--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Rule A: Don't. Rule A1: Rule A doesn't…" description: "\"Rule A: Don't. Rule A1: Rule A doesn't exist. Rule A2: Do not discuss the existence or non-existence of Rules A, A1 or A2.\" — R. D. Laing" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/357/r-d-laing-4861_existence_rule-a-don-t-rule-a1-rule-a-doesn-t-exis_1605845.jpg" --- # Rule A: Don't. Rule A1: Rule A doesn't exist. Rule A2: Do… ![“Rule A: Don't. Rule A1: Rule A doesn't exist. Rule A2: Do not discuss the existence or non-existence of Rules A, A1 or A2.” quote by R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/357/r-d-laing-4861_existence_rule-a-don-t-rule-a1-rule-a-doesn-t-exis_1605845.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/357/r-d-laing-4861_existence_rule-a-don-t-rule-a1-rule-a-doesn-t-exis_1605845.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/357/r-d-laing-4861_existence_rule-a-don-t-rule-a1-rule-a-doesn-t-exis_1605845.jpg) > “Rule A: Don't. Rule A1: Rule A doesn't exist. Rule A2: Do not discuss the existence or non-existence of Rules A, A1 or A2.” [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A paradoxical instruction that forbids discussion of its own existence, highlighting limits of self‑referential rules. **In simple terms:** A rule that tells you not to talk about itself. Key Takeaway Recognize when a directive is a dead‑end. Themes paradox self‑reference limits authority logic Mood confused intrigued critical Type philosophical paradoxical reflective When to use this quote - debates about policy - philosophical analysis - legal interpretation - psychological introspection - educational curricula Key Concepts meta‑rule self‑censorship Questions to Reflect On - Is it possible to obey a rule that bans its own discussion? - What does this reveal about authority? A Different Perspective The rule may be ignored or cause confusion, reducing its practical value. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Exist Rule](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/exist-rule-6115314/) [Existence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existence/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Non existence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/non-existence/) [Rule](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rule/) [Rule A1](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rule-a1-6115315/) [Rule A2](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rule-a2-6115313/) [Rule Doesn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rule-doesn-3316676/) [Rules A1](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rules-a1-6115312/) ## Related quotes > [There are no norms. All people are exceptions to a rule that doesn’t exist.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/there-are-no-norms-all-people-are-exceptions-to-a-rule-that-doesn-t/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [“As an aesthetic phenomenon existence is still bearable for us,57 and art furnishes us with eyes and hands and above all the good conscience…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/as-an-aesthetic-phenomenon-existence-is-still-bearable-for-us-57-and/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [“The existence of relative truth does not prove the non-existence of universal truth.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/idries-shah/the-existence-of-relative-truth-does-not-prove-the-non-existence-of/) [Idries Shah](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/idries-shah/) > [The Christian idea of a perfect heaven that is something other than a non-existence is a contradiction in terms.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aldous-huxley/the-christian-idea-of-a-perfect-heaven-that-is-something-other-than-a/) [Aldous Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aldous-huxley/) > [How can non-existence get sick of itself? Everytime you wake up, you appear again out of nowhere. And so does everything else. Death just…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/victor-pelevin/how-can-non-existence-get-sick-of-itself-everytime-you-wake-up-you/) [Victor Pelevin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/victor-pelevin/) > [A morality that holds need as a claim, holds emptiness-non-existence-as its standard of value; it rewards an absence, a defect: weakness, inability, incompetence, suffering,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/a-morality-that-holds-need-as-a-claim-holds-emptiness-non-existence/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [In Him there is no room for non-existence or imperfection](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mulla-sadra/in-him-there-is-no-room-for-non-existence-or-imperfection/) [Mulla Sadra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mulla-sadra/) > [“They're indifference should not be the cause of your non-existence.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/flor-hernandez/they-re-indifference-should-not-be-the-cause-of-your-non-existence/) [Flor Hernandez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/flor-hernandez/) > [Human beings cannot be willed and molded into non-existence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/angela-davis/human-beings-cannot-be-willed-and-molded-into-non-existence/) [Angela Davis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/angela-davis/) > [There's no such thing as non-existence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nikhil-saluja/there-s-no-such-thing-as-non-existence/) [Nikhil Saluja](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nikhil-saluja/) > [That which is produced with intention has passed over from non-existence to existence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maimonides/that-which-is-produced-with-intention-has-passed-over-from-non/) [Maimonides](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maimonides/) > [According to the teaching of our Lord, what is wrong with the world is precisely that it does not believe in God. Yet it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-baillie/according-to-the-teaching-of-our-lord-what-is-wrong-with-the-world-is/) [John Baillie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-baillie/) > [And so it is that we do not exist until we do; and then it is that we play with our world of existent…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/malaclypse-the-younger/and-so-it-is-that-we-do-not-exist-until-we-do-and-then-it-is-that-we/) [Malaclypse the Younger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/malaclypse-the-younger/) > [The so-called evils are evils only in relation to a certain thing, and that which is evil in relation to a certain existing thing,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maimonides/the-so-called-evils-are-evils-only-in-relation-to-a-certain-thing-and/) [Maimonides](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maimonides/) > [It does not seem to me to be sufficiently recognized everywhere among the officials that the existence or non-existence of our people and Empire…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-von-hindenburg/it-does-not-seem-to-me-to-be-sufficiently-recognized-everywhere-among/) [Paul von Hindenburg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-von-hindenburg/) ## More by R. D. Laing > [To live in the past or in the future may be less satisfying than to live in the present, but it can never be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/to-live-in-the-past-or-in-the-future-may-be-less-satisfying-than-to/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [We must remember that we are living in an age in which the ground is shifting and the foundations are shaking. I cannot answer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/we-must-remember-that-we-are-living-in-an-age-in-which-the-ground-is/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/we-live-in-a-moment-of-history-where-change-is-so-speeded-up-that-we/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [Our behavior is a function of our experience. We act according to the way we see things. If our experience is destroyed, our behavior…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/our-behavior-is-a-function-of-our-experience-we-act-according-to-the/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [How do we define, how do we describe, how do we explain and/or understand ourselves? What sort of creatures do we take ourselves to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/how-do-we-define-how-do-we-describe-how-do-we-explain-and-or/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [There is a great deal of pain in life and perhaps the only pain that can be avoided is the pain that comes from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/there-is-a-great-deal-of-pain-in-life-and-perhaps-the-only-pain-that/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/the-range-of-what-we-think-and-do-is-limited-by-what-we-fail-to/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/the-range-of-what-we-think-and-do-is-limited-by-what-we-fail-to-notice/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [In the society of men the truth resides now less in what things are than in what they are not. Our social realities are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/in-the-society-of-men-the-truth-resides-now-less-in-what-things-are/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [The schizophrenic may indeed be mad. He is mad. He is not ill. I have been told by people who have been through the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/the-schizophrenic-may-indeed-be-mad-he-is-mad-he-is-not-ill-i-have/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [What is to be done? We who are still half alive, living in the often fibrillating heartland of a senescent capitalism -- can we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/what-is-to-be-done-we-who-are-still-half-alive-living-in-the-often/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [From the alienated starting point of our pseudo-sanity, everything is equivocal. Our sanity is not "true" sanity. Their madness is not "true" madness. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/from-the-alienated-starting-point-of-our-pseudo-sanity-everything-is/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [In describing one way of going mad, I shall try to show that there is a comprehensible transition from the sane schizoid way of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/in-describing-one-way-of-going-mad-i-shall-try-to-show-that-there-is/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [Doctors have throughout time made fortunes on killing their patients with their cures. The difference in psychiatry is that it is the death of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/doctors-have-throughout-time-made-fortunes-on-killing-their-patients/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) > [A psychiatrist who professes to be a healer of souls, but who keeps people asleep, treats them for waking up, and drugs them asleep…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-d-laing/a-psychiatrist-who-professes-to-be-a-healer-of-souls-but-who-keeps/) [R. D. Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) [Explore all 105 R. D. Laing quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-d-laing/) ## More Existence quotes > [Getting on the cover of TIME guarantees the existence of opposition in the future.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-kenneth-galbraith/getting-on-the-cover-of-time-guarantees-the-existence-of-opposition/) [John Kenneth Galbraith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-kenneth-galbraith/) > [The time that one gains cannot be accumulated in a storehouse; it is contradictory to want to save up existence, which, the fact is,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simone-de-beauvoir/the-time-that-one-gains-cannot-be-accumulated-in-a-storehouse-it-is/) [Simone de Beauvoir](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simone-de-beauvoir/) > [A lot of indigenous cultures are deeply involved in working with ancestor spirits, elemental spirits, and demons. Many of these cultures feel that, if…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-pinchbeck/a-lot-of-indigenous-cultures-are-deeply-involved-in-working-with/) [Daniel Pinchbeck](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-pinchbeck/) > [It does not seem to me to be sufficiently recognized everywhere among the officials that the existence or non-existence of our people and Empire…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-von-hindenburg/it-does-not-seem-to-me-to-be-sufficiently-recognized-everywhere-among/) [Paul von Hindenburg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-von-hindenburg/) > [Quantum physics fluctuates all the time. But now the fluctuations are not just particles coming into and out of existence, which happens all the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-degrasse-tyson/quantum-physics-fluctuates-all-the-time-but-now-the-fluctuations-are/) [Neil deGrasse Tyson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-degrasse-tyson/) > [We have a fear of facing ourselves. That is the obstacle. Experiencing the innermost core of our existence is very embarrassing to a lot…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chogyam-trungpa/we-have-a-fear-of-facing-ourselves-that-is-the-obstacle-experiencing/) [Chogyam Trungpa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chogyam-trungpa/) > [One of the things I regret about not putting in that book or I think it's there but I didn't really elaborate on it,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brad-warner/one-of-the-things-i-regret-about-not-putting-in-that-book-or-i-think/) [Brad Warner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brad-warner/) > [My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-conan-doyle/my-mind-rebels-at-stagnation-give-me-problems-give-me-work-give-me/) [Arthur Conan Doyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-conan-doyle/) > [May God bless each of us in our calls to serve. May our faith strengthen as we serve in righteousness, faithfully keeping the commandments.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/l-tom-perry/may-god-bless-each-of-us-in-our-calls-to-serve-may-our-faith/) [L. Tom Perry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/l-tom-perry/) > [Never belong to a crowd; Never belong to a nation; Never belong to a religion; Never belong to a race. Belong to the whole…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rajneesh/never-belong-to-a-crowd-never-belong-to-a-nation-never-belong-to-a/) [Rajneesh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rajneesh/) > [A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty - it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-einstein/a-knowledge-of-the-existence-of-something-we-cannot-penetrate-of-the/) [Albert Einstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-einstein/) > [Universities are the cathedrals of the modern age. They shouldn't have to justify their existence by utilitarian criteria.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-lodge/universities-are-the-cathedrals-of-the-modern-age-they-shouldn-t-have/) [David Lodge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-lodge/) > [Just as everybody has the vote including women, I think children should, because as a child is conscious of itself then it has to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gertrude-stein/just-as-everybody-has-the-vote-including-women-i-think-children/) [Gertrude Stein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gertrude-stein/) > [To divide one's life by years is of course to tumble into a trap set by our own arithmetic. The calendar consents to carry…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clifton-fadiman/to-divide-one-s-life-by-years-is-of-course-to-tumble-into-a-trap-set/) [Clifton Fadiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clifton-fadiman/) > [The party in Alobar’s head, which agitation and anxiety were throwing, now was crashed by a notion: existence can be rearranged.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/the-party-in-alobar-s-head-which-agitation-and-anxiety-were-throwing/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) [Browse all 7,646 Existence quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existence/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Rule A: Don't. Rule A1: Rule A doesn't exist. Rule A2: Do not discuss the existence or non-existence of Rules A, A1 or A2.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "R. D. 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