Quotes About Authority

a Fascist is someone who 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

blood and instinct will regain their rights. . . . The era of individualism, liberalism and democracy, of humanitarianism and freedom, is nearing its end. The masses will accept with resignation the victory of the Caesars, the strong men, and will obey them.

History has been unkind to timid presidents. It has been downright cruel to those who think themselves above the Constitution.

A commander in chief who tries to circumvent the Constitution should be restrained by the legislature and judiciary.

To secure the future, they turn schools into seminaries for true believers, striving to produce "new men" and "new women" who will obey without question or pause. And, as one of my students observed, "a Fascist who launches his career by being voted into office will have a claim to legitimacy that others do not.

Führer would soon make all things right.

do what the government demanded because they could no longer conceive of an alternative.

His goal was to secure approval of a law authorizing him to ignore the constitution, bypass the Reichstag, and govern by decree.

Years before taking office, Hitler told his fellow Nazis, "The Constitution only maps out the arena of the battle, not the goal… once we possess constitutional power, we will mold the state into the shape we hold to be suitable.

No error is more common than to assume that the winner of an election has license to do whatever he or she may want.

Many of the tactics Hitler employed to seize and consolidate power, Mussolini had adopted previously: the reliance on violent gangs, the intimidation of parliament, the strengthening and subsequent abuse of authority, the subjugation of the civil service, the affinity for spectacle, and the insistence that the leader, whether Der Führer or Il Duce, could do no wrong.

Existen dos tipos de fascistas: los que dan órdenes y los que las acatan. El apoyo popular da al fascismo las piernas que necesita para caminar, los pulmones de los que se sirve para gritar y la musculatura en la que descansa la amenaza que representa; pero eso en todo caso sería el fascismo de cuello para abajo. Si se quiere sembrar la tiranía sirviéndose de los miedos y esperanzas del ciudadano medio, se necesita dinero, ambición e ideas perversas.

Instead he discouraged his cabinet from proposing any idea that might cause him to doubt his instincts, which were, he insisted, always right.

If Trump insists that judges are biased and calls the American criminal system a "laughingstock," what is to stop an autocratic leader like Duterte of the Philippines from discrediting his own judiciary?

Designating "(Fill in the blank) First" as the golden rule of international relations provides an all-purpose justification for tyrants to do as they like.

Drawing even with her, the Prince strode along at her side, still scowling ferociously. "It is not for me to tell you what to do. The wizards of Leal are the High King's allies, not his subjects. But if you were my sister or my cousin—" "If I were your sister or your cousin," she retorted, "you still wouldn't have the power or the right to change my mind!

They do not care if you are good. They barely care if you are wicked. The only thing that makes them listen is power.

It is funny," she said, "that even after all this time, you still believe you should be rewarded, just because you have been obedient. I thought you would have learned that lesson in our father's halls. None shrank and simpered as you did, and yet great Helios stepped on you all the faster, because you were already crouched at his feet.

Our men liked conquest; they did not trust a man who was conquered himself.

I had felt untouchable, filled with teeth and power.

Every moment of my peace was a lie, for it came only at the gods' pleasure. No matter what I did, how long I lived, at a whim they would be able to reach down and do with me what they wished.

Then I learned that I could bend the world to my will, as a bow is bent for an arrow. I would have done that toil a thousand times to keep such power in my hands. I thought: this is how Zeus felt when he first lifted the thunderbolt.

Father, are we late enough to kill astronomers?

she was not ruled by appetites; she ruled with them instead.