Quotes About Authority

Researchers don't do certain kinds of research because they don't want to get thrown into San Quentin, as happened to Dr. Leary.

When people with guns treat you as possibly guilty, you begin to feel possibly guilty.

I suddenly remembered that Adolph Hitler once said that anybody who paints the sky green should be sterilized at once. I thought I understood the Right Man more deeply. The Right Man stays in one reality-tunnel because wandering into the reality-labyrinth of the creative mind terrifies him.

Human beings (domesticated primates) are symbol-using creatures; which means, as the pioneer semanticist, Korzybski, noted, that those who rule symbols, rule us.

You become a leading Expert by acting as if everybody else's opinion deserves no attention and never even deserves the courtesy of an answer.

Where scientists are legally or otherwise coerced away from certain areas of investigation, people do not all uniformly stop having experiences that such investigation might scientifically explain; people merely resort, by default, to pre-scientific models to explain the experiences.

Nobody up there is a friend of yours; nobody up there wants you to have what you would call freedom. The purpose of "government" is to produce consumers and workers who will keep the cost of labor down, and the profits high for the owners . . .

It seems that when any model becomes an Idol its advocates begin to act like priests and inquisitors.

And Quirk's a captain now," he said. "Captain Quirk?" The motorcycle cop grinned. "Captain Quirk," he said.

here hadn't said he knew you, I'da run you in already. The

You ever read Machiavelli?" I said. "I imagine somebody mentioned him to me at Harvard." "He argued that it is better to be feared than loved," I said.

Ollie do any of his own work?" "Mostly he runs things.

A pig is a pig," she said. "Whether he's public or private, he works for the same people." "Next time you're in trouble," I said, "call a hippie.

It's better to be feared than loved. Because you can't make them love you. But you can make them fear you.

Forty years old, and she called him boy: that's how she treated him, too, which made it worse. If only he didn't have to listen! But he did, he knew he had to, he always had to listen.

And what proportion love should hold with power In his right constitution: love preceding Power—with much power always much more love;

You read in every textbook that cliché: Power corrupts. In my opinion, I've learned that power does not always corrupt. Power can cleanse. When you're climbing to get power, you have to use whatever methods are necessary, and you have to conceal your aims. Because if people knew your aims, it might make them not want to give you power.

In a sense, omnipotence is a form of impotence.

It was the familiar "rogue agent defense" — the agents had no authority to make the promises, and therefore the promises were not legal.

Marines say that the difference between a Marine general and God is that God doesn't think he is a general. If Krulak decreed that a new world would be created in two weeks, his will would be done. And it was.

Every leader who wants to make significant change needs a "resident son of a bitch" who can make hard decisions without regard to rank or personality.

Angry at his parents and all grown-ups who thought that school life was a lark, a good time, the best years of your life with a few test and quizzes thrown in to keep you on your toes. Bullshit. There was nothing good about it. Tests were daily battles in the larger war of school. School meant rules and orders and commands. To say nothing of homework.

You. Yeah, you, c'mon, get up." He spoke perfect English, but Jack couldn't tell if the Korean kid understood English or not. The guard motioned him to get up, so he slowly stood. The guard motioned him closer, so he went closer. He didn't shuffle forward with downcast eyes like the others. He held himself erect and met the guard's eyes.

Holman settled in, expecting her to be late. She would arrive late to establish her authority and to make sure he understood the power in this situation was hers. Holman didn't mind. He had trimmed his hair that morning, shaved twice to get a close shave, and polished his shoes. He had handwashed his clothes the night before and rented Perry's iron and ironing board for two dollars so he would appear as unthreatening as possible. Holman