Non Sequitur
A statement that does not logically follow from what preceded it — sometimes a fallacy, sometimes a joke.
A non sequitur (Latin, 'it does not follow') is a statement whose conclusion does not follow from its premises. In formal logic, it names a fallacy: an argument whose conclusion, however true or false, is not supported by the reasoning offered.
In everyday speech and in comedy, a non sequitur is a deliberate swerve away from what a listener expects — the technique behind much absurdist humour, from Monty Python to modern surreal memes. The joke is the sudden disconnect between what the sentence promised and what it delivered.
Quotations are especially vulnerable to being converted into non sequiturs by careless editing. Trim a sentence at the wrong place and the conclusion no longer follows from anything. When you shorten a quotation with an ellipsis, check that the logical bridge between the halves is still intact; if it is not, the quote has become a non sequitur wearing the author's name.
“I'm not wearing socks; therefore, the meeting will succeed.”
Keep reading the glossary
Restating someone's words in your own — credit still required, quotation marks not.
Three dots that mark words omitted from a quotation.
A short, vivid extract from a longer speech, designed to be repeated by news media.
Reproducing a quote with the wording changed — even if the source is correct.