“Logician: A cat has four paws.
Old Gentleman: My dog had four paws.
Logician: Then it's a cat.
Old Gentleman: So my dog is a cat?
Logician: And the contrary is also true.”

—  Eugéne Ionesco , Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros (1959)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Logician: A cat has four paws. Old Gentleman: My dog had four paws. Logician: Then it's a cat. Old Gentleman: So my …" by Eugéne Ionesco?
Eugéne Ionesco photo
Eugéne Ionesco 59
Romanian playwright 1909–1994

Related quotes

Molière photo

“To pull the chestnuts out of the fire with the cat's paw.”

Molière (1622–1673) French playwright and actor

Tirer les marrons du feu avec la patte du chat.
L'Étourdi (1655), Act III, sc. v

E.E. Cummings photo

“Dog hates mouse and worships "cat", mouse despises "cat" and hates dog, "cat" hates no one and loves mouse.”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

A Foreword to Krazy (1946)
Context: A humbly poetic, gently clownlike, supremely innocent, and illimitably affectionate creature (slightly resembling a child's drawing of a cat, but gifted with the secret grace and obvious clumsiness of a penguin on terra firma) who is never so happy as when egoist-mouse, thwarting altruist-dog, hits her in the head with a brick. Dog hates mouse and worships "cat", mouse despises "cat" and hates dog, "cat" hates no one and loves mouse.

“Whiskers of the cat,
Webbed toes on my swimming dog;
God is in the details.”

Dean Koontz (1945) American author

Source: The Book Of Counted Sorrows

Cassandra Clare photo

“When Jace opened the greenhouse door, the scent hit Clary, soft as the padded blow of a cat's paw…”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson photo

“Cats do not give us too many chances. Abuse a cat's trust twice and you could be history, for cats are much less forgiving than dogs and will often lose their trust in you should you behave badly. A dog gives you infinite slack; not so a cat.”

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (1941) American writer and activist

Source: The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats (2002), Ch. 2

Tom Regan photo

“From my reading of Gandhi I had learned how some people in India regard eating cow as unspeakably repulsive. I realized I felt the same way about cats and dogs: I could never eat them. Were cows so different from cats and dogs that there were two moral standards, one that applies to cows, another that applies to cats and dogs? Were pigs so different? Were any of the animals I ate so different?”

Tom Regan book Empty Cages

Source: Empty Cages (2004), Ch. 2

Terry Pratchett photo

“Cats will amusingly tolerate humans only until someone comes up with a tin opener that can be operated with a paw.”

Terry Pratchett book Men at Arms

Source: Men at Arms

Robert Browning photo

“Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats”

Robert Browning The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The Pied Piper of Hamelin, line 10 (1842).
Context: Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women's chats
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.

Nicola Griffith photo

“Dogs own space and cats own time.”

Nicola Griffith book Hild

Source: Hild

“Dogs have their day but cats have 365.”

Lilian Jackson Braun (1913–2011) author

Source: The Cat Who... Omnibus 02 (Books 4-6): The Cat Who Saw Red / The Cat Who Played Brahms / The Cat Who Played Post Office

Related topics