Quotes About Authority

W]hat is this law of the greatest number which modern governments invoke and in which they claim to find their sole justification? It is simply the law of matter and brute force, the same law by which a mass, carried down by its weight, crushes everything that lies in its track. It is precisely here that we find the point of junction of the democratic conception and materialism...

This is my mind. Only I have the right to be here.

Freedom comes not from the absence of restraint but from the presence of discipline.

A builder is like a little god - somebody who does things, doesn't just draw things.

Historians and economists are very good at creating and perpetuating myths that justify increasing the power placed in the hands of government.

Even a first-year law student knows that you can't curtail the right of one person to speak because other people get disorderly.

What "value" is taught when school administrators thumb their noses at the highest court in the land and continue illegal practices?

It strikes me, sir, that you are nearing the point where even a grateful American might tell you to go to the devil.-Nero Wolfe to an FBI Agent

The sight of a pretty girl provokes in him an overwhelming reaction of appreciation and approval, and correlatively his acquisitive instinct, but he has never married. Why not? Because he knows that if he had a wife, his reaction to pretty girls, now pure and frank and free, would not only be intolerably adulterated but would also be under surveillance and subject to restriction by authority. So the governor always stops him short of disaster.

Of course the Times tried to insist on speaking with Wolfe. When the last trumpet sounds the Times will want to check with Gabriel himself, and for the next edition will try to get it confirmed by even Higher Authority.

Contact is not a verb and I said be brief." "Yes, sir. The last time you told me that I looked it up in the dictionary and I certainly don't want to contradict you but it says contact is a verb. Transitive or intransitive." "Contact is not a verb under this roof.

habeas corpus ad subjiciendum.

He'll listen to me because he has to, or fire me, and he can't fire me because then he would never do any work at all and would eventually starve to death.

It stuck out all over him, one of those born-to-command guys. I never invite them to parties.

As I understand it, a born executive is a guy who, when anything difficult or unexpected happens, yells for somebody to come and help him.

It was a day when I was preparing a speech to be delivered in praise of the Emporor; there would be a lot of lies in the speech and they would be applauded by those who knew that they were lies." The Confessions of St. Augustine

A politician is a politician whether he's wearing a suit or a funny hat.

You cannot exercise much power without gratitude because it is gratitude that keeps you connected with power." Wallace Wattles (1860-1911) NEW THOUGHT AUTHOR

The manager appeared, looking as grand as royalty in his frock coat and high collar. He wore a really impressive black moustache.

Decency League is backed by the most influential

We're in favor of a hierarchy of self-interest and talent and opposed to the symbols of power and control that come with it.

The gods don't deserve any special deference solely because they're powerful. If they can judge us based on our actions, we should be treating them according to their own.

Yes, a major can break a record or sell a hit, but it can never lead the way.

absolute criminality is absolute freedom.