你曾不曾才坐上馬桶電話就來？才點菸你的公車就到？才洗車就下雨，才買傘雨就停？也許當時你明白，冥冥之中有個無所不在的原理在運轉，非人力所能左右，教人恨不能有個名堂加以稱呼。也許你已經聽過莫非定律、某某原則、選擇性重力等說法，想引述時才發現自己忘了確切的遣詞用字。
本書破天荒完整蒐羅了瘋癲成趣的科技人員、政府官員、人文學家、社會觀察家的機智與智慧，編纂方式力求人人都能樂在其中，條列方式則盡可能明確。蒐尋這些跨學科的原則時，我們發現有許多是一說再說的（這也證明這些心得不假），也常遇到出處有爭議的，還有不少佚名撰稿人。我們不得不承認無法模仿的 Zymurgy 先生所投的那則：
「蟲罐子一旦打開，只有用更大的罐子才裝得回去。」
把這則莫非小品應用到本書，我們便明白，編纂工作一旦展開，厚度與廣度會一再增加，因為真理之光照出了更多有新有舊的原則。
Have you ever received a phone call the minute you sat down on the toilet? Has the bus you were waiting for ever appeared the instant you lit up a cigarette? Has it ever rained the day you
washed your car, or stopped raining just after you bought an umbrella? Perhaps you realized at the time that something was afoot, that some universal principle was just out of your grasp,
itching to be called by name. Or perhaps, having heard of Murphy’s Law, the Peter Principle, or the Law of Selective Gravity, you have wanted to invoke one of these, only to find that you have
forgotten its exact wording.
