Hobson's choice

Origin

Thomas Hobson, a prosperous stable owner in Cambridge, England, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, established a strict policy for his horse rentals. To prevent his best horses from being ridden to exhaustion and ensure an even rotation of his stock, he famously insisted that customers could only take the horse nearest the stable door, or none at all. This ingenious system, designed to preserve his animals, presented his patrons with an illusion of choice that was, in truth, no choice at all, thus giving birth to the enduring phrase that denotes an absence of genuine alternatives.