Sunday, May 5, 2019 – About Those Rules
Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
A few strong instincts and a few plain rules suffice us. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful. ~ Benjamin Franklin
When ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated. From that moment, we have no compass to govern us, nor can we know distinctly to what port to steer. ~ Edmund Burke
The true essence of a dictatorship is in fact not its regularity but its unpredictability and caprice; those who live under it must never be able to relax, must never be quite sure if they have followed the rules correctly or not. ~ Christopher Hitchens
Nature in everything demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom violate them with impunity. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
There is all the difference in the world between departure from recognized rules by one who has learned to obey them, and neglect of them through want of training or want of skill or want of understanding. Before you can be eccentric you must know where the circle is. ~ Ellen Terry
Majority rule only works if you’re also considering individual rights – because you can’t have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper. ~ Larry Flynt
Neither current events nor history show that the majority rule, or ever did rule. ~ Jefferson Davis
Laws are rules established by men who are in control of organized violence for the non-fulfillment of which those who do not fulfill them are subjected to personal injuries, the loss of liberty, and even capital punishment. ~ Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind. ~ Douglas MacArthur
Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men. ~ Douglas Bader
Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards. ~ Tacitus
My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them. ~ Winston Churchill
It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. ~ P. G. Wodehouse
There are two great rules in life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that everyone can in the end get what he wants if he only tries. This is the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is more or less of an exception to the rule. ~ Samuel Butler
There are no exceptions to the rule that everybody likes to be an exception to the rule. ~ Charles Osgood
I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule. ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes in “The Sign of the Four”
Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule. ~ Charles Dickens, Jaggers in Great Expectations
Young men know the rules, but old men know the exceptions. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
It is a good idea to obey all the rules when you’re young just so you’ll have the strength to break them when you’re old. ~ Mark Twain
I am not allowed to use desperate remedies until desperate diseases are really apparent. Otherwise we become just like our enemies – breaking all the rules whenever we imagine that it might possibly do some vague good to humanity in the remote future. – Director Ransom in C. S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength
Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation. ~ William Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence
If you obey all the rules, you’ll miss all the fun. ~ Katherine Hepburn
There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds. ~ G. K. Chesterton
Most modern freedom is at root fear. It is not so much that we are too bold to endure rules; it is rather that we are too timid to endure responsibilities. ~ G. K. Chesterton
While moral rules may be propounded by authority the fact that these were so propounded would not validate them. ~ Sir Alfred Jules Ayer
Life is a game with many rules but no referee. One learns how to play it more by watching it than by consulting any book, including the holy book. Small wonder, then, that so many play dirty, and that so few win, that so many lose. ~ Joseph Brodsky
The base paths belonged to me, the runner. The rules gave me the right. I always went into a bag full speed, feet first. I had sharp spikes on my shoes. If the baseman stood where he had no business to be and got hurt, that was his fault. ~ Ty Cobb
I’d trip my mother. I’ll help her up, brush her off, tell her I’m sorry – but mother don’t make it to third. ~ Leo Durocher
Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting. ~ George Orwell
Hell, there are no rules here; we are trying to accomplish something. ~ Thomas Alva Edison
A good teacher must know the rules; a good pupil, the exceptions. ~ Martin H. Fischer
There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs. ~ Ansel Adams
Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk. ~ Edward Weston
There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. ~ W. Somerset Maugham
There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn’t give a damn what goes on in between. ~ Thomas Beecham
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. ~ Pablo Picasso
It is a common rule with primitive people not to waken a sleeper, because his soul is away and might not have time to get back. ~ James George Frazer
Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness. ~ Otto von Bismarck
The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. ~ Thomas Huxley
Just Above Sunset 