Quotes About Authority

Unlike Davies, he didn't have to work through the British Postal Service. And unlike Baran, he didn't have to work through the Defense Communications Agency. Roberts was backed by ARPA, whose whole reason for existing was to cut through the bureaucracy. His bosses were giving him a free hand. And he meant to exercise that freedom. He meant to get this network ready to

Whenever we seek to avoid the responsibility for our own behavior, we do so by attempting to give that responsibility to some other individual or organization or entity. But this means we then give away our power to that entity.

Punishers don't win. Thus, when repetition is taken into account, punishment by people who like to take the law into their own hands is ineffective.

The People's Republic of China loses its republican sheen when it comes to territory and turns imperial even if it cannot always get imperious.

To paraphrase Montaigne—even when you're sitting on the highest throne in the world, you're still sitting on your arse.

I have it on good authority- well, I have it on distinctly disreputable but probably truthful authority- that his enterprises are perfectly well known to the local new police.

Authority, without any condition and reservation, belongs to the nation.

Sovereignty is not given, it is taken.

And everyone understood that Stalin was one thing and the country was another.

His fingers are as fat as grubs And the words, final as lead weights, fall from his lips. His cockroach whiskers leer And his boot tops gleam. . . . And every killing is a treat For the broad-chested [Stalin].

The law is powerless against a crowd.

A Máquina era que matava os homens porém os homens é que mandavam na Máquina...

Our specialty was exasperated dignity and the discombombulation of Authority.

Government, is the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government.

I am often asked if, when I was secretary, I had problems with foreign men. That is not who I had problems with, because I arrived in a very large plane that said United States of America. I had more problems with the men in our own government.

True leadership requires the capacity to shape public opinion, not merely reflect it.

With the possible exception of ancient Rome, no society has ever auditioned for the role of world policeman. Certainly the United States—at least through the end of the twentieth century—never desired that part. As for the UN, it has shown the ability to play world night watchman. It can monitor and raise the alarm, but it cannot guarantee that the alarm, once sounded, will be answered.

A dictatorship by any other name is still a dictatorship, whether its symbol is the czarist two-headed eagle or the hammer and sickle.

identifies strongly with and claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use whatever means are necessary—including violence—to achieve his or her goals. In that conception, a Fascist will likely be a tyrant, but a tyrant need not be a Fascist.

Mussolini was not a keen judge of individuals, but he was sure he knew what the mass of people wanted: a show. He compared the mob to women who are helpless (he fantasized) in the presence of strong men. He posed for pictures in the government-controlled media while driving a sports car, standing sans shirt in a wheat field, riding his white stallion, FruFru, and posing in his military uniform, complete with shiny boots and a chest bedecked with medals.

In those moments, many of us no longer want to be asked, "What do you think?" We want to be told where to march. That is when Fascism gets its start: other options don't seem enough.

MUSSOLINI OBSERVED THAT IN SEEKING TO ACCUMULATE POWER, it is wise to do so in the manner of one plucking a chicken—feather by feather—so each squawk is heard apart from every other and the whole process is kept as muted as possible.

When a dictator abuses his authority, there is no legal way to stop him. When a free society falters, we still have the ability—through open debate and the selection of new leaders—to remedy those shortcomings. We still have time to pick a better egg. That is democracy's comparative advantage, and it should be recognized and preserved.

with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.