Quotes About Authority

Off with their heads! the woman screamed. Off with their stinking, boring heads! Redd, The Looking Class Wars

Off with...Wonderland's head!

When I give the go ahead, go ahead. --Alyss

Even a future monarch doesn't always want to do what she is supposed to do.

superintendency

But if I'd been so fortunate as to have a God-given talent like yours, I wouldn't have wasted it." Mom wasn't particularly religious, but when laying on a guilt trip, she liked to bring along backup, and she figured God was the only disapproving authority as fearsome as she.

Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it.

Give as few orders as possible, his father had told him once long ago. Once you've given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject.

All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.

All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities.

Police are inevitably corrupted. ... Police always observe that criminals prosper. It takes a pretty dull policeman to miss the fact that the position of authority is the most prosperous criminal position available.

A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel.

Law is the ultimate science.

If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.

One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim.

The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it.

Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?

The problem of leadership is inevitably: Who will play God? Muad'Dib

Never obliterate a man unthinkingly, the way an entire fief might do it through some due process of law . Always do it for an overriding purpose—and know your purpose !

Monarchies have some good features beyond their star qualities. They can reduce the size and parasitic nature of the management bureaucracy. They can make speedy decisions when necessary. They fit an ancient human demand for a parental (tribal/feudal) hierarchy where every person knows his place. It is valuable to know your place, even if that place is temporary. It is galling to be held in place against your will. This is why I teach about tyranny in the best possible way—by example.

A leader, you see, is one of the things that distinguishes a mob from a people. He maintains the level of individuals. Too few individuals, and a people reverts to a mob.

All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corrupt-able. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.

But let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them.

She asked me to tell her what it is to rule," Paul said. "And I said that one commands. And she said I had some unlearning to do." She hit a mark there right enough, Hawat thought. He nodded for Paul to continue. "She said a ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel. She said he must lay the best coffee hearth to attract the finest men.