Authority Quotes

In this life we are either kings or pawns, emperors or fools.

I have only one counsel for you - be master.

Obedience to public authority ought not to be based either on ignorance or stupidity.

Orders and decorations are necessary in order to dazzle the people.

All authority is in the throne; and what is the throne? This wooden frame covered with velvet? No, I am the throne.

It will never be possible for any length of time for any group of the American people, either by reason of wealth or learning or inheritance or economic power, to retain any mandate, any permanent authority to arrogate to itself the political control of American public life.

My respect for human beings is based not on the colour of a man's skin nor authority he may wield, but purely on merit.

Democracy is not based on violence or terrorism, but on reason, on fair play, on freedom, on respecting the rights of other people. Democracy is no harlot to be picked up in the street by a man with a tommy gun. I trust the people, the mass of the people, in almost any country, but I like to make sure that it is the people and not a gang of bandits who think that by violence they can overturn constituted authority.

I think I'm a natural-born leader. I know how to bow down to authority if it's authority that I respect.

When you make your peace with authority, you become authority.

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it.