Funny laws

Benford's law of controversy

Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available

 

Duffy's law

Most people are wrong about most things most of the time

 

Godwin's Law

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one

 

Heinlien's razor

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity 

 

Herblock's Law

If you like it, they will stop making it

 

Hotelling's law

Under some conditions, it is rational for competitors to make their products as nearly identical as possible

For example, the most popular political parties are all very much alike.

Kaufman's Theorem of Interconnectedness

Any two items that can become entangled will become entangled

Kolakowski's Law (or the Law of the Infinite Cornucopia)

For any given doctrine that one wants to believe, there is never a shortage of arguments by which to support it

 

Littlewood's law

Individuals can expect miracles to happen to them, at the rate of about one per month 

 

Lottery paradox

It is philosophically justifiable to believe that every individual lottery ticket won't win, but not justifiable to believe that no lottery ticket will win

 

Meyer's Law

It is a simple task to make things complex, and a complex task to make them simple

 

Montman’s theory

When a protagonist claims that they will never again visit the thread [of an internet forum], the probability that the protagonist will revisit the thread and post at least once more approaches 1.

 

Morton’s Fork

A person who lives in luxury and has clearly spent a lot of money must obviously have sufficient income to pay as tax. Alternatively, a person who lives frugally and shows no sign of being wealthy must have substantial savings and can therefore afford to pay it as tax.

Named after John Morton, tax collector for King Henry VII of England.

 

Moynihan's law

The amount of violations of human rights in a country is always an inverse function of the amount of complaints about human rights violations heard from there. The greater the number of complaints being aired, the better protected are human rights in that country.

 

Murphy’s law

Anything which can go wrong, will go wrong

 

Parkinson's law

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion

 

Parkinson’s second law

Expenditure rises to meet income

 

Petronius’ paradox

Moderation in all things, including moderation

 

Poe's law

Without the use of a winking smiley or other blatant display of humour, it is impossible to make a parody of fundamentalism that someone won't mistake for the real thing

 

Rothbard’s law

Everyone specialises in what he is worst at

 

Russell's law

It is impossible to distinguish a creationist from a parody of a creationist

 

Salem Hypothesis

In any Evolution vs. Creation debate, a person who claims scientific credentials and sides with Creation will most likely have an Engineering degree

 

Segal’s Law

A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.

 

Sturgeon's law

Nothing is always absolutely so

 

Sturgeon's revelation

90 percent of everything is crud

 

Sutton's law

Go where the money is

Often cited in medical schools to teach new doctors to spend resources where they are most likely to pay off. The law is named after bank robber Willie Sutton, who when asked why he robbed banks is claimed to have answered "Because that's where the money is."