No true Scotsman is an informal fallacy, an ad hoc attempt to retain an unreasoned assertion. When faced with a counterexample to a universal claim, rather than denying the counterexample or rejecting the original universal claim, this fallacy modifies the subject of the assertion to exclude the specific case or others like it by rhetoric, without reference to any specific objective rule.
Famous quotes containing the word true:
“Future. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)