Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. == History == The perceived perversity of the universe has long been a subject of comment, and precursors to the modern version of Murphy's law are not hard to find. Recent significant research in this area has been conducted by members of the American Dialect Society. ADS member Stephen Goranson has found a version of the law, not yet generalized or bearing that name, in a report by Alfred Holt at an 1877 meeting of an engineering society. It is found that anything that can go wrong at sea...