Murphy's law is a popular adage that states that "things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance," or more commonly, "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong." A number of variants on the rule have been formulated, as have several corollaries.

Quotes

• If there is a wrong way to do something, then someone will do it.
  • Version attributed to Edward A. Murphy in "Murphy Lives!" by Robert L. Forward, in Science 83 (January-February 1983), p. 78

• If there's more than one way to do a job and one of those ways will end in disaster, then somebody will do it that way.
  • Version attributed to Edward A. Murphy in People Magazine (31 January 1983), p. 82

• If there's more than one way to do a job, and one of those ways will result in disaster, then somebody will do it that way.
  • According to Robert Murphy (son of Edward A. Murphy, Jr.) his father's statement was along these lines; reported in People (31 January 1983), p. 82; alternately reported as "If there is a wrong way to do something, then someone will do it", in "Murphy Lives!" by Robert L. Forward, Science 83 (January-February 1983), p. 78; also commonly reported as, "If anything can go wrong, it will", in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (1982) edited by J. A. Simpson, p. 4.

• Anything That Can Possibly Go Wrong, Does
  • Epigraph of The Butcher: The Ascent of Yerupaja (1952) by John Sack

• Colonel Stapp's favorite takeoff on sober scientific laws — Murphy's Law, Stapp calls it — 'Everything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong'
  • Lloyd Mallan, in Men, Rockets and Space Rats (1955), possibly the earliest printed use of Murphy's name in connection with the law.

• Murphy's Quantum Law: Anything that can, could have, or will go wrong, is going wrong, all at once.
  • Paul Dickson, in The Official Rules (1982) ISBN 0099264900

• With diligent effort he has established that there is no statistical basis for Murphy’s Law. He has also established that he believes in it anyway.
  • John Barnes, Mother of Storms (1994) p. 511 (from the first mass market paperback edition published by Tor Books (May 1995) ISBN 0-812-53345-3)

External links

• The Annals of Improbable Research tracks down the origins of Murphy's law
• Murphy's Laws Origin
• Visual Archive of Murphy's Law Books Worldwide
• The House of Murphy
• Mathematical formula for Murphy's Law
• 1952 proverb citation
• 1955 term citation of phrase "Murphy's Law"
• Reference to 1941 citation of the proverb
• Murphy's Law entry in the Jargon File
• Murphy's Law was Born Here
• A collection of humorous Murphy's Laws
• Murphy's Law of Combat