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Authority Quotes

Browse 3390 quotes about Authority.

Authority Quotes

“No one can learn tolerance in a climate of irresponsibility, which does not produce democracy. The act of tolerating requires a climate in which limits may be established, in which there are principles to be respected. That is why tolerance is not coexistence with the intolerable. Under an authoritarian regime, in which authority is abused, or a permissive one, in which freedom is not limited, one can hardly learn tolerance. Tolerance requires respect, discipline, and ethics.”

May Doe Principles Democracy Society Produce Discipline Limits Authority Ethics Climate Tolerance Regimes Coexistence Irresponsibility

Author:Paulo Freire

“...[sacred] doctrine is especially based upon arguments from authority, inasmuch as its principles are obtained by revelation: thus we ought to believe on the authority of those to whom the revelation has been made. Nor does this take away from the dignity of this doctrine, for although the argument from authority based on human reason is the weakest, yet the argument from authority based on divine revelation is the strongest.”

Source: The Summa Theologica: Complete Edition

“How can I be expected to believe that this same racial discrimination which has been the cause of so much injustice and suffering right through the years, should now operate here to give me a fair and open trial?....consider myself neither morally nor legally obliged to obey laws made by a Parliament in which I am not represented. That the will of the people is the basis of the authority of government, is a principle universally acknowledged as sacred throughout the civilized world.”

“It was necessary for the Son to disappear as an outward authority, in order that He might reappear as an inward principle of life. Our salvation is no longer God manifested in a Christ without us, but as a " Christ within us, the hope of glory.”

Might Order Christ Principles Son Authority Glory Salvation Disappear Inward

Book:ser. 1 God's revelation of heaven [and other sermons]. ser. 2 Christ's judgement respecting inheritance [and other sermons]. ser. 3 The tongue [and other sermons

Source: ser. 1 God's revelation of heaven [and other sermons]. ser. 2 Christ's judgement respecting inheritance [and other sermons]. ser. 3 The tongue [and other sermons

“It was from America that the plain ideas that men ought to mind their business, and that the nation is responsible to Heaven for the acts of the State, - ideas long locked in the breast of solitary thinkers, and hidden among Latin folios, - burst forth like a conqueror upon the world they were destined to transform, under the title of the Rights of Man... and the principle gained ground, that a nation can never abandon its fate to an authority it cannot control.”

Men World Mind Long Ideas States America Heaven Nations Principles Fate Rights Ought Authority Responsible Titles Breasts Abandon Latin Thinker Locked Solitary Destined Conqueror

Author:Lord Acton

“ANARCHISM (from the Gr. , and , contrary to authority), the name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government harmony in such a society being obtained, not by submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilized being.”

Source: Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings

“The 'nations,' as they are called, with whom our pretended ambassadors, secretaries, presidents, and senators profess to make treaties, are as much myths as our own. On general principles of law and reason, there are no such 'nations.' ... Our pretended treaties, then, being made with no legitimate or bona fide nations, or representatives of nations, and being made, on our part, by persons who have no legitimate authority to act for us, have intrinsically no more validity than a pretended treaty made by the Man in the Moon with the king of the Pleiades.”

Source: The collected works of Lysander Spooner

“We can either have a free Parliament or a free people. Personal freedom requires that all authority is restrained by long-run principles which the opinion of the people approves.”

People Long Running Opinion Principles Authority Long Runs Parliament Personal Freedom

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“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.”

Writing Firsts May Desire Views Principles Ought Essentials Authority Customs Dictator Novelty Attainment Endeavour Breaking Rules Beauty Within

Book:Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings

Source: Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings

“True leadership is moral authority, not formal authority. Leadership is a choice, not a position. The choice is to follow universal timeless principles, which will build trust and respect from the entire organization. Those with formal authority alone will lose this trust and respect.”

Choices Loses Moral Principles Position Authority Organization Universal Formal Timeless True Leader True Leadership Moral Authority Trust And Respect

Author:Stephen Covey

“The parliamentary principle of vesting legislative power in the decision of the majority rejects the authority of the individual and puts a numerical quota of anonymous heads in its place. In doing so it contradicts the aristocratic principle, which is a fundamental law of nature.”

Law Individual Decision Principles Authority Fundamentals Majority Rejects Laws Of Nature Parliamentary Quota Aristocratic

Book:Mein Kampf

Source: Mein Kampf

“Liberalism is that principle of political rights, according to which the public authority, in spite of being all-powerful, limits itself and attempts, even at ist own expense, to leave room in the state over which it rules for those to live who neither think nor feel as it does, that is to say as do the stronger, the majority.”

Thinking Feels Doe States Political Rooms Powerful Principles Rights Limits Authority Stronger Majority Liberalism Spite Expenses Political Rights

Author:Jose Ortega y Gasset

“We are His children in Very deed, having been born of Him in the spirit, and we have inherited the very attributes which he possesses. They are in us, and they make us God's embryo, We believe that as we are now God once was, and by the practice of virtue and righteousness, by obedience unto law and authority, He has become what He is, and as He is, man may become, on the same principle.”

Men Believe May Children Law Spirit Born Principles Practice Virtue Authority Deeds Obedience Righteousness Attributes Embryos

Author:George F. Richards

“The devotion of democracy to education is a familiar fact. The superficial explanation is that a government resting upon popular suffrage cannot be successful unless those who elect and who obey their governors are educated. Since a democratic society repudiates the principle of external authority, it must find a substitute in voluntary disposition and interest; these can be created only by education.”

Source: Democracy and Education: Top American Authors

“Since a democratic society repudiates the principle of external authority, it must find a substitute in voluntary disposition and interest; these can be created only by education.”

Interest Education Principles Authority Democratic Substitutes Disposition Democratic Society

Book:Democracy and Education: Top American Authors

Source: Democracy and Education: Top American Authors

“For an American to be patriotic is to be loyal to the principles of our Constitution, and the First Amendment. The truth is that the policies of the government is sometimes in conflict with that. In our country, patriotism should not be defined as obedience to an authority.”

Should Firsts Country Sometimes Government Principles Policy Truth Is Conflict Authority Constitution Our Country Defined Obedience Patriotic Loyal Amendments First Amendment

Author:Daniel Ellsberg

“To totalitarianism, an opponent is by definition subversive; democracy treats subversives as mere opponents for fear of betraying its principles.”

Politics Principles Democracy Authority Treats Mere Definitions Opponents Betray Totalitarianism Subversive

Author:Jean Francois Revel

“That the people have an original right to establish, for their future government, such principles as, in their opinion, shall most conduce to their own happiness, is the basis, on which the whole American fabric has been erected.... The principles, therefore, so established, are deemed fundamental. And as the authority, from which they proceed, is supreme ... they are designed to be permanent.... The powers of the legislature are defined, and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the constitution is written.”

People May Has Beens Whole Government Opinion Principles Written Limits Authority Bases Constitution Originals Fundamentals Forgotten Supreme Defined Permanent Fabric Mistaken Legislature

Author:John Marshall

“The idea of God is the type and foundation of the principle of authority and absolutism, which it is our task to destroy or at least to subordinate wherever it manifests itself.”

Ideas Principles Type Authority Tasks Foundation Subordinates Absolutism

Book:The Philosophy of Misery

Source: The Philosophy of Misery

“Tracing the progress of mankind in the ascending path of civilization, and moral and intellectual culture, our fathers found that the divine ordinance of government, in every stage of the ascent, was adjustable on principles of common reason to the actual condition of a people, and always had for its objects, in the benevolent councils of the divine wisdom, the happiness, the expansion, the security, the elevation of society, and the redemption of man. They sought in vain for any title of authority of man over man, except of superior capacity and higher morality.”

“In all things, therefore, where we have clear evidence from our ideas, and those principles of knowledge I have above mentioned, reason is the proper judge; and revelation, though it may, in consenting with it, confirm its dictates, yet cannot in such cases invalidate its decrees: nor can we be obliged, where we have the clear and evident sentience of reason, to quit it for the contrary opinion, under a pretence that it is matter of faith: which can have no authority against the plain and clear dictates of reason.”

May Ideas Matter Reason Faith Opinion Principles Cases Clear Judging Authority Evidence All Things Contrary Quitting Revelations Evident Obliged Decree Pretence

Book:An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Source: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

“... we ought even to hold as a fixed principle that what I see white I believe to be black, if the superior authorities define it to be so.”

Ifs Believe I Believe Black White Principles Ought Authority Superiors Fixed

Author:Ignatius of Loyola

“Remodeling defies the principles of modern commerce. You shell out great sums of money to people over whom you have no authority or power, yet these same people are constantly insinuating that you're cheap. (It reminded me of medicine, another area where you shell out great sums of money to people over whom you have no authority or power, who make you feel guilty for questioning a bill.) Construction workers are the blue-collar version of the snooty salespeople at Gucci who make $8 an hour but look down on you if you balk at a $400 alligator wallet.”

“That you cannot have Christian principles without Christ is becoming increasingly clear, because their validity as principles depends on Christ's authority.”

Christian Christ Principles Clear Depends Becoming Authority Validity

Author:Dorothy L. Sayers

“My speculation is that the U.S. does not want to establish the principle that it has to defer to some higher authority before carrying out the use of violence.”

Want Doe Use Principles Violence Higher Authority Speculation

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Humanistic ethics is based on the principle that only humans themselves can determine the criterion for virtue and not an authority transcending us.”

Humans Principles Virtue Authority Ethics Determine Criteria Transcending Humanistic

Author:Bertrand Russell

“[I]t is contrary to the economy of God for any member of the Church, or any one, to receive instruction for those in authority, higher than themselves . . . if any person have a vision or a visitation from a heavenly messenger, it must be for his own benefit and instruction; for the fundamental principles, government, and doctrine of the Church are vested in the keys of the kingdom.”

“The fate of every democracy, of every government based on the sovereignty of the people, depends on the choices it makes between these opposite principles, absolute power on the one hand, and on the other the restraints of legality and the authority of tradition.”

People Hands Government Choices Principles Democracy Fate Depends Authority Tradition Opposites Absolutes Restraint Sovereignty Absolute Power Legality

Author:Lord Acton

“All combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community.”

Source: Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States of America: Published in September, 1796

“Outside of the Constitution we have no legal authority more than private citizens, and within it we have only so much as that instrument gives us. This broad principle limits all our functions and applies to all subjects.”

Giving Government Political Liberty Principles Subjects Citizens Limits Authority Function Constitution Instruments Broads

Book:The Papers of Andrew Johnson: February-August 1867

Source: The Papers of Andrew Johnson: February-August 1867

“There was no opposition organized against Bela Kun. Like Lenin he surrounded himself with commissaries having absolute authority. of the 32 principle commissaries 25 were Jews, a proportion nearly similar to that in Russia. The most important of them formed a Directory of five: Bela Kun alias Kohn, Bela Vaga (Weiss), Joseph Pogany (Schwartz), Sigismond Kunfi (Kunstatter), and another. Other chiefs were Alpari and Szamuelly who directed the Red Terror, as well as the executions and tortures of the bourgeoisie.”

Wells Important Principles Five Authority Red Absolutes Terror Jew Russia Chiefs Torture Organized Proportion Opposition Execution Bourgeoisie Aliases

Author:Leon V. DePoncins

“As the capacity to coerce declines, it is natural to turn to control of opinion as the basis for authority and domination - a fundamental principle of government already emphasized by David Hume.”

Government Turns Natural Opinion Principles Authority Capacity Bases Fundamentals Decline Domination Fundamental Principles Coerce Hume

Author:Noam Chomsky

“If it be said that the consent of the strongest party in a nation, is all that is necessary to justify the establishment of a government that shall have authority over the weaker party, it may be answered that the most despotic governments in the world rest upon that very principle, viz.: the consent of the strongest party.”

Ifs World May Said Government Nations Party Principles Authority Justify Strongest Establishment Consent

Author:Lysander Spooner

“Anarchism, to me, means not only the denial of authority, not only a new economy, but a revision of the principles of morality. It means the development of the individual as well as the assertion of the individual. It means self-responsibility, and not leader worship.”

Source: Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius

“If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.”

Ifs Men May Country Principles Taught Goes On Authority Glory Bible Profound Our Country Neglect Instruction Catastrophe Posterity Obscurity Prospering

Author:Daniel Webster

“I think that every living person, every person who is awake to the functioning principles within his reality has a moment where he stops blaming the problems in the world on group thinking, on humanity and authority, and starts to face himself. I hate this more than anything. This is the hardest principle within christian spirituality for me to deal with. The problem is not out there, the problem is the needy beast of a thing living in my chest.”

Thinking World Persons Moments Problem Reality Christian Faces Hate Humanity Spirituality Deals Principles Groups Authority I Hate Blame Hardest Awake Beast Chests Needy

Author:Donald Miller

“Human rights' are a fine thing, but how can we make ourselves sure that our rights do not expand at the expense of the rights of others. A society with unlimited rights is incapable of standing to adversity. If we do not wish to be ruled by a coercive authority, then each of us must rein himself in...A stable society is achieved not by balancing opposing forces but by conscious self-limitation: by the principle that we are always duty-bound to defer to the sense of moral justice.”

“Modern capitalism needs men who cooperate smoothly and in large numbers; who want to consume more and more; and whose tastes are standardized and can be easily influenced and anticipated. It needs men who feel free and independent, not subject to any authority or principle or conscience-- yet willing to be commanded, to do what is expected of them, to fit into the social machine without friction; who can be guided without force, led without leaders, prompted without aim-- except the one to make good, to be on the move, to function, to go ahead.”

“Auschwitz is outside of us, but it is all around us, in the air. The plague has died away, but the infection still lingers and it would be foolish to deny it. Rejection of human solidarity, obtuse and cynical indifference to the suffering of others, abdication of the intellect and of moral sense to the principle of authority, and above all, at the root of everything, a sweeping tide of cowardice, a colossal cowardice which masks itself as warring virtue, love of country and faith in an idea.”

“Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time leading yourself-your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers. If you don't understand that you work for your mislabeled 'subordinates,' then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny.”

Ifs Knows Purpose Motivation Principles Discipline Authority Ethics Management Tyranny Over You Peers Self Discipline Subordinates

Author:Dee Hock

“[I shall not] discuss scientific method, but rather the methods of scientists. We proceed by common sense and ingenuity. There are no rules, only the principles of integrity and objectivity, with a complete rejection of all authority except that of fact.”

Facts Science Common Principles Integrity Authority Scientist Method Common Sense Rejection Objectivity Ingenuity Scientific Method

Book:Science in the Making

Source: Science in the Making

“The study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and it admits of no conclusion.”

Source: THE AGE OF REASON - Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology (Including