Alexandrian Rules

Famous quotes containing the words alexandrian and/or rules:

“A character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza;—read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

“The duce of any other rule have I to govern myself by in this affair—and if I had one ... I would twist it and tear it to pieces, and throw it into the fire when I had done—Am I warm? I am, and the cause demands it—a pretty story! is a man to follow rules—or rules to follow him?”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)