Quotes About Authority

Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle.

Power tends to protect itself merely to maintain its own status and control. Principle gives up power for the sake of creating the best public policy.

Power tends to get confused with repression.

Power tends to corrupt - so we should, in both the public and the private spheres, be on guard against, and erect sturdy guardrails against, the corruptions of power.

Too much power in any institution tends to stifle innovation.

What we do have is a system in which power tends to be awarded to people on the basis that they are corruptible.

The Czech tennis federation wasn't holding me back, but they could still pull the plug anytime they wanted.

There is this brutal side to tennis. It was invented as a game for kings and cardinals and people with a lot of power who didn't have to share the field with other players.

The job of a journalist is to find out stuff. The job of the government - sometimes - is to keep stuff secret. There's a natural tension there.

The tensions between authority and the people need to be heard, especially when they are suffering and they can't eat.

When I'm driving, you have a different feeling when the police get behind you and you're not even breaking the law. The tension is so high.

Everyone acknowledges that there is a political part to tenure, but no one likes to admit it.

When we buy somebody, we cut the head off. We keep the operators who are looking - I hate to use this term - they're looking for a leader. We lead very well. And we immediately spend money on them and make them better. Everybody wants to be led. Except for me. I want to lead.

I believe that the presidential term should be limited.

I was who I was in high school in accordance with the rules of conduct for a normal person, like obeying your mom and dad. Then I got out of high school and moved out of the house, and I just started, for lack of a better term, running free.

What is a uni-polar world? No matter how we beautify this term, it means one single centre of power, one single centre of force and one single master.

I won't say I've never felt in Alex Salmond's shadow, but latterly, when Alex was leader, I didn't. It's more about my awareness of the fact I became First Minister during a parliamentary term. That means you're First Minister, but you haven't been elected in your own right as First Minister.

See, even despite pious statements to the contrary, much of the industrialized world has not yet come to terms with the recognition of the fallacy of what I call the strong man syndrome.

I have been a professor, and I have been a policymaker, and as a professor, you think in terms of truth or absolutes.

I think the greater responsibility, in terms of morality, is where leadership begins.

I'm a terrible patient, and I find that doctors can be very condescending.

When expressions of emotion are dangerous, and when you are constantly told that this terrible thing is being done for your own good, you quickly learn to hide your true feelings, even from yourself.

You know, it is a terrible thing to appear on television, because people think that you actually know what you're talking about.

I may be kindly, I am ordinarily gentle, but in my line of business I am obliged to will terribly what I will at all.