Quotes About Authority

doesn't matter that she shouldn't, that she never would. What matters is that she could, if she wanted. The power to hurt is a kind of wealth.

Les voies du pouvoir sont impénétrables. Il agit sur les gens et les gens agissent sur lui. Quand le pouvoir existe-t-il? Uniquement lorsqu'on en fait usage.

You can see it on the internet. Boys dressing as girls to seem more powerful. Girls dressing as boys to shake off the meaning of the power, or to leap on the unsuspecting, wolf in sheep's clothing.

Pourquoi ont-ils fait ça, [...] ?" Et l'autre répond : "Parce qu'ils le pouvaient." Et c'est la seule réponse qui sera jamais.

The voice says: If the world didn't need shaking up, why would this power have come alive now?

The only way to be safe is to own the place.

When does power exist? Only in the moment it is exercised.

Los más elevados entre nosotros no siempre son los más sabios, y la generación más vieja no siempre es la mejor para juzgar qué es lo correcto

The voice says: There is a need for a prophet in the land. Allie thinks, but who? The voice says: Just try it on the size, honey. Remember, if you're going to stay here, you're going to need to own the place so they can't take it from you. The only way you're safe, honeybun, is if you own it.

she could kill them in three moves before they stirred in their comfortably padded chairs. It doesn't matter that she shouldn't, that she never would. What matters is that she could, if she wanted. The power to hurt is a kind of wealth.

from the palace, a command unto the people saying "It is thus." But the other, the more certain, the more inevitable, is that those thousand thousand points of light should each send a new message. When the people change, the palace cannot hold.

she knows she can control this, it's the control that gives her pleasure, at first.

in moments of crisis, people are willing to hand over a great deal of power to anyone who claims to have a magic cure—whether the crisis is a financial meltdown or, as the Bush administration would later show, a terrorist attack.

Men went by ways of old Gods or not of any Gods, but by the violent wills of kings who were their own law.

I am very tired of this Government, which I have never seen, and which is always insisting that I must do disagreeable things, and does no good to anybody.

C. P. Snow once argued that foolish faith in authority is the enemy of truth.

But asking a physicist to comment on smoking and cancer is like asking an Air Force captain to comment on the design of a submarine. He might know something about it; then again, he might not. In any case, he's not an expert.

As an independent source of authority and knowledge, science has always had the capacity to challenge ruling powers' ability to control people by controlling their beliefs. Indeed, it has the power to challenge anyone who wishes to preserve, protect, or defend the status quo.

An all-purpose expert is an oxymoron.

key attribute of the period was that power did not reside in the hands of those who understood the climate system, but rather in political, economic, and social institutions that had a strong

We take it for granted that great individuals—Gandhi, Kennedy, Martin Luther King—can have great positive impacts on the world. But we are loath to believe the same about negative impacts—unless the individuals are obvious monsters like Hitler or Stalin. But small numbers of people can have large, negative impacts, especially if they are organized, determined, and have access to power.

to claim the crown." "'Heavy is the head,

It is astonishing what power words have over men.

in this life we are either kings or pawns emperors and fools