Arbitrary Quotes

303 quotes by 261 authors

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… — Stephen Hawking
Understand that legal and illegal are political, and often arbitrary, categorizations; use and abuse are medical, or clinical, distinctions. — Abbie Hoffman
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
Charities are really good. To a certain extent, the ones you pick are arbitrary. — Penn Jillette
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… — Jacques Lacan
All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values. — Marshall McLuhan
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… — Margaret Mead
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… — Margaret Mead
'Arbitrary' and 'odd' are the words which best describe the pattern of my career. I'm perpetually baffled by the whole thing. — Moby
One of the reasons why fundamentalists are so aggressive in trying to promote fundamentalism is because deep down they know it's arbitrary. If you're comfortable… — Moby
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… — Maria Montessori
Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles. — George Jean Nathan
The possession of arbitrary power has always, the world over, tended irresistibly to destroy humane sensibility, magnanimity, and truth. — Frederick Law Olmsted
I don't know who decided that skinny was more appealing than not skinny. It seems arbitrary. — Gwyneth Paltrow
A word is an arbitrary label - that's the foundation of linguistics. But many people think otherwise. They believe in word magic: that uttering a… — Steven Pinker
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
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… — David Ricardo
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… — Francoise Sagan
Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another. — Arthur Schopenhauer
You can build a statistical model and that's all well and good, but if you're dealing with a new type of financial instrument, for example,… — Nate Silver

Who Wrote These Arbitrary Quotes

261 authors contributed a total of 303 Arbitrary Quotes, led by these top contributors: