Murphy's Laws: The Ultimate Guide to Life's Inevitable Humor.

Fetridge's Law: Important things that are supposed to happen do not happen, especially when people are looking.

Fett's Law of the Lab: Never replicate a successful experiment.

The Fifth Rule: You have taken yourself too seriously.

Finagle's Creed: Science is Truth. Don't be misled by fact.

Finagle's First Law: If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.

Finagle's Second Law: No matter what result is anticipated, there will always be someone eager to (a) misinterpret it, (b) fake it, or (c) believe it happened according to his own pet theory.

Finagle's Third Law: In any collection of data, the figure most obviously correct, beyond all need of checking, is the mistake. Corollaries:
No one whom you ask for help will see it.
Everyone who stops by with unsought advice will see it immediately.

Finagle's Fourth Law: Once a job is fouled up, anything done to improve it only makes it worse.

Finagle's Law According to Niven: The perversity of the universe tends to a maximum.

Finagle's Laws of Information:
The information you have is not what you want.
The information you want is not what you need.
The information you need is not what you can obtain.
The information you can obtain costs more than you want to pay.

Finagle's Rules: Ever since the first scientific experiment, man has been plagued by the increasing antagonism of nature. It seems only right that nature should be logical and neat, but experience has shown that this is not the case. A further series of rules has been formulated, designed to help man accept the pigheadedness of nature.
To study a subject best, understand it thoroughly before you start.
Always keep a record of data. It indicates you've been working.
Always draw your curves, then plot the reading.
In case of doubt, make it sound convincing.
Experiments should be reproducible. They should all fail in the same way.
When you don't know what you are doing, do it neatly.
Teamwork is essential; it allows you to blame someone else.
Always verify your witchcraft.
Be sure to obtain meteorological data before leaving on vacation.
Do not believe in miracles. Rely on them.

Fishbein's Conclusion: The tire is only flat on the bottom.

Fitz-Gibbon's Law: Creativity varies inversely with the number of cooks involved with the broth.

Flap's Law: Any inanimate object, regardless of its composition or configuration, may be expected to perform at any time in a totally unexpected manner for reasons that are either entirely obscure or completely mysterious.

Ford Pinto Rule: Never buy a car that has a wick.

Fortis's Three Great Lies of Life:
Money isn't everything.
It's great to be a Negro.
I'm only going to put it in a little way.

Three Lies According to Playboy:
The check's in the mail.
Anticipation is half the fun.
I promise I won't come in your mouth.

Hare's Additional Lie: This will hurt me more than it hurts you.

Lowry's Additional Lie: I've never done this before.

Foster's Law: If you cover a congressional committee on a regular basis, they will report the bill on your day off.

Fowler's Law: In a bureaucracy, accomplishment is inversely proportional to the volume of paper used.

Fowler's Note: The only imperfect thing in nature is the human race.

Frankel's Law: Whatever happens in government could have happened differently, and it usually would have been better if it had.
Corollary: Once things have happened, no matter how accidentally, they will be regarded as manifestations of an unchangeable Higher Reason.

Franklin's Observation: He that lives upon Hope dies farting.

Franklin's Rule: Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall not be disappointed.

Freeman's Law: Nothing is so simple it cannot be misunderstood.

Freemon's Rule: Circumstances can force a generalized incompetent to become competent, at least in a specialized field.

Fried's Law: Ideas endure and prosper in inverse proportion to their soundness and validity.

Laws of the Frisbee:
The most powerful force in the world is that of a disc straining to land under a car, just beyond reach. (The technical term for this force is "car suck".)
The higher the quality of a catch or the comment it receives, the greater the probability of a crummy return throw. ("Good catch. . . Bad throw.")
One must never precede any maneuver by a comment more predictive than, "Watch this!" (Keep 'em guessing.)
The higher the costs of hitting any object, the greater the certainty it will be struck. (Remember: The disk is positive; cops and old ladies are clearly negative.)
The best catches are never seen. ("Did you see that?" "See what?")
The greatest single aid to distance is for the disc to be going in a direction you did not want. (Wrong way = long way.)
The most powerful hex words in the sport are: "I really have this down -- watch." (Know it? Blow it!)
In any crowd of spectators at least one will suggest that razor blades could be attached to the disc. ("You could maim and kill with that thing.")
The greater your need to make a good catch, the greater the probability your partner will deliver his worst throw. (If you can't touch it, you can't trick it.)
The single most difficult move with a disc is to put it down. ("Just one more!")

Frisch's Law: You cannot have a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.

Frothingham's Fallacy: Time is money.

Fudd's First Law of Opposition: If you push something hard enough, it will fall over.

Teslacle's Deviant to Fudd's Law: It goes in -- it must come out.

Funkhouser's Law of the Power of the Press: The quality of legislation passed to deal with a problem is inversely proportional to the volume of media clamor that brought it on.

Futility Factor (Carson's Consolation): No experiment is ever a complete failure -- it can always serve as a bad example, or the exception that proves the rule (but only if it is the first experiment in the series).

Fyffe's Axiom: The problem-solving process will always break down at the point at which it is possible to determine who caused the problem.

Gadarene Swine Law: Merely because the group is in formation does not mean that the group is on the right course.

Galbraith's Law of Political Wisdom: Anyone who says he isn't going to resign, four times, definitely will.

Galbraith's Law of Prominence: Getting on the cover of "Time" guarantees the existence of opposition in the future.

Gallois's Revelation: If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled, and no one dares to criticize it.

Corollary - An expert is a person who avoids the small errors while sweeping on to the Grand Fallacy.

Laws of Gardening:
Other people's tools work only in other people's yards.
Fancy gizmos don't work.
If nobody uses it, there's a reason.
You get the most of what you need the least.

Gardner's Rule of Society: The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.

Gell-Mann's Dictum: Whatever isn't forbidden is required.
Corollary: If there's no reason why something shouldn't exist, then it must exist.

Law of Generalizations: All generalizations are false.

Gerrold's Fundamental Truth: It's a good thing money can't buy happiness. We couldn't stand the commercials.

Gerrold's Law: A little ignorance can go a long way. (Lyall's Addendum: ...in the direction of maximum harm.)

Gerrold's Pronouncement: The difference between a politician and a snail is that a snail leaves its slime behind.

Gerrold's Laws of Infernal Dynamics:

An object in motion will be heading in the wrong direction.
An object at rest will be in the wrong place.
Gerrold's Laws of Infernal Dynamics:
An object in motion will always be headed in the wrong direction.
An object at rest will always be in the wrong place.
The energy required to change either one of the states will always be more than you wish to expend, but never so much as to make the task totally impossible.

Getty's Reminder: The meek shall inherit the earth, but NOT its mineral rights.

Gibb's Law: Infinity is one lawyer waiting for another.

Gilb's Laws of Unreliability (see also Troutman's Laws of Computer Programming):

Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable.
Corollary: At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer you will find at least two human errors, including the error of blaming it on the computer.
Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.
The only difference between the fool and the criminal who attacks a system is that the fool attacks unpredictably and on a broader front.
A system tends to grow in terms of complexity rather than of simplification, until the resulting unreliability becomes intolerable.
Self-checking systems tend to have a complexity in proportion to the inherent unreliability of the system in which they are used.
The error-detection and correction capabilities of any system will serve as the key to understanding the type of errors which they cannot handle.
Undetectable errors are infinite in variety, in contrast to detectable errors, which by definition are limited.
All real programs contain errors until proved otherwise -- which is impossible.
Investment in reliability will increase until it exceeds the probable cost of errors, or somebody insists on getting some useful work done.

Gilmer's Motto for Political Leadership: Look over your shoulder now and then to be sure someone's following you.

Ginsberg's Theorem (Generalized Laws of Thermodynamics):

You can't win.
You can't break even.
You can't even quit the game.

Ehrman's Commentary on Ginberg's Theorem:
Things will get worse before they get better.
Who said things would get better?

Freeman's Commentary on Ginberg's Theorem:

Every major philosophy that attempts to make life seem meaningful is based on the negation of one part of Ginsberg's Theorem. To wit:
Capitalism is based on the assumption that you can win.
Socialism is based on the assumption that you can break even.
Mysticism is based on the assumption that you can quit the game.

Glatum's Law of Materialistic Acquisitiveness: The perceived usefulness of an article is inversely proportional to its actual usefulness once bought and paid for.

Godin's Law: Generalizedness of incompetence is directly proportional to highestness in hierarchy.

Golden Principle: Nothing will be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

The Golden Rule of Arts and Sciences: Whoever has the gold makes the rules.