Arbitrary Quotes

• If any man's money can be taken by a so-called government, without his own personal consent, all his other rights are taken with it; for with his money the government can, and will, hire soldiers to stand over him, compel him to submit to its arbitrary will, and kill him if he resists.

  Lysander Spooner

  Taken, Men, Rights

  Lysander Spooner (1886). “A Letter to Grover Cleveland on His False Inaugural Address, the Usurpation and Crimes of Lawmakers and Judges, and Consequent Poverty, Ignorance, and Servitude of the People”

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• Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men.

  Mortimer Adler

  Men, Liberty, Libertarian

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• Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Depression, Pain, World Suffering

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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.

  Mercy Otis Warren

  Civilization, Lust, Degrees

  Mercy Otis Warren (1805). “History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution: Interspersed with Biographical, Political and Moral Observations”, p.5

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• I believe there should be no arbitrary date set for withdrawal and yet no permanent, unending deployment. No cut and run, yet measured progress in helping a people who want to be free without an illusion of overnight success.

  Rick Renzi

  Running, Believe, Cutting

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• Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.

  George Jean Nathan

  Real, Patriotic, Political

  Testament of a Critic bk. 1 (1931)

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• If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.

  Maria Montessori

  Education, Tasks, Movement

  Maria Montessori, Gerald Lee Gutek (2004). “The Montessori Method: The Origins of an Educational Innovation : Including an Abridged and Annotated Edition of Maria Montessori's The Montessori Method”, p.114, Rowman & Littlefield

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• The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid.

  Denis Diderot

  Stupid, People, Wicked

  Denis Diderot (1966). “Selected Writings”, New York : Macmillan

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• If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.

  Margaret Mead

  Women, History, Diversity

  Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies conclusion (1935)

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• I don't know who decided that skinny was more appealing than not skinny. It seems arbitrary.

  Gwyneth Paltrow

  Skinny, Knows, Seems

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• Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken.

  Abigail Adams

  Broken Heart, Power, Broken Promises

  Letter to John Adams, 7 May 1776

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• What we don't need in country music is divisiveness, public criticism of each other, and some arbitrary judgement of what belongs and what doesn't.

  Charley Pride

  Country, Judgement, Criticism

  Charley Pride, Jim Henderson (1994). “Pride: the Charley Pride story”, William Morrow & Co

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• Gold and silver, like other commodities, have an intrinsic value, which is not arbitrary, but is dependent on their scarcity, the quantity of labour bestowed in procuring them, and the value of the capital employed in the mines which produce them.

  David Ricardo

  Gold, Scarcity, Finance

  David Ricardo, John Ramsay McCulloch (1846). “The Works of David Ricardo ...”, p.263

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• Writing is a question of finding a certain rhythm. I compare it to the rhythms of jazz. Much of the time life is a sort of rhythmic progression of three characters. If one tells oneself that life is like that, one feels it less arbitrary.

  Francoise Sagan

  Writing, Character, Finding The One

  "Françoise Sagan, The Art of Fiction No. 15". Interview with Blair Fuller and Robert B. Silvers, www.theparisreview.org. Autumn 1956.

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• For me writing is a question of finding a certain rhythm. I compare it to the rhythms of jazz.

  Francoise Sagan

  Writing, Jazz, Certain

  "Françoise Sagan, The Art of Fiction No. 15". Interview with Blair Fuller and Robert B. Silvers, www.theparisreview.org. Autumn 1956.

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• I didn't want to write a biographie romancee especially since I already write novels, nor did I want to challenge the rules of the biography game, arbitrary as those rules might be

  Edmund White

  Writing, Games, Challenges

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• Any Congressional agreement of an arbitrary time table to bring our troops home before we have accomplished our mission is unacceptable and could potentially increase the risk to our soldiers.

  James T. Walsh

  Home, Agreement, Soldier

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• It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary... to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age.

  Margaret Mead

  Birthday, Regret, Learning

  "Teacher's Treasury of Stories for Every Occasion". Book by Millard Dale Baughman, 1958.

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• All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Media, Perception, Artificial

  Marshall McLuhan (1964). “Understanding media: the extensions of man”

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• Be just and if you can't be just, be arbitrary.

  William S. Burroughs

  Ifs

  William S. Burroughs (2007). “Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader”, p.150, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Aside from that reservation, a fictive tale even has the advantage of manifesting symbolic necessity more purely to the extent that we may believe its conception arbitrary.

  Jacques Lacan

  Believe, May, Advantage

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• Arbitrary benchmarks cheat kids out of a fulfilling education.

  James Dyson

  Kids, Cheat, Fulfilling

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• The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.

  Stephen Hawking

  God, Science, Order

  Stephen Hawking (2009). “A Brief History Of Time: From Big Bang To Black Holes”, p.104, Random House

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• Understand that legal and illegal are political, and often arbitrary, categorizations; use and abuse are medical, or clinical, distinctions.

  Abbie Hoffman

  Political, Abuse, Politics

  Abbie Hoffman (1987). “Steal this Urine Test: Fighting Drug Hysteria in America”, Penguin Group USA

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• The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.

  Henry James

  Book, Beer, Winning

  "The Art of Fiction" (1884)

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