I have no use for the strictures of You must. You must not.
[無可無不可]
Confucius (c. 551- c. 479 BC) Chinese philosopher, sage, politician [孔夫子 (Kǒng Fūzǐ, K'ung Fu-tzu, K'ung Fu Tse), 孔子 (Kǒngzǐ, Chungni), 孔丘 (Kǒng Qiū, K'ung Ch'iu)]
The Analects [論語, 论语, Lúnyǔ], Book 18, verse 8 (18.8.5) (6th C. BC) [ed. Lao-Tse, tr. Hinton (1998)]
(Source)
(Source (Chinese)). Alternate translations:I have no course for which I am predetermined, and no course against which I am predetermined.
[tr. Legge (1861)]I will take no liberties, I will have no curtailing of my liberty.
[tr. Jennings (1895); in the footnote he gives a more raw translation, "Without possibilities (or freedom to act) -- without impossibilities"]With me there is no inflexible "thou shalt" or 'thou shalt not."
[tr. Soothill (1910)]I have no categoric can and cannot.
[tr. Pound (1933)]I have no "thou shalt" or "thou shalt not."
[tr. Waley (1938)]I accept life as it comes. [tr. Ware (1950)]I have no preconceptions about the permissible and the impermissible.
[tr. Lau (1979)]I avoid saying what should or should not be done.
[tr. Dawson (1993)]I follow no rigid prescriptions on what should, or should not, be done.
[tr. Leys (1997)]I have neither favorable nor unfavorable situation. [tr. Huang (1997)]I have not any stubborn positiveness or negation.
[tr. Cai/Yu (1998)]I do not have presuppositions as to what may and may not be done.
[tr. Ames/Rosemont (1998)]I have no "may" and no "may not."
[tr. Brooks/Brooks (1998)]I have no preconceptions about what one can or cannot do.
[tr. Annping Chin (2014)]
This may be the source of Lin-Yutang, ed. The Wisdom of Confucius (1938):The superior man goes through his life without any one preconceived course of action or any taboo. He merely decides for the moment what is the right thing to do.