Rule of Three/Quotes

The Rule of three is... one of those 'laws' about the Planes, about everything tending to happen in threes... or everything's composed of three parts, or there's always three choices, and so on and so forth.

—Morte, Torment

Sea Chimp: If white one with mouth truly is high priest, he prove it by fulfilling the ancient prophecies!
Max: I bet there are three of them.

Sea Chimp: He knows our ancient traditions!

—Sam and Max: Moai Better Blues

Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three!

—The Old Man from Scene 24, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.

"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
That alone should encourage the crew.
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:

What I tell you three times is true."

—Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark

Genies don't grant just two wishes, nobody talks about the two Musketeers, and you never hear anyone say "second time's the charm."

—The announcer gives three examples of the Rule of Three in action, from a Hyundai car commercial

Stories are like Charlie's Angels! They should come in threes!

—Disco Stu, Simpsons Comics #175

Three is a sacred number. There are three Fates, three Furies, three Olympian sons of Kronos. It is a good strong number that stands against many dangers.

—Chiron, Percy Jackson and The Olympians

One time is happenstance, two times is coincidence, three times is intentional.

—An old adage.

...three times is enemy action.

—Variation on the above

The naming of cats is a difficult matter;
It isn't just one of your holiday games.
You may think that I am as mad as a hatter

When I tell you a cat must have three different names.

—T.S. Eliot, The Naming of Cats

"And then the LORD did say, first shalt thou pull out the holy pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Thou shalt not count to four, neither shalt thou count to two, excepting that thou then procedest directly to three. Five is right out. Then, having counted three, being the third number, lobbest thou thine Holy Hand Grenade at thine enemies, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it. Amen."

—Armaments 12:3-21, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Make three correct guesses consecutively and you will establish a reputation as an expert.

—Laurence J. Peter

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

—W. Somerset Maugham

When Change is bearing down on you, you have three basic choices: get crushed, get out of the way, or get on and ride.

There are three things you don't get over in a hurry: losing a woman, eating bad possum, and eating good possum.

—Beau la Barre, Welcome Back, Kotter

Three things you should never do:
1. Never moon a werewolf.
2. Never take a Vietnam veteran to a fireworks display in a swamp.
3. Never raise your hand during a hijacking and ask for your kosher meal.

Don't bother me. I've got my three-miracle minimum. When the Pope signs my sainthood papers, I'm outta here!

"The Universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest."

—G'Kar, Babylon 5

We will encourage you to develop the three great virtues of a programmer: laziness, impatience, and hubris.

—Larry Wall, in Programming Perl

There exist only three beings worthy of respect: the priest, the soldier, the poet. To know, to kill, to create.

—Charles Baudelaire

"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."

—Confucius

Knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower are the three factors which motivate action;

the senses, the work and the doer comprise the threefold basis of action.

—Bhagavad Gita

"There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning, and yearning."

—Christopher Morley

Every great scientific truth goes through three stages:
First, people say it conflicts with the Bible.
Next they say it had been discovered before.

Lastly, they say they always believed it.

—Jean Louis Agassiz (1807-1883)

The three most intractable beasts; the owl, the serpent, and the people.

—Demosthenes (350 B.C.)

The three things you can count on in life:
1. Someone will be offended by your words.
2. Someone will be offended by your actions.
3. Someone will be offended by your existence.

Why do I do this? Three reasons: the pay is good, the scenery changes, and they let me use explosives.

—Rockhound, in Armageddon

There are three types of particles in the universe: a few protons, a few electrons, and a whole lot of morons.

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

—Bertrand Russell, Autobiography

It is by the fortune of God that, in this country, we have three benefits: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the wisdom never to use either.

—Mark Twain

PORTER: Drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.
MACDUFF: What three things does drink especially provoke?

PORTER: Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance.

—Shakespeare, Macbeth, 2:iii

There are three things I don't do: tan, date and sing in public.

—Angel, in Angel

Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning.

—Benjamin Disraeli

Man only needs three things in life:
WD-40 to make things go,
Duct tape to make them stop,
...and a big hammer for those delicate adjustments.

There are three kinds of death in this world. There's heart death, there's brain death, and there's being off the network.

—Guy Almes

The one-L lama, he's a priest.
The two-L llama, he's a beast.
But I will bet a silk pajama

There isn't any three-L lllama.

—Ogden Nash

There are three schools of magic. One: State a tautology, then ring the changes on its corollaries; that's philosophy. Two: Record many facts. Try to find a pattern. Then make a wrong guess at the next fact; that's science. Three: Be aware that you live in a malevolent Universe controlled by Murphy's Law, sometimes offset by Brewster's Factor; that's engineering.

—Robert A. Heinlein

"When people ask me for advice -- and I don't know why they're so foolish as to do so, but some people do -- I say, 'Every morning, look in your bathroom mirror and say three times: 'It's not about me.'"

—Tom Robbins

There are three kinds of people. Those who learn by reading, a few who learn by observation, and the rest who have to test the electric fence for themselves.