Arbitrariness Quotes

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.

Nothing is more unjust or capricious than public opinion.... The public have neither shame nor gratitude.

He makes those just who are unjust, forgives those who deserve to be punished, and favors those who deserve no favor.

If the law supposes that ... the law is a ass – a idiot.

The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.

I am more optimistic though, that this court will eventually conclude that the effort to eliminate arbitrariness while preserving fairness in the infliction of [death] is so plainly doomed to failure that is - and the death penalty - must be abandoned altogether. I may not live to see that day, but I have faith that eventually it will arrive.

Lawless are they that make their wills their law.

The entire process of making a movie is sort of blind trust because, otherwise, all of it just doesn't make any sense: the fact that we can create any sense of reality or emotion given the arbitrariness of a day.

However much I have frequented the mystics, deep down I have always sided with the Devil; unable to equal him in power, I have tried to be worthy of him, at least, in insolence, acrimony, arbitrariness and caprice.

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

'Black Hawk Down' wants to be about something, and in the midst of the meticulously staged gunfire, the picture seems to choose futility arbitrarily.

Must a name mean something?" Alice asked doubtfully. Of course it must," Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh; "my name means the shape I am - and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost.

The gods play games with men as balls.

The death penalty, I think, is a terrible scar on American justice, especially the concept of equal justice under law, but also of due process. And it goes state by state, and it's different in different states.

Chaos umpire sits And by decision more embroils the fray by which he reigns: next him high arbiter Chance governs all.

Fairness, does not govern life and death. If it did, no good person would ever die young. ~ The blue man

The thing really to be desired is the removing as much as possible arbitrary distinctions [titles and nobility], and leaving to talents and virtue the field of exertion unimpaired

The system of death-penalty justice is compromised and inequitable.

When will the arbitrary be granted the place it deserves in the formation of works and ideas?

Intellectually, I know I am worthy, however arbitrary a thing worthiness is, and have always been worthy.

No matter what they think; they are sometimes in the right, sometimes in the wrong; their judgment is a mere lottery.

The true law of economics is chance, and we learned people arbitrarily seize on a few moments and establish them as laws.

I'm done with rules that are there just to be rules.

The claim is also sometimes made that science is as arbitrary or irrational as all other claims to knowledge, or that reason itself is an illusion. As Ethan Allen said Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or without reason; if with reason, then they establish the principle that they are labouring to dethrone. If they argue without reason, which they must do, in order to be consistent with themselves, they are out of reach of rational conviction, nor do they deserve a rational argument.

Therefore, in the nature of this will for freedom, which freedom itself implies, I may pass judgement on those who seek to hide from themselves the complete arbitrariness and the complete freedom of their existence.