"Pedantry and mastery are opposite attitudes toward rules. To apply a rule to the letter, rigidly, unquestioningly, in cases where it fits and in cases where it does not fit, is pedantry [...] To apply a rule with natural ease, with judgment, noticing the cases where it fits, and without ever letting the words of the rule obscure the purpose of the action or the opportunities of the situation, is mastery."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
George Pólya, How to Solve It (1945), (p. 148 in the 2004 Princeton Science Library Edition).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rules
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Rules
25 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Rules →
Related Quotes
"Rule, after you have first learned to submit to rule."
"Ces règles ne sont que des barrières pour empêcher les enfants de tomber."
"Any fool can make a rule And every fool will mind it."
"This is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules."
"IAR is policy, always has been."
"If a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore it."
"Love rules without rules."
"Those who break the rules ethically are those who have mastered them first and disciplined themselves to understand t…"
"The majority of parents are poor psychologists and give their children the most questionable moral trainings. It is p…"
"Hillel HA-Babli, in the thirty-first book of The Sabbath in 30 B.C., raised the Golden Rule to the ultimate moral pri…"