Quotes About Authority

The Governors did not care about the mortality of the humor-made laws they enforced. Or their irony either.

Ian looked around for intervention, but he was used to following orders, and used to obeying a queen.

She raised a hand imperiously, fingers balled loosly into a fist, and her eyes were not on Will's but on the raven's black ones.

She glanced over her shoulder, pinning the hapless patrolman on a needle-pointed gaze, wondering which of her notories occupied his attention.

It's why I want us to be very careful what we commit to while we're dealing with this station. They make bad governmental choices, and by patronizing them, we're just validating their choices.

A weapon is only a weapon with a will behind it, and a chain is only a chain when someone holds the key.

Government is either imposed with force, or it derives from the will of the governed. But it's a social contract, right? It exists simply because people say it does. It's not a thing you can touch.

Authority derives from the consent of the governed, is what I'm saying," Singer continued, as if we hadn't been derailed by the threat of people with guns and a grudge. "And that consent is derived from consensus. Which is never universal.

Once again, you rule our destiny.

Thinkst so little of me, Sir Poet, that I must srve the agenda of my mother or my Queen, and I have no passions of mine own?

Thinkst so little of me, Sir Poet, that I must serve the agenda of my mother or my Queen, and I have no passions of mine own?

Command was good her her, and she was good for it.

Hush, puss," Baines said in a low tone that nevertheless carried. "Or I'll yet see thee in that bride thou dost hate.

They were the first ones to die, you know. You can't accuse them of hypocrisy. The Governors Assessed their creators first.

You're going to get fired by the Synarche before they even really hire you, if you keep up this line of thinking." He laughed his light machine laugh. "This line of thinking is why they want me, Haimey.

By what right does your world cast mine in shadow? What gives you the right to plenty?

She agreed with everything that was planned for her, and made her own arrangements later, for she had discovered that the easiest way through life was to set out obediently upon the appointed path and then slip away down a side turning.

When women understand that governments and religions are human inventions; that Bibles, prayer-books, catechisms, and encyclical letters are all emanations from the brains of man, they will no longer be oppressed by the injunctions that come to them with the divine authority of *Thus sayeth the Lord.*

Bishops of Rouen, Fécamp and Jumièges. A

The language of power was exercised in more than just words. It was presence and thought; it was gesture and timing.

Being a king was not about pleasing people. It was about controlling them.

The women never complained to the officers. It was not that they were afraid of them — quite the reverse, in fact. But their husbands cut up rough with them if they caused trouble. A tough trooper could manfully endure flogging, but wept tears of humiliation if he were lashed by an officer's tongue over something his wife had done.

A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.

I met an old lady once, almost a hundred years old, and she told me, 'There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. How much do you love me? And Who's in charge?