Quotes About Authority

The problem in both human and ape history is that political power is built on physical power - and physical power is ultimately the power of violence or its threat.

I don't concern myself about articles of faith, but I will not tolerate it, if a cleric (Pfaffe) concerns himself with earthly matters. The organized lie must somehow be broken, so that the state is absolute lord.

Duke of Athens, who made himself the dictator of Florence until he was overthrown in 1343 by a mob which killed and ate one of the Duke's lieutenants in the Piazza della Signoria.

Liberal" in the nineteenth-century United States and Europe designated people who in many, but not all, respects would be called conservatives in the twenty-first century. They embraced minimal government, a free market economy, individualism, and property rights; they attacked slavery, aristocracy, monarchy, standing armies, the Catholic Church, and hereditary authority.

Just as kingly rule is the best, so is the rule of the tyrant the worst.

Ought one to surrender to authority even if one believed that that authority was wrong? If the answer was yes, then I knew that I would always be wrong, because I could never do it. Then how could one live in a world in which one's mind and perceptions meant nothing and authority and tradition meant everything? There were no answers.

A man could rant and smash and grapple with the State Police, and still the sprinklers whirled at dusk on every lawn and the television droned in every living room.

She was probably sixty, a big rawboned woman with a man's face, and her clothes, if not her very pores, seemed always to exude that dry essence of pencil shavings and chalk dust that is the smell of school. She was strict and humorless, preoccupied with rooting out the things she held intolerable: mumbling, slumping, daydreaming, frequent trips to the bathroom, and, the worst of all, "coming to school without proper supplies."  

One pirate captain, in his cups, vowed: "If we swing our grappling hooks onto the clouds and attack Heaven itself, I'd aim my first shot at God.

what's your name?" what?" i asked, squinting at the light. your name." I reconized Dr. Olendzki peering over me. you know my name." I want you to tell me." Rose. Rose Hathaway." Do you know your birthday?" Of course I do. Why are you asking me such stupid things? Did you lose my records?" Dr. Olendzki gave an exasperated sigh and walked off, taking the annoying light with her. "I think she's fine,

He has no right to threaten my boyfriends. I'm eighteen. An adult. I don't need his help. I can threaten my boyfriends myself.

Don't blame us," said my mother. "We didn't blow up half of Court, steal a dozen cars, call out a murderer in the middle of a crowd, or get our teenage friend crowned queen." "Actually," said Abe, "I did blow up half of Court.

Well, you've finally got a license to kill. It's about time.

You were wrong. She really is the new general in town." I smiled back, hoping he wasn't aware of my body's reaction to us standing so close. "Maybe. But, it's okay. You can still be colonel." He arched an eyebrow. "Oh? Did you demote yourself? Colonel's right below general. What's that make you?" I reached into my pocket and triumphantly flashed the CR-V keys I'd swiped when we'd come back inside. "The driver," I said.

The greatest changes in history have come when people were able to shake off what others told them to do.

That," I told Tatiana, "is the most fucked-up law I have ever heard.

What have you gotten me into?" I hissed at him. "Me? What have you gotten yourself into? Couldn't I have just picked you up at the police station for underage drinking, like most fathers?

It doesn't matter. Take Eddie's blood. Take Belikov's blood. Take your own for all I care. But If she doesn't want to give hers, then that's all there is to it. She said no. This conversation is done.

Ah, well,? said Abe, idly studying his fingertips. ?I have it on good authority there?s going to be a new 'gate? opening up soon over on the south side of the wall." The truth dawned on me. ?Oh lord. You?re the one who?s been doling out C4.? ?You make it sound so easy,? he said with a frown. ?That stuff?s hard to get a hold of.

Cool," I said. "You can IM with the Council from campus. Maybe you can command people to do your homework.

You'd be surprised. Besides, they don't even send royal traitors to prison, Rose. Everyone knows that." I scoffed. "Are you insane? Of course they do. What else do you think they do with traitors? Set them free and tell them not to do it again?" "No," said Abe, just before he turned away. "They execute traitors.

Wild and disrespectful? Who the hell are you anyway? Outsourced help?

I have it on good authority that Victor's going to have car trouble. Also that Robert really likes Cheerios, so if you want some, you're out of luck. He doesn't seem like the sharing type.

So they finally gave you the license to kill, about time.