Famous quotes containing the words arbitrary, precision and/or arithmetic:
“Poetry is a very complex art.... It is an art of pure sound bound in through an art of arbitrary and conventional symbols.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“Some authorities hold that the young ought not to lie at all. That, of course, is putting it rather stronger than necessary; still, while I cannot go quite so far as that, I do maintain, and I believe I am right, that the young ought to be temperate in the use of this great art until practice and experience shall give them that confidence, elegance and precision which alone can make the accomplishment graceful and profitable.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“‘Tis no extravagant arithmetic to say, that for every ten jokes,—thou hast got an hundred enemies; and till thou hast gone on, and raised a swarm of wasps about thine ears, and art half stung to death by them, thou wilt never be convinced it is so.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)