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All cats are mortal. Socrates is mortal. Therefore Socrates is a cat.

— Eugène Ionesco Rhinocéros (1959)

Tous les chats sont mortels. Socrate est mortel. Donc Socrate est un chat.

Original text (French)

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More quotes by Eugène Ionesco

Perhaps there will be a morning of grace for humanity. Perhaps there will be a morning of grace for me.

The Hermit (1973)

The absence of ideology in a work does not mean an absence of ideas; on the contrary it fertilizes them.

I believe that what separates us all from one another is simply society itself, or, if you like, politics. This is what raises barriers between men, this is what creates misunderstanding.

There are now many invisible people on stage.

Stage directions in The Chairs (1952)

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.

Découvertes (1970)

All Eugène Ionesco quotes →

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All breathing, existing, living, sentient creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away.

Mahavira

A dog cannot relate his autobiography; however eloquently he may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were honest but poor.

Bertrand Russell Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948)

Histories are more full of Examples of the Fidelity of dogs than of Friends.

Alexander Pope

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.

Milan Kundera The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Eugène Ionesco (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.