Quotes About Authority

Whoever is endowed with a power superior to mankind, should also be above the weakness of humanity, without which, that excess of strength would, in effect, only sink him below the most feeble, or what he would actually have been, had he remained their equal.

The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty.

The first man, who, after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society.

How have a hundred men who wish for a master the right to vote on behalf of ten who do not? The law of majority voting is itself something established by convention, and presupposes unanimity, on one occasion at least. 6.

From this it follows that, the larger the State, the less the liberty.

We may add that frequent punishments are always a sign of weakness or remissness on the part of the government. There is not a single ill-doer who could not be turned to some good. The State has no right to put to death, even for the sake of making an example, any one whom it can leave alive without danger.

Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.

How much more reasonable is it to say with the sage Plato, that the perfect happiness of a state consists in the subjects obeying their prince, the prince obeying the laws, and the laws being equitable and always directed to the good of the public?

The worst education is to leave him floating between his will and yours, and to dispute endlessly between you and him as to which of the two will be the master.

the despot assures his subjects civil tranquillity.

Qu'il voie par ses yeux, qu'il sente par son coeur ; qu'aucune autorité ne le gouverne, hors celle de sa propre raison.

Le plus fort n'est jamais assez fort pour être toujours le maître, s'il ne transforme sa force en droit et l'obéissance en devoir.

Les peuples une fois accoutumés à des maîtres ne sont plus en état de s'en passer. S'ils tentent de secouer le joug, ils s'éloignent d'autant plus de la liberté, que, prenant pour elle une licence effrénée qui lui est opposée, leurs révolutions les livrent presque toujours à des séducteurs qui ne font qu'aggraver leurs chaînes.

Plus le corps est faible, plus il commande ; plus il est fort, plus il obéit.

When a man is set in authority over others, everything conspires to rob him of his sense of justice and reason.

Grocio niega que todo poder humano se haya establecido en favor de los gobernados, y pone por ejemplo la esclavitud. La manera de discurrir, que más constantemente usa, consiste en establecer el derecho por el hecho.(1) Bien podría emplearse un método más consecuente, pero no se hallaría uno que fuese más favorable a los tiranos.

Terimi tam anlam? ile ele al?rsak, hakiki demokrasi hiç bir zaman mevcut olmad??? gibi bundan sonra da olmayacakt?r. Çok say?dakilerin az say?dakileri idaresi tabii nizama ayk?r?d?r.

pour régner; c'est une science qu'on ne possède jamais moins qu'après l'avoir trop apprise, et qu'on acquiert mieux en obéissant qu'en commandant.

I may be asked whether I am a prince or a legislator that I should be writing about politics. I answer no: and indeed that is my reason for doing so. If I were a prince or a legislator I should not waste my time saying what ought to be done; I should do it or keep silent.

El mismo que se considera señor de los demás no por esto deja de ser menos esclavo que los demás.

la fréquence des supplices est toujours un signe de faiblesse ou de paresse dans le gouvernement. Il n'y a point de méchant qu'on ne pût rendre bon à quelque chose.

Es, pues, la familia, si así se quiere, el primer modelo de las sociedades políticas: el jefe es la imagen del padre, y el pueblo es la imagen de los hijos; y habiendo nacido todos iguales y libres, sólo enajenan su libertad por su utilidad misma.

Toda la diferencia consiste en que, en una familia, el amor paternal recompensa al padre de los cuidados que prodiga a sus hijos, en tanto que en el Estado el placer de mandar suple el amor que el jefe no siente por sus gobernados.

I believed in childhood by authority, in youth by sentiment, in my mature years by reason; now I believe because I have always believed.