Logical Fallacies/Quotes

"Circular logic is self-validating. Therefore it is correct."

- Anonymous

"So, you have been sitting here thinking illogically about logical possibilities or logically about illogical possibilities. No wonder you are cranky."

- Delenn, Babylon 5

"Your logic does not resemble our Earth logic."

- Buffy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

""Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!""

- Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

"Man is not logical and his intellectual history is a record of mental reserves and compromises. He hangs on to what he can in his old beliefs even when he is compelled to surrender their logical basis."

- John Dewey

"Logic doesn't apply to the real world."

- Marvin Minsky

"It's been a fascinating discussion, because ... I feel like we don't connect, like, on -- it's, like ... it's weird. Because ... I like you ... but I don't understand how your brain works."

- Jon Stewart, wrapping up the Betsy McCaughey interview.

"Presidents have a bully pulpit. When they place troops on a battlefield, even many people who saw no point in war rally round the flag; when they have potentially cancerous polyps removed from their colons (Ronald Reagan), thousands of people pick up the phone and make colonoscopy appointments. If a President can inadvertently push people to undergo colonoscopies, what else might a President do by example or by words? When a President declares the news media the “enemy of the American people,” what might otherwise reasonable citizens be inclined to think?"

- Michael Schudson

8-Bit Theater
""In the arena of logic, I fight unarmed!" -- Red Mage

Red Mage: Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic can not be stopped. The success or failure of any step will have no impact on the macro level. Black Mage: That's so stupid I can't even see straight any more. Red Mage: Now imagine what'll happen when physics tries to figure it out!

Ranger: Only people who aren't us have disappeared, Rogue. Should this pattern continue, we ought to be fine. Rogue: Why does that make more sense than I think it should? Ranger: Don't question it! Rogue: Right. Okay. I have to believe that this will work out in the end. Sarda: That's a shame.

Red Mage: We need to use your heart. Black Mage: So do I! It moves my blood around. Red Mage: Not if we kill you! Black Mage: That's distressingly logical.

Thief: Red Mage, this the worst plan yet in your lifetime filled with nothing but the worst plans. Red Mage: It will work, I guarantee it! Black Mage: It starts at the impossible before moving on to the even more impossible. Red Mage: Precisely!

Red Mage: I'll need more proof than a logical fallacy. Jeff: In a recent poll, it was found that 100% of Jeffs were very handsome and thought Black Mage survived. Why don't you. Is it because you're ugly? Red Mage: That's enough logical fallacies to convince me. Black Mage is fine."