§ 2. As to Quality, Propositions are either Affirmative or Negative. An Affirmative Proposition is, formally, one whose copula is affirmative (or, has no negative sign), as _S--is--P, All men--are--partial to themselves_. A Negative Proposition is one whose copula is negative (or, has a negative sign), as _S--is not--P, Some men--are not--proof against flattery_. When, indeed, a Negative Proposition is of Universal Quantity, it is stated thus: _No S is P, No men are proof against flattery_; but, in this case, the detachment of the negative sign from the copula and its association with the subject is merely an accident of our idiom; the proposition is the same as _All men--are not--proof against flattery_. It must be distinguished, therefore, from such an expression as _Not every man is proof against flattery_; for here the negative sign really restricts the subject; so that the meaning is--_Some men at most_ (it may be _none) are proof against flattery_; and thus the proposition is Particular, and is rendered--_Some men--are not--proof against flattery_. When the negative sign is associated with the predicate, so as to make this an Infinite Term (chap. iv. § 8), the proposition is called an Infinite Proposition, as _S is not-P_ (or _p), All men are--incapable of resisting flattery_, or _are--not-proof against flattery_. Infinite propositions, when the copula is affirmative, are formally, themselves affirmative, although their force is chiefly negative; for, as the last example shows, the difference between an infinite and a negative proposition may depend upon a hyphen. It has been proposed, indeed, with a view to superficial simplification, to turn all Negatives into Infinites, and thus render all propositions Affirmative in Quality. But although every proposition both affirms and denies something according to the aspect in which you regard it (as _Snow is white_ denies that it is any other colour, and _Snow is not blue_ affirms that it is some other colour), yet there is a great difference between the definite affirmation of a genuine affirmative and the vague affirmation of a negative or infinite; so that materially an affirmative infinite is the same as a negative. Generally Mill's remark is true, that affirmation and denial stand for distinctions of fact that cannot be got rid of by manipulation of words. Whether granite sinks in water, or not; whether the rook lives a hundred years, or not; whether a man has a hundred dollars in his pocket, or not; whether human bones have ever been found in Pliocene strata, or not; such alternatives require distinct forms of expression. At the same time, it may be granted that many facts admit of being stated with nearly equal propriety in either Quality, as _No man is proof against flattery_, or _All men are open to flattery_.