Murray Gell-Mann
Physicist
"Everything that is not forbidden is compulsory."
Forbidden quotes
Forbidden
56 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Samuel Beckett
Playwright, Novelist
"To him who has nothing it is forbidden not to relish filth."
Robert A. Heinlein
Science Fiction Author
"Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn't forbidden."
Friedrich Schiller
Playwright, Poet
"Whatever is not forbidden is permitted."
Mark Twain
Writer, Humorist
"Customs do not concern themselves with right or wrong or reason. But they have to be obeyed; one reasons all around them until he is tired, but he must not transgress them, it is sternly forbidden."
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"The notion that Western religions are more rigid than those of Asia is overdrawn. Ours is the most permissive society history has ever known - almost the only thing that is forbidden now is to forbid - and Asian teachers and their progeny play up to this propensity by soft-pedaling Hinduism's, Buddhism's, Sufism's rules."
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"Satires which the censor can understand are justly forbidden"
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"It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted; precisely because most things are permitted and only a few things forbidden."
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"If it's not forbidden, then it's allowed"
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"We take no pleasure in permitted joys, But what's forbidden is more keenly sought."
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"That which is not forbidden, is not on that account permitted."
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"If you using local color in an unobtrusive way, it is all for the good. But if you stress it, the whole thing is artificial. But it should be used, I mean, it's not forbidden. But you don't have to stress it."
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