Quotes About Authority

Watch out for the leaders, Crake used to say. First the leaders and the led, then the tyrants and the slaves, then the massacres. That's how it's always gone.

A rebuke, a palpable rebuke! How dare she? He was already middle-aged when she was born! He could have been her father! He could have been her child molester!

Considering that the whole point of Consilience is for things to run smoothly, with happy citizens, or are they inmates? Both, to be honest. Because citizens were always a bit like inmates and inmates were always a bit like citizens, so Consilience and Positron have only made it official.

Why was she doing that?" I asked cautiously. "Collecting penises?" "Some people collect stamps, she collected penises. Many of us did in those days. Anyway, he consulted me—through a clairvoyant, of course, as I was no longer in that earthly incarnation. I told him to complain to the authorities, so he did, and she was forced to give the penis back.

She's certainly old enough," said Aunt Vidala. "We have taught her all we can. If they stay in school too long, they become disruptive.

I wanted to ask why it had to be like this, but I already knew the answer: because it was God's plan. That was how the Aunts got out of everything

I've had cause to notice over the course of what you might call my Gilead career that underlings given sudden power frequently become the worst abusers of it.

Commander Judd is a great believer in the restorative powers of young women, as were King David and assorted Central American drug lords

I can see this idea gathering in Cordelia as well. Maybe she's gone too far, hit, finally, some core of resistance in me. If I refuse to do what she says this time, who knows where my defiance will end?

His generation believed that if there was trouble all you'd have to do was shoot someone and then it would be okay.

Ed, knows power corrupts, they'll have experienced that first-hand. They'll see how I'd be tempted to use my own power for personal reasons. They may not approve of that, but they'll buy

What were prizes but one more level of control imposed on Art by the establishment?

Powerful men don't take well to rejection. Rage could result. There

All of these men are thinking mostly about ruling and rulers. Who should rule, and how. Who should have power, how they should get it, and how they should use it.

I had no faith in the wise choices of the Aunts: I feared that I would end up married to a goat on fire.

Expand your world. (Stories about wizards and spells) are very frequently about power relationships...

Languor is a more efficient method of control.

Romania, for instance, had anticipated Gilead in the eighties by banning all forms of birth control, imposing compulsory pregnancy tests on the female population, and linking promotion and wage increases to fertility.

was the age at which parents suddenly transform from people who know everything into people who know nothing.

I was the age at which parents suddenly transform from people who know everything into people who know nothing.

Our big mistake was teaching them to read. We won't do that again.

Beheading a Queen had not alarmed the populace as much as appointing one Finance Minister would.

The combination of power, optimism and abstract thinking makes powerful people more certain. The more cut-off they are from others, the more confident they are that they are right.

Dominant people, it appears, use snap judgements and conform to received wisdom more than do the less dominant. Those who need power, and those who have it, think differently.