“Everything not forbidden is compulsory”

“Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn't forbidden.”

“Books are open doors to other dimensions where everything is possible and nothing is forbidden.”

“Who is the madder,’ Osman the clown whispered into hisbullock's ear as he groomed it in its small byre, ‘the madwoman,or the fool who loves the madwoman?’ The bullock didn't reply.‘Maybe we should have stayed untouchable,’ Osman continued. ‘A compulsory ocean sounds worse than a forbidden well.’ And thebullock nodded, twice for yes, boom, boom.”

“Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival.”

“The conventional word that is employed to describe tyranny is “systematic.” 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. (The only rule of thumb was: whatever is not compulsory is forbidden.) Thus, the ruled can always be found to be in the wrong.”