Quotes About Authority

Always, every now and then, I had given her a hard time, just to keep her in line. Every once in a while a woman seems to need, in fact wants this too.

That's when Mr. Muhammad's patience wore thin. And with his nod, I began returning their fire.

I got on top of a car and began waving my arms and yelling at them to quiet down. They did quiet down, and then I asked them to disperse - and they did.

The woman's goal seemed to be, "Don't teach the kid to challenge our assumptions (especially, if they're wrong or contradictory); instead, teach the child to roll over and be submissive.

He who eats my bread does my will.

The ruler must be a philosopher as well as a king; and he must govern unwillingly, because he loves philosophy better than dominion.

For whatsoever it be, it is in thy power either to do it, or to say it, and therefore seek not any pretences, as though thou wert hindered.

Now it is in our power, not to print them; and if they creep in and lurk in some corner, it is in our power to wipe them off.

Two kinds of readiness are constantly needed: (i) to do only what the logos of authority and law directs, with the good of human beings in mind; (ii) to reconsider your position, when someone can set you straight or convert you to his. But your conversion should always rest on a conviction that it's right, or benefits others—nothing else. Not because it's more appealing or more popular.

but that a man may reduce and contract himself almost to the state of a private man, and yet for all that not to become the more base and remiss in those public matters and affairs, wherein power and authority is requisite.

Of all existing things some are in our power, and others are not in our power.

But "having dominion over" meant something very different from what it has often been understood to mean. It refers to the relationship between shepherd and sheep.

The point: only a small minority of Christians and for only a brief period of time have taught biblical inerrancy and the sole authority of the Bible. So how and why has it become "orthodox" Christianity for about half of American Protestants?

But Easter means that the powers of this world do not have the last word.

Moreover, I thought of him as having the mind and power of God. It was because he had a divine mind that he knew things and could speak with authority. Because he had divine power, he could do spectacular deeds such as multiplying loaves and walking on water.

Biblical inerrancy and the absolute authority of the Bible are thus a post-Reformation Protestant development. The first time the Bible was described as "inerrant" and "infallible" was in a book of Protestant theology written in the second half of the 1600s. Widespread affirmation of biblical inerrancy is even more recent, largely the product of the past one hundred years.

But what they share in common is an understanding of the authority of the Bible grounded in its origin: it is true because it comes from God.

Thus much is at stake in whether we see the Bible as a human or a divine product. When we are not completely clear and candid about the Bible being a human and not a divine product, we create the possibility of enormous confusion.

The result: the monarchical model of biblical authority is replaced by a dialogical model of biblical authority. In other words, the biblical canon names the primary collection of ancient documents with which Christians are to be in a continuing dialogue.

Thus the authority of the Bible is its status as our primary ancient conversational partner.

Because believing in the inerrancy and absolute authority of the Bible is so widespread today, it is important to realize that this is a Protestant phenomenon. Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians (together the vast majority of Christians who have ever lived) have never taught it.

Calamus fortior gladio.

In communities and individuals alike, excessive freedom topples over into excessive slavery. Extreme freedom produces a tyrant, along with the extremely harsh and evil slavery that goes with him.

We are all servants of the laws in order to be free