Quotes About Authority

Everything we knew from life suggested that America would do what it liked ...

Of course the town fed off all the sweat and labour of the miners and the poor selectors on the plains below but in those grand stone buildings they could bankrupt or hang you as they pleased.

one of the council, a dour-looking man with a

My name is Tragic Solitude 000. I am the Keeper of the Ark.

The capacity for leadership is one of the greatest gifts in the universe. But it brings with it a heavy burden. Never forget that.

The biggest evildoers in the world, the ones who do what's not right, are the ones who have all the power, and that's what makes it right. It's right not 'cause you say so, or I say, or even if the Lord on high says so. It's right 'cause them what's got the money and the power, they say it's right, and that makes it right even if it's dead wrong. Dead wrong.

Squeezing too hard on people outside the underworld—or "legits"—was a recipe for disaster. Squeeze legits too hard and they run to the police. Montagna didn't seem to understand or care.

Effective executives know that their subordinates are paid to perform and not to please their superiors.

The man who focuses on efforts and who stresses his downward authority is a subordinate no matter how exalted his title and rank. But the man who focuses on contribution and who takes responsibility for results, no matter how junior, is in the most literal sense of the phrase, "top management." He holds himself accountable for the performance of the whole.

Strong decision makers often put somebody they trust into the number two spot as their adviser—and in that position the person is outstanding. But in the number one spot, the same person fails. He or she knows what the decision should be but cannot accept the responsibility of actually making it.

No member will make a decision with regard to a matter for which he does not have primary responsibility. Should such a matter be brought to him, he will refer it to the colleague whose primary responsibility it is. Indeed it is a wise precaution for members of the top-management team not even to have an opinion on matters that are not within their own areas of primary responsibility.

Anyone who knows Western businesses, government agencies, or educational institutions knows that their managers make far too many small decisions as a rule. And nothing causes as much trouble in an organization as a lot of small decisions.

The responsibility is always mine, but the decision lies with whoever is on the spot.

Gerenciar é fazer as coisas do jeito certo; liderar é fazer as coisas certas.

A family member in a family business has a position of authority and power, regardless of his title and rank, even regardless of his job. He has the inside track to the top—as a son, a brother, a brother-in-law. No matter what his rank, he is top management. If he cannot command the respect due a member of top management on his own merit and on the basis of his performance, he should not be allowed to stay on the payroll.

There are a number of tasks which are top-management tasks, not because top management is the "top"—that is, because it has the legal authority or the power—but because they are tasks that can be discharged only by people who are capable of seeing the whole business and of making decisions with respect to the whole business.

Hitler as "the only man who can save us

Who was "us" and who was "them" was a matter not of sympathy or disposition but of decree.

finally there is just one truth: the official version.

Reich chancellor!

The Enlightenment may be summoned up in two words: criticism and power.

There are times when a nation desires a king or a dictator; times of confusion and uncertainty when they go down on their knees to one man and beg him to accept absolute power over them.

La pelea es como la guerra en pequeño, pero con la diferencia de que la guerra se desata entre personas ficticias, los estados, de tal manera que las personas físicas de carne y hueso solo son utilizadas como medios; en cambio, en la simple pelea, los que pelean son los dueños de su propia voluntad y no súbditos de la persona ficticia a la que obedecen cuando hay guerra.

When the cadres banned his students from singing any actual Christmas carols in a stage version of ''A Christmas Carol,'' he had them substitute patriotic Communist songs -- which actually improved Dickens: ''My favorite scene was when a furious Scrooge swung his cane at a band of merry carolers who were belting out 'The East Is Red,' singing the praises of Mao Zedong while the old man shouted, 'Humbug!