Arbitrary Point

Famous quotes containing the words arbitrary and/or point:

    We do the same thing to parents that we do to children. We insist that they are some kind of categorical abstraction because they produced a child. They were people before that, and they’re still people in all other areas of their lives. But when it comes to the state of parenthood they are abruptly heir to a whole collection of virtues and feelings that are assigned to them with a fine arbitrary disregard for individuality.
    Leontine Young (20th century)

    How oft when men are at the point of death
    Have they been merry! which their keepers call
    A lightning before death: O, how may I
    Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife!
    Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath,
    Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
    Thou art not conquered; beauty’s ensign yet
    Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
    And death’s pale flag is not advanced there.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)