Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Anyone can create a rule, and anyone will follow it blindly.
In plain terms
Rules are easy to make, and people often obey them without thought.
What can you take from it?
Question rules before accepting them.

Where it applies

  • workplace policies
  • social norms

Putting it to work

  • review rules for purpose
  • encourage dissenting ideas

Questions to consider

  • When should you challenge a rule?
  • What makes a rule worth following?

Another view

Not all rules are blindly followed; some are critically examined.

More from Henry David Thoreau

  1. The savage in man is never quite eradicated.

    Permalink to quote #48
  2. The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by…

    Permalink to quote #50
  3. You must love the crust of the earth on which you dwell more than the sweet crust of any bread or cake; you must be able to extract nutriment out of a sand hea…

    Permalink to quote #47

Related quotes

  1. Fate quello che noi diciamo e non quello che noi facciamo.

    Giovanni BoccaccioGiovanni Boccaccio quote #3
  2. How far should one accept the rules of the society in which one lives? To put it another way: at what point does conformity become corruption? Only by answerin…

    Kenneth TynanKenneth Tynan quote #7
  3. Nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri, quo me cumque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes.

    HoraceHorace quote #18