Robert J. Sawyer Quotes

There are some good rules and there are some lousy rules.

There are those whose sole claim to profundity is the discovery of exceptions to the rules.

It occurred to me, when I was old enough to make rules of my own, that they should be fair and simple.

The rules of navigation never navigated a ship. The rules of architecture never built a house.

Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference.

No rule is so general, which admits not some exception.

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.

Principles and rules are binding, but when they come into conflict they must be balanced.

We must not confuse protocol with principle.

The reason that we have rules is so that sometimes they can be suspended.

It is not enough to show me that a measure is expedient: you must show me also that it is right.

It is paltry philosophy if in the old-fashioned way one lays down rules and principles in total disregard of moral values . As soon as these appear one regards them as exceptions, which gives them a certain scientific status, and thus makes them into rules. Or again one may appeal to genius , which is above all rules; which amounts to admitting that rules are not only made for idiots , but are idiotic in themselves.

The cause of all human evils is the not being able to apply general principles to special cases.

At best the principles that economists have supposed the choices of rational individuals to satisfy can be presented as guidelines for us to consider when we make our decisions.

It is always more easy to discover and proclaim general principles than it is to apply them.

What I will say to people is what you require are rules and not prejudices.

This is how the human mind works. We see exceptions and spin them into rules. We take slices of information and make sweeping conclusions, as another pair of psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, found in their pioneering work on judgment and decision-making.

There is no way anything of value can be done without some framework. It might well be that the framework is discarded or the rules opposed; that is not important. What is essential is that they exist so that one knows when one is in opposition to them.

If you ask me if I have this or that principle, tell me what its consequences are, and then I'll tell you whether I have that principle or not.

One of the most important rules of personal effectiveness is the 10/90 rule.

Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise.

Lord Darlington (LD): I think life too complex a thing to be settled by these hard and fast rules. Lady Windemere (LW): If we had 'hard-and-fast rules' we would find life much simpler. LD: You allow of no exceptions? LW: None! LD: Ah, what a fascinating Puritan you are, LW. LW: The adjective was unnecessary, LD.

General rules will bear hard on particular cases.

Occasionally, a man must rise above principles.

Our struggle to put first things first can be characterized by the contrast between two powerful tools that direct us: the clock and the compass. The clock represents our commitments, appointments, schedules, goals, activities - what we do with, and how we manage our time. The compass represents our vision, values, principles, mission, conscience, direction - what we feel is important and how we lead our lives. In an effort to close the gap between the clock and the compass in our lives, many of us turn to the field of "time management."