Quotes About Authority

and he captured and eventually executed the official incoming governor, Mark Antony's brother Gaius.

Bowing to this reality, the dying man handed Agrippa the symbol of his authority:

Many senators, even though they had been appointed by the dictator, were inclined to accept his removal as a fait accompli.

Senators will also have been pleased to witness the declining importance of the people—

Octavian's most urgent task was to make his position official.

AS far as it could, the Senate allowed events to take their course, intervening only when absolutely necessary.

set on having their day in court and pressed for Caesar's early recall.

From "Palatine" derives the word "palace," meaning that enclosed space where autocrats make decisions in private

Varius refused to obey his orders and, acting under the authority of Augustus, published the epic.

No, far better for the queen to be persuaded to do away with herself.

But now the idea that Rome had an imperial destiny was one of the ways by which the regime justified itself in the public mind.

arranged Tiberius' divorce from her without consulting him;

the Roman state was remarkably nonbureaucratic; with no police force

The First Triumvirate proved that men with the support of the people and soldiers of Rome, lots of money, and a fair amount of nerve could disregard the ruling class and, in effect, hijack the Republic.

We rule the world and our wives rule us.

Give priests power and they soon start persecuting anyone who disagrees with them.

The whole point of government, Spinoza maintained, is liberty: "the object of government is … to enable [men] to develop their minds and bodies in security, and to employ their reason unshackled; neither showing hatred, anger, or deceit, nor watched with the eyes of jealousy and injustice." The state authorities may interfere in religion—indeed, they must do so, since religion is too dangerous to be left in the hands of priests.

A real king's life is perhaps a hard one; but a pretended king's is, I warrant, much harder.

It has been the dream of very few men to rule the entire world. - Dr. Grief

But then, he thought, most politicians are small and shabby, the sort of people who have been bullied at school. That's why they become politicians.

It was the garden of a man who wanted to rule the world but couldn't, and so had cut the world down to his own size.

know you're only doing your job, Mr Hawthorne, and you don't really care how you get your results. I was there when you were giving your talk and it struck me then that you have absolutely no heart at all. You don't believe in the law.

Charles le Mesurier was quite a formidable opponent and he wouldn't have hesitated to bring the full force of the law against us if we'd crossed the line.

Judith set up Colin with his chambers and she got him into the States. It's her house they live in and her wealth that keeps their three children in private school. And God help him if he steps out of line. She's the one who wears the trousers in that relationship.