<P> To this the little old lady crowed triumphantly . "It's no use, Mr. James--it's turtles all the way down ." </P> <P> The earliest known version of the story in its "turtle" form appeared in 1854, in a transcript of remarks by preacher Joseph Frederick Berg addressed to Joseph Barker: </P> <P> My opponent's reasoning reminds me of the heathen, who, being asked on what the world stood, replied, "On a tortoise ." But on what does the tortoise stand? "On another tortoise ." With Mr. Barker, too, there are tortoises all the way down . (Vehement and vociferous applause .) </P> <P> Many 20th - century attributions point to William James as the source . James referred to the fable of the elephant and tortoise several times, but told the infinite regress story with "rocks all the way down" in his 1882 essay, "Rationality, Activity and Faith": </P>

Where did the phrase i like turtles come from