Quotes About Authority

There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the Establishment — and nothing more corrupting.

There is nothing more disastrous than a committee of extremely able men.

Those British generals who prolonged the slaughter kept their posts and won promotion; any who protested ran the risk of dismissal. By

Compelled respect always implies fear.

If a parent is content with a child who has had his spirit completely broken by fear, then, for such a parent, punishment succeeds.

Summerhill children are allowed to go through their gangster period, and consequentially more furniture is destroyed.

A 'god' who's will is resisted, designs frustrated, and purpose checkmated, possesses no title to Deity.

Similarly, the more tyrants pillage, the more they crave, the more they ruin and destroy; the more one yields to them, and obeys them, by that much do they become mightier and more formidable, the readier to annihilate and destroy. But if not one thing is yielded to them, if, without any violence they are simply not obeyed, they become naked and undone and as nothing, just as, when the root receives no nourishment, the branch withers and dies.

Première raison de la servitude volontaire, c'est la coutume

They only seem tall because we're on our knees.

It is true that in the beginning men submit under constraint and by force; but those who come after them obey without regret and perform willingly what their predecessors had done because they had to. This is why men born under the yoke and then nourished and reared in slavery are content, without further effort, to live in their native circumstance, unaware of any other state or right, and considering as quite natural the condition into which they were born.

But if not one thing is yielded to them, if, without any violence they are simply not obeyed, they become naked and undone and as nothing, just as, when the root receives no nourishment, the branch withers and dies.

Yet, in the light of reason, it is a great misfortune to be at the beck and call of one master, for it is impossible to be sure that he is going to be kind, since it is always in his power to be cruel whenever he pleases.

FOR THE PRESENT I should to understand how it happens that so many men, so many villages, so many cities, so many nations, sometimes suffer under a single tyrant who has no other power than the power they give him; who is able to harm them only to the extent to which they have the willingness to bear with him; who could do them absolutely no injury unless they preferred to put up with him rather than contradict him.

C'est à cause de la légitimité que le peuple octroie à l'Etat que le dit Etat use de violence vis-à-vis du peuple lorsque celui-ci ne fait pas ce qu'il a décidé.

Mais, à parler à bon escient, c'est un extrême malheur d'être sujet à un maître, duquel on ne se peut jamais assurer qu'il soit bon, puisqu'il est toujours en sa puissance d'être mauvais quand il voudra ; et d'avoir plusieurs maîtres, c'est, autant qu'on en a, autant de fois être extrêmement malheureux.

Pour ce coup, je ne voudrais sinon entendre comme il se peut faire que tant d'hommes, tant de bourgs, tant de villes, tant de nations endurent quelquefois un tyran seul, qui n'a puissance que celle qu'ils lui donnent ;

Y a trois sortes de tyrans : les uns ont le royaume par élection du peuple, les autres par la force des armes, les autres par succession de leur race.

é um extremo infortúnio estar-se sujeito a um senhor, o qual nunca se pode se certificar de que seja bom, pois sempre está em seu poderio ser mau quando quiser; e em ter vários senhores, quantos se tiver quantas vezes se é extremamente infeliz.

siempre es una fatalidad tener que estar sujeto a un dueño, cuya bondad no ofrece más garantías que su capricho: y el depender de muchos es tener que sobrellevar otras tantas desgracias.

The fools did not realize that they were merely recovering a portion of their own property, and that their ruler could not have given them what they were receiving without having first taken it from them.

Mais, ô bon Dieu ! que peut être cela ? comment dirons-nous que cela s'appelle ? quelle malheur est celui-là ? quel vice, ou plutôt quel malheureux vice ? Voir un nombre infini de personnes non pas obéir, mais servir […].

No, General. I'm not your subordinate. And what I'm coming dangerously close to is violence. -General Wedge Antilles

Law is whatever is boldly asserted and plausibly maintained.