Rule - Quotes
The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles?
Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.
Make it a point to do something every day that you don`t want to do. This is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.
Invoking a deity doesn`t solve the problem of complexity; it introduces a new problem. If all complex things really do require an intelligent creator, then why is that creator himself not bound to the same rule? Would that complex deity not require an even more complex creator, and so on, for infinity?
I hope no one reading this book thinks that "The exception proves the rule" means that if you have an exception, it means the rule is true. That`s just bugnutty. I had it explained to me as "The exception tests the rule." Also not true. The exception does not test the rule - it disproves the rule.
A classic rule of writing and editing: when writing, don` t hesitate to include something; when editing, don` t hesitate to throw it out.
Inflexible rule of life - when you really need to get drunk, you can never afford to do it.
The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any thing, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good. There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good.
The hard but just rule is that if the ideas don`t work, you must throw them away. Don`t waste any neurons on what doesn`t work. Devote those neurons to new ideas that better explain the data. Valid criticism is doing you a favor.
If you love someone, you shouldn`t make them miserable. It`s a rule somewhere, or should be.
Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.
The most important rule of any successful illusion: First, the people must want to believe in it.
I have found that it is usually in unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive.