Quotes About Authority

They have the authority of ignorance and that is something you simply cannot combat." – John Steinbeck

The Bank--or the Company--needs-wants-insists-must have-as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them.

Lead 'em around and around,'' said Joad. "Sling 'em in the irrigation ditch. Tell 'em they'll burn in hell if they don't think like you. What the hell you want to lead 'em someplace for? Jus' lead 'em.

We know that--all that. It's not us, it's the bank. A bank isn't like a man. Or an owner with fifty thousand acres, he isn't like a man either. That's the monster.

The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it.

When Pharaoh had a dream he called in the experts and they told him how it was and how it would be in the kingdom, and that was right because he was the kingdom. When some of us have a dream, we take it to an expert and he tells us how it is in the country of ourselves. I had a dream that didn't need an expert. Like most modern people, I don't believe in prophecy or magic and then spend half my time practicing it.

She frightened her grandchildren because she had no weakness

There is little difference between this tractor and a tank. The people are driven, intimidated, hurt by both.

Jim said, "It's something that grows out of a fight like this. Suddenly you feel the great forces at work that create little troubles like this strike of ours. And the sight of those forces does something to you, picks you up and makes you act. I guess that's where authority comes from.

The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it.

I lived out at Sunlan' Lan' an' Cattle Company's place. Honest to God, they got a cop for ever' ten people. Got one water faucet for 'bout two hundred people.

Only when everything else failed did a good sheriff make an arrest. The best sheriff was not the best fighter but the best diplomat.

Even despotism does not produce its worst effects, so long as individuality exists under it; and whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called, and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.

A state which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes--will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.

Laws aren't ghosts in this country, they walk around with the smell of earth on them.

With his white collar he forges god's name on every word he speaks

Write him down, if he must write him down as something, as a disbeliever; he disbelieved in the Pope, in the Kremlin, in the Vietcong, in the American eagle, in astrology, Arthur Schlesinger, Eldridge Cleaver, Senator Eastland, and Eastman Kodak. Nor did he believe overmuch in his disbelief. He

I AM THE LAW!

I'd rather have a daughter in a whorehouse than a son in the police force,' Esther used to rage to anyone who would listen.

All ideology can be embraced if the leader dresses well.

All monarchs I hate, and the thrones they sit on, From the hector of France to the cully of Britain.

there is one similarity between a prison guard and a leader: Both have the final word. When a decision is made, it must be accepted by those on your team, or they must be encouraged to find another team.

The persecution would cease instantly, for the commands of a Vega were made to be obeyed by all men of whatever rank.

Jesus Christ is my savior, not the government.