Quotes About Authority

I thought commanders could order anything." They can order the moon to turn blue, too, but it doesn't happen. Listen, Ender, commanders have just as much authority as you let them have. The more you obey them, the more power they have over you.

Is it some law of human nature that you inevitably become whatever your first commander was?

In my experience, influence is power.

But shouldn't they still act like children? They aren't normal. They act like--history. Napoleon and Wellington. Caesar and Brutus.

Remember, I'm the only person her who's paid to be nice to you. But not too nice. Give me any lip and I'll break your face. OK?

A good commander, thought Ender, doesn't have to make stupid threats.

Do not be disingenuous with me, Colonel Graff. Americans are quite apt at playing stupid when they choose to, but I am not to be deceived.

A real god doesn't care about control. A real god already has control of everything that needs controlling. Real gods would want to teach you how to be just like them.

Government is all show when it isn't murder in the dark ... or soldiers in the open.

You don't know who a person is until you see how he acts when given unexpected power. He hasn't rehearsed for the part. So what you see is what he is.

Once you realize that power will always end up with the sort of people who crave it, I think that there are worse people who could have it than Peter.

Just one more example of why a commander who ruled by fear and made all the decisions himself would always be beaten, sooner or later.

The loneliness of power.

Before we are citizens, he thought, we are children, and it is as children that we come to understand freedom and authority, liberty and duty. I have done my duty. I have bowed to authority. Mostly. And now, like Russia, I can set aside those burdens for a little while and see what happens.

You accomplish exactly as much as the people who serve you decide you'll accomplish, and nothing more.

If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket would be elected swineherd every time, no matter how much slaughtering he did on the side. 

the power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can't kill then you are always subject to those who can, and nothing and no one will ever save you.

The power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can't kill then you are always subject to those who can, and nothing and no one will ever save you.

I hear they whip you for stealing. Or put you in jail, or sell you into slavery, or kill you, depending on the town and what mood they're in.

came because I commanded." "You commanded. I came. If you want to think you caused my coming, so be it. But God's commands are the only ones I obey willingly.

How did I become the one to make this decision for everyone?

The power to kill is the only power that matters. -Enders game.

These other armies, they aren't the enemy. It's the teachers, they're the enemy.

The power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and desroy, because if you can't kill then you are always subject to those who can, and nothing and no one will ever save you.