121 Rules And Quotes

In a world teeming with information and constant change, timeless wisdom often serves as our compass. Whether you're seeking motivation, guidance, or a fresh perspective, rules and quotes from thought leaders, philosophers, and influential figures can offer profound insights. In this carefully curated collection of the top 121 rules and quotes, you'll find a treasure trove of inspiration designed to elevate your thinking and enrich your life. Dive in and let these powerful words guide you on your journey to personal and professional growth.

1. “I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” - Robert A. Heinlein

2. “Any fool can make a ruleAnd any fool will mind it.” - Henry David Thoreau

3. “Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.” - Dalai Lama XIV

4. “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

5. “Rules and responsibilities: these are the ties that bind us. We do what we do, because of who we are. If we did otherwise, we would not be ourselves. I will do what I have to do. And I will do what I must.” - Neil Gaiman

6. “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

7. “I learned the bad guys are not always bad, the good guys are not always good, and to quote Captain Barbossa, the parameters are like rules, mostly guidelines. And that it takes a little bit of bad boy to fight the evil in the world.--Terri Mitchell” - Sherrilyn Kenyon

8. “...and for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires” - F. Scott Fitzgerald

9. “We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn't obey the rules.” - Alan Bennett

10. “Error of omission begets new rules.” - Toba Beta

11. “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

12. “The rules of capitalization are so unfair to words in the middle of a sentence.” - John Green

13. “There aren't any rules to running away from your problems. No checklist of things to cross off. No instructions. Eeny, meeny, pick a path and go. That's how my dad does it anyway because apparently there's no age limit to running away, either. He wakes up one day, packs the car with everything we own, and we hit the road. Watch all the pretty colors go by until he finds a town harmless enough to hide in. But his problems always find us. Sometimes quicker than others. Sometimes one month and sometimes six. There's no rule when it comes to that, either. Not about how long it takes for the problems to catch up with us. Just that they will—that much is a given. And then it's time to run again to a new town, a new home, and a new school for me.But if there aren't any rules, I wonder why it feels the same every time. Feels like I leave behind a little bit of who I was in each house we've left empty. Scattering pieces of me in towns all over the place. A trail of crumbs dotting the map from everywhere we've left to everywhere we go. And they don't make any pictures when I connect dots. They are random like the stars littering the sky at night.” - Brian James

14. “Never show anger at slight, tell nothing. Earn respect from everyone by deeds, not Words. Respect the members of your Blood Family. Gambling was Recreation, not a way to earn a Living. Love your Father, your Mother, your Sister but beware of Loving any other Woman than your Wife. And a Wife was a woman who bore your Children. And once that happened to You, your Life was Forfeit to give them their daily bread” - Mario Puzo

15. “It's all very well to run around saying regulation is bad, get the government off our backs, etc. Of course our lives are regulated. When you come to a stop sign, you stop; if you want to go fishing, you get a license; if you want to shoot ducks, you can shoot only three ducks. The alternative is dead bodies at the intersection, no fish, and no ducks. OK?(Getting Control of the Frontier, Gainsville Sun, March 22, 1995)” - Molly Ivins

16. “The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.” - George Bernard Shaw

17. “To every rule there is an exception—and an idiot ready to demonstrate it. Don't be the one!” - Vera Nazarian

18. “Rules are a great way to get ideas. All you have to do is break them.” - Jack Foster

19. “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to."[MovieMaker Magazine #53 - Winter, January 22, 2004 ]” - Jim Jarmusch

20. “1. Write like you’ll live forever — fear is a bad editor.2. Write like you’ll croak today — death is the best editor.3. Fooling others is fun. Fooling yourself is a lethal mistake.4. Pick one — fame or delight.5. The archer knows the target. The poet knows the wastebasket.6. Cunning and excess are your friends.7. TV and liquor are your enemies.8. Everything eternal happens in a spare room at 3 a.m.9. You’re done when the crows sing.” - Ron Dakron

21. “Judging is preventing us from understanding a new truth. Free yourself from the rules of old judgments and create the space for new understanding.” - Steve Maraboli

22. “I am not really breaking any rules. Charlie said I could never take another step through the door again... I came in through the window... Still, the intent was clear," said Edward.” - Stephenie Meyer

23. “Rules are for children. This is war, and in war the only crime is to lose.” - Joe Abercrombie

24. “One of the Great Rules of Economics According to John GreenIf you are rich, you have to be an idiot not to stay rich. And if you are poor, you have to be really smart to get rich.” - John Green

25. “It is, of course, necessary to have rules and procedures if we wish to accomplish large and complex tasks, but the question of whether or not it is worth the cost must be perennially re-examined. (117)” - Sheldon B. Kopp

26. “It (trying to keep the law) grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge. Enforcing rules, especially in its more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse.” - Wm. Paul Young

27. “The people heard it, and approved the doctrine, and immediately practiced the contrary.” - Benjamin Franklin

28. “She'd even violated the only sensible rule of dieting she'd ever run across, the sage advice of the Muppets' Miss Piggy, who recommended never eating anything bigger than your head.” - Susan Donovan

29. “There is no exception to this rule: "All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant." They say there is no rule without an exception, but there is an exception to that rule.” - Charles Spurgeon

30. “Fear has the role we give it. We are able to empower or poison ourselves to whatever degree we want. This is the beauty of our design.” - Steve Maraboli

31. “The process of discovering your fearless self is of refinement, not adding. The best way to reconnect with your freedom is to look at the rules you have that govern your freedom.” - Steve Maraboli

32. “More than ambition, more than ability, it is rules that limit contribution; rules are the lowest common denominator of human behavior. They are a substitute for rational thought.” - Hyman G. Rickover

33. “Hitch: making rules about drinking can be the sign of an alcoholic,' as Martin Amis once teasingly said to me. (Adorno would have savored that, as well.) Of course, watching the clock for the start-time is probably a bad sign, but here are some simple pieces of advice for the young. Don't drink on an empty stomach: the main point of the refreshment is the enhancement of food. Don't drink if you have the blues: it's a junk cure. Drink when you are in a good mood. Cheap booze is a false economy. It's not true that you shouldn't drink alone: these can be the happiest glasses you ever drain. Hangovers are another bad sign, and you should not expect to be believed if you take refuge in saying you can't properly remember last night. (If you really don't remember, that's an even worse sign.) Avoid all narcotics: these make you more boring rather than less and are not designed—as are the grape and the grain—to enliven company. Be careful about up-grading too far to single malt Scotch: when you are voyaging in rough countries it won't be easily available. Never even think about driving a car if you have taken a drop. It's much worse to see a woman drunk than a man: I don't know quite why this is true but it just is. Don't ever be responsible for it.” - Christopher Hitchens

34. “There are a million rules for being a girl. There are a million things you have to do to get through each day. High school has things that can trip you up, ruin you, people say one thing and mean another, and you have to know all the rules, you have to know what you can and can't do.” - Elizabeth Scott

35. “It was one of the many rules in the kennel, rules that didn't always make sense, or even seem important, until some situation drew the lesson out.” - David Wroblewski

36. “Rules help us live our liveswhen we lose the will to do it on our own” - Yvonne Woon

37. “He smiles at me, and I am suddenly seventeen again - the year I realize that love doesn't follow the rules, the year I understood that nothing is worth having so much as something unattainable” - Jodi Picoult

38. “The hell with the rules. If it sounds right, then it is.” - Eddie Van Halen

39. “Some rules are nothing but old habits that people are afraid to change.” - Therese Fowler

40. “When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary; when mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.” - Emile Durkheim

41. “Unheard-of combinations of circumstances demand unheard-of rules.” - Charlotte Brontë

42. “There were rules among friends, commandments, really, and the most important one was Thou Shalt Not Lust After Thy Friend's Sister.” - Julia Quinn

43. “2) Members will attend events together as a group, including, but not limited to, Homecoming, Prom, parties, and other couply events, despite possibly being labeled as freaks and getting jealous looks from guys who wish we were their hot dates, but instead have to settle for some lame wannabe.” - Elizabeth Eulberg

44. “3) Saturday night is the official meeting night of Penny Lane's Lonely Hearts Club. Attendance is mandatory. Exceptions are for family emergencies and bad hair days only.” - Elizabeth Eulberg

45. “Only sometimes when we pick and choose among the rules we discover later that we have set aside something precious in the process.” - Helen Simonson

46. “This is one rule about mixing boys and girls: that a date always comes first.” - Elizabeth Berg

47. “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

48. “Now I wish she'd never broken any of her rules. I understood why she held to them so hard. Once you broke the first one, they all broke, one by one, like firecrackers exploding in your face in a parking lot on the Fourth of July.” - Janet Fitch

49. “You are remembered for the rules you break.” - Douglas MacArthur

50. “How dreadful...to be caught up in a game and have no idea of the rules.” - Caroline Stevermer

51. “Look, that's why there's rules, understand? So that you think before you break 'em.” - Terry Pratchett

52. “Don't play any game if you don't understand the rules no matter how nice winners trophy looks like” - Sonja Smolec

53. “Never argue with a mother who's scolding her child.” - Toba Beta

54. “We all live inside the terrible engine of authority, and it grinds and shrieks and burns so that no one will say: lines on maps are silly.” - Catherynne M. Valente

55. “I'm the first to admit that I don't write right. Now, relax and enjoy the show! The sideshow, that is.” - Lori R. Lopez

56. “Mr. Klamp laid down the law. No tardiness, no talking above 40 decibels, no untied shoelaces, no visible undergarments, no eating, no chewing gum, no chewing tobacco, no chewing betel nuts, no chewing coca leaves, no chewing out students (unless Mr. Klamp was doing the chewing out), no chewing out teachers (unless ditto), no unnecessary displays of temper (unless ditto), no unnecessary displays of affection (no exceptions), no pets over one ounce or under one ton, and no singing, except in Bulgarian. I began to think Mr Klamp wouldn't be so bad...” - Polly Shulman

57. “Be natural my children. For the writer that is natural has fulfilled all the rules of art."(Last words, according to Dickens's obituary in The Times.)” - Charles Dickens

58. “A rule without exceptions is an instrument capable of doing mischief to the innocent and bringing grief -- as well as injustice -- to those who should gain exemptions from the rule's functioning.” - Derrick Bell

59. “Let me see what I can come up with,' she said, and seemed to take a new satisfaction in it now. Something wrong to do, a law to break, and if she was lucky she might even get to steal, and it must have been then that everything changed between us and each of us didn't just have a neighbor to pass the time with but the closest thing either of us could find to a friend. ("Just Outside Our Windows, Deep Inside Our Walls")” - Brian Hodge

60. “Both friend and enemy reside within us. One lives by the rule of compassion, the other by the rule of hard knocks. Though potential influence of either extreme is inevitable, our actions bear witness to the one we embrace.” - T.F. Hodge

61. “I am willing to take life as a game of chess in which the first rules are not open to discussion. No one asks why the knight is allowed his eccentric hop, why the castle may only go straight and the bishop obliquely. These things are to be accepted, and with these rule the game must be played: it is foolish to complain of them.” - W. Somerset Maugham

62. “You meet me after school right here", I said."Why?" he asked.I couldn't believe he was so stupid."Because we're going to finish this fight.""You're crazy," Roger said.He got to his feet and walked away. His gang stared at me like I was a serail killer, and they followed their leader.I was absolutely confused.I had followed the rules of fighting. i had behaved exactly the way I was supposed to behave. But these white boys had ignored the rules. In fact, they followed a whole other set of mysterious rules where people apparently DID NOT GET INTO FISTFIGHTS.(65)” - Sherman Alexie

63. “But I was beginning to intuit that full-blown maturity was not so very different from childhood. Both states in their extreme were all about following the rules.” - Lionel Shriver

64. “Unfortunately, in many cases, the rule book goes way too far - it tries to tell people how to be instead of explaining what we're trying to do.. We need recipes, not rules.” - Howard Behar

65. “When you've already broken the rules of the universe, fear becomes only a feeling of disconnection, distant.” - Jonas Samuelle

66. “Nature provides exceptions to every rule.” - Margaret Fuller

67. “One of Sir Topher's rules was to never indulge in sentimentality, never return for what was left behind.” - Melina Marchetta

68. “(Love is the puzzle that) can’t be solved. Catlike, it follows no rules but its own, and only it knows what they are. Also it can change the rules any time it wants, in any way it wants, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.” - Chris Dee

69. “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

70. “You don't win a game by hitting the ball out of the court.” - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

71. “I have no end of failings as a mother, but I have always followed the rules.” - Lionel Shriver

72. “But the one thing he could not have imagined is that we were withholding nothing. That there was nothing on the other side of our silly rules; nothing.” - Lionel Shriver

73. “Normally, he liked boundaries. Boundaries were the safety net. Boundaries kept people on the right path. But right now, he felt like rules were made to be broken and consequences were miles and miles away.” - Heather Burch

74. “The day you give priority to bogus ethics over human reactions, you become a loser. Human reactions are priceless. Rules should never, ever stifle emotions. Tennis is a very human game facing a great danger that it will be strangulated in a cat's cradle of unnecessary or inhumane rules.” - Ted Tinling

75. “The world is full of stupid people. That's why we have rules. But with enough intelligence, a person can be above the rules. She can make rules.” - Daniel Nayeri

76. “Lerne die Regeln, damit du weißt, wie du sie brichst.” - Dalai Lama XIV

77. “Rule 1: When all else fails, follow instructions. And Rule 2: Don't be an asshole.” - Anne Lamott

78. “Right now I've got just two rules to live by.Rule one: don't taunt elephants.Rule two: don't stand next to anybody who taunts elephants.-Sergeant Schlock” - Howard Tayler

79. “There are two rules for sucess:1. Never tell everything you know.” - Roger H. Lincoln

80. “In some peculiar way, indeed, the rules were now beginning to seem quite logical. It was then I knew that I had been in India long enough.” - Tahir Shah

81. “Vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful.” - Benjamin Franklin

82. “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” - Pablo Picasso

83. “Always ask any questions that are to be asked and never answer any. Turn everything you hear to your own advantage. Always carry a repair outfit. Take left turns as much as possible. Never apply your front brake first.‘If you follow them’, said the Sergeant, ‘you will save your soul and never get a fall on a slippery road.” - Flann O'Brien

84. “He tousled Baby's hair, then looked up at Tiger Lily. "The woods have rules." He put Baby down gingerly in his trough with his bottle. "But the rules are ugly.""It's nature," she said, thoughtfully."I have a lot of disagreements with nature," he said, looking confused, and his downy brow wrinkled over his eyes.” - Jodi Lynn Anderson

85. “Rules kill art.” - H.G. Mewis

86. “The rules are simple!” - Kazuki Takahashi

87. “Even the incorruptible are corruptible if they cannot accept the possibility of being mistaken.Infallibility is a sin in any man.All laws can be broken and are.Often.” - Craig Ferguson

88. “When you break rules, break 'em good and hard” - Terry Pratchett

89. “People who know how to creatively break the rules also know why the rules were there in the first place.” - Richard Rohr

90. “LIfe is just a game of chance, a dance with fate if you let it be so. Or you could chose to play by your rules to win.” - Steven Redhead

91. “With the cure, relationships are all the same, and rules and expectations are defined. Without the cure, relationships must be reinvented every day, languages constantly decoded and deciphered. Freedom is exhausting.” - Lauren Oliver

92. “I didn't write the rules, why should i follow them?” - W. Eugene Smth

93. “People just don't seem to get me. Don't understand that I need my space. Always telling me what to do. They think rules and routines and clean hands and your p's and q's will make everything all right. They haven't got a clue.” - Rachel Ward

94. “RULES OF FAIRYLAND-BELOWBEWARE OF DOGANYTHING IMPORTANT COMES IN THREES AND SIXESDO NOT STEAL QUEENSA GIRL IN THE WILD IS WORTH TWO IN CHAINSNECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF TEMPTATIONEVERYTHING MUST BE PAID FOR SOONER OR LATERWHAT GOES DOWN MUST COME UP” - Catherynne M. Valente

95. “Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women."[Commencement Address, Wellesley College, 1996]” - Nora Ephron

96. “I know that sentence is long and has too many joining words in it but sometimes, when I'm angry, words burst out of me like a shout, or, if I'm sad, they spill out of me like tears, and if I'm happy my words are like a song. If that happens it's one of my rules not to change them because they're coming out of my heart and not my head, and that's the way they're meant to be.” - Glenda Millard

97. “That's life. Life is the ultimate game, and its rules were made to be broken” - Nenia Campbell

98. “I play by the rules even when there aren’t any.” - Stacy Kramer

99. “You make your own rules and then break one, that's really horrible.” - Moath Almasri

100. “Just because it's a world of thieves out there don't mean there ain't no rules to it.” - James Carlos Blake

101. “There's an old saying," Buck said. "A hundred things can go wrong in a holdup, and if you can think of fifty of them you're a damn genius.” - James Carlos Blake

102. “Lovers and warriors are not bound by the rules of fair play.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman

103. “1) Work on one thing at a time until finished.2) Start no more new books, add no more new material to "Black Spring."3) Don't be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.4) Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!5) When you can't create you can work.6) Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.7) Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.8) Don't be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.9) Discard the Program when you feel like it—but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.10) Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.11) Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.” - Henry Miller

104. “Madame Kovarian: The anger of a good man is not a problem. Good men have too many rules.The Doctor: Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.” - Steven Moffat

105. “That is the rule of the Wilds: You must be bigger and stronger and tougher. You must hurt or be hurt.” - Lauren Oliver

106. “I'm not sure what a good person is, exactly. On the one hand, it could be someone who always play by the rules. But someone can follow the rules and still be a real jerk, you know? In fact, some of the biggest idiots I know are people who follow the rules, usually because they make you feel like crap when you don't.” - Michael Thomas Ford

107. “I'd made a long list of exceptions to cover the area between "ignoring her completely" and "abducting her at knifepoint.” - Dan Wells

108. “Imagine going to work every day to do only and exactly what you love!! All the work gets done because of the abundant diversity of your team. Different skills, interests and talents are woven together into a whole that is much greater than the sum of the parts!” - Denise Moreland

109. “It's difficult to get your creative juices flowing if you're always being practical, following rules, afraid to make mistakes, not looking into outside areas, or under the influence of any of the other mental locks.” - Roger Von Oech

110. “rules didn’t do that thing with its tongue he liked, and they definitely didn’t keep him warm at night.” - Nulli Para Ora

111. “Human nature turns out to be more complicated than the idea that people will get along if only the rules are clear enough. Uncertainty, the ultimate evil that modern law seeks to eradicate, generally fosters cooperation, not the opposite.” - Philip K. Howard

112. “Give freely, love fully, and play with fervor! Don’t put so many conditioned rules on your happiness. Life can be a beautiful experience if we allow it.” - Steve Maraboli

113. “It is important for all of us to understand that free people are not governed by rules. Here at Hillsdale we are governed by goals, and then the rules are very broad.” - Larry P. Arnn

114. “Ladies and gentleman," he said over the speakers, "welcome aboard this recently liberated Gulfstream V. If I could have your attention for just a few moments, I'd like to go over the safety features of this aircraft. It has an engine, to make us go, and wings, to keep us in the air. There are seatbelts, which won't do you an awful lot of good if we fly into the side of a mountain.” - Derek Landy

115. “Don't be afraid to make an ass of yourself. I do it all the time, and look what I got." (Spoken at a graduation ceremony while holding aloft an honorary doctoral degree from McGill University)” - William Shatner with Chris Regan

116. “Despite the best of intentions, people create rules variously and often in reaction to behaviors deemed unacceptable to the larger goals of the group. That is why we often find ourselves revising the rules when new conditions reveal their loopholes.” - Dov Seidman

117. “Human beings are natural problem solvers and enjoy the challenge of puzzles. We will always invent new loopholes, and no rule can govern all the cracks.” - Dov Seidman

118. “We have a responsibility to disobey and violate unjust rules and laws.” - Bryant McGill

119. “What few rules appear to be in place are all made up.” - Patti Digh

120. “His rules were thus: One, resist when beneficial to the cause. Two, dignity before humiliation. Three, don’t show true emotions.” - Courtney Kirchoff

121. “For those of us who can, there are certain precautions we must take in order to protect ourselves and those around us. The first and most important is this-never acknowledge the dead. Don't look at them, don't speak to them don't let them sense your fear. Even when they touch you"..."The second thing you must remember is this," Papa said. "Never stray too far from hallowed ground."..."Rule Number Three," he said. "Keep your distance from those who are haunted. If they seek you out, turn away from them, for they constitute a terrible threat and cannot be trusted." ..."Rule Number Four," he said sternly. "Never, ever tempt fate.” - Amanda Stevens