""And at last we've got to the end of this ideal racecourse! Now that you accept A and B and C and D, of course you accept Z." "Do I?" said the Tortoise innocently. "Let's make that quite clear. I accept A and B and C and D. Suppose I still refused to accept Z?" "Then Logic would take you by the throat, and force you to do it!" Achilles triumphantly replied. "Logic would tell you, 'You can't help yourself. Now that you've accepted A and B and C and D, you must accept Z!' So you've no choice, you see." "Whatever Logic is good enough to tell me is worth writing down," said the Tortoise. "So enter it in your notebook, please. We will call it (E) If A and B and C and D are true, Z must be true. Until I've granted that, of course I needn't grant Z. So it's quite a necessary step, you see?" "I see," said Achilles; and there was a touch of sadness in his tone."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"What the Tortoise Said to Achilles", Mind, n.s., 4 (1895), pp. 278–80
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Lewis Carroll
133 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Lewis Carroll →
Related Quotes
"The star that danced at Carroll's birth In high exuberance of mirth Is dancing yet."
"Dodgson was overcome by the beauty of Cologne Cathedral. I found him leaning against the rails of the Choir and sobbi…"
"We worked together for seven years. Tenniel and other artists declared I would not work with Carroll for seven weeks!…"
"He was preoccupied with left and right, as with right and wrong."
"Mr. Dodgson had a mathematical, a logical and a philosophical mind; and when these qualities are united to a love of …"
"My mother is English, and as she was the one who read to us, my early world was A. A. Milne, Beatrix Potter, Kenneth …"
"Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's life in space-time colored his liberated life of the imagination."
"Charles, trapped in the cave of his period, was the laughing philosopher who could show others the way out. He spoke …"
"To have known the man was even as great a treat as to read his books. Lewis Carroll was as unlike any other man as hi…"
"It was a soufflé of a speech, light, pleasant, digestible, and nourishing also."