Quotes About Authority

St. Peter:  ââ'¬Å"Who is knocking at my gate?" Voice: "It is I." St. Peter: "Go away, we don't need any more school teachers here!

Trouble is," Paul smiled his most charming smile, "a teacher has to be so many things at the same time: actor, policeman, scholar, jailer, parent, inspector, referee, friend, psychiatrist, accountant, judge and jury, guide and mentor, wielder of minds, keeper of records, and grand master of the Delaney Book.

Styeddy, styeddy. Boyfrriend. Boyfrriends out eleven o'clock, styeddies out twelve," she pronounced sternly. Then, as if relieved at an unpleasant duty so neatly discharged, she added: "Rrule." Beguiled by the momentary vision of a procession of boyfriends tiptoeing down the stairs, shoes in hand, while steadies, single-file, marched up from eleven to twelve, I said primly: "I'm interested only in my work.

In many cases the office of captain was more or less automatically voted to the person who had been most active in raising the company; to some extent this was true also in the choice of colonels.

It was his way or the highway. And she was definitely not a way he had any intention of going.

Man's nature is in harmony with God's nature, in whose image it is made; so that there is not one truth in heaven and another truth on earth; one right for God and another right for man; one beauty for angels and another beauty for mortals; but the true, the right, the beautiful are universal in their nature and absolute in their authority.

And if moral truth has its high authority in the very nature of man, so that he who utters it nobly and faithfully needs no credentials but the truth itself, which is a cipher to which all men hold the key, so, again, the possession of the truth is the true and self-sealed commission to declare it, investing its holder with sacred and all-commanding powers.

I gave the prescribed Metropolitan Police "first greeting". "Oi!" I said "What do you think you're doing?

Carved above the lintel were the words SCIENTIA POTESTAS EST. Science points east, I wondered? Science is portentous, yes? Science protests too much. Scientific potatoes rule. Had I stumbled on the lair of dangerous plant geneticists?

Conflict resolution,' said Nightingale. 'Is this what they teach at Hendon these days?' 'Yes, sir,' I said. 'But don't worry, they also teach us how to beat people with phone books and the ten best ways to plant evidence.

We were aiming for a cross between Kafka and Orwell, which just goes to show how dangerous it can be when your police officers are better read than you are.

Rule of policing number one – when something good falls into your lap, pass it up the chain of command as quickly as possible before something else bad can happen.

I think you're going to find Marcus Aurelius particularly useful.' 'For what?' I asked. Nightingale hesitated. 'Quoting, mainly,' he said. 'And thus maintaining an air of erudition and authority.

We can't have your people fighting each other," I said. The 'royal we' is very important in police work; it reminds the person you're talking to that behind you stands the mighty institution that is the Metropolitan Police, robed in the full majesty of the law and capable, in manpower terms, of invading a small country. You only hope when you're using that term that the whole edifice is currently facing in the same direction as you are.

CO19, the Met's firearms unit, whose unofficial motto is, "Guns don't kill people, we kill people with guns.

It's strictly constables, sergeants, and lunatics. We'll keep the kettle on for you.

I have reason to believe that you are consorting with a spirit in contravention of the Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft and Dealing with Evil and Wicked Spirits 1604,' I said. The Witchcraft Act had actually been superseded in 1736 but I find quoting it helps break the ice on the doorstep.

It's a police mantra that all members of the public are guilty of something, but some members of the public are more guilty than others.

I showed her my warrant card, and she stared at it in confusion. You get that about half the time, mainly because most members of the public have never seen a warrant card close up and have no idea what the hell it is.

and I gave him the police stare. The aim of the stare is to convey cynicism combined with weary patience. I know you're about to lie to me but because I am a hugely magnanimous agent of state power, I'm willing to give you a moment to think better of it.

This book is dedicated to all librarians everywhere—for they are the true keepers of the secret flame and not to be trifled with.

Stop, police!' I shouted, on the basis that one of these days it was going to have the right effect.

It gave me "the eye"—the fearsome gaze that sheepdogs use to keep their charges in line. But I gave it "the look"—the stare that policemen use to keep members of the public in a state of randomized guilt.

Libertarians and criminals complain about the surveillance state when they see a camera. Police officers complain about it when they don't.