Arbiter Quotes - Page 2

• If you allow a political catchword to go on and grow, you will awaken some day to find it standing over you, arbiter of your destiny, against which you are powerless.

  William Graham Sumner

  Destiny, Political, Over You

  William Graham Sumner (1924). “Selected Essays of William Graham Sumner”

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• While the authority of the doctor or plumber is never questioned, everyone deems himself a good judge and an adequate arbiter of what a work of art should be and how it should be done.

  Mark Rothko

  Art, Doctors, Judging

  Mark Rothko, Christopher Rothko (2006). “The Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art”, p.2, Yale University Press

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• The great arbiters of language are the women who speak it in the presence of children... What the women pass on to the next generation is "right" and what they do not bother to pass on to their children sooner or later becomes "wrong.

  Charlton Laird

  Children, Next, Generations

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• Throughout history, self-styled arbiters have taken it upon themselves to decide the question of what can or cannot be the legitimate purview of art.

  Barbara Goldsmith

  Art, Taken, Self

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• Reason is Life's sole arbiter, themagic Laby'rinth's single clue.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Life, Clue, Reason

  Sir Richard Francis Burton (1880). “The Kasîdah (couplets) of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî: A Lay of the Higher Law”

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• Many people feel that mass acceptance and smooth socialization are desirable life paths for a young adult… Many people are often wrong… Don’t bother being nice. Being popular and well liked is not in your best interest. Let me be more clear; if you behave in a manner pleasing to most, then you are probably doing something wrong. The masses have never been arbiters of the sublime, and they often fail to recognize the truly great individual. Taking into account the public’s regrettable lack of taste, it is incumbent upon you not to fit in.

  Janeane Garofalo

  Nice, Acceptance, People

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• To vest a few fallible men — prosecutors, judges, jurors — with vast powers of literary or artistic censorship, to convert them into what J. S. Mill called a "moral police," is to make them despotic arbiters of literary products. If one day they ban mediocre books as obscene, another day they may do likewise to a work of genius.

  Jerome Frank

  Book, Eye, Writing

  "A man's reach: the philosophy of Judge Jerome Frank".

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• The word "truth" itself ceases to have its old meaning. It describes no longer something to be found, with the individual conscience as the sole arbiter of whether in any particular instance the evidence (or the standing of those proclaiming it) warrants a belief; it becomes something to be laid down by authority, something which has to believed in the interest of unity of the organized effort and which may have to be altered as the exigencies of this organized effort require it.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Effort, Unity, May

  "Der Weg zur Knechtschaft (The Road to Serfdom)". Book by Friedrich August von Hayek, reason.com. 1944.

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• Taking the decision-making process away from people disempowers them. It also makes them much less likely to buy into the decision, however right it may be. One’s own conscience remains the ultimate arbiter.

  Surya Das

  People, Decision, May

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• The single despot stands out in the face of all men, and says: I am the State: My will is law: I am your master: I take the responsibility of my acts: The only arbiter I acknowledge is the sword: If any one denies my right, let him try conclusions with me.

  Lysander Spooner

  Responsibility, Men, Law

  Lysander Spooner (1971). “The collected works of Lysander Spooner”

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• Reasonable argument is impossible when authority becomes the arbiter.

  Orson Scott Card

  Liberty, Impossible, Argument

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• It is indeed a misfortune for a woman to be without beauty, as with men the eye is the chief arbiter of qualities in the sex. Her beauty is her capital--her worth in the market matrimonial depends upon it. With her the Virtues are less reverenced when unaccompanied by the Graces. The sex understand this very well; and hence they seek mainly to make captive the eye, knowing the mind and heart will follow as a matter of course.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Sex, Women, Heart

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• His own character is the arbiter of every ones fortune.

  Publilius Syrus

  Character, Personality, Fortune

  "The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave: From the Latin". Book by Darius Lyman. Maxim 283, 1856.

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• By a steady adherence to the Union we may hope, erelong, to become the arbiter of Europe in America, and to be able to incline the balance of European competitions in this part of the world as our interest may dictate.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Europe, America, Competition

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Quentin P. Taylor, John Jay (1998). “The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers”, p.166, Rowman & Littlefield

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• A government is a compulsory territorial monopolist of ultimate decision-making (jurisdiction) and, implied in this, a compulsory territorial monopolist of taxation. That is, a government is the ultimate arbiter, for the inhabitants of a given territory, regarding what is just and what is not, and it can determine unilaterally, i.e., without requiring the consent of those seeking justice or arbitration, the price that justice-seekers must pay to the government for providing this service.

  Hans-Hermann Hoppe

  Government, Justice, Decision

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• With regard to the learned professions, little need be observed; they truly form no distinct interest in society . . . [discussing the landed, merchant, and learned classes in legislative assembly]. Will not the man of the learned profession, who will feel a neutrality to the rivalships between the different branches of industry, be likely to prove an impartial arbiter between them, ready to promote either, so far as it shall appear to him conducive to the general interests of society?

  Alexander Hamilton

  Men, Class, Different

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• Under a socialist system every nation will be the supreme arbiter of its own destinies, national and international; will be forced into no alliance against its will, but will have its independence guaranteed and its freedom respected by the enlightened self-interest of the socialist democracy of the world.

  James Connolly

  Destiny, Self, Independence

  James Connolly, Peter Berresford-Ellis (1988). “James Connolly: Selected Writings”, p.34, Pluto Press

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• How then shall mathematical concepts be judged? They shall not be judged. Mathematics is the supreme arbiter. From its decisions there is no appeal. We cannot change the rules of the game, we cannot ascertain whether the game is fair. We can only study the player at his game; not, however, with the detached attitude of a bystander, for we are watching our own minds at play.

  David van Dantzig

  Education, Attitude, Math

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• But the Chief Justice says, 'There must be an ultimate arbiter somewhere.' True, there must; but does that prove it is either party? The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union, assembled by their deputies in convention, at the call of Congress or of two-thirds of the States. Let them decide to which they mean to give an authority claimed by two of their organs. And it has been the peculiar wisdom and felicity of our Constitution, to have provided this peaceable appeal, where that of other nations is at once to force.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Party, Mean, Two

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont”, p.298

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• I always looked forward to being an adult, because I thought the adult world was, well—adult. That adults weren’t cliquey or nasty, that the whole notion of being cool, or in, or popular would case to be the arbiter of all things social, but I was beginning to realize that the adult world was as nonsensically brutal and socially perilous as the kingdom of childhood.

  Peter Cameron

  Childhood, Adults, World

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• When a critic sets himself up as an arbiter of morality, a judge of the matter and not the manner of a work, he is no longer a critic; he is a censor.

  Edward Albee

  Judging, Matter, Morality

  EDWARD ALBEE (1961). “THE AMERICAN DREW THE ZOO STORY”

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• Ironclads and Maxim guns must be the ultimate arbiters of metaphysical truth.

  Bertrand Russell

  Gun, Metaphysical, Ironclads

  Bertrand Russell (1994). “Philosophical Essays”, p.109, Psychology Press

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• Experimental evidence is the final arbiter of right and wrong.

  Brian Greene

  Finals, Programming, Evidence

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• Aristocracy is a relative thing. And there are plenty of out-of-the-way places where the son of an upholsterer is the arbiter of fashion and reigns over a court like any young Prince of Wales.

  Marcel Proust

  Fashion, Son, Aristocracy

  Marcel Proust (1982). “Remembrance of Things Past: Swann's way. Within a budding grove”, Vintage

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• In a Society in which there is no law, and in theory no compulsion, the only arbiter of behaviour is public opinion. But public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law. When human beings are governed by "thou shalt not", the individual can practise a certain amount of eccentricity: when they are supposedly governed by "love" or "reason", he is under continuous pressure to make him behave and think in exactly the same way as everyone else.

  George Orwell

  Thinking, Animal, Law

  George Orwell, Keith Gessen (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.305, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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