Famous quotes containing the word arbitrary:
“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.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“Any appellative at all savouring of arbitrary rank is unsuitable to a man of liberal and catholic mind.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Pity on the person who has become accustomed to seeing in necessity something arbitrary, who ascribes to the arbitrary some sort of reason, and even claims that following that sort of reason has religious value.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)