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Rules Quotes

Know the rules well enough to bend them.

One line credits Shakespeare with the lesson that you can only break the rules once you truly understand them, while another argues for living by ethics rather than rigid rules day to day. See Follow quotes for a related angle.

The co-existence of religious values in the lives of individuals and secular rules in the governance of the state should be clearly defined.

Quotes by Ahmed Zewail

When I do solo material I definitely tend to overthink it. I make a lot of rules for myself that are a little bit arbitrary and... it's just painful.

Quotes by Aesop Rock

Corporate governance should be done more through principles than rules.

Quotes by Adi Godrej

I don't follow the rules!

Quotes by Adam Rippon

Follow Quotes

Comedy has no rules, per se.

Quotes by Adam Conover

If the Supreme Court rules that rent control is an unconstitutional taking of property, it would put all sorts of zoning rules in danger.

Quotes by Adam Cohen

There is no actual need to tighten voter ID rules: there have been extraordinarily few instances of people committing fraud at the polls.

Quotes by Adam Cohen

The rules are there for a reason.

Quotes by Abby Lee Miller

The rules of drama are very much separate from the properties of life. I think that's especially true of Shakespeare.

Quotes by Aaron Sorkin

Game Quotes

Shakespeare showed me that once I understand the rules, I can break them.

Quotes by Zoe Wanamaker

Having rules means that sometimes people break them, and that means punishment.

Quotes by Yorgos Lanthimos

Berlin has traditionally backed a rules-based eurozone in which every member state is responsible for its own finances, including bank bailouts, with political union limited to a fiscal overlord's possessing veto power over national budgets that violate the rules.

Quotes by Yanis Varoufakis

I'm just unique. I do my own thing. I live by my own rules.

Quotes by Willie Cauley-Stein

I believe God rules all by his divine providence and that the stars by his permission are instruments.

Quotes by William Lilly

Know Quotes

If people suspect their Cattle Bewitched, if they be great Cattle, make the twelfth house their ascendant, and the eleventh their twelfth house, and vary your Rules with Judgment.

Quotes by William Lilly

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.

Quotes by William Golding

We follow the rules laid out in the Bible for running our church.

Quotes by William Brewster

Peace rules the day, where reason rules the mind.

Quotes by Wilkie Collins

Books such as 'The Rules' and 'He's Just Not That Into You' need to go out of the window.

Quotes by Whitney Wolfe Herd

Like Quotes

Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules.

Quotes by Wayne Dyer

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the "Rules" quotes page about?
Different takes on rules — creative rule-breaking, ethics versus rules, business practices, and a joke about the impossibility of pinning down the "rules" of good writing.
Is there a quote about breaking rules creatively?
Yes: "Shakespeare showed me that once I understand the rules, I can break them" — the idea that mastering convention is what allows you to depart from it meaningfully.
Is there a quote contrasting ethics and rules?
Yes: "Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules" — suggesting personal judgment matters more than rigid rule-following.
Is there a quote about business practices in China?
One references market rules and honesty, noting there "are not many companies in China that dare to say in public, 'We don't offer bribes'" — presented as that speaker's own observation about business culture, not a claim about any specific company.
Is there a funny quote about writing rules?
Yes: "There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." Know quotes has more in a similarly wry register.

There's also a business observation about companies choosing to operate strictly by market rules rather than bribery, plus a well-worn joke about the three rules of novel writing nobody has ever actually identified. Browse Game quotes and Know quotes for more.