Quotes About Authority

IF YOU BELIEVE THE DOCTORS," Salisbury once remarked, "nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe.

He told conductors how to conduct and painters how to paint. As Edward said unkindly, he was "the most brilliant failure in history."33

The contempt for law and the contempt for the human consequences of lawbreaking go from the bottom to the top of American society.

A cat may look at a king, but he might also lose a bit of fur for it.

The matter is," said Jasper, putting his face out, "that as I could not possibly make you hear my calls, I chose to break the window. Have the goodness to let my father and me at once out of this vehicle.

Being prime minister is a lonely job... you cannot lead from the crowd.

If you lead a country like Britain… you have to have a touch of iron about you.

Any leader has to have a certain amount of steel in them, so I am not that put out being called the Iron Lady.

Socialists cry "Power to the people", and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean - power over people, power to the State.

Politicians should resist the temptation to consider themselves experts in fields where they have no experience.

Dad once defined leadership as the art of persuading people to do what they should have done in the first place. If they bullheadedly refuse to take this advice, there is not much the leader can do, in a free society.

Well all the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

and what to do with Mr. Prima Donna, Brass Hat, Five Star MacArthur. He's worse than the Cabots and the Lodges - they at least talked with one another before they told God what to do. Mac tells God right off.

I have a natural tendency to go away when told to do so. Do you really want me to?

If you ever look sideways at another man or attempt to refuse me I shall beat you. Got it?

People assume that men make all the rules, but sometimes mothers are the ones who command girls to be quiet while they arrange for us to be sold like oxen or mules.

Right wing or left wing, tyrants always try to control communication. They always fail.

The powerful don't make revolutions

The societies kids naturally form are tribal. Gangs, clubs, packs. But we're herded into schools and terrified into behaving. Taught how we're supposed to pretend to be, taught to parrot all kinds of nonsense at the flick of a switch, taught to keep our heads down and our elbows in and shut off our minds and shut off our sex. We learn we can't even piss when we have to. That's how we learn to be plastic and dumb.

I believe that an author who cannot control her characters is, like a mother who cannot control her children, not really fit to look after them.

Caucasian privilege lounged and sauntered, draped itself casually about, turned vigilant and commanding, then cunning and devious. We

Criticism does demand a certain kind of authority, but what about the authority of not really being sure what you think?

The only thing worse than a man you can't control is a man you can.

Here Fashion is a despot, and no one dreams of evading its dictates.