Quotes About Authority

Oh, I'm interested in everything, Joe. That's why I'm a bloody brilliant detective.' She gave him her widest smile. 'That's why I'm in charge and you're sitting there, doing as you're told.

Again in Russia, we find a tiny group of zealots—calling themselves "the majority" (Bolsheviks)—who planned to control everything from a central authority. Lenin wrote most of the "scientific" program for a dictatorship of the proletariat in Russia, which was then debated and modified by other communist leaders. Socialism had to be imposed from above, by educated elites. There would be no from-the-bottom-up modifications.

The only purpose of government—as opposed to the state of nature—is to replace "might makes right" with a system of justice.

Great scientists and mathematicians were sent to the guillotine, too, on the grounds that the republic "does not need scientists."52

Something wasn't right in the Nicholls household, but what could I do about it? I hated to see two kids so unhappy, but if Mr. Nicholls had his rules, who was I to question them? It was his house. Joey and Nate were his sons.

Even People of the Book must keep to themselves and "humbly" tithe (pay the jizya) to their Muslim rulers.

Las mentiras de los poderosos nos hacen desconfiar de gobiernos y grandes empresas.

Although not a single leader of the Third Reich—not even Hitler himself—was ever excommunicated, Galileo was not absolved of heresy until 1992.

President Bush

A culture of resisting arrest would be a very bad thing to cultivate given that the only response to such resistance is for the police to increase their use of force.

The point is that his authority would be derived in the only way that such authority ever is—by making claims about the world that can be corroborated by further observation

divine authority behind government

In the best case, notions of God's love and grace provide some relief—but the central message of these faiths is that each of us is separate from, and in relationship to, a divine authority who will punish anyone who harbors the slightest doubt about His supremacy.

Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

Antonin Scalia

Can we rely on the authority of the pope? Millions of Catholics do, of course. He is, in fact, infallible in matters of faith and morality. Can we really say that Catholics are wrong to believe that the pope knows whereof he speaks? We surely can.

Pope Innocent III decreed that all property belonging to a convicted heretic would be forfeited to the church; the church then shared it both with local officials and with the victim's accusers, as a reward for their candor.

You've flaunted my authority, coddled that boy, and let him do as he pleases.

Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.

Nature has given woman so much power that the law cannot afford to give her more.

O, it is excellent To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant.

From the perpetual necessity of consulting the animal faculties, in our provision for the present life, arises the difficulty of withstanding their impulses, even in cases where they ought to be of no weight; for the motions of sense are instantaneous, its objects strike unsought, we are accustomed to follow its directions, and therefore often submit to the sentence without examining the authority of the judge.

The expectation of ignorance is indefinite, and that of knowledge is often tyrannical.

ADESPOTICK  (ADESPO'TICK)   adj. Not absolute; not despotick.Dict.