Sunday, March 6, 2011 – Problems with Authority
Authority is quite degrading. ~ Oscar Wilde
I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don’t have as many people who believe it. ~ George Carlin
When the authorities warn you of the dangers of having sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities. ~ Matt Groening
The man whose authority is recent is always stern. ~ Aeschylus
Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character. ~ Robert E. Lee
If you’re going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use two feet. ~ Keith Richards
When you make your peace with authority, you become authority. ~ Jim Morrison
Undermine their pompous authority, reject their moral standards, make anarchy and disorder your trademarks. Cause as much chaos and disruption as possible but don’t let them take you ALIVE. ~ Sid Vicious
Authority pisses me off. I think everyone should be able to drink and get loud whenever they want. ~ James Hetfield
I’m the guy who wrote The Authority Song. Did they think I was kidding? Did they think it was only a song to entertain? ~ John Mellencamp
I didn’t have any concept of age or authority. I remember realizing, Oh, the world has rules and we don’t. ~ Moon Unit Zappa
If we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity. ~ Daniel Webster
He who is firmly seated in authority soon learns to think security, and not progress, the highest lesson in statecraft. ~ James Russell Lowell
Most men, after a little freedom, have preferred authority with the consoling assurances and the economy of effort it brings. ~ Walter Lippmann
The faith that stands on authority is not faith. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Put two or three men in positions of conflicting authority. This will force them to work at loggerheads, allowing you to be the ultimate arbiter. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
My relationship to power and authority is that I’m all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger
War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits. ~ James Madison
Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority. ~ Francis Bacon
Destiny: A tyrant’s authority for crime and a fool’s excuse for failure. ~ Ambrose Bierce
To be free in an age like ours, one must be in a position of authority. That in itself would be enough to make me ambitious. ~ Hannah Arendt
We have to hate our immediate predecessors to get free of their authority. ~ D. H. Lawrence
The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority. ~ Lord Acton
Crime in full glory consolidates authority by the sacred fear it inspires. ~ mile M. Cioran
In revolutions authority remains with the greatest scoundrels. ~ Georges Jacques Danton
A leading authority is anyone who has guessed right more than once. ~ Frank Howard Clark
Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions. ~ Joyce Carol Oates
The burnt odor in Washington is from the disintegrating authority of the governing classes. ~ William Greider
Any commander who fails to exceed his authority is not of much use to his subordinates. ~ Arleigh Burke
Liberty is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it; and it is liberty to that which is good, just, and honest. ~ John Winthrop
Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive. ~ Henry Steele Commager
Where the people possess no authority, their rights obtain no respect. ~ George Bancroft
The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority. ~ Stanley Milgram
There are two kinds of people who never amount to much: Those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else. ~ Cyrus H. Curtis
I won’t take my religion from any man who never works except with his mouth. ~ Carl Sandburg
He seems to be of great authority. Close with him, give him gold; and though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with gold. ~ William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale (Clown at IV, iv)
We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian. ~ Lionel Trilling
No authority is higher than reality. ~ Peter Nivio Zarlenga
A quotation in a speech, article or book is like a rifle in the hands of an infantryman. It speaks with authority. ~ Brendan Francis
Just Above Sunset 