“Squeezing out of a dead man” proverb

Question

There is a proverb with meaning "although the resource is almost empty, we still try to get something from it, regardless of that our attempts are most likely meaningless". I recall that I've heard a saying "squeezing out of a dead man" in this case, but now this sounds a bit weird and I can't google any examples.

Is there any proverb which can be identified by my explanation?

Answer 1

You are probably looking for "you can't squeeze blood from a turnip":

• You can only get from people what they are willing or able to give.

Dictionary.com

Answer 2

While it's not exactly a proverb, I'd like to mention the verbal construct “to squeeze the last [resource] from [source]” (occasionally with out of instead of from). The resource is given in its smallest denomination possible; e.g., drops if the resource is a liquid, cents or pennies if it is money.

Examples:

• The taxpayer was squeezing the last cents from the poor.
• We squeezed the last bit of information from the book.
• I tried to squeeze the last drop of water from the towel.