Roses And Teeth For Ludwig Wittgenstein

"A new born child has no teeth."

"A goose has no teeth."

"A rose has no teeth."

This last at any rate—

one would like to say—

is obviously true!

It is even surer that a goose has none.

And yet it is none so clear.

For where should a rose's teeth have been?

The goose has none in its jaw.

And neither, of course, has it any in its wings;

but no one means that when he says it has no teeth.

Why, suppose one were to say:

the cow chews its food and then dungs the rose with it,

so the rose has teeth in the mouth of a beast.

This would not be absurd,

because one has no notion in advance where to look for teeth in a rose.

(Connexion with "pain in someone else's body".)