Unwritten Laws: The Unofficial Rules of Life As Handed Down by Murphy and Other Sages

by Hugh Rawson

On This Page

Description

CAPONE'S LAW. You can get a lot more done with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone. LANCE'S LAW. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. MILLER'S LAW. The quality of food in restaurants is in inverse proportion to the number of signed celebrity photographs on the wall. WALPOLE'S LAW. Every man has his price. Unwritten Laws is a wonderfully entertaining treasury of more than five hundred rules, strategies, and ironical insights, with many amendments and corollaries, all associated with show more particular individuals.         Organized alphabetically, from Lady Astor ("All women marry beneath them.") to Zeno ("The goal of life is living in agreement with nature."), from Woody Allen ("Eighty percent of success is showing up.") to Oscar Wilde ("There are two tragedies in life. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."), Unwritten Laws contains a generous sampling of the collective wisdom of humankind.         Hugh Rawson not only gives sources and dates for the law's, but annotates them with fascinating details. For example, Alfred Lord Tennyson's widely accepted "In the spring a young man's fancy turns lightly to thoughts of love" turns out to be a mistake, recent research showing that male testosterone levels are actually higher in the fall!         This delightful book is as wonderful for browsing as it is for providing guidance over the rocks and shoals of life. show less

Tags

Recommendations

Member Reviews

1 review

Members

Recently Added By

Author Information

Picture of author.
10 Works 924 Members

Classifications

Genre
Nonfiction
DDC/MDS
001Computer science, information & general worksComputer science, knowledge & systemsKnowledge and learning in general
LCC
PN6084 .C556 .R39Language and LiteratureLiterature (General)Literature (General)Collections of general literatureQuotationsEnglish
BISAC

Statistics

Members
116
Popularity
279,758
Reviews
1
Rating
½ (3.42)
Languages
English
Media
Paper
ISBNs
4