This one's not quite transfinite, but I've always loved (economist) Herb Stein's: 'If something cannot go on forever, it will stop', which is equivalent to 'if something cannot go on forever, it must have a bound', which is the contrapositive of 'if something doesn't have a bound, then it must be infinite'. Herb Stein was actor Ben Stein's father; Ben Stein (naturally) played the economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. At 01:06 AM 8/23/2017, Adam P. Goucher wrote:

There's an explicit reference to $\omega + 1$ in Shakespeare's the Taming of the Shrew, 1596 (emphasis mine):

BIONDELLO I cannot tell; expect they are busied about a counterfeit assurance: take you assurance of her, 'cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum:' to the church; take the priest, clerk, and some sufficient honest witnesses: If this be not that you look for, I have no more to say, But bid Bianca farewell *for ever and a day*.

Did this hold the record for the largest ordinal discovered until Cantor?

Best wishes,

Adam P. Goucher