Literary notes about arbiter (AI summary)
In literature the word arbiter is employed with remarkable flexibility, consistently conveying the notion of decisive judgment. It may denote a literal judge or mediator settling disputes—whether in the realm of politics, law, or social affairs, as when a ballot box serves as the arbiter of public contention [1, 2]—or it may represent a more abstract, poetic force that determines destiny and taste, as when an individual is portrayed as the arbiter of fate or elegance [3, 4]. Historical narratives and classical texts also imbue the term with gravitas by linking it to figures of renown or authority in moments of crisis and decision-making [5, 6]. This layered usage underscores arbiter’s enduring appeal as a figure who bridges the concrete act of judgment with the more ephemeral determination of what is right or beautiful.
- The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among freemen.
— from A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 5, part 4: James Buchanan - Such, however, is not the case in civil causes; then the judge appears as a disinterested arbiter between the conflicting passions of the parties.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville - Her mind delighted itself with scenes of luxury and refinement, situations in which she was the cynosure of all eyes, the arbiter of all fates.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser - man of taste &c.; connoisseur, judge, critic, conoscente, virtuoso, amateur, dilettante, Aristarchus[obs3], Corinthian, arbiter eleganti
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget - Note 71 ( return ) [ Magnus hic apud eos, interque reges eorum tum virtute tum majestate eminens.... summus rerum arbiter, (Bohadin, p. 159.)
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - These unfortunate victims were Seneca, Petronius Arbiter, and Lucan.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius
