TIMOCLES Well then, as my comparison of the ship did not
seem to you very valid, attend now to my sheetanchor, as they call it, which you can’t by any possibility cut away.
 ZEUS What in the world is he going to say? TIMOCLES See whether I frame this syllogism logically, and
whether you can capsize it in any way. If there are
altars, there are also gods; but there are altars,
ergo there are also gods. What have you to say to
that?
 DAMIS After I have laughed to my heart’s content I'll
tell you.
 TIMOCLES Well, it looks as if you would never stop laughing;
tell me, though, how you thought what I said was
funny.
 DAMIS Because you do not see that your anchor is
attached to a slender string—and it’s your sheetanchor at that! Having hitched the existence of
gods to the existence of altars, you think you have
made yourself a safe mooring. So, as you say you
have no better sheet-anchor than this, let's be
going.