated edition, page 1

   5 more examples

   …secondly, because it is thought to be wholly destructive, and “something has to be taught” — which is the equivalent of teaching people to count angels on pinheads when you no longer believe in the heavenly host and, thirdly, because it has seemed to be socialist in tone, direction and intention.

   1962, Flinders University of South Australia & the University of Adelaide Deptartment of Economics, Australian Economic Papers, page 12

   It adds to the trend that law schools and law journals are no longer content to count angels on pinheads.

   Date unknown: United States Congress House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Hearings, p1315

   In requesting that a closer look be given to hypothetical thinking and its role in the solving of problems, I do not suggest that counting angels on pinheads is a fruitful educational exercise. Thinking about the actual is one aspect of analytical thinking.

   1951, The John Dewey Society, the Philosophy of Education Society (U.S.), and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign College of Education, Educational Theory, p185

   Connectedness is a requirement for higher education if our academic work is not to be merely the technological equivalent of counting angels on pinheads.

   1999, Carol J. Dempsey, Russell A. Butkus, All Creation is Groaning: An Interdisciplinary Vision for Life in a Sacred Universe, page VIII

   Such assertions are motivated by the desire to leave the independent-particle model in place as the central paradigm in nuclear theory, but they inadvertently push theoretical nuclear physics in the direction of counting angels on pinheads: “Sure they’re there! It’s just that there aren’t any observable implications of their celestial presence!”

   2006, Norman D. Cook, Models of the Atomic Nucleus: With Interactive Software, page 118