Exceptions To The Rule Quotes

“While we think of the boundary between what is legal and what is not as a clear dividing line, it is far from being so. Rather, the boundary becomes further and further indented and folded over time, yielding a jagged and complicated border, rather than a clear straight line. In the end, the law turns out to look like a fractal: no matter how much you zoom in on such a shape, there is always more unevenness, more detail to observe. Any general rule must end up dealing with exceptions, which in turn split into further exceptions and rules, yielding an increasingly complicated, branching structure.”
― Samuel Arbesman, Overcomplicated: Technology at the Limits of Comprehension

“Exceptions are the exceptions, and finds are like ants; whenever you see one, you may be sure there are twenty.”
― Anne Fortier, The Lost Sisterhood

“If everything’s treated as an exception, there is no rule.”
― Frank Sonnenberg, The Path to a Meaningful Life

“No involvement means no commitment—no exception.”
― Laurie Buchanan, PhD