Quotes About Authority

By the late 1960s, the idea that "nanny knows best" was already starting to produce a backlash.

The idea that those in authority know best—that they are engaged in social engineering on behalf of people who do not understand what is good for them—was not born in 1945, but it flourished in the decades that followed.

As a consequence, the thick mesh of social interactions and public goods has been reduced to a minimum, with nothing except authority and obedience binding the citizen to the state.

restriction upon autonomy and initiative.

If government is the problem and society does not exist, then the role of the state is reduced once again to that of facilitator.

Margaret Thatcher, like George W. Bush and Tony Blair after her, never hesitated to augment the repressive and information-gathering arms of central government.

So what have Keynes's 'madmen in authority' done with the ideas they inherited from defunct economists? They have set about dismantling the properly economic powers and initiatives of the state.

Rigid dress codes can indeed enforce authority and suppress individuality—an army uniform is intended to do just that. But in their time, uniforms—whether worn by schoolchildren, mailmen, train conductors or street-crossing wardens—bespoke a certain egalitarianism. A child in regulation clothing is under no pressure to compete sartorially with his better-off contemporaries. A

But today, they are everywhere: a token of 'standing', a shameless acknowledgment of the desire to separate oneself from other members of society, and a formal recognition of the state's (or the city's) inability or unwillingness to impose its authority across a uniform public space.

we lose faith not just in parliamentarians and congressmen, but in Parliament and Congress themselves.

had brought Stalin credibility and influence, in the counsels of governments and on the streets.

I knew I should believe him, as he taught at Oxford, but his answers did not feel complete. It was like having a meal and not getting quite enough to eat.

This is why cops shoot people in the back, I thought. They can't keep up. Then

He who refuses to obey cannot command.

The state is a matter of consent,' I heard old Master Tiraes instruct her as she sat at his feet. 'The king and the subjects all agree that one shall rule and others shall be ruled. Decisions taken by a king, therefore, bind his followers, but they cannot be forced too far, because then they will depose the king and seek another, better able to carry out their will.

Epigraph But man, proud man, Drest in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he's most assured, His glassy essence, like an angry ape, Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven, As would make the angels weep. —William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

One can dare a lot if one is Emeritus

Her face was white, her eyes blazed like emeralds, and no one who saw her had any intention of saying anything but 'Immediately' to anything she ordered.

There are four common ways of making decisions: command, consult, vote, and consensus. These four options represent increasing degrees of involvement.

To err is human. To really screw up requires the root password."—UNKNOWN

Defy the conventions . . . keep the commandments.

America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth . . . in the Declaration of Independence; perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is . . . also great literature. It enunciates that all men are equal in their claim to justice, that governments exist to give them that justice, and that their authority is for that reason just. . . . It clearly names the Creator as the ultimate authority from whom these equal rights are derived.

A man's soul is as full of voices as a forest; there are ten thousand tongues there like all the tongues of the trees: fancies, follies, memories, madnesses, mysterious fears, and more mysterious hopes. All the settlement and sane government of life consists in coming to the conclusion that some of those voices have authority and others not.

Stanley Milgram's electric shocks