I believe because it is absurd.

Facts are facts! And if they’re impossible, they’re still facts!

It is to be believed because it is absurd.

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, HOWEVER IMPROBABLE, must be the truth?

I admit it: above all things, I fear absurdity.

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

What is too absurd to believe is believed because it is too absurd to be a lie.

Well, sir to say that when the impossible has been eliminated, whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth, is to make the assumption, usually justified, that everything that is to be considered has indeed been considered. Let us suppose we have considered ten factors. Nine are clearly impossible. Is the tenth, however improbable, therefore true? What if there were an eleventh factor, and a twelfth, & a thirteenth...

The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks. How often have you been presented with an apparently rational explanation of something that works in all respects other than one, which is just that it is hopelessly improbable? Your instinct is to say, 'Yes, but he or she simply wouldn't do that.

To me, absurdity is the only reality.

To say something is impossible is to fear. I have no space for the word impossible. I don't tolerate it. Sometimes it gets me in trouble, but whatever it is, I will face it.

"It is most unlikely. But — here comes the big "but" — not impossible."

When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.