A man breaking his journey between one place and another at a third place of no name, character, population or significance, sees a unicorn cross his path and disappear. That in itself is startling, but there are precedents for mystical encounters of various kinds, or to be less extreme, a choice of persuasions to put it down to fancy; until--" My God, " says a second man, "I must be dreaming, I thought I saw a unicorn." At which point, a dimension is added that makes the experience as alarming as it will ever be. A third witness, you understand, adds no further dimension but only spreads it thinner, and a fourth thinner still, and the more witnesses there are the thinner it gets and the more reasonable it becomes until it is as thin as reality, the name we give to the common experience.. "Look, look! " recites the crowd. "A horse with an arrow in its forehead! It must have been mistaken for a deer. Tom Stoppard
About This Quote

This is a very interesting quote which has many layers to it. The first part of the quote talks about the dream, which is quite common. The dreamer thinks he sees something out of the ordinary, like a unicorn, which is an animal that people often mistake for a horse, but looks more like a goat. This fantasy inspires the dreamer to keep travelling until he reaches another place, but then he has second thoughts and regrets that he has wasted his time.

It also kind of implies that the dreamer will never reach his destination if he does not keep moving. The second part talks about the witnesses who are there to confirm that this really occurred, and to spread the thin air even thinner. This part of the quote could also be seen as saying that there are so many people down there at the bottom who are not sure what they saw, so they extend it even further than what was really there. The last part of the quote talks about how it becomes more and more certain as more people witness it. In other words, it becomes more and more believable as more people witness it.

In other words, it becomes more and more likely as more people witness it!

Source: Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead

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More Quotes By Tom Stoppard
  1. It is a defect of God's humor that he directs our hearts everywhere but to those who have a right to them.
  2. I am not my body. My body is nothing without me.
  3. Be happy -- if you're not even happy, what's so good about surviving?
  4. Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.
  5. We're actors – we're the opposite of people!
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