Quotes About Authority

Peter might be scum, but Peter had been right, always right; 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.

People above you, they never want to share power with you. Why you look to them? They give you nothing. People below you, you give them hope, you give them respect, they give you power, cause they don't think they have any, so they don't mind giving it up.

From a friend you need to take crap. But I'm not your friend. I'm your father. And nobody needs to take crap from their father.

I'm only a god, Vanya, not an expert.

Saber qué hacer con un batallón es fácil —dijo Ender—. Conseguir que lo hagan es lo difícil. ¿Por

You really are playing God." "I most certainly am not playing.

You also have to attract the notice of superior officers. You have to be liked. You have to fit in with the system. You have to look like what the officers above you think that officers should look like. You have to think in ways that they are comfortable with.

was good enough when good men held the office, but always when you create an office that a man can lay hands on, an evil man will someday lay hands on it.

Peter had been right, always right; 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.

but the most important message was this: the adults are the enemy, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth.

Masters never are content with mere respect from their servants.

It wasn't the soldiers who changed. It was the leader.

Everything I hated in a commander, and I'm doing it. Is it some law of human nature you inevitably become whatever your first commander was? I can quit right now, if that's so.

Sometimes the government is the last to know.

If you can own property, how are you a slave?" asked Rigg. "Because your owner can move you to one place or another, can break up your marriage, can sell your children to some other owner, can decide how much education you'll receive, and what work you'll do, and what hours you'll keep.

You get all the pleasures of the puppeteer. Until you get a soldier who can do more than anyone else. You can't have that. It spoils the symmetry. You must get him in line, break him down, isolate him, beat him until he gets in line with everyone else.

We're businessmen, Chubs. The moral high ground is wherever we set it.

no nation is governable except by overwhelming force or complete cooperation.

Tutti gli animali sono uguali, ma alcuni sono più uguali degli altri

Wherever there is a man who exercises authority, there is a man who resists authority.

Life is terrible. It rules us, we do not rule it.

In the old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press.

If this is the way Queen Victoria treats her prisoners, she doesn't deserve to have any.

The world is run by brutal men and the surest proof is their armies. If they ask you to stand still, you should dance. If they ask you to burn the flag, wave it. If they ask you to murder, re-create.