RULES QUOTES
quotations about rules
The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.
BANKSY
Wall and Piece
To observe the rules was to be good, and to be good was to be loved.
TOVA MIRVIS
"Divorced From My Husband, and My Faith", New York Times, February 19, 2014
Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
journal, February 3, 1860
We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.
WILLIAM GOLDING
Lord of the Flies
If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
KATHARINE HEPBURN
attributed, Katharine Hepburn Once Said...
But the certainty of a rule is bought at a price. By excluding considerations potentially relevant to its purpose ... the rule may generate a misfit between purpose and application.
STEPHEN L. CARTER
"Legal Procedure Needs a Dose of Common Sense", Bloomberg, July 13, 2017
Honestly, orthodoxy concerns me about as much as it concerns your average jackrabbit. I only follow rules that take me where I want to go. If there aren't any rules, I make up my own (and follow them strictly).
URSULA K. LE GUIN
interview, Electric Lit, August 7, 2014
Even in killing men, observe the rules of propriety.
CONFUCIUS
The Wisdom of Confucius
I used to think that when I grew up there wouldn't be so many rules. Back in elementary school there were rules about what entrance you used in the morning, what door you used going home, when you could talk in the library, how many paper towels you could use in the rest room, and how many drinks of water you could get during recess. And there was always somebody watching to make sure. What I'm finding out about growing older is that there are just as many rules about lots of things, but there's nobody watching.
PHYLLIS REYNOLDS NAYLOR
Alice in Rapture, Sort Of
Integrity has no need of rules.
ALBERT CAMUS
The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays
It is the nature of man to build the most complicated cage of rules and regulations in which to trap himself, and then, with equal ingenuity and zest, to bend his brain to the problem of wriggling triumphantly out again.
BRIDGET ANN HENISCH
Fast and Feast: Food in Medieval Society
Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind.
DOUGLAS MACARTHUR
attributed, MacArthur Close-Up
Hell, there are no rules here -- we're trying to accomplish something.
THOMAS EDISON
attributed, How to Think Like Einstein
Rules are for old men who prefer to walk in the wheel ruts of history.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVEN J. ANDERSON
Dune: House Corrino
By all means break the rules, and break them beautifully, deliberately and well. That is one of the ends for which they exist.
ROBERT BRINGHURST
The Elements of Typographic Style
It is the beginning of wisdom when you recognize that the best you can do is choose which rules you want to live by, and it's persistent and aggravated imbecility to pretend you can live without any.
WALLACE STEGNER
All the Little Live Things
So these are the ropes,
The tricks of the trade,
The rules of the road.
You're one of the dopes
For whom they were made.
NAT KING COLE
"The Rules of the Road"
As you go from day to day
Looking for a better way
And you think you've got it all under control
So you bend the rules a bit
As you try to make things fit
But you know you should be doing as you're told
Although sometimes you'll find it so hard
And the wrong way may seem easier
It doesn't matter who you are
Obey the rules and you'll go far
THOMAS & FRIENDS
"Rules & Regulations"
Rule A: Don't. Rule A1: Rule A doesn't exist. Rule A2: Do not discuss the existence or non-existence of Rules A, A1 or A2.
R. D. LAING
Knots
Take off your ties and your regulation shoes
You're nothing but a bunch of regulation fools, yeah
And your damn regulation rules
I'm gonna do things my own way, everyday, everyday, everyday
In every way, I ain't gonna pay no attention to your rules
AC/DC
"Breaking the Rules"