That which is not forbidden is mandatory.

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Source, in full

This has become a common phrase among quantum scientists, and is often attributed to Gell-Mann, but no citations of original source has yet been located; it is seems to have been derived from the assertion made in the ant-colony of The Sword in the Stone (1938), the first part of The Once and Future King by T. H. White : EVERYTHING NOT FORBIDDEN IS COMPULSORY.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Murray Gell-Mann (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.