Mark Haddon Quote

There are three men on a train. One of them is an economist and one of them is a logician and one of them is a mathematician. And they have just crossed the border into Scotland (I don’t know why they are going to Scotland) and they see a brown cow standing in a field from the window of the train (and the cow is standing parallel to the train). And the economist says, Look, the cows in Scotland are brown. And the logician says, No. There are cows in Scotland of which one at least is brown. And the mathematician says, No. There is at least one cow in Scotland, of which one side appears to be brown. And it is funny because economists are not real scientists, and because logicians think more clearly, but mathematicians are best.

Mark Haddon

There are three men on a train. One of them is an economist and one of them is a logician and one of them is a mathematician. And they have just crossed the border into Scotland (I don’t know why they are going to Scotland) and they see a brown cow standing in a field from the window of the train (and the cow is standing parallel to the train). And the economist says, Look, the cows in Scotland are brown. And the logician says, No. There are cows in Scotland of which one at least is brown. And the mathematician says, No. There is at least one cow in Scotland, of which one side appears to be brown. And it is funny because economists are not real scientists, and because logicians think more clearly, but mathematicians are best.

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About Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon (born 26 September 1962) is an English novelist, best known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003). He won the Whitbread Award, the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award, the Guardian Prize, and a Commonwealth Writers Prize for his work.