Quotessence
Home / Topics / Authority Quotes

Authority Quotes

Browse 3390 quotes about Authority.

Related topics

PeopleIfsMenGovernmentThinkingStatesWorldLawGivingShouldKnowsWayBelieveMayDoeWantReasonPersonsHumansMoralNeedsIndividualMeanFirstsHas BeensUsePositionPoliticalConstitutionChurchExerciseKindLibertyMindMadeFactsGivenChildrenForceWarWellsPresidentLeaderOrderSpeakIdeasOpinionYearsChristianBookEndsScriptureWritingMatterDecisionTryingChristPrinciplesCountryLooksProblemReligiousFormAcceptingBeliefDivineFeelsMoral AuthorityJusticeNamesObedienceSchoolSubjectsLongNaturalParentResponsibilitySelfTwoAbsolutesPowerSourceValuesActionLittlesNationsRealAtheismDemocracyMightRightsStillsEarthInterestSeemsVoiceDifferentConscienceDutyFiguresmore

Authority Quotes

“What were once felt to be defects-isolation, institutional simplicity, primitiveness of manners, multiplicity of religions, weaknesses in the authority of the state-could now be seen as virtues, not only by Americans themselves but by enlightened spokesmen of reform, renewal and hope wherever they may be-in London coffeehouses, in Parisian salons, in the courts of German princes.”

MayStatesFeltVirtueAuthorityWeaknessCourtSimplicityLondonReformMannersIsolationEnlightenedDefectsRenewalMultiplicitySalons
Book:The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
Create image

“Quality is better seen up at the timberline than here obscured by smoky windows and oceans of words, and he sees that what he is talking about can never really be accepted here because to see it one has to be free of social authority and this is an institution of social authority. Quality for sheep is what the shepherd says. And if you take a sheep and put it up at the timberline at night when the wind is roaring, that sheep will be panicked half to death and will call and call until the shepherd comes, or comes the wolf.”

IfsNightSocialHalfQualityTalkingWindAuthorityOceanWindowIndependenceInstitutionsAcceptedSheepShepherdsRoaring
Author:Robert M. Pirsig
Create image

“Spiritual science attempts to speak about non-sensory things in the same way that the natural sciences speak about sense-perceptible things...No one can ever deny others the right to ignore the supersensible, but there is never any legitimate reason for people to declare themselves authorities, not only on what they themselves are capable of knowing, but also on what they suppose cannot be known by any other human being.”

PeopleWayHumansReasonSpiritualSpeakNaturalHuman BeingsKnownKnowingAuthorityCapableDenyIdealismSensoryNatural Science
Author:Rudolf Steiner
Create image

“The authority of Plato and Aristotle, of Zeno and Epicurus, still reigned in the schools; and their systems, transmitted with blind deference from one generation of disciples to another, precluded every generous attempt to exercise the powers, or enlarge the limits, of the human mind.”

MindHumansStillsSchoolGrowthGenerationsExerciseLimitsAuthorityBlindGenerousHuman MindDisciplePlatoDeferencePlato And Aristotle
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1
Create image

“If nature had produced spontaneously all the objects which we desire, and in sufficient abundance for the desires of all, there would have been no source of dispute or of injury among men; nor would any man have possessed the means of ever acquiring authority over another.”

IfsMenMeanHas BeensDesireObjectsSourceAuthoritySufficientAbundanceInjuryPossessedDisputes
Book:The Article Government: Reprinted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica
Create image

“Unlike liberalism, with its fundamental belief in the long-range power of ideas, conservatism is bound by the stock of ideas inherited at a given time. And since it does not really believe in the power of argument, its last resort is generally a claim to superior wisdom, based on some self-arrogated superior quality.”

BelieveLongDoeIdeasSelfLastsBeliefGivenQualityAuthorityArgumentClaimsFundamentalsBoundsSuperiorsRangeLiberalismResortsConservatismPower Of Ideas
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“There is perhaps no single factor contributing so much to people's frequent reluctance to let the market work as their inability to conceive how some necessary balance, between demand and supply, between exports and imports, or the like, will be brought about without deliberate control. The conservative feels safe and content only if he is assured that some higher wisdom watches and supervises change, only if he knows that some authority is charged with keeping the change "orderly.”

PeopleIfsKnowsFeelsWatchesBalanceHigherSafeDemandAuthorityConservativeFactorsInabilityAssuredDeliberateContributingOrderlyImportsReluctance
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
Create image

“It appears to me that, even within the recollection of living men, the Christian faith has come to be less and less regarded as a commanding and mighty power from heaven, a voice of authority, a law of holy life, but more and more as an easy going guide to future enjoyment, to a universal happiness and an indiscriminate salvation.”

MenChristianLawHeavenEasyVoiceHolyAuthorityUniversalSalvationGuidesEnjoymentRecollectionChristian FaithEasy GoingHoly Life
Book:Christ in the Christian Year and in the Life of Man: Sermons for Laymen's Reading (Advent to Trinity)
Create image

“Our scientists all the more occupy advanced positions in the development of world science. By the example of their successes in the field of atomic energy, our scientists and technicians have vividly shown how much the increased might of the Soviet state and the further growth of its international authority depends on their efforts and practical successes.”

WorldStatesMightEnergyGrowthEffortExampleFieldsPositionDependsDevelopmentAuthorityScientistInternationalPracticalsSovietTechniciansAtomic Energy
Author:Vyacheslav Molotov
Create image

“You received the power, the authority, and the sacred duty to minister the moment you were ordained to the priesthood. President James E. Faust taught, “Priesthood is the authority delegated to man to minister in the name of God. “The Aaronic Priesthood holds the keys of the ministering of angels. As you love His children, Heavenly Father will guide you, and angels will assist you. You will be given power to bless lives and rescue souls.”

MenChildrenSoulMomentsFatherNamesGivenPresidentTaughtDutyKeysAuthorityAngelSacredGuidesMinistersHeavenlyBlessRescueHeavenly FatherPriesthoodFaust
Author:David L. Beck
Create image

“George Orwell was right. There's no greater genius as far as I'm concerned in terms of understanding human nature. I think that a lot of people just believe anything you tell them, and no matter what it is, they just go along with the program. They're perfectly happy to take their pill every day and do what they're told, and work and buy things, and work and buy things, and stay out of any complex emotional situations. And whatever the authorities tell them to do, they do, and whatever the authorities say is the truth, they believe is the truth.”

PeopleThinkingBelieveHumansMatterUnderstandingTermSituationGreaterHuman NatureEmotionalGeniusAuthorityConcernedProgramNo Matter WhatComplexesPillsJust Believe
Author:George Lucas
Create image

“It ought to be the first endeavour of a writer to distinguish nature from custom; or that which is established because it is right, from that which is right only because it is established; that he may neither violate essential principles by a desire of novelty, nor debar himself from the attainment of beauties within his view, by a needless fear of breaking rules which no literary dictator had authority to enact.”

WritingFirstsMayDesireViewsPrinciplesOughtEssentialsAuthorityCustomsDictatorNoveltyAttainmentEndeavourBreaking RulesBeauty Within
Book:Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings
Create image

“The pre-war empire had been sufficiently informal and sufficiently cheap for Parliament to claim authority over it without having to concern itself too much about what this authority entailed. The post-war empire necessitated a much greater investment in administrative machinery and military force. This build-up of control had to be paid for, either by British taxpayers or by their colonists.”

WarForceGreaterToo MuchMilitaryAuthorityConcernClaimsPaidInvestmentBritishPostsEmpiresOver ItParliamentMachineryTaxpayersBritish HistoryAdministrativeMilitary ForcePost WarColonists
Author:Linda Colley
Create image

“In the past, the British had signally failed to build an effective structure of royal authority and administration in their American colonies. As a result, no possibility existed of soothing and winning over influential and talented Americans, in the way that influential and talented Scotsmen were increasingly being won over, by giving them increased access to state employment.”

WayGivingStatesPastWinningResultsPossibilityAuthorityStructureBritishAccessEmploymentAdministrationRoyalInfluentialColonySoothingBritish HistoryScotsmen
Book:Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837
Create image

“It depends on the consent of the people to decide whether kings or consuls or other magistrates are to be established in authority over them, and if there is legitimate cause, the people can change a kingdom into an aristocracy, or an aristocracy into a democracy, and vice versa, as we read was done in Rome.”

PeopleIfsDoneWisdomPoliticsCausesEconomyDemocracyDependsKingsAuthorityVicesKingdomsLiberalismRomeConsentVice VersaAristocracyMagistratesPeople Can Change
Author:Robert Bellarmine
Create image

“The worship of the nation has been able to make men tolerate under its authority what they could never have tolerated from princes: a submission to rule, which, through sumptuary laws on food and drink, through conscription, through a cast-iron system of compulsory instruction for all on State ordered lines, and through a State examination at the gate of every profession, has almost killed the citizen's power to react upon that which controls him, and has almost destroyed that variety which is the mark of life.”

MenHas BeensStatesWisdomAbleLawPoliticsNationsLinesEconomyCitizensDrinkAuthorityWorshipMarkCastsProfessionDestroyedVarietyLiberalismIronGatesInstructionTolerateSubmissionExaminationCompulsoryFood And DrinkConscription
Author:Hilaire Belloc
Create image

“Yes, I direct commercials as well. I get these really weird offers and then I have to bid on them and win the job. One offer that I have now, and I've already done this last year for the same company, is for Cash Value Cheese, this cheese out in the midwest. I did two spots for them last year and I'm going to probably do three this year. I also did some for the Utah Transit Authority, which was weird and interesting and they turned out really funny - they actually won an award.”

YearsWellsTwoDoneJobsLastsValuesThreeWinningInterestingCompanyOffersAuthorityDirectSpotsAwardsCashLast YearCheeseMidwestReally WeirdUtah
Author:Andy Dick
Create image

“Man cannot be exempted from his divinely-imposed obligations toward civil society, and the representatives of authority have the right to coerce him when he refuses without reason to do his duty. Society, on the other hand, cannot defraud man of his God-granted right... Nor can society systematically void these rights by making their use impossible.”

MenReasonUseWisdomHandsPoliticsEconomyRightsImpossibleDutyAuthorityRefuseObligationGrantedLiberalismVoidRepresentativesCivil SocietyCoerce
Book:Encyclical letter of Pope Pius XI on atheistic communism: official Vatican text
Create image

“Men will see in their king or in their rulers men like themselves perhaps unworthy or open to criticism, but they will not on that account refuse obedience if they see reflected in them the authority of Christ, God and Man. Peace and harmony, too, will result; for with the spread and the universal extension of the kingdom of Christ, men will become more and more conscious of the link that binds them together, and thus many conflicts will either be prevented entirely or at least their bitterness be diminished.”

IfsMenWisdomTogetherPoliticsChristResultsEconomyKingsConflictAuthorityConsciousCriticismUniversalAccountsHarmonyRefuseSpreadKingdomsObedienceLiberalismLinksBitternessRulersExtensionsUnworthyPeace And Harmony
Author:Pope Pius XI
Create image

“For there is no virtue, the honour and credit for which procures a man more odium from the elite than that of justice; and this, because more than any other, it acquires a man power and authority among the common people. For they only honour the valiant and admire the wise, while in addition they also love just men, and put entire trust and confidence in them.”

PeopleMenPoliticsJusticeCommonEconomyVirtueWiseAuthorityCreditAdmireLiberalismAcquireHonourElitesValiant
Author:Plutarch
Create image

“It is wrong for a secular government to promote prayer. We think the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. What if the president declared a National Day of Cursing God because He failed us on September 11? Americans would say, "You've overstepped your authority." That's how we feel when he promotes prayer.”

IfsThinkingFeelsGovernmentPresidentPrayerAtheismAuthorityPositive AtheismWhat IfSecularSeptemberSeptember 11CursingUnconstitutionalNational Day Of Prayer
Author:Dan Barker
Create image