Amy Tan Quotes

The public use of a man's reason must be free at all times…. But I hear people clamor on all sides: Don't argue! The military officer says: Don't argue, drill! The tax collector: Don't argue, pay! The minister: Don't argue, believe!

I'm done with rules that are there just to be rules.

Questioning authority can hardly be called our national pastime. We even make a philosophy out of fear. Fatalism, destiny, karma... are the favourite cultural holes we hide in when authority flogs us. And what's our tragedy.

The moment you start asking questions, you become public enemy number one.

Rules equal boredom, and I don't like that.

I'm not really rebellious. People think I am, but I'm not.

It's true that I've never had a burning desire to rebel against my parents.

I wasn't a good rule-breaker when I was younger.

I rebelled against all form of authority, against my grandfather, my step-father, the Church, the police, the government, the bosses. Everything male that was there, and was determining my life.

I'm such a Goody Two-shoes, but I get a vicarious thrill at someone sticking it to the Man.

I try not to break the rules but merely to test their elasticity.

Some people still believe you should just fall in line with what's going on - and that's scary. It makes a mockery of freedom of speech.

Unfortunately for governments like that of Iran, when they forbid something, people become more interested.

Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.

I feel like that's so ingrained in so many children that you are so confined and repressed growing up that, anything you do, you have to rebel against it at some point.

There's no rules. Show me the rule book.

I remember being taught my place.

Petty laws breed great crimes.

You're not allowed to step out of whatever the rules are, politically, or socially, and they'll get you for it, they'll hunt you down. That's the really frightening thing.

Basically, I hate conformity. I hate people telling me what to do. It makes me want to smash things. So-called normal behaviour patterns make me so bored, I could throw up!

The strongest bulwark of authority is uniformity; the least divergence from it is the greatest crime.

Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind.

… obedience, Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth, Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame A mechanized automaton.

A man who is free is like a mangy sheep in a herd. He will contaminate my entire kingdom and ruin my work.

The path of freedom is blocked much more by those who wish to obey than by those who wish to command.