Quotes About Authority

Franklin Roosevelt was pretty good." "He was already rich. Nobody could touch him.

presidents had to make

An army controlled by the whim of the lowest soldier is not an army at all. It is anarchy.

have under his thumb powerful congressmen, senators, even the vice president himself

don't know. I've found that people in power can be incredibly insulated and therefore unrealistic about what they can accomplish.

United States Code, title 10, § 311(a).

It's the exercise of power, not the exercise of freedom, that requires justification.

Every state and national capitol should have a sign on the door: Stop me before I legislate again.

Conservatives want to be your daddy, telling you what to do and what not to do. Liberals want to be your mommy, feeding you, tucking you in, and wiping your nose. Libertarians want to treat you as an adult.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Thus

A Government is not free to do as it pleases…. The law of nature stands as an eternal rule to all men, legislators as well as others.

He was briefly a member of the Home Guard, but got bored of it in 1942 and stopped turning up. The commander tried to frighten him with military law, only to find that on his application form under the question: 'do you understand that by enrolling in the Home Guard you place yourself liable to military law?' Turing had written 'No'.

a species used to strict patterns of inherited hierarchy.

There's a reason why kings built large palaces, sat on thrones and wore rubies all over. There's a whole social need for that, not to oppress the masses, but to impress the masses and make them proud and allow them to feel good about their culture, their government and their ruler so that they are left feeling that a ruler has the right to rule over them, so that they feel good rather than disgusted about being ruled. —George Lucas, New York Times, 1999

nous pouvons nous doter de garanties constitutionnelles, établir une stricte répartition des pouvoirs, mais de telles mesures ne prennent un sens que lorsque les citoyens assurent que ces garde-fous soient respectés. Or, ceux qui ont soif de puissance et d'argent sont sans cesse à l'affût d'un moyen de violer les lois ou de les tourner à leur avantage.

June nodded. "Oh, now we know that. But then? The net was supposed to be their baby. Their tool! It would replace big banks as an instrument of control, above nations and governments. Above even money.

For the first time there appeared on earth kings, dictators, high priests, emperors, prime ministers, presidents, governors, mayors, generals, admirals, police chiefs, judges, lawyers, and jailers, along with dungeons, jails, penitentiaries, and concentration camps. Under the tutelage of the state, human beings learned for the first time how to bow, grovel, kneel, and kowtow. In many ways the rise of the state was the descent of the world from freedom to slavery.

Delegation and trust are of course vital—you can't do everything yourself, and you shouldn't try. That said, you don't want delegation to verge into a total abdication of authority on your part. You must verify that employees and the organization are actually executing as they are supposed to.

Or if you wish to put more of a barb in your comments, you can always say, "Yes, Mom, I have in fact decided to get out of bed in spite of the fact that you've been telling me to!

Producing laws is not an easier job than producing cars and food, so if the government is incompetent to produce cars or food, why do you expect it to do a good job producing the legal system within which you are then going to produce the cars and the food?

But property rights are not the rights of property; they are the rights of humans with regard to property. They are a particular kind of human right.

a man with the power to punish anyone never hears anything except what he wants to hear. or, what's worse, what his subordinates think he wants to hear—and they don't dare ask him what it is.

It's all very well to put the government in the hands of the perfect man, but what do you do when the perfect man gets a bellyache?

Dost thou question my word, Sir Knight? Madorallen returned in an ominously quiet voice. And wilt thou then come down and put thy doubt to the test? Or is it perhaps that thou wouldst prefer to cringe doglike behind thy parapet and yap at thy betters? Oh, that was very good, Barak said admiringly.