Quotes About Authority

Whenever I was flying commercial, I would land in Chicago, and they would announce, 'Get your passports out.' It happened so often, I would walk to the front of the plane and say, 'You're looking for me. Just take me; it will be easier for everybody else.

Why would you listen to an astronomer about a planet?

We don't believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans.

'God's plan' is often a front for men's plans and a cover for inadequacy, ignorance, and evil.

There's nothing to be said for opposition. You can only talk about things and you can lay your plans. You can't actually achieve very much; you have to be in government for that.

A CEO of a multinational global company can't say what to do; you've got to plant the flag.

I hope people know that when I'm sitting there, it's not some guy on a desk on a platform with sort of this voice-of-God approach.

The biggest things I have are the platform that I have and influence.

The only kind of movement you could make in the Navy was to be a platoon leader or one of those kinds of things as you got more senior in your Navy career.

Anytime you have a Pat Riley running things, calling the shots, you are not going to question things because he has been through it. He knows what it is all about and what it takes to win. All we have to do on our end is play basketball because we know the right calls and the right decisions are going to be made up top.

Ask any player. You're only as good as your coach allows you to be.

He who plays advisor is no longer ambassador.

In theater, the playwright is the boss, period. The decisions will go through him or her. In movies, the writer is pretty far down on the list.

My people and I have come to an agreement which satisfied us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

Laughter does not please the mighty.

My father was the center of the family, and everyone tried to please him.

I think it's hard, when you're someone who likes to please people, as I am, to be a boss. I had to learn how to rein myself in and not terrify people.

I was raised to please people in authority, and I'd also come from a sheltered boarding school, so I was very naive and young for my years.

I think when you have some success as a kid, your notion of being a good actor is pleasing the director, doing exactly what they tell you to do.

The most powerful person is he who is able to do least himself and burden others most with the things for which he lends his name and pockets the credit.

I do plan to be on the podium with President Clinton when she's inaugurated in January 2017 - but I'm going to be sitting with the senators.

One of the things women poets have been engaged in - among the other things they've been doing - is revising parts of the poetic self. Re-examining notions of the authority within the poem, and of the poem.

I think it's poignant and powerful, this idea that if someone knows your name, they have the ability to kind of hail you and make demands upon you.

What's the point of elections if everything is already decided?