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Authority Quotes

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Authority Quotes

“The word of God is definitely above culture, in terms of what or who should have authority in our lives. However, we must remember that we are within culture, and our calling in Christ is to play our part in the redemption and transformation of individuals and cultures. I believe the recent history of the religious subculture teaches all too clearly that unless we are moving forward in seeking the genuine transformation of culture, then we are standing still and it is transforming us.”

ShouldBelieveStillsPlayRememberMovingCultureIndividualI BelieveTermChristReligiousChristianityTeachOur LivesCallingAuthorityStandingShould HaveTransformationSeekingGenuineMoving ForwardRedemptionWord Of GodTransformingStanding StillSubculture
Author:Steve Scott
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“If it be admitted that a man, possessing absolute power, may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should a majority not be liable to the same reproach? Men are not apt to change their character by agglomeration; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with the consciousness of their strength. And for these reasons I can never willingly invest any number of my fellow creatures with that unlimited authority which I should refuse to any one of them.”

IfsMenShouldMayDoeI CanReasonCharacterNumbersConsciousnessCreaturesAuthorityIncreaseAbsolutesFellowsMajorityRefuseObstaclesUnlimitedAdversariesPossessingLiableReproachMisuseAbsolute Power
Book:American Institutions and Their Influence
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“Resistance is a holy right for the Palestinian people to face the Israeli occupation. Nobody should forget that the Palestinian people negotiated for 10 years and accepted difficult and humiliating agreements, and in the end didn't get anything except authority over the people, and no authority over land, or sovereignty.”

PeopleShouldYearsEndsFacesDifficultForgetLandHolyAuthorityAcceptedResistanceAgreementOccupationPalestinianSovereigntyIsraeliHumiliatingIsraeli Occupation
Author:Marwan Barghouti
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“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.”

PeopleWorldGivingShouldYearsBelieveHas BeensMadeGovernmentLawSufferingCausesPrinciplesAuthorityFairsBasesGive MeSacredInjusticeExpectedTrialsDiscriminationCivilizedParliamentObligedThrough The YearsRacial Discrimination
Author:Nelson Mandela
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“With respect to the authority of great names, it should be remembered that he alone deserves to have any weight and influence with posterity, who has shown himself superior to the particular and predominant error of his own times; who, like the peak of Teneriffe, has hailed the intellectual sun before its beams have reached the horizon of common minds.”

ShouldMindNamesCommonSunInfluenceParticularAuthorityIntellectualDeserveWeightErrorsSuperiorsRememberedHorizonPosterityBeam
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“"You sound as if you question the authority and the decision of the Oracle, who said he should die." "I do not. Why should I? But the Oracle did not ask me to carry out its decision." [...] "The Earth cannot punish me for obeying her mesenger," Okonkwo said. "A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which its mother puts into its palm."”

IfsShouldChildrenSaidEarthMotherDiesAsksSoundDecisionPiecesAuthorityHotFingersAsk MeShould IPalmsObeyingOraclesThings Fall Apart OkonkwoYamsOkonkwo
Author:Chinua Achebe
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“Unfortunately, catastrophes or scandalous disclosures always have to happen before humanity realises that it is only its own mistakes that have led it into misfortune. These are all the more difficult to rectify, because in the main they have been made by the authorities, who will not commit suicide themselves, but in order to save their own skins, they would rather that all Life should perish before they acknowledge their errors.”

ShouldHas BeensMadeHappensHumanityOrderDifficultMistakeAuthoritySkinsSuicideErrorsCommitAcknowledgeMisfortunesRealisingCatastropheDisclosureScandalousRectify
Book:The Fertile Earth – Nature's Energies in Agriculture, Soil Fertilisation and Forestry: Volume 3 of Renowned Environmentalist Viktor Schauberger’s Eco-Technology Series
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“I have no doubt that if an actual ticking bomb situation were to arise, our law enforcement authorities would torture. The real debate is whether such torture should take place outside of our legal system or within it. The answer to this seems clear: If we are to have torture, it should be authorized by the law.”

IfsShouldRealSeemsLawAnswersSituationClearDoubtAuthorityDebateAriseTortureNo DoubtBombsLaw EnforcementEnforcementLegal System
Author:Alan Dershowitz
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“The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution.... There should be, therefore, great resistance to ... redefining the category of rights deemed to be fundamental. Otherwise, the Judiciary necessarily takes to itself further authority to govern the country without express constitutional authority.”

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Author:Byron White
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“Awaken your heart to kindness and mercy for the people and love and tenderness for them. Never, never act with them like a predatory beast which seeks to be satiated by devouring them, for the people fall into two categories: they are either your brethren in faith or your kindred in creation.”

PeopleShouldHeartHas BeensTwoFallGivenKindnessCreationAuthorityMercyAnd LoveCommandBeastCategoriesInvitesTendernessCalamityBrethrenKindredDevouringPredatory
Author:Ali ibn Abi Talib
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“In a discussion of this kind our interest should be centered not on the weight of the authority but on the weight of the argument. Indeed the authority of those who set out to teach is often an impediment to those who wish to learn. They cease to use their own judgment and regard as gospel whatever is put forward by their chosen teacher.”

ShouldKindUseWishInterestTeachTeacherAtheismAuthorityJudgmentArgumentWeightRegardPositive AtheismCeaseChosenDiscussionImpediments
Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero
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“I believe that religious witness should not mobilize public authority to impose a view where a decision is inherently private in nature or where people are deeply divided about whether it is... Americans are plainly and persistently divided about abortion and the fiat of government cannot settle the issue as a matter of conscience or of conduct.”

PeopleShouldBelieveMatterGovernmentI BelieveReligiousDecisionViewsIssuesAtheismAuthorityConsciencePositive AtheismWitnessSettlingAbortionDivided
Author:Edward Kennedy
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“We need to organize ourselves and protest against existing order - against war, against economic and sexual exploitation, against racism, etc. But to organize ourselves in such a way that means correspond to the ends, and to organize ourselves in such a way as to create kind of human relationship that should exist in future society. That would mean to organize ourselves without centralize authority, without charismatic leader, in a way that represents in miniature the ideal of the future egalitarian society.”

WayNeedsShouldHumansKindMeanWarEndsOrderLeaderEconomicAuthorityRacismIdealsEtcProtestExploitationOrganizeHuman RelationsHuman RelationshipsCharismaticMiniaturesAgainst WarAgainst RacismFuture Society
Author:Howard Zinn
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“When men have appreciated the countless differences which the exercise of that judgment must necessarily produce, when they have estimated the intrinsic fallibility of their reason, and the degree in which it is distorted by the will, when, above all, they have acquired that love of truth which a constant appeal to private judgment at last produces, they will never dream that guilt can be associated with an honest conclusion, or that one class of arguments should be stifled by authority.”

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Book:History of the rise and influence of the spirit of rationalism in Europe
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“The Hacker Ethic: Access to computers--and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works--should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On Imperative! All information should be free. Mistrust authority--promote decentralization. Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position. You can create art and beauty on a computer. Computers can change your life for the better.”

WorldWayShouldArtHandsMightAgeRaceTeachInformationPositionDegreesAuthorityComputerEthicsAccessYieldJudgedUnlimitedChanging Your LifeImperativesCriteriaMistrustHackingHackersDecentralization
Author:Steven Levy
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“For if I should not believe all that is written by Historians, of the glorious acts of Alexander, or Caesar; I do not think the Ghost of Alexander, or Caesar, had any just cause to be offended; or any body else, but the Historian. If Livy say the Gods made once a Cow speak, and we believe it not; we distrust not God therein, but Livy. So that it is evident, that whatsoever we believe, upon no other reason, then what is drawn from authority of men only, and their writings; whether they be sent from God or not, is Faith in men only.”

IfsThinkingMenShouldWritingBelieveMadeReasonBodyReligionFaithSpeakCausesHistoryWrittenAuthorityGhostGloriousHistorianCowsEvidentDistrustOffended
Book:Hobbes: Leviathan: Revised student edition
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“If there should chance to be any mathematicians who, ignorant in mathematics yet pretending to skill in that science, should dare, upon the authority of some passage of Scripture wrested to their purpose, to condemn and censure my hypothesis, I value them not, and scorn their inconsiderate judgement. De Revolutionibus Coelestibus”

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Author:Nicolaus Copernicus
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“For Christians above all men are forbidden to correct the stumblings of sinners by force...it is necessary to make a man better not by force but by persuasion. We neither have authority granted us by law to restrain sinners, nor, if it were, should we know how to use it, since God gives the crown to those who are kept from evil, not by force, but by choice.”

IfsKnowsMenGivingShouldUseChristianLawChoicesEvilForceKnow HowAuthorityGrantedSinnerCrownsPersuasionForbiddenStumbling
Author:Saint John Chrysostom
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“We should never invoke the spirit of antiquity as our authority. Spirits are peculiar things; they cannot be grasped with the hands and be held up before others. Spirits reveal themselves only to spirits. The most direct and concise method would be, in this case as well, to prove the possession of the only redeeming faith by good works.”

ShouldWellsHandsWould BeSpiritCasesProveAuthorityDirectMethodPossessionPeculiarGood WorkAntiquityInvokeRedeemingConcise
Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
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“Universal suffrage should rest upon universal education. To this end, liberal and permanent provision should be made for the support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority.”

IfsNeedsShouldMadeEndsStatesGovernmentSchoolSupportAuthorityUniversalAidsPermanentProvisionSuffrageState GovernmentUniversal SuffrageUniversal Education
Book:Inaugural Speeches from the Presidents of the United States - Complete Edition
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“However, you have to recognize that regulations will never be completely successful and they will always be full of holes. You must constantly be ready to fill new holes. Actually regulation should be kept to a minimum, but there has to be some cooperation between market participants and authorities - as was the case in the early postwar years. The Bank of England was a very successful regulator by cooperating with market participants. This cooperative spirit was broken by the market fundamentalists.”

ShouldYearsSpiritCasesSuccessfulReadyBrokenAuthorityEnglandHolesCooperationRegulationMinimumParticipantsCooperativesRegulatorsCooperating
Author:George Soros
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“The reason why the simpler sort are moved with authority, is the consciousness of their own ignorance; whereby it cometh to pass that having learned men in admiration, they rather fear to dislike them than know wherefore they should allow and follow their judgments. Contrariwise with them that are skilful authority is much more strong and forcible; because they only are able to discern how just cause there is why to some men's authority so much should be attributed.”

KnowsMenShouldReasonAbleStrongCausesConsciousnessIgnoranceAuthorityJudgmentMovedReason WhyAdmirationDislike
Author:Richard Hooker
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“...tis a dangerous thing to ingage the authority of Scripture in disputes about the Natural World, in opposition to Reason; lest Time, which brings all things to light, should discover that to be evidently false which we had made Scripture to assert.”

WorldShouldMadeReasonLightNaturalDangerousAuthorityAll ThingsScriptureOppositionDisputesNatural WorldDangerous Things
Book:The Theory of the Earth: Containing an Account of the Original of the Earth, and of All the General Changes which it Hath Already Undergone, Or is to Undergo Till the Consummation of All Things ...
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“It would be hard to conceive a system of instincts more nicely adjusted, where the constituents should represent or support one another better. The husband has an interest in protecting the wife, she in serving the husband. The weaker gains in authority and safety, the wilder and more unconcerned finds a help-mate at home to take thought of his daily necessities. Parents lend children their experience and a vicarious memory; children endow their parents with a vicarious immortality.”

ShouldChildrenHardHelpingHomeWould BeParentInterestMemoriesSupportWifeHusbandAuthorityGainsSafetyInstinctImmortalityServingMatesConstituentsWilderVicariousUnconcerned
Book:The Life of Reason: Human Understanding
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