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"That which is not forbidden is mandatory."

— Murray Gell-Mann

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026

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Academics from the United States Jews from the United States Nobel laureates from the United States Physicists from the United States Systems scientists

Original Language: English

Sources

This has become a common phrase among quantum scientists, and is often attributed to Gell-Mann, but no citations of original source has yet been located; it is seems to have been derived from the assertion made in the ant-colony of The Sword in the Stone (1938), the first part of The Once and Future King by T. H. White : EVERYTHING NOT FORBIDDEN IS COMPULSORY.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Murray_Gell-Mann

This has become a common phrase among quantum scientists, and is often attributed to Gell-Mann, but no citations of original source has yet been located; it is seems to have been derived from the assertion made in the ant-colony of The Sword in the Stone (1938), the first part of The Once and Future King by T. H. White : EVERYTHING NOT FORBIDDEN IS COMPULSORY.