The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (474 page)

1942
Gift Horse
(1972) v. 38
‘That's the rule,’ added Happy, unnecessarily. ‘Rules are made to be broken,’ Johnny said with forced heartiness.
1954
Expedition to Earth
58
It is a fundamental rule of space-flight that .. the minimum crew on a long journey shall consist of not less than three men. But rules are made to be broken …
1978
Libertines
i. 20
‘.. it's an unwritten law that the Libertines don't use the house.’ ‘Rules are made to be broken.’
1997
Washington Post
15 Feb. D4
And if he should feel like betting on a baseball game or two, why not? There's a rule against it? Well, rules are made to be broken, right?
rules, general

 
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Cf. ERASMUS
Adages
III
. ccxxxvii.
duos insequens lepores
,
neutrum capit
, he who chases two hares catches neither.
1509
Ship of Fools
H5
A fole is he .. Whiche with one haunde tendyth [intends] to take two harys in one instant.
1580
Euphues & his England
II. 157
I am redie to take potions .. yet one thing maketh to feare, that in running after two Hares, I catch neither.
1732
Gnomologia
no. 2782
If you run after two Hares, you will catch neither.
1880
John Ploughman's Pictures
24
If we please one we are sure to get another grumbling. We shall be like the man who hunted many hares at once and caught none.
1981
Xanadu Talisman
v.
Let's take things a step at a time. You know what they say. If you run after two hares you will catch neither.
decision and indecision
;
wanting and having

 
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Also used in the metaphorical phrase to
run with the hare and hunt with the hounds
. In quot. 1546
tytifils
comes from Titivil, formerly a common name for a demon.
a
1449
Minor Poems
(EETS) 821
He .. holdeth bothe with hounde and hare.
1546
Dialogue of Proverbs
I
. x. C3
There is no mo [more] suche tytifils [scoundrels] in Englands grounde, To holde with the hare, and run with the hounde.
1694
Trimmer's Confession of Faith
I
I can hold with the Hare, and run with the Hound: Which no Body can deny.
1896
Courtships of Queen Elizabeth
xii.
Leicester, as usual, tried to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, to retain French bribes and yet to stand in the way of French objects.
1975
Women in Wall
v.
Clotair's henchmen say: ‘You cannot
run
with the hare and hunt with the hounds.’ The peasants have an even clearer way of putting this: ‘You cannot’, they say, ‘side with the cow and the clover.’
choices

 
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