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Arbitrary Quotes

Browse 465 quotes about Arbitrary.

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Arbitrary Quotes

“Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be very carefully used and that definite safety rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, and one more safeguard against tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.”

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Author:Hubert H. Humphrey
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“Nothing whatever but the constitutional law, the political structure, of these United States protects any American from arbitrary seizure of his property and his person, from the Gestapo and the Storm Troops, from the concentration camp, the torture chamber, the revolver at the back of his neck in a cellar.”

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Author:Rose Wilder Lane
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“The power to determine the quantity of money... is too important, too pervasive, to be exercised by a few people, however public-spirited, if there is any feasible alternative. There is no need for such arbitrary power... Any system which gives so much power and so much discretion to a few men, [so] that mistakes - excusable or not - can have such far reaching effects, is a bad system. It is a bad system to believers in freedom just because it gives a few men such power without any effective check by the body politic - this is the key political argument against an independent central bank.”

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Author:Milton Friedman
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“The laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths. There is nothing optional or arbitrary in them ... It is not so with the Distribution of Wealth. That is a matter of human institution solely. The things once there, mankind, individually or collectively, can do with them as they like.”

HumansMatterCharacterTruthLawScienceCan DoWealthConditionsMankindInstitutionsProductionsDistributionArbitraryOptionalDistribution Of Wealth
Book:Principles of Political Economy: Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical and Explanatory Notes and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy
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“"Pieces" almost always appear 'as parts' in whole processes. ... To sever a "'part" from the organized whole in which it occurs-whether it itself be a subsidiary whole or an "element"-is a very real process usually involving alterations in that "part". Modifications of a part frequently involve changes elsewhere in the whole itself. Nor is the nature of these alterations arbitrary, for they too are determined by whole-conditions.”

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Author:Max Wertheimer
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“The crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to every imposition, that can be heaped upon us, till custom and use shall make us as tame and abject slaves, as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway.”

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Book:The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799: prepared under the direction of the United States George Washington bicentennial commission and published by authority of Congress
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“There are several kinds of truths, and it is customary to place in the first order mathematical truths, which are, however, only truths of definition. These definitions rest upon simple, but abstract, suppositions, and all truths in this category are only constructed, but abstract, consequences of these definitions ... Physical truths, to the contrary, are in no way arbitrary, and do not depend on us.”

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Author:Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
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“If a being suffers there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration. No matter what the nature of the being, the principle of equality requires that its suffering be counted equally with the like suffering - insofar as rough comparisons can be made - of any other being. So the limit of sentience is the only defensible boundary of concern for the interests of others. To mark this boundary by some other characteristic like intelligence or rationality would be to mark it in an arbitrary manner. Why not choose some other characteristic, like skin color?”

IfsMadeMatterWould BeSufferingInterestAnimalMoralPrinciplesColorLimitsEthicsConcernSkinsMarkNo Matter WhatBoundariesCharacteristicsConsiderationComparisonRoughWhy NotJustificationRationalityArbitrarySkin ColorAnimal Ethics
Author:Peter Singer
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“Imposition of the death penalty is arbitrary and capricious. Decision of who will live and who will die for his crime turns less on the nature of the offense and the incorrigibility of the offender and more on inappropriate and indefensible considerations: the political and personal inclinations of prosecutors; the defendant's wealth, race and intellect; the race and economic status of the victim; the quality of the defendant's counsel; and the resources allocated to defense lawyers.”

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Author:Gerald Heaney
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“Tamed as it may be, sexuality remains one of the demonic forces in human consciousness - pushing us at intervals close to taboo and dangerous desires, which range from the impulse to commit sudden arbitrary violence upon another person to the voluptuous yearning for the extinction of one's consciousness, for death itself. Even on the level of simple physical sensation and mood, making love surely resembles having an epileptic fit at least as much as, if not more than, it does eating a meal or conversing with someone.”

IfsLoveHumansMayPersonsDoeDesireForceSimpleLevelsConsciousnessViolenceDangerousFitEatingRemainsSexualityMoodCommitImpulseRangeMealsPushingSensationsYearningMaking LoveArbitraryExtinctionTabooIntervalsHuman ConsciousnessDemonicTamedVoluptuousEpileptics
Author:Susan Sontag
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“Page after page of professional economic journals are filled with mathematical formulas leading the reader from sets of more or less plausible but entirely arbitrary assumptions to precisely stated but irrelevant theoretical conclusions.”

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Book:Essays in Economics: Theories, Theorizing, Facts, and Policies
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“For the other end of the spectrum, the 50 to 85 percent of the world's population who are not the recipients of privilege, the world they know is almost certainly worse than any their earlier counterparts knew. It is likely they are worse off materially, despite the technological changes. In substantive as opposed to formal terms, they are more, not less, subject to arbitrary constraints, since the central mechanisms are more pervasive and more efficient. And they bear the brunt of the various kinds of psychic malaise, as well as of the destructiveness of civil wars.”

KnowsWorldWellsKindWarEndsTermSubjectsBearsPercentCapitalismPrivilegePopulationVariousDespiteCivil WarMechanismEfficientFormalTechnologicalPsychicsArbitrarySpectrumConstraintsCounterpartsMalaiseDestructivenessTechnological Change
Author:Immanuel Wallerstein
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“As I have said before, I never had any large respect for good spelling. That is my feeling yet. Before the spelling-book came with its arbitrary forms, men unconsciously revealed shades of their characters, and also added enlightening shades of expression to what they wrote by their spelling, and so it is possible that the spelling-book has been a doubtful benevolence to us.”

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Book:The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays
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“In talking about human rights today, we are referring primarily to the following demands: protection of the individual against arbitrary infringement by other individuals or by the government; the right to work and to adequate earnings from work; freedom of discussion and teaching; adequate participation of the individual in the formation of his government. These human rights are nowadays recognised theoretically, although, by abundant use of formalistic, legal manoeuvres, they are being violated to a much greater extent than even a generation ago.”

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Book:Ideas and Opinions
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“To divide one's life by years is of course to tumble into a trap set by our own arithmetic. The calendar consents to carry on its dull wall-existence by the arbitrary timetables we have drawn up in consultation with those permanent commuters, Earth and Sun. But we, unlike trees, need grow no annual rings.”

NeedsYearsEarthCoursesGrowsExistenceSunTreeWallRingsPermanentDullBirthdayDividesTrapsConsentArbitraryCalendarsAnnualsArithmeticTimetablesConsultationEarth And Sun
Book:Party of One: The Selectd Writings of Clifton Fadiman
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“A state that denies its citizens their basic rights becomes a danger to its neighbors as well: internal arbitrary rule will be reflected in arbitrary external relations. The suppression of public opinion, the abolition of public competition for power and its public exercise opens the way for the state power to arm itself in any way it sees fit.... A state that does not hesitate to lie to its own people will not hesitate to lie to other states.”

PeopleWayWellsDoeStatesLyingOpinionRightsDangerArmsCitizensFitExerciseRelationCompetitionDenyNeighborInternalsCold WarArbitraryPublic OpinionAbolitionSuppressionBasic Rights
Author:Vaclav Havel
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“Real life this fdar had taught me that in the adult world, fate was chaotic and uncertain. Guidelines for success were arbitrary. But in the world of D&D, at least there was a rule book... By role-playing, we were in control, and our characters... wandered through places of danger, their destinies, ostensibly, within our grasp.”

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Author:Ethan Gilsdorf
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“Considered logically this concept is not identical with the totality of sense impressions referred to; but it is an arbitrary creation of the human (or animal) mind.”

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Book:The Albert Einstein Collection: Essays in Humanism, The Theory of Relativity, and The World As I See It
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“The love of domination and an uncontrolled lust of arbitrary power have prevailed among all nations and perhaps in proportion to the degrees of civilization.”

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Book:History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution: Interspersed with Biographical, Political and Moral Observations
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“I am really sorry to see my countrymen trouble themselves about politics. If men were wise, the most arbitrary princes could not hurt them. If they are not wise, the freest government is compelled to be a tyranny. Princes appear to me to be fools. Houses of Commons and Houses of Lords appear to me to be fools; they seem to me to be something else besides human life.”

IfsMenHumansSeemsGovernmentHousePoliticsHurtLordWiseTroubleFoolPoliticianSorryTyrannyHuman LifeCompelledArbitraryCountrymenHouse Of CommonsHouse Of Lords
Book:William Blake
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“Exclusion of just one class of citizens from receiving a marriage license based upon the perceived 'threat' they pose to the marital institution is, at bottom, an arbitrary exclusion based upon the majority's disapproval of the defined class. It is also insulting to same-sex couples, who are human beings capable of forming loving, committed, enduring relationships.”

HumansSexHuman BeingsClassCoupleCitizensGayCapableInstitutionsMajorityThreatEndureBottomCommittedDefinedJust OneReceivingLicenseArbitraryGay MarriageInsultingExclusionGay PrideDisapproval
Author:Terence C. Kern
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“It violates right order whenever capital so employs the working or wage-earning classes as to divert business and economic activity entirely to its own arbitrary will and advantage, without any regard to the human dignity of the workers, the social character of economic life, social justice, and the common good.”

HumansCharacterOrderSocialJusticeCommonClassEconomicRevolutionActivityAdvantageDignityRegardSocial JusticeWorkersEarningArbitraryCommon GoodHuman Dignity
Book:Forty Years After: Reconstructing the Social Order
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“The question we must ask ourselves as a culture is whether we want to embrace the change that must come, or resist it. Are we so attached to the dietary fallacies with which we were raised, so afraid to counter the arbitrary laws of eating taught to us in childhood by our misinformed parents, that we cannot alter the course they set us on, even if it leads to our own ruin? Does the prospect of standing apart or encounttering ridicule scare us even from saving ourselves?”

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Author:Howard Lyman
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