Quotes About Authority

A leader tries to perpetuate the conditions which demand his leadership. Thus, the leader requires the outsider.

The limit of the law is the limit of enforcement—the real limit of organized society.

When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.

To come under siege, he decided, was the inevitable fate of power.

Surely you know bureaucracies always become voracious aristocracies after they attain commanding power.

Where is the weapon with which I enforce your bondage? You give it to me every time you open your mouth.

That which submits rules.

Deceit is a tool of statecraft, Irulan agreed. There are limits to power, as those who put their hopes in a constitution always discover, Paul said.

A good bureaucracy is the best tool of oppression ever invented.

As with all priests, you learned early to call the truth heresy.

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.

Law always chooses sides on the basis of enforcement power. Morality and legal niceties have little to do with it when the real question is: Who has the clout?   —Bene

All men beneath your position covet your station

Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually they lose touch with reality… and fall.

You seldom learn the names of the truly wealthy and powerful. You see only their spokesmen. The political arena makes a few exceptions to this but does not reveal the full power structure.

The wise despot...maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.

It's an old, old trick of autocratic rule," Idaho said. "Alia knows it well. Good subjects must feel guilty. The guilt begins as a feeling of failure. The good autocrat provides many opportunities for failure in the populace.

governments lie to protect themselves and they make incredibly stupid decisions.

QUESTION: Who governs the governors? ANSWER: Entropy.

Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They re-create the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well.

Divide and rule, subdivide and rule even more powerfully, fragment and rule absolutely." "That's

When religion and politics ride the same cart, when that cart is driven by a living holy man (baraka), nothing can stand in their path.

What religion and self-interest cannot hide, governments can, Edric said.

When the populace recognizes its chains. Keep the populace blind and unquestioning.