Rule

Famous quotes containing the word rule:

    “Now, since our condition accommodates things to itself, and transforms them according to itself, we no longer know things in their reality; for nothing comes to us that is not altered and falsified by our Senses. When the compass, the square, and the rule are untrue, all the calculations drawn from them, all the buildings erected by their measure, are of necessity also defective and out of plumb. The uncertainty of our senses renders uncertain everything that they produce.”
    —Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)

    “Fatalism, whose solving word in all crises of behavior is “All striving is vain,” will never reign supreme, for the impulse to take life strivingly is indestructible in the race. Moral creeds which speak to that impulse will be widely successful in spite of inconsistency, vagueness, and shadowy determination of expectancy. Man needs a rule for his will, and will invent one if one be not given him.”
    —William James (1842–1910)

    “Man who man would be,
    Must rule the empire of himself; in it
    Must be supreme, establishing his throne
    On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy
    Of hopes and fears, being himself alone.”
    —Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)