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Arbitrary Quotes

Browse 465 quotes about Arbitrary.

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Arbitrary Quotes

“The laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity...will respect the less important and arbitrary ones... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants, they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

MenMayImportantLawHumanityLibertyGreaterCrimeArmsGunSacredDeterminedLibertarianCommitAmendmentsGun ControlFoundingArbitraryFreedom And LibertySelf DefenseSecond AmendmentFreedom LibertyOur Founding FathersLimited GovernmentFirearmsUs Founding FathersRight To Bear ArmsBearing ArmsGun RightsLimiting GovernmentRights And FreedomsHomicidePro GunFounding Fathers GunUnarmed2 AmendmentFounding Fathers Second AmendmentGreat LibertarianDisarmingLimiting FreedomAmendment 1Gun LawPro Gun ControlPatriotic GunGuns In AmericaGun CrimeCarrying GunsCommitting Crimes
Author:Cesare Beccaria
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“If the truth is boring, civilization is irksome. The constraints inherent in civilized living are frustrating in innumerable ways. Yet those with the vision of the anointed often see these constraints as only arbitrary impositions, things from which they-and we all-can be 'liberated.' The social disintegration which has followed in the wake of such liberation has seldom provoked any serious reconsideration of the whole set of assumptions-the vision-which led to such disasters. That vision is too well insulated from feedback.”

IfsWayWellsWholeSocialVisionSeriousCivilizationTruth IsBoringDisasterLiberationAssumptionCivilizedInherentFrustratingFeedbackArbitraryConstraintsLiberatedImpositionProvokedDisintegrationReconsideration
Author:Thomas Sowell
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“Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security, but at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth.”

WaySaidImportantGovernmentPoliticsProcessWealthEconomicSecurityCitizensSightMethodRichesStrikesBest WayCapitalistCurrencyContinuingDistributionEquityInflationArbitraryDistribution Of Wealth
Book:Essays in persuasion
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“There's something arbitrary about taking a picture. So I can stand at the edge of a highway and take one step forward and it can be a natural landscape untouched by man and I can take one step back and include a guardrail and change the meaning of the picture radically... I can take a picture of a person at one moment and make them look contemplative and photograph them two seconds later and make them look frivolous.”

MenLooksPersonsArtI CanTwoMomentsNaturalStepsCreativityPhotographyPhotographerPhotographEdgesLandscapeSecondsHighwaysArbitrarySteps ForwardFrivolousContemplativeGuardrails
Author:Stephen Shore
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“The resurrection is not an isolated supernatural oddity proving how powerful, if apparently arbitrary, God can be when he wants to. Nor is it at all a way of showing that there is indeed a heaven awaiting us after death. It is the decisive event demonstrating that God’s kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven.”

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Author:N. T. Wright
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“The militia is the natural defense of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpation of power by rulers. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally ... enable the people to resist and triumph over them.”

PeopleCountryStrongNaturalLibertyMoralArmsBearsCitizensOffersDefenseChecksTriumphRepublicAmendmentsRulersArbitraryInvasionSecond AmendmentRight To Bear ArmsMilitiaBearing ArmsFounding Fathers Gun2 AmendmentFree CountryInsurrectionFounding Fathers Second AmendmentAmendment 1Usurpation
Book:Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution
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“Finally it should be the earnest wish and paramount aim of the military administration to win the confidence, respect, and affection of the inhabitants of the Philippines by assuring them in every possible way that full measure of individual rights and liberties which is the heritage of free peoples, and by proving to them that the mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation substituting the mild sway of justice and right for arbitrary rule.”

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Author:William McKinley
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“I believe that numbers and functions of Analysis are not the arbitrary result of our minds; I think that they exist outside of us, with the same character of necessity as the things of objective reality, and we meet them or discover them, and study them, as do the physicists, the chemists and the zoologists.”

ThinkingMindBelieveCharacterRealityI BelieveResultsNumbersStudyFunctionMathematicsObjectivesMathematicalAnalysisPhysicistArbitraryChemistObjective RealityZoologistMathematical Analysis
Author:Charles Hermite
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“When the rate of return on capital exceeds the rate of growth of output and income, as it did in the nineteenth century and seems quite likely to do again in the twenty-first, capitalism automatically generates arbitrary and unsustainable inequalities that radically undermine the meritocratic values on which democratic societies are based.”

FirstsSeemsValuesGrowthDemocracySocietyCenturyReturnCapitalismTwentiesDemocraticRateIncomeInequalityArbitraryExceedNineteenth CenturyDemocratic SocietyOutputUndermining
Book:Capital in the Twenty-First Century
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“Abstract understanding doesn't mean arbitrary sloshing and messing. Abstract art is controlled visual magic based on laws and methodology. Abstraction generally involves implication, suggestion and mystery rather that obvious description. Like a good poem, a good abstraction attacks your feelings before your understanding. Abstraction within realism adds zest and excitement to otherwise dull subject matter. Abstract understanding takes time and patience.”

MeanArtMatterFeelingsLawUnderstandingMagicMysterySubjectsArt IsAddObviousExcitementAbstractVisualsDullDescriptionControlledTake TimeRealismSuggestionsAbstractionArbitraryImplicationsSubject MatterMethodologyZestAbstract ArtTime And Patience
Author:Robert Genn
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“Will robot teachers replace human teachers? No, but they can complement them. Moreover, the could be sufficient in situations where there is no alternative––to enable learning while traveling, or while in remote locations, or when one wishes to study a topic for which there is not easy access to teachers. Robot teachers will help make lifelong learning a practicality. They can make it possible to learn no matter where one is in the world, no matter the time of day. Learning should take place when it is needed, when the learner is interested, not according to some arbitrary, fixed schedule”

WorldShouldHumansMatterHelpingWishEasySituationStudyTeacherNeededAccessAlternativesFixedSufficientLocationSchedulesTopicsRobotsArbitraryLifelongLearnersComplementPracticalityLifelong LearnerLifelong LearningTime Of DayEasy Access
Author:Donald A. Norman
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“All "public interest' legislation (and any distribution of money taken by force from some men for the unearned benefit of others) comes down ultimately to the grant of an undefined undefinable, non-objective, arbitrary power to some government officials. The worst aspect of it is not that such a power can be used dishonestly, but that it cannot be used honestly. The wisest man in the world, with the purest integrity, cannot find a criterion for the just, equitable, rational application of an unjust, inequitable, irrational principle.”

MenWorldGovernmentUsedForceInterestLibertyPrinciplesTakenWorstIntegrityBenefitsAspectHonestlyObjectivesRationalOfficialsGrantsApplicationIrrationalLegislationUnjustDistributionArbitraryCriteriaWisestPublic InterestEquitableWisest ManGovernment OfficialsUndefined
Book:Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
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“Veganism is about nonviolence. It is about not engaging in harm to other sentient beings; to oneself; and to the environment upon which all beings depend for life. In my view, the animal rights movement is, at its core, a movement about ending violence to all sentient beings. It is a movement that seeks fundamental justice for all. It is an emerging peace movement that does not stop at the arbitrary line that separates humans from nonhumans.”

HumansDoePeaceLinesJusticeAnimalViewsEnvironmentRightsViolenceMovementDependsFundamentalsOneselfHarmCoreAnimal RightsNonviolenceEngagingArbitraryEmergingVeganismSentient BeingsJustice For All
Author:Gary L. Francione
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“From the first dawn of life, all organic beings are found to resemble each other in descending degrees, so that they can be classed in groups under groups. This classification is evidently not arbitrary like the grouping of stars in constellations.”

LifeInspirationalFirstsFoundStarsGroupsDegreesDawnArbitraryConstellationsInterdependenceClassificationDescending
Book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; Or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
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“History, is made up of the bad actions of extraordinary men and woman. All the most noted destroyers and deceivers of our species, all the founders of arbitrary governments and false religions have been extraordinary people; and nine tenths of the calamities that have befallen the human race had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires.”

PeopleMenHumansHas BeensMadeGovernmentActionDesireRaceLowsUnionsSpeciesExtraordinaryNineHuman RaceFoundersOrdinary PeopleArbitraryCalamityDestroyersDeceiverBad Actions
Author:Thomas B. Macaulay
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“A sort of war of revenge on the intellect is what, for some reason, thrives in the contemporary social atmosphereThe ideas of a time are like the clothes of a season: they are as arbitrary, as much imposed by some superior will which is seldom explicit. They are utilitarian and political, the instruments of smooth-running government.”

IdeasWarReasonGovernmentRunningPoliticalSocialClothesSeasonsInstrumentsIntellectRevengeContemporarySuperiorsThriveSmoothArbitraryExplicitUtilitarian
Author:Wyndham Lewis
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“By today's standards King George III was a very mild tyrant indeed. He taxed his American colonists at a rate of only pennies per annum. His actual impact on their personal lives was trivial. He had arbitrary power over them in law and in principle but in fact it was seldom exercised. If you compare his rule with that of today's U.S. Government you have to wonder why we celebrate our independence.”

IfsFactsGovernmentTodayLawWonderPrinciplesKingsStandardsIndependenceImpactRateCelebrateCompareTyrantsPersonal LifeArbitraryPenniesIn-lawsColonistsKing George Iii
Author:Joseph Sobran
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“I think there are very few invisible musical instrument players out there who can claim the chops and sheer perseverance of Björn Türoque, the world's perennial second-place air guitar champion. Whoever this Dan Crane might be, he's captured the mad, seductive spirit of the arbitrary skill contest perfectly, and rocks it hard into the hot Finnish night. There is no number of umlauts that do this Jekyll and Hyde of air-rocking justice.”

ThinkingWorldHardMightSpiritNightJusticeNumbersPlayerAirRocksSkillsClaimsHotInstrumentsMadPerseveranceGuitarMusicalInvisibleChampionSheerContestsArbitraryCapturedSeductiveFinnishMusical InstrumentsSecond PlaceCranesHydeJekyllJekyll And HydeAir Guitar
Author:John Hodgman
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“The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.”

GovernmentAmericaArmsBearsCitizensGunTyrannyJust OneGuaranteesArbitraryNotableSecond AmendmentFirearmsRight To Bear ArmsBearing ArmsGun RightsRights And FreedomsPro GunFounding Fathers GunHandgunsFounding Fathers Second AmendmentTyranny Founding FathersGovernment TyrannyGuns In AmericaHandgun Ban
Author:Hubert H. Humphrey
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“To create a community of radical scholars, men and women who recognize that rules and social conventions are arbitrary, but have mastered them nonetheless, a community which shares such a scorn and disrespect for the present society that it can embrace the whole bundle of rules and subvert them thereby, that should be our goal.”

MenShouldWholeSocialGoalCommunityShareGeniusMen And WomenEmbraceRadicalConventionsScholarArbitraryScornDisrespectBundles
Author:Howard Adelman
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“There can be no compromise between freedom and government controls; to accept 'just a few controls' is to surrender the principle of inalienable individual rights and to substitute for it the principle of the government’s unlimited, arbitrary power, thus delivering oneself into gradual enslavement. As an example of this process, observe the present domestic policy of the United States.”

StatesGovernmentIndividualProcessUnitedAcceptingPrinciplesUnited StatesRightsPolicyExampleOneselfSurrenderCompromiseSubstitutesUnlimitedArbitraryDeliveringEnslavementIndividual RightsNo CompromiseDomestic Policy
Book:The Virtue of Selfishness
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“I’ve never agreed with the conventional wisdom that ‘actors are great liars.’ If more people understood the acting process, the goals of good actors, the conventional wisdom would be ‘actors are terrible liars,’ because only bad actors lie on the job. The good ones hate fakery and avoid manufactured emotion at all costs. Any script is enough of a lie anyway. (What experience does any actor have with flying a spacecraft? Killing someone?) What’s called for, what actors are hired for, is to bring reality to the arbitrary.”

PeopleIfsDoeEnoughRealityWould BeJobsLyingHateActorsProcessGoalActingEmotionTerribleCostUnderstoodKillingScriptsFlyingLiarsConventionalArbitraryGood ActorsConventional WisdomSpacecraftKilling SomeoneGreat Liar
Book:Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography
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