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Capricious

sudden, unpredictable change as of one's mind

Capricious means impulsive and unpredictable; determined by chance, impulse, or whim. Capricious can describe both a person and the decisions they make. Capriciously is a derived term, while the related term is caprice. Its synonyms are whimsical and arbitrary.

Antoine Watteau -Capricious girl

Quotes

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Lady Luck Empress of the World
Fate, as vicious as capricious,
you're a wheel whirling around:
evil doings, worthless wooings,
crumble away to the ground:
darkly stealing, unrevealing,
working against me you go:
for your measure of foul pleasure
bare-backed I bow to your blow. - Carmina Burana.
 
So, ere the storm of war broke out,
Religion spawn'd a various rout'l'.
Of petulant capricious sects,
The maggots of corrupted texts,
That first run all religion down,
And after ev'ry swarm its own:
For as the Persian Magi once
Upon their mothers got their sons,
That were incapable to enjoy. - Samuel Butler.
  • Someday beneath some hard
    Capricious star —
    Spreading its light a little
    Over far,
    We'll know you for the woman
    That you are.
  • Fortuna imperatrix mundi:
    Sors immanis et inanis,
    rota tu volubilis,
    status malus, vana salus
    semper dissolubilis,
    obumbratam et velatam
    michi quoque niteris;
    nunc per ludum dorsum nudum
    ero tui sceleris.
  • English translation: Lady Luck Empress of the World
    Fate, as vicious as capricious,
    you're a wheel whirling around:
    evil doings, worthless wooings,
    crumble away to the ground:
    darkly stealing, unrevealing,
    working against me you go:
    for your measure of foul pleasure<br bare-backed I bow to your blow.
  • The Queen was very popular, and in her progresses, or journeys about her dominions, was everywhere received with the liveliest joy. I think the truth is, that she was not half so good as she has been made out, and not half so bad as she has been made out. She had her fine qualities, but she was coarse, capricious, and treacherous, and had all the faults of an excessively vain young woman long after she was an old one.
  • Any test that turns on what is offensive to the community's standards is too loose, too capricious, too destructive of freedom of expression to be squared with the First Amendment. Under that test, juries can censor, suppress, and punish what they don’t like, provided the matter relates to "sexual impurity" or has a tendency "to excite lustful thoughts". This is community censorship in one of its worst forms. It creates a regime where in the battle between the literati and the Philistines, the Philistines are certain to win.
  • Fate was not kind, life was capricious and terrible, and there was no good or reason in nature. But there is good and reason in us, in human beings, with whom fortune plays, and we can be stronger than nature and fate, if only for a few hours.
 
...but nothing had prepared him for the vicious rage of that capricious winter storm that roared down on the southern plains in the early winter of 1873. - Terry C. Johnston.
  • Is it distinguished from the other good things, then, by being the highest but otherwise of the same kind as they are — transient and capricious, bestowed only upon the chosen few, rarely for the whole of life? If this were so, then it certainly would be inexplicable that in these sacred places. It is always faith and faith alone that is spoken of, that it is eulogized and celebrated again and again..
  • Stalin is too rude and this defect, although quite tolerable in our midst and in dealing among us Communists, becomes intolerable in a Secretary-General. That is why I suggest the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post and appointing another man in his stead who in all other respects differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite, and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious, etc.
  • What was it that made this human love so much more desirable to me than the love of my own kind? Was it because it was exclusive and capricious? The souls offered love and acceptance to all. Did I crave a greater challenge?
  • The mere abolition of rent would not remove injustice, since it would confer a capricious advantage upon the occupiers of the best sites and the most fertile land. It is necessary that there should be rent, but it should be paid to the state or to some body which performs public services; or, if the total rental were more than is required for such purposes, it might be paid into a common fund and divided equally among the population.
 
In this capricious world nothing is more capricious than posthumous fame. One of the most notable victims of posterity's lack of judgement is the Eleatic Zeno. Having invented four arguments all immeasurably subtle and profound, the grossness of subsequent philosophers pronounced him to be a mere ingenious juggler, and his arguments to be one and all sophisms.... - Bertrand Russell.
  • In this capricious world nothing is more capricious than posthumous fame. One of the most notable victims of posterity's lack of judgement is the Eleatic Zeno. Having invented four arguments all immeasurably subtle and profound, the grossness of subsequent philosophers pronounced him to be a mere ingenious juggler, and his arguments to be one and all sophisms. After two thousand years of continual refutation, these sophisms were reinstated, and made the foundation of a mathematical renaissance, by a German professor, who probably never dreamed of any connexion between himself and Zeno. Weierstrass, by strictly banishing all infinitesimals, has at last shown that we live in an unchanging world, and that the arrow at every moment of its flight is truly at rest.
  • Aside from the wisdom of going to [[war as Bush wants, I am troubled by who pays for his capricious adventure into world domination. The administration admits to a cost of around $200 billion! Now, wealthy individuals won't pay. They've got big tax cuts already. Corporations won't pay. They'll cook the books and move overseas and then send their contributions to the Republicans. Rich kids won't pay. Their daddies will get them deferments as Big George did for George W. Well then, who will pay? School kids will pay. There'll be no money to keep them from being left behind -- way behind. Seniors will pay. They'll pay big time as the Republicans privatize Social Security and rob the Trust Fund to pay for the capricious war. Medicare will be curtailed and drugs will be more unaffordable. And there won't be any money for a drug benefit because Bush will spend it all on the war. Working folks will pay through loss of job security and bargaining rights. Our grandchildren will pay through the degradation of our air| and water quality. And the entire nation will pay as Bush continues to destroy civil rights, women's rights and religious freedom in a rush to phony patriotism and to courting the messianic Pharisees of the religious right.
  • As love without esteem, is volatile and capricious; esteem without love, is languid and cold. I am afraid, that many me'n, whose wives have possessed their esteem, have yet lavished their fortune and their fondness upon a mistress; and that the love of others, however ardent, has been quickly alienated, because it was not dignified and supported by esteem.
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