"If they didn't have ten fights a night, it was a bad night"
About this Quote
Placed in John Hunters 18th-century world, it also reads as a snapshot of public life before modern policing and before respectable society learned to pretend it didnt enjoy bloodsport. London evenings could mean taverns, gambling, and street brawls; inside, there was boxing, cockfighting, and all the semi-legal contests that let spectators outsource their own aggression. Hunters sentence has the hard, empirical rhythm of the Enlightenment: count the fights, judge the night. Its clinical, and that clinical tone is its moral dodge.
The subtext is about appetite and normalization. Ten fights is not an accident; its demand. A "bad night" isnt one without danger, its one without enough of it to satisfy the crowd, dull the drink, or fuel the stories that get you social credit the next day. Underneath is a bleak anthropology: people bond over spectacle, and spectacle escalates. The quote survives because it exposes how easily communities turn cruelty into routine and then call the routine culture.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hunter, John. (2026, January 16). If they didn't have ten fights a night, it was a bad night. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-they-didnt-have-ten-fights-a-night-it-was-a-126978/
Chicago Style
Hunter, John. "If they didn't have ten fights a night, it was a bad night." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-they-didnt-have-ten-fights-a-night-it-was-a-126978/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If they didn't have ten fights a night, it was a bad night." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-they-didnt-have-ten-fights-a-night-it-was-a-126978/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.



