Quotes About Authority

Those who wish to have the job should not have it… and those who would most refuse to kill are the only ones who should.

We can't make you do anything," said one of the scythes she didn't know, a woman in violet with PanAsian leanings.

Welcome to life as a god, Scythe Volta said to him. While behind them the building was burning to the ground.

Why, wondered Citra, would there ever be a need for 400,000 scythes?

Be my son or my daughter for a year, and I will give you power over life and death.

I can't believe you're being taught by the Scythe Curie. The Grandma of Death!

Have you decided what color you'll be? And what jewels you'll have on your robe? a girl asked... Invisible, Rowan said. I'll come up the statehouse steps naked. Those'll be some jewels, quipped one of the junior scythes, and everyone laughed.

Of course, the bad scythes weren't all in the past. But instead of bad they were now called innovative and forward-thinking. Like the innovative bloodbaths of Scythe Goddard and his killer cronies.

The Thunderhead sees just about everything, what with cameras everywhere. But it also decides what infractions are worth the effort to address and which ones are not.

Which means," said Rowan, "that this is your fault." And then he added with a little bit of derision, "Your Excellency.

Here, here, seconded Scythe Rand. You can come to my room and break my neck any time.

I have found that building a sandbox around a domineering child, then allowing that child to preside over it, frees the adults to do the real work.

Once Xenocrates was gone, Goddard called out to the crowd, "Anyone who uploads pictures of High Blade Xenocrates in his underwear will be gleaned immediately!" And everyone laughed . . . then stopped when they realized he was not joking in the least.

All this to drive home the simple face that human government - whether it be dictatorship, monarchy, or government of the people, by the people, for the people - had to perish from the Earth. - The Thunderhead

How is a scythe disciplined?" Rowan had asked. "He was put to death twelvefold by a jury of scythes, then revived each time. After the twelfth revival, he was on probation for a year.

There have always been, and will always be, those who exist on the fringe of reason, the Thunderhead told Greyson. They must be set straight early and often.

There is a fine line between freedom and permission.

Greyson was inoculated with a dose of his new life even before arriving home. The publicar he took read him the riot act even before it left the Nimbus Academy.

Then he left without paying the bill, because no bill was, or would ever be, brought to a scythe.

Mr. Akron," says a girl, fourteen or so—he can't get over the fact that so many of the kids, particularly the younger ones, are not only ridiculously respectful, but think that Akron is somehow part of his name—

I have found that building a sandbox around a domineering child, then allowing that child to preside over it, frees the adults to do real work.

because no bill was, or would ever be, brought to a scythe.

God is the only being who, in order to reign, need not even exist.

The priest is immense because he makes others believe in a heap of weird things. The Church wanting to do everything and be everything: it is a law of human spirit. Peoples adore authority. Priests are the servants and followers of imagination. The throne and the altar: revolutionary maxim.